7.3.3/7.4 >= r25619: Various Artists, "ALBUM ARTIST", DESCRIPTION optimizations

[Moonbase]

SC 7.3.3 and 7.4, revisions 25619 and newer (today's changes), now include some of my changes (Thanks, Andy!) that will hopefully better the situation for:

• Compilations ("Various Artists" releases), where the tracks are not stored in the same folder on your disc.
  
  • Many people store tracks from compilations not together in the same folder, but elsewhere, like under the Artist’s folder.
  • Previously, SC would not know how to handle that and show one "album" for each track in that case.
  • Before falling back to the "all in same folder" logic, SC will now additionally try to "keep a VA compilation together" by using the MusicBrainz Album ID (this can be set by using MusicBrainz’ Picard tagger, for instance). The MB Album ID is disc-based, so this might not help if you use disc grouping.
  • A "minimal tagging" approach will never help in case of the often mentioned "Greatest Hits" problem. At least the album title, main contributor (usually the Album Artist) and some unique identifier like the MusicBrainz Album ID must be used in cases where the storage location doesn’t define an "album".
  • SC will still also use all other mechanisms it did before (like checking the disc number, the total # of discs, the main contributor, etc.), plus eventually "fall back" to looking for other tracks in the same folder.
  
  
• Releases with only one disc where these were shown as "many albums" (one per track) but releases with more than one disc shown correctly (as n discs with all tracks belonging to the disc together).
  
  • Explicitly ignoring disc number and total # of discs on releases tagged with "disc #1 of 1" has lead to unwanted side effects, like releases with one discs showing as "many albums" whereas releases with more than one disc were shown correctly (i.e., one album per disc).
  • So this "disc 1/1" ignoring has been taken back and if you want, you can tag a disc as being "number one of one discs total". This can actually help for above mentioned VA compilation aggregation, in some cases.
  • Everyone using disc numbering should be aware that the disc number must be the same for all tracks on any one disc, and the total # discs must be the same in all tracks.
  
  
• Foobar2000 and JR Media Center users that use "ALBUM ARTIST" (instead of "ALBUMARTIST") for tagging the Album Artist.
  
  • The foobar2000 community has opted for a "pseudo standard" of using the tag "ALBUM ARTIST" (with a blank) instead of "ALBUMARTIST" which SC uses.
  • SC will now support "ALBUM ARTIST" in addition to "ALBUMARTIST" (or TPE2 in ID3v2 tags, if so selected) in FLAC, OGG, MP3, APE files (or any files using Vorbis Comment, ID3v2 or APEv2 tags).
  • Be aware that it is generally not advisable using more than one tag having the same meaning! If you had, for instance, "ALBUM ARTIST" and "ALBUMARTIST" tagged in a file, used foobar2000 to re-tag it (which would only change the "ALBUM ARTIST" tag), you might end up with a file having "ALBUMARTIST=Tom Jones" and "ALBUM ARTIST=Blank & Jones" — so how could SC know which was the correct one?
  • I still recommend using "ALBUMARTIST" if you don’t need "ALBUM ARTIST" for some reason — it makes for much better general tag mapping.
  
  
• Releases actually using an Album Artist tag of "Various Artists" or the like (as opposed to not using an Album Artist at all for VA compilations).
  
  • It was previously advised not to set an Album Artist for "Various Artists" compilations. Unfortunately, many tagging programs insist in doing that, so a lot of manual changing afterwards was needed.
  • Now you should be able to do that, without any adverse effects. It can actually help in cases where tracks from VA compilations are stored in different folders, since the Album Artist can be used to "keep a release together".
  
  
• FLAC and OGG files tagged using the (official) DESCRIPTION Vorbis Comment (instead of using the COMMENT tag).
  
  • As xiph.org suggests, a "comment" should be tagged using the DESCRIPTION tag in Vorbis Comments (used in FLAC and OGG files).
  • Many taggers do it this way, about an equal number use the COMMENT field instead.
  • SC will now support both.
  
  
• Album Artist support in Apple MPEG4-type files (M4A, MP4, AAC).
  
  • MPEG4-type files like Apple’s M4A, MP4, and AAC use an atom called "aART" to store the Album Artist. This is supported by newer versions of
    
    • MusicBrainz Picard (v0.11)
    • iTunes
    • Mp3tag (they call it "BAND"!)
    • Tag&Rename
    • AtomicParsley
    • and others
  • SC didn’t include Album Artist support for these file types yet. Now it does.
  • Hint: In previous versions, SC would use "aART" to fill in missing "Artist" fields. It will not do this anymore but use "aART" for its sole purpose, the Album Artist! You are responsible to tag your tracks with the correct artist — this being one of the "minimum" tags anyway.
  
  
• Correct Artist Sort Order for WMA files.
  
  • SC didn’t yet respect the sort order for the Artist (WM/ArtistSortOrder).
  • It now does, so even if using WMA files, the Artist sorting (if set in the tags) will now be correct.

Please remember: For all the changes to take effect, you will need to do a "Clear library and rescan everything" from SC’s Settings -> Basic Settings screen.

Well, I hope all these changes will make the Logitech Squeezebox/SqueezeCenter systems an even greater experience for you!

Thanks to the dev team for great ongoing support, and to all of you for constant feedback, suggestions and fresh ideas.

[Philip Meyer]

>- *Foobar2000 and JR*Media Center users that use "ALBUM ARTIST"
> (instead of "ALBUMARTIST") for tagging the Album Artist.*

Beware that anyone with ALBUM ARTIST=Various Artists and without COMPILATION=1 will not be able to see their music under Various Artists.

If they used to have an ALBUM ARTIST tag for Foobar2000 or JR*Media Center, but no album artist tag for SqueezeCenter and no compilation tag (because SC used to work it out automatically), that now it will have an album artist tag, but will not have the compilation tag. The result is that the music will not be browseable via Browse Artist > Various Artists.

Just add COMPILATION tags to the songs to be sure.

[Moonbase]

True, and makes sense. Thanks for the "addendum", Philip.

So if using Mp3tag (or the like) to add tags manually and have Album Artist="Various Artists", you should set TCMP=1 (ID3v2.3/v2.4) or COMPILATION=1 (FLAC, OGG).

If using MusicBrainz Picard, it will do this automatically.

Apple iTunes I think has a "This is a compilation" checkbox somewhere.

The "old" logic is of course still valid (and unchanged): You could delete (or not use) Album Artist in cases where it actually is a compilation, and have SC figure it out itself.

[Philip Meyer]

>So if using Mp3tag (or the like) to add tags manually and have Album
>Artist="Various Artists", you should set -TCMP=1- (ID3v2.3/v2.4) or
>-COMPILATION=1- (FLAC, OGG).
>
>If using MusicBrainz -Picard-, it will do this automatically.
>
>Apple -iTunes- I think has a "This is a compilation" checkbox
>somewhere.
>
That's right. iTunes has a field called "Part of a compilation", which is stored in the (non-standard) TCMP frame.

Mp3Tag calls the TCMP frame "ITUNESCOMPILATION".

SqueezeCenter also supports a custom COMPILATION tag in id3 tags, so TXXX COMPILATION=1 also works.

[snarlydwarf]

Hrm, are you sure this works?

I am seeing collisions between these two sets of tags:

TIT2 (Title/songname/content description): Nada sei (apn�ia)
TPE1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): Kid Abelha
TRCK (Track number/Position in set): 1/19
TALB (Album/Movie/Show title): Ac�stico MTV
UFID (Unique file identifier): http://musicbrainz.org, 36 bytes
TXXX (User defined text information): (ALBUMARTISTSORT): Kid Abelha
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Type): live
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Id): a4ce56c4-19e6-4f3f-86ca-be9967a9586f
XSOP ():  frame
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Status): official
TYER (Year): 2002
TXXX (User defined text information): (ASIN): B00007M00R
TPE2 (Band/orchestra/accompaniment): Kid Abelha
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Artist Id): e3e90633-b6f1-4376-b15b-2492c94b4cf7
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Release Country): BR
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Artist Id): e3e90633-b6f1-4376-b15b-2492c94b4cf7

and:

TPE1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): Cidade Negra
TALB (Album/Movie/Show title): Ac�stico MTV
TIT2 (Title/songname/content description): Girassol
TRCK (Track number/Position in set): 1/17
XSOP ():  frame
TCMP ():  frame
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicIP PUID): 
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Artist Id): 4a95ceff-7445-42f1-b34f-01d680777d85
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Id): 6d29f81d-15d8-40cd-8c16-052bdf58e5da
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Status): official
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Artist Id): 4a95ceff-7445-42f1-b34f-01d680777d85
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Artist): Cidade Negra
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Album Artist Sortname): Cidade Negra
UFID (Unique file identifier): http://musicbrainz.org, 36 bytes
TXXX (User defined text information): (MusicBrainz Non-Album): 0
TYER (Year): 2002

These get combined into a single album: despite being different artists, different MusicBrainz ID's, different directories.... This didn't used to be a problem... It could, I guess, be some odd interaction with Erland's stuff, I will turn that off tonight before rescan time, but it didn't misbehave before this patch.

[snoopstaa]

Any tracks that have multiple artists in an Album are being tagged as separate Artists in the Artists database of slimserver. Is there anyway you could create an option that ONLY records the artist of the album as the artist that has released the CD.

I would like my artists to be the person who released the CD only, eg Air, not those that had some involvement in a single track (because the artist list becomes too long and out of control)

Thanks,

Snoopstaa

[Jeff Flowerday]

Any tracks that have multiple artists in an Album are being tagged as separate Artists in the Artists database of slimserver. Is there anyway you could create an option that ONLY records the artist of the album as the artist that has released the CD.

I would like my artists to be the person who released the CD only, eg Air, not those that had some involvement in a single track (because the artist list becomes too long and out of control)

Thanks,

Snoopstaa

The option is already there.

[snoopstaa]

Could you let me know how to do it Jeff?

My WMA albums are still grouped under Various Artists (despite being released by a single artist).

[MrSinatra]

any connection?

http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=11780

http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=10583

[Jeff Flowerday]

Could you let me know how to do it Jeff?

My WMA albums are still grouped under Various Artists (despite being released by a single artist).

1) Make sure you have the album artist tag in your files.

2) Make sure the following setting in squeezecenter is set appropriately. It's in the Behaviour section.

Albums that contain songs that are tagged with a band may be listed under that band name or with the other artists for that album. The band tag is also known as TPE2 and may appear as the "album artist" in some software.

List albums by all artists for that album
List albums by band