Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

[mville]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

No idea. I will check with A&K. In principle, do you think I'm doing it the right way?

Yes.

However, if the AK240 is only using Artist and/or Album Artist and not the sort tags (which is what I suspect), the only way to get The Doors to appear under D, is to set Artist and/or Album Artist to Doors, The.

If the AK240 is what I think it is, then support for sort tags ought to be implemented when you consider the price tag of this portable device.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

Yes.

However, if the AK240 is only using Artist and/or Album Artist and not the sort tags (which is what I suspect), the only way to get The Doors to appear under D, is to set Artist and/or Album Artist to Doors, The.

If the AK240 is what I think it is, then support for sort tags ought to be implemented when you consider the price tag of this portable device.

Ok, thanks.

[garym]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

No idea. I will check with A&K. In principle, do you think I'm doing it the right way?

Yes, your process is correct. It is very likely that your player doesn't recognize the sort tags in order to use them. I assume it is some sort of DLNA/upnp player and this approach to streaming music is typically subject to limitations on usability (as compared to more robust music streaming systems such as Squeezeboxes using Logitech Media Server), etc. There are DLNA/upnp workarounds to improve things I'm told. You can also use Foobar2000 as a player/database within a windows computer to look at or play these files and you'll see how the files sort within Foobar2000 (which *does* handle the sort tags correctly).

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

I've just re-ripped 'Morrison Hotel' using the following tags:

Album Artist / Artist: The Doors
Album Artist Sort / Artist Sort: Doors, The
Album: Morrison Hotel

Unfortunately, when I transfer the files to my AK240, the files show up as 'The Doors' under letter 'T' instead of 'D'. Is this an issue with my AK240 or is there something I'm doing wrong?

Definitely sounds like this is a function of the way your player handles tags...maybe it uses the ALBUM ARTIST tag to sort and doesn't use the SORT tags at all. It's not really an "issue," per se, but just a matter of understanding the player's default approach to reading your music library, finding out whether it has any settings options to change the default behavior (not all players do), and finally, figuring out how to tag your music to get the results you want from that player.

Likewise, is there a way I can get solo artists to appear under the first letter of their surnames (e.g. Neil Young under 'Y' and not 'N')? Again, I know I could use 'Young, Neil' but I don't like this either.

As to this part of your original question.....no, this isn't generally something you'd want to alter tags for. Again, this is more a matter of how your player reads tags and displays your library. It's unlikely you can change its default behavior on this one, and altering ARTIST tags for this purpose is apt to yield unwanted behavior in other display modes. On the bright side, organizing alphabetically by the first letter in the ARTIST name (in artist listings) has the advantage of being 100% reliable and consistent.

It would be nice....really REALLY nice....if there was some universal approach used consistently by all players. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I use three different playback systems (Sonos, my car's system, and my Apple devices), and they each have their own quirks and limitations. :( It's nearly impossible to tag in a way that works optimally on a variety of playback devices, but if you're just using that one player, you should be able to figure out how it sorts and tag your music accordingly.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

I assume it is some sort of DLNA/upnp player and this approach to streaming music is typically subject to limitations on usability (as compared to more robust music streaming systems such as Squeezeboxes using Logitech Media Server), etc.

No, I believe it's a portable player. In my experience, those can be even more limited in their options.....:(

[mville]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

No, I believe it's a portable player. In my experience, those can be even more limited in their options.....:(

Yes, I think it's the Astell & Kern AK240 and these portable players cost over £2000.

... and I believe that a player at that price should support sort tags.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

Yes, it is an Astell & Kern AK240 and you're right, it doesn't seem to support sort tags. I am in the early stages at looking to digitise my CD collection for my main speaker set up as well but wrongly assumed I could use the same approach for the AK240. Nevermind!

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Metadata: Ripping Artists starting with 'The' / Solo Artists

Yes, I think it's the Astell & Kern AK240 and these portable players cost over £2000.

... and I believe that a player at that price should support sort tags.

Well, what we think it should do is one thing.....

In my experience, price has no correlation to the functionality, user-friendliness, or overall quality of a player's software. If anything, I think the more expensive playback devices, which are virtually always marketed for their audio technology (super-duper DACs and such), tend to short shrift the UI aspects of the device. I'm not the least bit surprised if this player, or any other, fails on basics like sort tag support or even organization by album artist. It just doesn't seem to be the priority, particularly in portable devices.

To the OP: My comments are not meant to knock your player....I'm sure it's quite nice. I just think manufacturers (of high-end audio gear) don't put nearly as much effort into the software as they do the hardware.