Compilation Album Artist naming

[rodhudson]

Hello. I'm currently evaluating this software and 4 others with a view to switching over to a 'paid for' version for a small Radio Station that we run.

For various reasons [and 'Various' seems to be the operative word here!!] I like this software the best, were it not for this one issue that I yet to reslove.

All the other seem to have no problem in producing the Artists name, even though there are 18 different ones on a Compilation CD. Of course the Album Name lists 'Various Artists', but when it comes to individual file-naming, they have no trouble in matching the %A or %1, or whatever with the actual artist on the track.

But I can't do it with 'dbpoweramp'. I have read the 'Tutorial' on file-naming on this Forum, but can still get no results,other than the useless 'Various Artists', and I'm beginning to wonder if this is caused by the Database that is used to look up the names in the first place ?

I don't know enough about this program yet to know if we have any control over that. You do with some other programs....but not all by any means.

Of course, that may be a complete 'red herring', but I'm just sharing my thoughts.

If anyone can help with this, I'd be grateful. Although new to this Forum, I'm not a Novice, and am quite 'au fait' with programming, so I don't think I'm doing anything silly....!! But maybe......
Cheers.

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

You are ripping audio CDs to which format?

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Mainly FLAC and OGG VORBIS

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Additional question: Is there a setting on this Forum to be emailed when there is a new Post on my Topic ? If so, where do I set it up ? I seem to have missed it!
Thanks

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Your issue is that you cannot get the artist name to the filename when the album artist is set to 'Various Artists'?

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

One further point. It seems that the Rippers that are producing the ‘Various Artists’ named individually, are mainly using the DBFREE and MUSICBRAINZ Databases as their sources.

Also, it seems to me that they have the Artist name [ in the case of Compilations] included as part of the TRACK name.

The Tutorial mentions AMG is the main Database, so is it possible that they DON’T do this ?

Just a thought.

But I’m sure I can’t be the first to have come up against this problem, with the need to find a solution. If I’m told that the ‘REFERENCE’ version handles it OK, then fine. I’ll buy it.

But I don’t want to buy first and then find out that it can’t do it either! In that instance we’d stay with CD ex, which does handle it on the lines mentioned above, although isn’t as good in many other areas, in my opinion.

Thanks for any help that may be forthcoming !!

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

For compilations the correct handling:

Album Artist is left as ""
Each track gets the unqiue artist name
The track title should not contain the artist name
Compilation Flag is set in the ID Tag

[Wayne]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

I'm sure that with dMC you can put the track artist in the filename it depends on the naming convention you use.

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

I'm sure that with dMC you can put the track artist in the filename it depends on the naming convention you use.

Well, We're hoping so. For us, the Album name is irrelevant. We catalogue by Artist name , track name. Which album it's come from doesn't matter, except for reference of course. The difficulty seems to be extracting the data in this order from the Music Databases through dMC, although I'm equally sure it can be done. Just haven't managed to do it yet.
As I said before, with Express Rip, CD ex etc it happens straight off. But I'm sure there's a way. [ There's always a way!!]

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Set file naming to:

[artist] - [title]

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Set file naming to:

[artist] - [title]

We have tried that long ago. The result is usually 'Various Artists' - 'Michelle' [e.g.]
I know you said that the Artists name shouldn't be included as part of the Track Title, but I still think that they are on a large number of Compilation CD's. I'm not saying that's correct...just the way it is!

With the ones that don't do that, there is, of course, no problem. I'm concerned about sorting out something for the ones who do!!

It seems to be usually the case that where this happens the Track Title and the Artist are separated by a forward slash, and some programs have the ability to reverse the positioning of the data each side of the slash, to put the Artist first.

I don't know how flexible the 'Programmable Elements' is. Maybe I'll have to look at that.
I had thought this would be straight-forward, but it seems not to be!!

Thanks for your suggestions though. More will be welcome!

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

If the metadata is wrong it is nothing to do with the naming, press ALT + M after the metadata has been retrieved to select from a different provider.

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

If the metadata is wrong it is nothing to do with the naming, press ALT + M after the metadata has been retrieved to select from a different provider.

I don't think the metadata is wrong, or it wouldn't work correctly on other programs, which it does.

[Spoon]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Other programs use other providers, we use:

AMG
GD3
Musicbrainz
freedb

Other programs typically just use freedb. For those discs which are incorrect (most likely from AMG) select another provider.

[rodhudson]

Re: Compilation Album Artist naming

Other programs use other providers, we use:

AMG
GD3
Musicbrainz
freedb

Other programs typically just use freedb. For those discs which are incorrect (most likely from AMG) select another provider.

Well done. I think that was the problem !

'CD ex' and 'Express Rip' both mainly use freeDB, and by using your ALT M screen I can see that neither AMG nor GD3 show the Artist on Compiliation. Musicbrainz has no data on some albums [ mainly older I think], but freeDB has Title and Artist.

However the Artist name comes up in the Title, and the song title in the artist name. Which is fine for us, as we file by Artist, and it just means changing the order in the SET for filename dynamics. Absolutely no problem.

Finally [!!] is there a field where we can set the 'Primary' database source to to be freeDB ?