MediaMonkey forum

Well I think it should be user configurable, but I am also starting to think there should only be ONE multi-artist delimiter and not try to build some complicated individual case basis inclusion/exclusion sets.

As far as why the pipe, unless someone can prove me wrong, the pipe is, so far as I can tell, uniquely in the position of not being utilized as a character in an artist name.

Right, the add/rescan and save tags can translate, but not without the overhead of some type of inclusion/exclusion sets (that need to be managed by the user) to override the meriad of examples previously posted.

Going back in time, they should have designed multiple field support into the metadata system, so that where there are explicit multiple artists, they would have separate artist tags in the metadata. In other words, if there are 3 artists in a track, the track should have 3 independant artist instances in the metadata.

3 artists = 3 instances of artist fields
1 group = 1 instance of artist field

and so on for each of the multi-item fields (genre etc)

Teknojnky wrote:Going back in time, they should have designed multiple field support into the metadata system, so that where there are explicit multiple artists, they would have separate artist tags in the metadata. In other words, if there are 3 artists in a track, the track should have 3 independant artist instances in the metadata.

They did - WMA, MP3 and FLAC have just that. The difficulties with multi-artist support are all down to the apps, not the formats.

How about, for now, an option to disable multiple artist parsing. Oh and composers too! In fact especially composers.

Kevinino wrote:How about, for now, an option to disable multiple artist parsing. Oh and composers too! In fact especially composers.

Requested at http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 24#p149324 - answer still awaited.

Oops didn't see that.

Anyway Chris, that sounds like a great idea

personally, I don't see how anything is wrong with TJ's suggestion.
I think Technojunky has state perfectly logical reasons why the Pipe is better than everything else - there are virtually no drawbacks to it. - it even looks prettier and easier to read than the semi-colon.

the only drawback that 'could' be argued is that not everyone using a computer may know where or what the pipe symbol is to use it, and even just adding 'any' symbol requires know how.

however, I have made a video showing an interface that would resolves that issue for those people.

http://www.oiltinman.com/downloads/misc ... expgenres/

When you edit the tag, multiple genres and artists work really well with this add / delete ability..
When displayed in the tracklist, I believe it should use the Pipe symbol as Technojunky has suggested.
This would mean that inputting information could be done via 'editing in place" and using the pipe symbol.. or via scripting functions which send it as a single string which includes the pipe symbols... the string is then parsed by MM in both cases so that it is seperated in the tags.

Dale.
ps. another video of mexp is available here if you're interested:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =3&t=28301

DaledeSilva wrote:personally, I don't see how anything is wrong with TJ's suggestion.

There are languages and regional settings where the pipe key is assigned to some another character. So, if I use such regional settings, I need to switch the keyboard layout every time when I need to enter the pipe. With the semicolon I don't need this because it has its own key.

it even looks prettier and easier to read than the semi-colon.

Well, this is matter of taste. It is not prettier and easier for me.

Hi,

ZvezdanD wrote:...There are languages and regional settings where the pipe key is assigned to some another character. So, if I use such regional settings, I need to switch the keyboard layout every time when I need to enter the pipe. With the semicolon I don't need this because it has its own key...

Couldn't a shortcut key be assigned?

Daz

DazB wrote:Couldn't a shortcut key be assigned?

I don't know what you mean. I am talking about the keyboard layout on the system level, not about shortcuts inside of the MediaMonkey. Of course I could use Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and assign the pipe character to the (let say) Shift+Ctrl+|, but this is not a point of my post. You and me are advanced users, but there are many beginners who don't even know what is a shortcut key or how to switch current keyboard layout.

I don't think that the semicolon is so much better solution than the pipe. As I said many times before, I think that any kind of separators which users should type is not user-friendly nor intuitive at all. I think that MM should have two way of entering multi-item fields - with the single-line text box and within a mini table in the Properties dialog box. Text which I could enter into the single-line text box should be in the most natural (grammatical) way, e.g. as could be seen on many album covers or on the All Music Guide. This means that artists are separated by comma, except the last one which is separated by ampersand. But if I really must to type just single character as separator I think that the semicolon is the most appropriate solution.

Hi,

Apologies for not going through all the posts (and therefore repetition of what's been said before), but as there is no solution that keeps everyone happy, I would be perfectly happy to live with fixing metadata from elsewhere, etc. if I could merely set the separator character(s) myself.

Daz

";"

Hi,

Has anyone suggested the subtle change to <SPACE>;<SPACE>? It shouldn't break anything in other applications.

Daz

It would break compatiblity with WMP.

Hi,

I just had a little play and the spaces are automatically removed :- so how about going the other way and only parsing it as a multiple items if there is no white-space either side?

Daz

new in 3.1:

0004938: Make separator configurable for multi-attribute properties