What do you for compilation CD's

[DaFork]

Hi folks,

Curious: have quite a few compilation CD's. Artist differs for each track, as per usual on these types of discs. I fill in the album artist in case metadata doesn't do that auto.

My favorite browsing tree is the Artist/Album one. When using it, i get scattered results: every single artist from every compilation disc is seen as an entry. So many artists have 1 album and under that 1 track.

Is it possible to have intelligent Artist/Album browsing? If albumartist exists use that as the sole artist for that entire album, if albumartist doesn't exist stick with the old way. Or do you have a different suggestion for me?

[garym]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

I normally use
music/artist/album
but for compilations I use
music/compilations/album

But if your tags are good, any decent player will show the compilation album as related to the track artist because they are using the metadata with the files, not the actual file organization scheme (e.g., foobar, squeezebox, itunes, etc.). But with the above directory structure, I at least have all the compilation albums in one place and they are easily found in the file structure by album name.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Hi folks,

Curious: have quite a few compilation CD's. Artist differs for each track, as per usual on these types of discs. I fill in the album artist in case metadata doesn't do that auto.

My favorite browsing tree is the Artist/Album one. When using it, i get scattered results: every single artist from every compilation disc is seen as an entry. So many artists have 1 album and under that 1 track.

Is it possible to have intelligent Artist/Album browsing? If albumartist exists use that as the sole artist for that entire album, if albumartist doesn't exist stick with the old way. Or do you have a different suggestion for me?

This is really a task to address with your specific player(s). Unfortunately, there isn't a standard way that front-end software deals with this, so you'll need to research your players and find a tagging system that works across all of them. In general, though, AlbumArtist and the Compilation flag are the specific tags that players will use....you make sure you set those properly/consistently in your tags, and then...more importantly....know your players' settings that yield the organization you want.

Example: I use primarily use iTunes (and associated iDevices) and a Sonos network system. They approach this differently. I had to experiment quite a bit to find the combination of tags and player settings that worked best for me.

[garym]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

I agree that use of album artist and compilation tag is important. For all my compilations I set COMPILATION =1.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

They really have to work on tandem, though, for best results. For example, if iTunes sees a compilation flag, it will put the album under "Various Artists" unless you specify where you actually want it via the AlbumArtist tag. So for soundtracks, I use "AbumArtist=(Soundtracks). This way, iTunes knows to keep the files together (rather than list by the individual artists), but it also puts all my soundtrack albums (I have hundreds of them) into their own unique category....I don't want them mixed in with "various artists" albums.

In fact, I find the whole Various Artists "category" too much of a catch-all to be useful. So I use the AlbumArtist tag extensively to organize compilations....very few actually end up in the Various Artists section.
Example: The 8-volume set "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues" is tagged with
Compilation=1
AlbumArtist=Atlantic Rhythm & Blues
Album=Vol 1: 1947-1952 ....and so on with Vols. 2-8


So now "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues" is a listing in the artists view in my players. When I click on it, the eight volumes are listed separately, with all individual artists intact. I use this for most big compilation sets like that...."Ken Burns Jazz", etc.

(The parentheses, BTW, are for the benefit of my Sonos system. It forces the organization I want.)

[mrjesserobinson]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

So I use the AlbumArtist tag extensively to organize compilations....very few actually end up in the Various Artists section.
Example: The 8-volume set "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues" is tagged with
Compilation=1
AlbumArtist=Atlantic Rhythm & Blues
Album=Vol 1: 1947-1952 ....and so on with Vols. 2-8

Where are you seeing this options? The only thing I see is checkbox next to Compilation (just to the right of "Year"). When I check it and rip; I still get different folders for each different artist.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Where are you seeing this options? The only thing I see is checkbox next to Compilation (just to the right of "Year"). When I check it and rip; I still get different folders for each different artist.

First, you have to make sure the value you want is in the Album Artist dialogue window. (In my example above, I would have put "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues" in that box.) Then you need to make sure that your naming scheme uses Album Artist rather than Artist for organization. The gist of it would look like this:

[IFCOMP][Album Artist]\[album]\[track] - [title][]

This organizes the album into one folder by the Album Artist, while still retaining the individual Artist tag for each file. Of course, the naming scheme above can have a lot more operators and such, but that's the basic file organization part that needs to be included.

[mrjesserobinson]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

First, you have to make sure the value you want is in the Album Artist dialogue window. (In my example above, I would have put "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues" in that box.) Then you need to make sure that your naming scheme uses Album Artist rather than Artist for organization. The gist of it would look like this:

[IFCOMP][Album Artist]\[album]\[track] - [title][]

This organizes the album into one folder by the Album Artist, while still retaining the individual Artist tag for each file. Of course, the naming scheme above can have a lot more operators and such, but that's the basic file organization part that needs to be included.

OK, I'm almost there in understanding this. Got to help me connect a few more dots...

I was using:
[artist]\[album]\[title]

So now, I made a string like this:
[IFCOMP][album artist]\[album]\[title][]

Which put everything where I wanted it for the compilation CD burn (I still need to test with Sonos). Can I keep this string for single artist CDs as well? Or is there some other "Jedi Trick"

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Yes, you can keep that in there, but if you want a single naming scheme that accommodates both kinds of albums, it would be a good idea to add some additional qualifiers. The following scheme adds additional instructions for single-artist albums. The underlying scheme is pretty basic:

1. Non-compilation albums will be filed under Artist when there's no Album Artist tag
2. Non-compilation albums will be filed under Album Artist when that tag is present
3. Compilations will always be filed under Album Artist

[IFCOMP][album artist]\[album]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] - [title][]


Much more can be added and customized, of course. Many people, for example, include a string that breaks down folders and/or names by Disc* for multi-disc sets. But this basic scheme covers about 99% of the situations you might run into.


PS: Notice that your scheme doesn't include [track]. That will name the files simply by title and they'll be arranged alphabetically in Windows. But if you include [track] at the beginning of each file name, as I did in my example string, they retain their original track order. I think most people find that to be a more intuitive organization.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Let me know if you run into issues in Sonos. It has its own ways of doing things, so all settings and tags have to be "just so" to make it organize & display the way you want. Really annoying. :vmad:

[mrjesserobinson]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Yes, you can keep that in there, but if you want a single naming scheme that accommodates both kinds of albums, it would be a good idea to add some additional qualifiers. The following scheme adds additional instructions for single-artist albums. The underlying scheme is pretty basic:

1. Non-compilation albums will be filed under Artist when there's no Album Artist tag
2. Non-compilation albums will be filed under Album Artist when that tag is present
3. Compilations will always be filed under Album Artist

[IFCOMP][album artist]\[album]\[track] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album]\[track] - [title][]


Much more can be added and customized, of course. Many people, for example, include a string that breaks down folders and/or names by Disc* for multi-disc sets. But this basic scheme covers about 99% of the situations you might run into.


PS: Notice that your scheme doesn't include [track]. That will name the files simply by title and they'll be arranged alphabetically in Windows. But if you include [track] at the beginning of each file name, as I did in my example string, they retain their original track order. I think most people find that to be a more intuitive organization.

I tried it and it works great! Thanks so much for your help. Awesome program. No trouble with Sonos, but I'll post if I have any.

Cheers,
-Jesse

[mrjesserobinson]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Let me know if you run into issues in Sonos. It has its own ways of doing things, so all settings and tags have to be "just so" to make it organize & display the way you want. Really annoying. :vmad:

SONOS only lists the title (no artist, no album) on only a few tracks within an album. All the other songs are fine. Is that the kind of thing you're seeing BrodyBoy?

[BrodyBoy]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Can you elaborate a little? Are you talking about compilation albums? A specific example would be very helpful, i.e.,the album, how it's tagged, how it's displayed in Sonos....and finally, how you want it to display.

[mrjesserobinson]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

Can you elaborate a little? Are you talking about compilation albums? A specific example would be very helpful, i.e.,the album, how it's tagged, how it's displayed in Sonos....and finally, how you want it to display.

Sorry. No, single artist. I think the CD was Mezzanine by Massive Attack. I notice while listening with SONOS that the 4track only listed the song, no artist and no album listed, however there was album art. Track 5 did list all the metadata.

[audiojim]

Re: What do you for compilation CD's

I am struggling with Compilations. I will most likely be using Pure Music (ie Itunes). I see the box to check for compilations. What does that simple check-mark do? What I think I would like is to have a compilation appear as ONE ALBUM under it's name under the album list . For example, the music to Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert would appear in ONE PLACE AS ONE ALBUM with that title, not be scattered around. Is that done by checking the box, and if so, I didn't get what or where to put the [if comp] type stuff mentioned above. thanks