Not converting "album artist" correctly

[snowdog]

Hi all.

So, having used dBpa's batch converter for months without issue, suddenly I'm finding the following...

I take a folder of FLAC files, tag them in Tag Editor. The album artist is set to "LIBRARY".

(I've taken to opening the files in Tag Editor again to check it saved properly & the album artist is "LIBRARY", as it should be.)

I use the batch converter to covert the fully tagged FLACs to 320 bit M4As.

The resulting M4As have the artist in the album artist column, not "LIBRARY".

Any ideas why this is suddenly happening?

[Spoon]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Why would album artist be saved under a library tag?

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Why would album artist be saved under a library tag?

The "album artist" would be a cover-all to help things sort the way I like them in iTunes. I would use "Prince" for example, so that all the albums by Prince, Prince & The Revolution, Prince & The New Power Generation, The Artist Formerly Know As, etc. etc. all sort together under one artist in chronological order.

All of my soundtracks have the "album artist" tag of OST.

I'm currently working through a huge number of library music albums under many, many labels (De Wolfe, Bruton, KPM, Boosey & Hawkes, etc. etc.) & so I want the "album artist" tag to be "LIBRARY" so that they all sort together in iTunes.

At the moment, when the "album artist" tag is says "LIBRARY" in the FLACs, dBpa seems to be substituting the word "LIBRARY" for whatever is in the "artist" column" & I don't know why. It has never done this before.

It may not even be dBpa's fault, but as it's happening at the point of file conversion, it seems a logical place to start.

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

I seem to recall when I started using dBpa, that I was getting millions of random genre names appearing in the "grouping" column of iTunes & someone here, possibly yourself, correctly identified the problem as being entries in the "style" tag that iTunes was putting in the "grouping" column.

As soon as I started clearing the "style" tags before ripping, the problem went away.

I'm hoping this might be something similarly easy to fix.

[Spoon]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Right click on a created m4a file >> edit id tags, what tag is shown for album artist? library?

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Right click on a created m4a file >> edit id tags, what tag is shown for album artist? library?

Okay, well this is quite interesting, actually...

(Unfortunately, I'm having no success uploading files to this page, so I'll have to post links to the screenshots on line.)

01 This is what the FLAC files look like when I open them in Tag Editor

02 This is what the converted files look like in Tag Editor
Note, the album name still says (FLAC) as it's a direct conversion & I've not changed it yet.
But they are M4A format, as can be seen from the heading at the top of the screenshot.

03 This is the requested "right click, edit tags" on an M4A file
Again, the album title still says "(FLAC)". Ignore that.

Very odd that it seems to have added the artist to the "Album Artist" field as well as LIBRARY. Why would it suddenly do that?

Also, there appears to be an "ALBUMARTIST2" entry that's appeared out of nowhere.

04 This is the M4A file after I've been in & amended the "Album Artist" to LIBRARY

The "ALBUMARTIST2" entry is still there, but I can't see it outside of this editor so it's no bother.

Interestingly, when I "right click, edit tags" on a file that I created before this problem began, there is still an "ALBUMARTIST2" entry there so that's probably been there all along:

05 Previous file

So I suppose the question is, why is the conversion process adding the "artist" to the "album artist" field? It's never done that before.

Did I click on something without realising it? Is there a preference that I can change?

Unfortunately, I can't seem to view tags for FLAC files dBpa.

[Wayne]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Are you using any DSP effects as part of the conversion, like ID Tag update?

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Are you using any DSP effects as part of the conversion, like ID Tag update?

Not that I know of. The only place I can see "DSP" mentioned is in the ripping window. Where can I check to make sure I'm correctly answering your question, as there are no preferences or options in the "Batch Convert" window? I just choose a folder, select "single folder" & convert to a different folder in M4A format.

There is a "profile" drop down menu at the top but that's set to "none selected".

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

I have looked at the tags on a bunch of other albums & I can at least confirm that the "ALBUMARTIST2" filed does not appear on AIFF files that I've ripped myself from a CD using dBpa. This appears to be unique to FLAC files that I've downloaded. Unfortunately, I don't get the option to edit tags in dBpa for FLAC files on my Mac, so I can't check to see what's there to start with, I can only see what's there after the conversion process.

[Spoon]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Right click on one of the flac files >> edit id tags, show that page also.

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Yeah, I can't. FLAC files are not a native file format on a Mac. Fortunately, I have plenty of apps that can handle them, play them & convert them but when I right click on one I don't get the "edit tags in dbPoweramp" option that I do with other file formats.

Here is a link to a folder with some of the FLACs I'm trying to convert for this exercise so, if you felt inclined, you could take a look & see what I can't.

[Spoon]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

The first file on the list has the album artist set to:

The Frank Rothman Progressive Dance Orchestra; LIBRARY

That means there are 2 album artist tags in the file. Dbpoweramp is converting what it finds in the source files.

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

Okay, thanks.

I've run those files through "Tag Editor" in order to make the "Album Artist" column say "LIBRARY".

This means that Tag Editor is doing something different, because it's kept the previous tag in there & added mine as well instead of replacing it.

Here is an album of FLACs that I have not yet touched.

I assume that the "Album Artist" is the same as the artist but without the word "LIBRARY" added.

I'm also curious as to where "ALBUMARTIST2" has come from & what it's doing there.

Any clue?

[snowdog]

Re: Not converting "album artist" correctly

You know what, scratch that. You've been more than helpful over a weekend.

I think it's reasonable to assume that the fault lies with Tag Editor & it's creating an "ALBUMARTIST2" field as well as adding the existing "album artist" to the new "album artist" & creating the entry that dbpa is converting.

I'll take it up with them. Thanks so much for your help.