setting ignore.sort in the All Artists tag?

[simbun]

It could be achieved with tagUpdate, and I think relatively easily if you're using mp3tag.

Essentially we'd create another tag (internally to MinimServer) that has the value Oscar Peterson when he's the track artist but not the album artist, which you could then add as an index called something like Accompanying Artist (which we define as Track Artist and not Album Artist).

The code would look like:

Code:

@ARTIST=Oscar Peterson
+ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson

@ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson
&ALBUMARTIST=Oscar Peterson
-ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson

Which basically equates to:
If the Track Artist is Oscar Peterson (@ARTIST=Oscar Peterson) then add a new tag called ACCARTIST with the value Oscar Peterson (+ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson).
If the new ACCARTIST tag contains the value Oscar Peterson (@ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson) and he's also the AlbumArtist (&ALBUMARTIST=Oscar Peterson) then delete the ACCARTIST tag value (-ACCARTIST=Oscar Peterson).

It may look a bit strange, but we can only use "equals" logic, not "not equals".

Assuming that you'd only want to do this for album artists (as the list of track artists can be huge) then the generated script wouldn't be too big either. You'd obviously have to update this script as part of your maintenance (as new album artists are added).

[simoncn]

Alternatively, selecting the AlbumArtist index after selecting Oscar Peterson in All Artists would show an Oscar Peterson entry for albums with Oscar Peterson as the main artist and entries for all other main artists who have albums featuring Oscar Peterson. It is not a single list of all the tracks in question but it allows all these tracks to be viewed and played with a couple of clicks.

[simbun]

(24-01-2023 16:06)simoncn Wrote:  Alternatively, selecting the AlbumArtist index after selecting Oscar Peterson in All Artists would show an Oscar Peterson entry for albums with Oscar Peterson as the main artist and entries for all other main artists who have albums featuring Oscar Peterson. It is not a single list of all the tracks in question but it allows all these tracks to be viewed and played with a couple of clicks.

Of course, but as the OP said the problem is that the All Artists list can be huge:

(23-01-2023 18:44)pete_w Wrote:  My problem is the simpler one of having 30 years worth of compilation albums ("Now....", Chilled Ibiza, the usual things that one picks up from charity shops for the one good track for a party) and I don't want those hundreds of one-off artists to clutter up my main list

I'm in much the same boat. I have 390 album artists but 4739 track artists and I'm not going to be scrolling through a list like that.

[simoncn]

(24-01-2023 16:32)simbun Wrote:  Of course, but as the OP said the problem is that the All Artists list can be huge:

Wouldn't the Accompanying Artist index that you suggested also be huge?

[simbun]

(24-01-2023 18:57)simoncn Wrote:  Wouldn't the Accompanying Artist index that you suggested also be huge?

Well, I did say that

(24-01-2023 15:24)simbun Wrote:  Assuming that you'd only want to do this for album artists (as the list of track artists can be huge) then the generated script wouldn't be too big either.

but yes, if you wanted to be able to do this for All Artists then it'll be just as big.


The solution was trying to address the other half of the OP's request that can't be delivered by the standard functionality.

(24-01-2023 12:20)pete_w Wrote:  What I'd actually like is for it to offer me a list of 10 Albums to browse and 60 *other* items that aren't included in that list of 10 albums.

I've just had a quick look and it's trivial to produce the tagUpdate script in mp3tag (as it is in foobar2000 too) with an export script of:

Code:

#filename(D:\downloads\tagUpdate.txt,utf-8)
#loop(%albumartist%,1)@ARTIST=%albumartist%
+ACCARTIST=%albumartist%
#loopend()
#loop(%albumartist%,1)@ACCARTIST=%albumartist%
&ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%
-ACCARTIST=%albumartist%
#loopend()

NOTE: I've had to replace $ with # in the code block in order for the forum software to accept it.

I've got to admit, I do love tagUpdate :-)

[simoncn]

(24-01-2023 20:23)simbun Wrote:  The solution was trying to address the other half of the OP's request that can't be delivered by the standard functionality.

(24-01-2023 12:20)pete_w Wrote:  What I'd actually like is for it to offer me a list of 10 Albums to browse and 60 *other* items that aren't included in that list of 10 albums.

My suggestion provides that. Selecting All Artists > Oscar Peterson > AlbumArtist > anyone-other-than-Oscar reveals the 60 items, although not as a single list.

[Hanu]

(24-01-2023 12:20)pete_w Wrote:  

(23-01-2023 21:33)simoncn Wrote:  In Mp3tag the separator for multiple artists is \\. To tag a file with three artists, you would set the Artist tag to Artist 1\\Artist 2\\Artist 3. This creates three separate Artist tags in the file.

Thanks, Simon. One day I hope to be able to ask an *intelligent* question :-)

I was thinking about your Jazz use case above. I don't, and probably will never, have my tracks tagged to that level of detail, but if I did then I'm still not quite sure that the given approach is optimal. It may be all that's feasible, of course....

So if I sit down and think "I feel like a bit of Oscar Peterson", then my understanding is that the options available to me are that if I go in through the Album Artist interface, then I will see only those albums where OP has his name on the cover. If I go through the Artist interface, then I will see nothing extra, because the tracks where he's backing, say, Ella Fitzgerald won't be shown because the AlbumArtist field is filled in with her name. If I go through All Artists, then I'll find him, but I'll be presented with a choice screen saying (for example, I'm making this up) 10 Albums and 160 items. Where many of those 160 items are the items that make up the albums.

What I'd actually like is for it to offer me a list of 10 Albums to browse and 60 *other* items that aren't included in that list of 10 albums.

Does that make any sense? As I say, it's not a live use case for me personally because I don't have that level of tagging set up....

Not sure what you want to do.
Searching my music "Oscar Peterson" shows different albums with different leaders. You would like something similar?

[simbun]

(24-01-2023 22:51)simoncn Wrote:  My suggestion provides that. Selecting All Artists > Oscar Peterson > AlbumArtist > anyone-other-than-Oscar reveals the 60 items, although not as a single list.

No it doesn't, it provides you with only the [n] tracks where he's accompanied AlbumArtist xyz, at which point you'll need to navigate back to the AlbumArtist index, make another selection, view the next subset of tracks and continue to repeat that process until you've exhausted all the AlbumArtists...unless that's what you mean by "not as a single list"?

Ignoring the fact that you're back to choosing from the All Artists index, it could take you 60 traversals of the AlbumArtist index to see all the tracks! I am just providing a way to make that experience much simpler.

Anyway, I very much doubt it'll be used, just an exercise in what's possible really :-)

[simbun]

(24-01-2023 23:03)Hanu Wrote:  Not sure what you want to do.
Searching my music "Oscar Peterson" shows different albums with different leaders. You would like something similar?

The OP wanted two separate (but ideally complete) lists that represented:

• The albums of Oscar Peterson (AlbumArtist='Oscar Peterson')
• The tracks where Oscar Peterson is an accompanying artist (Artist='Oscar Peterson' and AlbumArtist not equals 'Oscar Peterson')
  

The problem is that we can't perform an exclude (AlbumArtist not equals 'Oscar Peterson') so the only way to view the tracks of the second list would be to view them one AlbumArtist at a time e.g.
Artist='Oscar Peterson' and AlbumArtist='Artist1'
Artist='Oscar Peterson' and AlbumArtist='Artist2'
Artist='Oscar Peterson' and AlbumArtist='Artist3'

that involves a lot of navigation steps (lets assume the tracks all belong to one album to simplify the navigation, otherwise they'd be more steps):
Artist > 'Oscar Peterson'
AlbumArtist > 'Artist1' > List of tracks <back>
'Artist2' > List of tracks <back>
'Artist3' > List of tracks <back>
...

I know the ability to have an exclude selection has been discussed before, but very infrequently, and I've never had a need for it.

[simoncn]

(24-01-2023 23:53)simbun Wrote:  ...unless that's what you mean by "not as a single list"?

Yes, exactly.

tagUpdate is very powerful but many users would not be comfortable dealing with tagUpdate files and Mp3tag scripts. For these users, an "out of the box" suggestion could be helpful.