Various Artists on Compilation Albums

[wilro15]

Hello,
I am using the full version of Asset UPnP on Mac OSX and am using a Naim streamer with the n-Stream iOS app. All is working very well apart from one small niggle.

I have many compilations that have different artists for each track. When playing, I am seeing "Album Artist" instead of "Track Artist" - its no use on a compilation because every artist is set to "Various Artists".

Within Asset UPnP settings I have ticked "[artist] - [title] for Various Artist album tracks" but it does not seem to make any difference.

However just to be clear, should the value be "Various Artist" or "Various Artists"? The setting above is missing the "s" but I don't know if this makes any difference.

Otherwise I think Asset is great its the best UPnP server I have found for Mac OSX.

[Spoon]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Perhaps the nstream is showing its own values instead of the [aritst] - [title] string specified?

Try a different control point as a test.

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

I have tried with a different app (mconnect) and I still only see "Various Artists" for artist name on Compilations.

[simes_pep]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Hi,
On Compilation Albums, with the Album Artist tag set to 'Various Artists', I set the Track Name to be "%title% by %artist%", so that the Track Artist tag is incorporated & captured in the Title, and this is what is displayed in n-Stream.

I set this in MP3Tag (sorry Mr Spoon) but for managing the metadata for multiple tracks in one go, such as changing the Title using other fields, using MP3Tag is faster than Edit IDTag.

Simon.

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

I really don't want to mess about with the tagging on all my tracks. Why can't Asset or nStream (not sure which is at fault) just do it properly?

[mville]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Why can't Asset or nStream (not sure which is at fault) just do it properly?

What do Naim say about displaying the Album Artist tag and not the Artist Tag?

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Naim tech support tell me that n-Stream shows the "Artist" field as is passed from the server. So Asset UPnP must be passing "Album Artist" instead of "Artist".

How can I change this behaviour for compilations?

[Spoon]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Asset actually returns both:

artist is passed out as "Performer"
album artist as "AlbumArtist"

This is correct per the UPnP spec (there is also Composer and Conductor)

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

I'm beginning to think I will have to try a different UPnP server as Asset and Naim just don't seem to work together properly. Frustrating because, otherwise, Asset has been solid (and I didn't notice this problem during the trial!).

[mville]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

I'm beginning to think I will have to try a different UPnP server as Asset and Naim just don't seem to work together properly.

What file type are you streaming?

... I've just tested this in Asset UPnP for Windows using flac and mp3 files. I can see the Album Artist and Artist names correctly in several different control points. I can't comment on Asset UPnP for Mac OSX.

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

File type is ALAC. The files were tagged using iTunes.

[mville]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

File type is ALAC. The files were tagged using iTunes.

Personally, I would not use iTunes for anything except transferring my mp3 library to my iPod, especially NOT tagging my library.

For tagging, I use a combination of dBpoweramp and MP3Tag only. Once I am certain the tags are setup correctly, only then do I add my files into my Library for use in audio players and servers.

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Thats not an option for me as I have a household full of iDevices and we use iTunes Match too. Chances are if I "fixed" files with MP3Tag, that iTunes would "break" it again.

I shouldn't need to use something other than iTunes given how ubiquitous it is.

[garym]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

Thats not an option for me as I have a household full of iDevices and we use iTunes Match too. Chances are if I "fixed" files with MP3Tag, that iTunes would "break" it again.

I shouldn't need to use something other than iTunes given how ubiquitous it is.

i also have a houseful of iDevices and have used iTunes Match. I use exclusively dbpa and mp3tag for my ripping and tagging and itunes does NOT modify anything once done properly with these other programs. And all my files work well on all my iDevices.

[wilro15]

Re: Various Artists on Compilation Albums

So if I open up one of my compilations in dbPoweramp / mp3Tag will I spot some missing information that iTunes did not fill in?

Is there some sort of batch process whereby I can "fix" all my compilations or will I have to go through each file and do it the hard way?