Multiple Artists and merging tags

[davmurimd]

I have been exploring the options available in DSP but I have been unable to find out how to do the following:

1. I have ripped about 1000 albums, and manually divided multiple artist by ";" e.g Artist1; Artist 2; Artist3. (Most of my albums are classical and the three artists are typically soloist, orchestra, conductor) The Naim app only shows Artist1. I manually edited the ID tags on a test album to change the ";" to "," e.g Artist1, Artist2, Artist3. Naim now does show all three artists. My question is how can I make this change for all my albums without going though them manually?

2. For compilation albums I would like to embed the Composer into the track Title. Is this possible? All my compilation albums are grouped together in one folder, some have various artists, but most have no artists (the metadata obtained through DBpoweramp being incorrect, but not worth entering manually)

Finally. I understand that batch operations with DSP have to be carried out in the Batch Converter. My music is in flac format. Is it necessary to convert to WAV putting the results in a temporary file, then reconvert to flac?

I should mention that I run DBpoweramp R16.1 on a Windows 10 PC, and AssetUPNP V5 on a QNAP NAS

I will appreciate any help with these issues.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I have ripped about 1000 albums, and manually divided multiple artist by ";" e.g Artist1; Artist 2; Artist3. (Most of my albums are classical and the three artists are typically soloist, orchestra, conductor) The Naim app only shows Artist1. I manually edited the ID tags on a test album to change the ";" to "," e.g Artist1, Artist2, Artist3. Naim now does show all three artists. My question is how can I make this change for all my albums without going though them manually?

The Naim app is not able to read multi-value tags, hence the behaviour you are seeing. So, converting Artist1; Artist 2; Artist3 to Artist1, Artist 2, Artist3 converts the multi-value tag to a single tag which will have consequences when browsing the Artist listings.

You can accomplish this easily using MP3Tag.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

For compilation albums I would like to embed the Composer into the track Title. Is this possible? All my compilation albums are grouped together in one folder, some have various artists, but most have no artists (the metadata obtained through DBpoweramp being incorrect, but not worth entering manually)

Yes this is possible. Again, you can use MP3Tag or the dBpoweramp ID Tag Update utility codec

Remember to backup your library, before performing these global tag edits.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I understand that batch operations with DSP have to be carried out in the Batch Converter. My music is in flac format. Is it necessary to convert to WAV putting the results in a temporary file, then reconvert to flac?

No.

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

Thank you for your help.

I found Mp3tag intimidating, but after a few false starts I changed the ; separator to , for multiple artists in the 3 tracks in my test folder.

I did not manage to add composer to the track title though. I tried the IDTag Update codec, but only managed to add composer to the track (file)name, not the track title.

Your advice on where to find the required settings would be most welcome.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I found Mp3tag intimidating, but after a few false starts I changed the ; separator to , for multiple artists in the 3 tracks in my test folder.

In MP3Tag, the Help menu >> Contents is very useful here. You can use the Replace action to replace ; with , (and save it in an action group for future reference).

I did not manage to add composer to the track title though. I tried the IDTag Update codec, but only managed to add composer to the track (file)name, not the track title.

Your advice on where to find the required settings would be most welcome.

MP3Tag:
Action >> Format value, Field: TITLE, Format String: %title%' ('%composer%')'

ID Tag Update utility codec:
Manipulation >> Rule Based Manipulation >> Rule Based Mapping (enter the following)
IF Title=[anyvalue]
SET Title=[Title] ([Composer])

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I found Mp3tag intimidating, but after a few false starts I changed the ; separator to , for multiple artists in the 3 tracks in my test folder.

Also, something to bear in mind is that different software often use different display separators for multi-value tags and that the separator can often be file format dependant.

For flac files, dBpoweramp uses ; as the separator, whereas in MP3Tag the separator is \\, so in dBpoweramp you will see Artist1; Artist 2; Artist3 and in MP3Tag you will see Artist1\\Artist 2\\Artist3 for the same multi-value tag.

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

Thank you very much for your advice.

I added composer to the title of about 700 tracks ripped from compilation Cds. I was very impressed by how quick this was using Mp3tag.

As you suggested, I checked out the changes in the artist listing. This contains the combined artist tags, but I rarely search by artist because I have separate tags for soloist, orchestra and conductor, and I search for these in Advanced Search from AssetUPNP.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

Thank you very much for your advice.

I added composer to the title of about 700 tracks ripped from compilation Cds. I was very impressed by how quick this was using Mp3tag.

No Problem. MP3Tag is an extremely useful, powerful and flexible tagging tool.

As you suggested, I checked out the changes in the artist listing. This contains the combined artist tags, but I rarely search by artist because I have separate tags for soloist, orchestra and conductor, and I search for these in Advanced Search from AssetUPNP.

Yes and remember, you can customize the Browse Tree in Asset UPnP i.e. you could create new containers for soloist, orchestra and conductor.

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

Yes and remember, you can customize the Browse Tree in Asset UPnP i.e. you could create new containers for soloist, orchestra and conductor.

I tried to recreate soloist, etc. outside Advanced search a while ago, but without success. I must be missing something. I will have another try!

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I tried to recreate soloist, etc. outside Advanced search a while ago, but without success. I must be missing something. I will have another try!

I looked at this again. I can create the containers for Composer, Orchestra, Conductor and Artist/Album outside of Advanced Search, but Chorus, Soloist and Instrument are not shown in the dropdown list of options, and I cannot see how to do this manually, so these remain under Advanced Search.

Incidentally I have all containers set up identically but orchestra shows only the harp icon. The art shows when the icon for a specific orchestra is opened. Odd!

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I used "Merge Duplicate fields" in Mp3tag, setting Artist as the field and ", " as the separator. This did exactly what I needed and avoided worrying about\\

Thanks again for all your help.

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I looked at this again. I can create the containers for Composer, Orchestra, Conductor and Artist/Album outside of Advanced Search, but Chorus, Soloist and Instrument are not shown in the dropdown list of options, and I cannot see how to do this manually, so these remain under Advanced Search.

Chorus, Soloist and Instrument are not in the list, but you can type them in manually.

Incidentally I have all containers set up identically but orchestra shows only the harp icon. The art shows when the icon for a specific orchestra is opened. Odd!

Asset uses the images found here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Illustrate\dBpoweramp\AssetImages and you are able to copy existing images and rename them to suit your customizations. There are threads here that explain how to assign icons and how to use use custom tags in Asset (I notice you refer to Soloist and not Soloists).

[mville]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

I used "Merge Duplicate fields" in Mp3tag, setting Artist as the field and ", " as the separator. This did exactly what I needed and avoided worrying about\\

Thanks again for all your help.

Yes, the Merge duplicate fields action is exactly what you need in this scenario.

[davmurimd]

Re: Multiple Artists and merging tags

Chorus, Soloist and Instrument are not in the list, but you can type them in manually. (I notice you refer to Soloist and not Soloists).

I intended to type Soloists. I first used Custom 3 and 4 in Music Bee for Soloists and Instrument. Later I selected these tags from dropdown lists when ripping from Dppoweramp and sometimes edited them in Edit ID-Tag.

I'm sorry but I still cannot see how to type in the names of containers manually.

I do not remember how I set up containers for Soloists and Instrument into Advanced Search, but I am sure it was a very simple process. I have looked at several threads on editing the configuration but I do not see any that refer to assetUPNP running on a QNAP NAS. The only thing I can think of is that I first used Asset on my Windows PC, then had both the PC and QNAP versions running for a while and perhaps I set up these containers in the Windows version and they were carried over into the QNAP version. I uninstalled the PC version some time ago, because I did not use it any more.

Sorry to be so slow at learning these things. I appreciate you patience.