Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

[Jorge22]

Hello.

I am currently ripping my entire CD collection and I am not able to come up with a suitable solution to organize Sountracks and Various Artists Compilations.

My limitation has to do with how my new device manages the metadata of ripped CDs that contain music from Various Artists. My intention is that the device creates two folders (one for Soundtracks and the other for Compilations) that will behave the same way that those it creates for each Artist (once you clic on them you can view all the albums organized by years or title).

When I rip a Soundtrack CD, I make sure that the fields of Genre, Album (Title of the Soundtrack), Year and Compilation are correctly filled or marked. Then I leave empty the fields of Comment, Album Artist and Composer. Finally the field Artist is by default named as <Various Artists> and if you clic in each track it will correctly display the Artist of each song (same story for Various Artists Compilations).

My device then creates a Various Artists folder and places there all the Soundtracks and Compilations. If I change the Artist field for Soundtrack, I will loose the real Artist name of all the tracks. I also tried to add the words Soundtrack or Compilation to the Album Artist field, but my device ignores it.

Is there any possibility to store the name of Soundtrack or Compilation, without loosing the Artist name for each track?

Thanks a lot in advance for your ideas.
Cheers,
Jorge

[GBrown]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

When I rip a Soundtrack CD, I make sure that the fields of Genre, Album (Title of the Soundtrack), Year and Compilation are correctly filled or marked. Then I leave empty the fields of Comment, Album Artist and Composer.

The Album Artist field is a critical one specifically for these compilation and soundtracks. This is the field that along with the Album field will ensure each disc gets ripped, stored, and can be browsed individually by most media players. For the compilation discs, these typically have "Various Artists" or something similar. You can even use "Compilation" if that works better for you. Since you wish to separate those compilations that are defined as a Soundtrack, you can use a different Album Artist field to indicate this, like "Soundtrack" or "Various Artists [OST]" for example.

Finally the field Artist is by default named as <Various Artists> and if you clic in each track it will correctly display the Artist of each song (same story for Various Artists Compilations).

The Artist field for each track should have the actual performer for that song. This is the only way for most devices and players to browse and display this correct information when playing.

My device then creates a Various Artists folder and places there all the Soundtracks and Compilations. If I change the Artist field for Soundtrack, I will loose the real Artist name of all the tracks. I also tried to add the words Soundtrack or Compilation to the Album Artist field, but my device ignores it.

What device are you using that is ignoring the Album Artist field? You may need to check if it is expecting instead for the field name to be Albumartist (note the difference without a space).

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

The Album Artist field is a critical one specifically for these compilation and soundtracks. This is the field that along with the Album field will ensure each disc gets ripped, stored, and can be browsed individually by most media players. For the compilation discs, these typically have "Various Artists" or something similar. You can even use "Compilation" if that works better for you. Since you wish to separate those compilations that are defined as a Soundtrack, you can use a different Album Artist field to indicate this, like "Soundtrack" or "Various Artists [OST]" for example.


The Artist field for each track should have the actual performer for that song. This is the only way for most devices and players to browse and display this correct information when playing.


What device are you using that is ignoring the Album Artist field? You may need to check if it is expecting instead for the field name to be Albumartist (note the difference without a space).

Thanks a lot for your quick response.

I agree with you that the Album Artist field is key to manage Various Artists topics like Compilations, Soundtracks, Concerts, ... I have followed your advice inserting [Compilations] and [Soundtracks] in the Album Artist field (I use this brackets so they are listed first in front of all the Artists folders), and to my surprise only Compilations seem to work ... In the case of [Soundtracks], instead of calling the folder that way, it labels it as Various Artists and places it along with the Artists that start with a "V".

Yes, I agree that the Artist field will display "various" when no track is selected, and it will display the correct artist each time you clic on a track.

I am using an Eversolo A8 and I copy all my music collection to an Internal M.2 SSD installed at the bottom of the unit. Then is the software of the Eversolo, the one that sorts everything in this strange way.

I will keep on trying other options to se if any will work out and will post here again if I succeed.

Thank you very much GBrown.
Cheers,
Jorge

[GBrown]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

If the local files have the correct tags but this Eversolo device is making its' own library you will need to work with them to resolve. Sounds like this is outside of the scope of dbPA.

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

I agree that the Eversolo Library should have more options to configure and personalize categories related with Various Artists (Compilations, Concerts, Soundtracks..).

Having said this, the reason why my current system creates a folder called "Various Artists" is related with how dbPA creates the metadata. For example, in the Soundtracks: each song's Artist is correctly displayed, but when referring to the whole Album, dbPA displays <Various Artists>.

Although I believe that in both cases dbPA metadata is correct, I am wondering if there is a tweak to maintain the right Artist for every track and choose a different name when we refer to the whole album... Maybe the solution lies in the way the naming is set. I use this string: [MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Various Artists/[Year] - [album][IFMULTI]/Disc [disc][]/[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]/[Year] - [album][IFMULTI]/Disc [disc][]/[track] - [title][][]

In my opinion, I have better chances trying to find a workaround with the immense possibilities dbPA offer, than waiting for the folks at Eversolo to develop features more inline with what many Music Players have.

Thanks and cheers,
Jorge

[GBrown]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

Having said this, the reason why my current system creates a folder called "Various Artists" is related with how dbPA creates the metadata. For example, in the Soundtracks: each song's Artist is correctly displayed, but when referring to the whole Album, dbPA displays <Various Artists>.

Maybe the solution lies in the way the naming is set. I use this string: [MAXLENGTH]240,[IFCOMP]Various Artists[Year] - [album][IFMULTI]/Disc [disc][]/[track] - [title] - [artist][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]/[Year] - [album][IFMULTI]/Disc [disc][]/[track] - [title][][]

I am not sure of the problem you are describing is regarding the folder/file naming, or the tag structure. These are two very different things. However from what you have described you are looking at the folder structure. Your current naming convention is using the "Various Artists" folder for all files where you are setting the compilation flag. You will need to modify this if you wish to have the soundtrack compilations in a different folder structure than the non-soundtrack compilations. I would recommend that since you are already using "Various Artists" and now possibly "Soundtacks", "Concert" and others that you consider that you may not need this IF structure in your naming string since the Albumartist already accounts for this difference.

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

I am not sure of the problem you are describing is regarding the folder/file naming, or the tag structure. These are two very different things. However from what you have described you are looking at the folder structure. Your current naming convention is using the "Various Artists" folder for all files where you are setting the compilation flag. You will need to modify this if you wish to have the soundtrack compilations in a different folder structure than the non-soundtrack compilations. I would recommend that since you are already using "Various Artists" and now possibly "Soundtacks", "Concert" and others that you consider that you may not need this IF structure in your naming string since the Albumartist already accounts for this difference.

Thank you very much GBrown.

You gave me a great idea by suggesting that I had a complex string for Soundtracks, Concerts and Compilations categories. I simplified the string to: [album artist]/[album]/[track] - [title] - [artist] ... And in the Album Artist field I insert for example "- Soundtracks" (I use the dash so they are listed before any Artist).

Everything was displayed correctly except the name of the category that is, again "Various Artists"... Basically what this means is that my system considers the Artist field as the first step to arrange the metadata. The weird thing is that with my string the track artist is correctly displayed but it maintains the denomination "Various Artists" for the album...

I wrote Eversolo to ask if they could allow the users to create Categories above the current first level (Artist) and also to be able to edit the images that in many cases are incorrectly displayed... I won't hold my breath though...

Thanks for all the help and ideas GBrown.
Cheers,
Jorge

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

It's really difficult to follow what's going on, but do you have the compilation flag set? I would think that removing the compilation tag would force Eversolo to fall back to using the AlbumArtist tag, which if populated with Various Artists/Soundtracks etc would give you what you want.

Alternatively, if the Eversolo is UPnP compatible then you could use AssetUPnP to present your music exactly as you'd like.


If you send me a unit I'll get it working for you

Thanks a lot for the ideas…give me your address to ship it

I tried both ways with the Compilation field checked and without, but with the same result.

I am not really sure I understand your suggestion about UPnP. Isn't it a Network Protocol? The collection is copied into a SSD inside of my device.

Thanks and cheers,
Jorge

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

I had a quick look at some YouTube videos and found an Eversolo library guide, and when coupled with your experience it seems that it's pulling metadata from online sources rather than relying on your tags, which is probably why you're not able to see Soundtracks as an AlbumArtist.
I guess you could test that theory by adding an 'e' to the end of an Album/Artist tag (but do not change the folder structure which it appears to rely on) to see if it gets corrected.

Do you know if it's using your values for the Genre index? If it is you could always put '- Soundtracks' in there.



I was suggesting a UPnP media server such as AssetUPnP, which would give you much more control over how your music is presented, but would need to be run on another device (anything from a raspberry Pi to a NAS).

Thank you very much simbun.

With the tip from a member in the Eversolo forum I was able to find the way to edit both the Artist and the Album afterwards. This has allowed me to change the name from Various Artists to either Compilations and Soundtracks...

I was also able to change the images of both as the software was assigning incorrect images directly from online sources as you pointed out.

If any member here needs the workaround, just remember to use the player's menus or the "Cast" option on the mobile app. You can contact me if you need the details.

Thanks simbun and everyone else responding to my questions with great ideas and tips.

Cheers,
Jorge

[Jorge22]

Re: Managing Soundtracks and Compilations of Various Artists

I had a quick look at some YouTube videos and found an Eversolo library guide, and when coupled with your experience it seems that it's pulling metadata from online sources rather than relying on your tags, which is probably why you're not able to see Soundtracks as an AlbumArtist.
I guess you could test that theory by adding an 'e' to the end of an Album/Artist tag (but do not change the folder structure which it appears to rely on) to see if it gets corrected.

Do you know if it's using your values for the Genre index? If it is you could always put '- Soundtracks' in there.



I was suggesting a UPnP media server such as AssetUPnP, which would give you much more control over how your music is presented, but would need to be run on another device (anything from a raspberry Pi to a NAS).

Thank you very much simbun.

I got a tip from another user in the Eversolo forum that has allowed me to edit both the Artists and Albums information afterwards.

Now I have Sountracks and Compilations correctly listed in the Artist category and I was also able to fix the Artist images that were wrong. You were right about the software going online to search for these images.

I anyone has the same problem just remember to use the player's menus to edit these categories or the option "Cast" in the mobile application. You can contact me if you need further details.

Thanks a lot to simbun and everyone else responding to my questions with great ideas and tips.
Cheers,
Jorge