Multiple artist tag in FLAC files

[timster]

I just saw the post re. multiple artists in MP3 files but I have the opposite problem. I have a number of tracks with Artist tag set to artistsa/artistb. In the MP3 files I have, minimserver is able to split them so the track appears under both artists' index. However, for FLACs they just appear in the artist index as "artista/artistb".

Is this a limitation of Vorbis and/or is there a workaround? Or am I missing a step?

[simoncn]

(19-06-2015 12:33)timster Wrote:  I just saw the post re. multiple artists in MP3 files but I have the opposite problem. I have a number of tracks with Artist tag set to artistsa/artistb. In the MP3 files I have, minimserver is able to split them so the track appears under both artists' index. However, for FLACs they just appear in the artist index as "artista/artistb".

Is this a limitation of Vorbis and/or is there a workaround? Or am I missing a step?

For FLAC/Vorbis, the file needs to contain multiple Vorbis comments as follows:

ARTIST=artista
ARTIST=artistb

If you are using Mp3tag as your tagging program, you would write this as artista\\artistb and Mp3tag would create the above two Vorbis comments.

The same principle applies to MP3 files but there is a slight complication. MP3 files can contain either ID3v2.3 or ID3v2.4 tags. For ID3v2.3, multiple artist values are separated by "/", so artista\\artistb happens to be equivalent to artista/artistb for ID3v2.3 only.

Separating artist values by "/" isn't a good idea (it doesn't work if the artist name contains a "/") and this was changed in ID3v2.4 to use a better approach of separating multiple values with the NUL (0x00) character for all tags (not just for artists) . If you write artista\\artistb in Mp3tag, you will get correct results with ID3v2.4, but you won't get correct results if you use artista/artistb.

The MinimServer recommendation is that you should always use artista\\artistb (or the equivalent in your chosen tagging program) and you should use ID3v2.4 in preference to ID3v2.3.

[DavidHB]

(19-06-2015 13:10)simoncn Wrote:  The MinimServer recommendation is that you should always use artista\\artistb (or the equivalent in your chosen tagging program) and you should use ID3v2.4 in preference to ID3v2.3.

I agree with this advice in general, but it is worth noting that neither Windows Media Player nor Windows Explorer can understand ID3v2.4 tags.

The complications associated with the different versions of ID3, along with the fact that it is not a formal standard, represent in my view a reason for moving away from formats that use it (notably MP3) to those (notably FLAC) that use the Vorbis comments/tags, which are both more consistently defined and more flexible to use.

David

[timster]

(19-06-2015 13:10)simoncn Wrote:  

(19-06-2015 12:33)timster Wrote:  I just saw the post re. multiple artists in MP3 files but I have the opposite problem. I have a number of tracks with Artist tag set to artistsa/artistb. In the MP3 files I have, minimserver is able to split them so the track appears under both artists' index. However, for FLACs they just appear in the artist index as "artista/artistb".

Is this a limitation of Vorbis and/or is there a workaround? Or am I missing a step?

For FLAC/Vorbis, the file needs to contain multiple Vorbis comments as follows:

ARTIST=artista
ARTIST=artistb

If you are using Mp3tag as your tagging program, you would write this as artista\\artistb and Mp3tag would create the above two Vorbis comments.

The same principle applies to MP3 files but there is a slight complication. MP3 files can contain either ID3v2.3 or ID3v2.4 tags. For ID3v2.3, multiple artist values are separated by "/", so artista\\artistb happens to be equivalent to artista/artistb for ID3v2.3 only.

Separating artist values by "/" isn't a good idea (it doesn't work if the artist name contains a "/") and this was changed in ID3v2.4 to use a better approach of separating multiple values with the NUL (0x00) character for all tags (not just for artists) . If you write artista\\artistb in Mp3tag, you will get correct results with ID3v2.4, but you won't get correct results if you use artista/artistb.

The MinimServer recommendation is that you should always use artista\\artistb (or the equivalent in your chosen tagging program) and you should use ID3v2.4 in preference to ID3v2.3.

I'm using Tag&Rename 3.9 and can't see a null separator option (\\ didn't work) nor an option to have multiple Vorbis comments. I've got Mp3tag now and it's fine, thank you. Unless anyone knows how to make Tag&Rename do the same (anyone?) I'll use it instead from now on.

I assume my MP3s (all downloads from Amazon) have ID3v2.3 seeing as they come down with the '/' separator.

[simoncn]

(19-06-2015 15:58)timster Wrote:  I'm using Tag&Rename 3.9 and can't see a null separator option (\\ didn't work) nor an option to have multiple Vorbis comments. I've got Mp3tag now and it's fine, thank you. Unless anyone knows how to make Tag&Rename do the same (anyone?) I'll use it instead from now on.

I assume my MP3s (all downloads from Amazon) have ID3v2.3 seeing as they come down with the '/' separator.

In Mp3tag, do these Amazon files show as artista/artistb or artista\\artistb?

[timster]

(19-06-2015 16:35)simoncn Wrote:  

(19-06-2015 15:58)timster Wrote:  I'm using Tag&Rename 3.9 and can't see a null separator option (\\ didn't work) nor an option to have multiple Vorbis comments. I've got Mp3tag now and it's fine, thank you. Unless anyone knows how to make Tag&Rename do the same (anyone?) I'll use it instead from now on.

I assume my MP3s (all downloads from Amazon) have ID3v2.3 seeing as they come down with the '/' separator.

In Mp3tag, do these Amazon files show as artista/artistb or artista\\artistb?

They show as artistsa/artistb - and Minimserver is interpreting them fine.

I mainly use FLAC, these MP3s are historical, before I knew better. I can't imagine getting any more so I'll leave what I have as they are. But thanks for the FLAC info and Mp3tag suggestion - the name probably put me off using it for FLACs!