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Can Library be switched from sort by 'Album Artist' to sort by 'Artist' only?
#1
Hi, 

I have a couple of now old Raspberry Pi3+ running Moode 5.3.1, one of which had its microSD card go bad. I pulled out a fresh card and installed Moode 6.7.2, but find that the newer Moode version sorts by the 'Album Artist' tag instead of the just plain 'Artist' tag. 

I've ripped a lot of CDs over the years, using EAC, organizing my music collection by Artist (and not Album Artist). This is useful because I have a lot of classical music, which I want to organize by *composer*, not by the performers. Here's an example: 

I have the Yo Yo Ma CD set of JS Bach's Cello Suites entitled "The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites (Complete)" set with tags like this: 

Album Title = The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites (Complete)
Artist = JS Bach
Album Artist = Yo Yo Ma
Composer = JS Bach 

In Moode 5.3.1, since it sorted albums by Artist, in the Library view I'd see the Genre on the left, with the names of Artists in the middle column (and for my classical music, the Artist would be the composer, so JS Bach in this case). Click on an Artist (JS Bach) and I'd see that Artist's albums in the right-hand column. I include the performers' names in the Album title, e.g., "The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites (Yo Yo Ma)".

So in Moode 5.3.1, for a classical album, I'd select Classical as the Genre, then I'd see an alphabetical list of composers in the middle (Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovitch, Verdi, etc.). Click on the name of an Artist (the composer) and I'd see the various albums by that Artist (composer) from which I can choose the piece(s) I want to listen to, and see who's performing the pieces from right within that view. 

I'd include the name of the performers in the album's titles, so Artist = Mahler > Album = Symphony No. 9 (Bruno Walter (cond), Columbia SO). 

In the above example, the Artist displays as Yo Yo Ma in the newer Moode, not as JS Bach. This means any albums with Yo Yo Ma as a soloist with an orchestra will appear in the Library as a separate Artist, such as Berlin Philharmonic Orch, Claudio Abbado (cond), Yo Yo Ma (cello). 

When I look for classical music to listen to, I first go to the composer and find the piece I want to hear, and pick and choose from different performers I might have playing that piece. I don't always remember who's playing the piece, so it's not convenient for me to go to Janos Starker to see if I have him playing the Bach Cello Suites. I want to go to the Bach Cello Suites and see who I've got playing them.   

The situation is simpler with a pop, jazz, Latin, etc. album, because the Artist and Album Artist are usually one and the same—but not always! For example:  

Album Title = Workin'
Artist = Miles Davis
Album Artist = Miles Davis Quintet
Composer = [each track will have a different composer or composers]

As you can see, I can sort the album under the Artist of my choice (in this case, Miles Davis) and list the official name of the group in the Album Artist tag. For this album, in the Moode 3.5.x Library view I'd go to Genre = Jazz, Artist = Miles Davis, Album = Workin'.  

The advantage to sorting by Artist is that it simplifies the Library view, since I don't have to sort through the names of Miles Davis's various groups, such as the Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis Sextet, Miles Davis All-Stars, just plain Miles Davis, and so on. Then there are albums with multiple artists heading the bill, such as Kenny Burrell with John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk featuring Johnny Griffin. I find it easier to sort those by one Artist, and see in the Album title who the players are. 

On top of that, there is the problem of how to organize compilations, for which I put Artist = Various Artists, and then each Track's title gets the name of the tune with the performer in parentheses—e.g., "Bruca Manigua (Orquesta Casino de la Playa with Miguelito Valdés)". 

Album Title = Essential Cuban Music
Artist = Various Artists
Album Artist = Orquesta Casino de la Playa with Miguelito Valdés
Composer = [each track will have a different composer or composers]
Track = Bruca Manigua (Orquesta Casino de la Playa with Miguelito Valdés)

After I installed Moode 6.7.x, I see that it sorts by Album Artist, and I don't see a way to change it to sort by plain Artist. Now my Library is a list that goes on forever

I don't want to sort by Album Artist because I've already sorted my 800+ albums by Artist. 
I don't want to sort by Composer because then pop, rock, jazz, Latin, etc. albums will be a mess. 


1) What is the last version of Moode Player that sorted by Artist and not Album Artist? 
2) Can later versions of Moode Player be set to sort by Artist and not Album Artist? 

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
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#2
Try the latest 8.1.2 release. There are many options for organizing and fine tuning the Library.

         
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
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#3
Hey Tim, that looks good! I'll try it out.
I'm looking to find the minimum size of the media to boot from. I found a 4GB thumb drive in the drawer. Will 8.1.2 fit on that?
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#4
I've installed 8.1.2 and it's nice, except, it seems in Preferences > Library, the Tagview Sort Order by Artist is the "Album Artist" tag you'd see in an ID3 tag editor like MP3Tag. So what's happened is that the new sorting features in Moode 8.1.2 don't address the question I'm asking.  

In a tag editor like MP3Tag or when you rip a CD in EAC and define the tags you want, you'll see two 'Artist' tags available: 

1) Artist 
2) Album Artist 

It seems the 'Artist' tag in Moode > Preferences > Library is what MP3tag shows as the 'Album Artist' tag. 

In MP3tag, there are different fields for the 'Artist' and 'Album Artist' tags: 
https://www.mp3tag.de/images/sht_main.png

In the Moode > Preferences > Library (Advanced), I see you can switch 'Tag view artist' between 'Artist' and 'Album Artist'. I tried both and my Library album/artist sorting did not change. It always shows the contents of the 'Album Artist' tag in the 'ARTISTS' column in Library > Tag view. 

In the Artists column in my Library 'Tag' view, in the Genre = Classical, the 'Artists' are a mix of performers like Alfred Brendel and Artur Rubinstein, with one composer showing in the list, J.S. Bach. 

However my classical music collection is organized with the tags set to 

Artist = composer name 
Album Artist = performer(s) name(s)
Album = album title, which may not contain the name of the composer (e.g., "Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 17")

The way Moode is working now (and ever since version 6.x.x), tracks are tagged by 'Album Artist', not 'Artist', whereas before (Moode up to version 5.x.x) tracks were tagged by 'Artist' and not 'Album Artist'. That's fine, except that I've been using Moode since version 2-something, and have my whole collection organized so that I can sort by composer name > album, not performer name > album. The problem is that in Moode I have no choice on how to sort these tracks. It only identifies the artist by 'Album Artist', and I can't see how to switch it to identify the artist from the plain 'Artist' tag.

I understand Volumio has a switch where you can sort your albums by 'Artist' or 'Album Artist', which would solve my problem. I haven't tried it yet, and I really don't know if that will actually work like I hope it will. However, I do know that Moode 5.3.1 does work the way I want it to, so if all else fails I'll just hang back with that. 

So the question remains... 

Can Moode 8.1.2 be switched so that tracks are sorted by the 'Artist' tag, and *not* the 'Album Artist' tag? 
--

I wish I could post screenshots, but I get an error that the message is over the 65535 character limit by many thousands of characters. So I have to resort to hyperlinks and text to try to explain the problem. 

I hope I explained it well enough for you to understand what the issue is, and I also hope there's some kind of workaround. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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#5
Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist is the setting you are after.  Set that to Artist and the tag view will show only what is in the Artist tag.
----------------
Robert
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#6
(09-13-2022, 07:25 AM)the_bertrum Wrote: Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist is the setting you are after.  Set that to Artist and the tag view will show only what is in the Artist tag.

It seems the problem is this feature is not working in my installation. 
As previously noted, I had tried that and noticed no difference in the way the Library > Tag view displays contents in the Artists column. 
To be clear... 

- If I set Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist to 'Album Artist', Moode shows the contents of the Album Artist tag in the Library > Tag view > Artists column. 

- If I set Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist to 'Artist', Moode still shows the contents of the Album Artist tag in the Library > Tag view > Artists column.

For me, it's the same either way. I even updated the settings and regenerated the music library in Configure > Library. Still no joy. I suppose that means there's an issue in my Moode 8.1.2 install. It's not obeying that command. 

Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this? 

Thanks.
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#7
(09-13-2022, 12:05 PM)rongon Wrote:
(09-13-2022, 07:25 AM)the_bertrum Wrote: Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist is the setting you are after.  Set that to Artist and the tag view will show only what is in the Artist tag.

It seems the problem is this feature is not working in my installation. 
As previously noted, I had tried that and noticed no difference in the way the Library > Tag view displays contents in the Artists column. 
To be clear... 

- If I set Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist to 'Album Artist', Moode shows the contents of the Album Artist tag in the Library > Tag view > Artists column. 

- If I set Preferences/Library(Advanced)/Tag View Artist to 'Artist', Moode still shows the contents of the Album Artist tag in the Library > Tag view > Artists column.

For me, it's the same either way. I even updated the settings and regenerated the music library in Configure > Library. Still no joy. I suppose that means there's an issue in my Moode 8.1.2 install. It's not obeying that command. 

Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this? 

Thanks.

It works ok on my end. I have albums where the Artist and AlbumArtist tags differ for example Lee Ritenour's 6 String Theory. The Album Artist is Lee Ritenour but each track has a different Artist.  For this album all the individual artists are listed in Tag view artists column.

The first screen shot below shows the tracks in Tag view. The artist for the track "Am I Wrong" is "Keb'Mo & Taj Mahal" and this artist is listed in the artists column. The second screen shot shows the tags for that track. 

         

Feel free to zip up a couple of albums and PM a download link to myself and @TheOldPresbyope and we'll see if we can repro the issue you are having.
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
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#8
Tim beat me to it. We're always available to examine problematic issues with track encoding and/or tagging.

Regards,
Kent

PS- convenient user-oriented tools such as Mp3tag routinely lie about---er, obfuscate---tge actual tag syntax.
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#9
(09-13-2022, 01:46 PM)TheOldPresbyope Wrote: Tim beat me to it. We're always available to examine problematic issues with track encoding and/or tagging.

Regards,
Kent

PS- convenient user-oriented tools such as Mp3tag routinely lie about---er, obfuscate---tge actual tag syntax.

Thanks. 

I'm preparing to make a couple of albums available to you, but in the meantime... 

I edit my music files' tags with MP3TAG, which is supposed to be a good one. 
If I want to make sure my tagging has good adherence to what Moode requires, which ID3 tag editors would you recommend that adhere to proper tag syntax? Any free ones, or are those all suspect? 

Thanks.
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#10
(09-13-2022, 01:15 PM)Tim Curtis Wrote: It works ok on my end. I have albums where the Artist and AlbumArtist tags differ for example Lee Ritenour's 6 String Theory. The Album Artist is Lee Ritenour but each track has a different Artist.  For this album all the individual artists are listed in Tag view artists column.

The first screen shot below shows the tracks in Tag view. The artist for the track "Am I Wrong" is "Keb'Mo & Taj Mahal" and this artist is listed in the artists column. The second screen shot shows the tags for that track. 

Ah, it looks like what you see as working is the opposite of what I want to see. 
In that example, I'd want to see 'Lee Ritenour' as the 'Artist' (in Library > Tag view > Artist) for the album '6 String Theory', like it says on the album cover. 
The alternative would be to put the 'Artist' as 'Various Artists', and put the name(s) of the artists of each track in the track's title, e.g., 'Am I Wrong - Keb Mo' & Taj Mahal' for Track 2 of the album '6 String Theory'.

In my Library > Tags view, I would not want two entries for Kurt Rosenwinkel, one 'Kurt Rosenwinkel' and the other 'Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio'.  I would have all albums with Kurt Rosenwinkel as the leader (whether as a solo artist, Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio, Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, or whatever) listed under Artist = 'Kurt Rosenwinkel'. 

(Incidentally, Kurt is one of my favorite guitarists and composers! He's great, isn't he? I first heard him way back in the 1990s, playing small clubs in NYC like Small's.) 

Think of how many groups Miles Davis led. The Miles Davis All Stars, the New Miles Davis Quintet, the Miles Davis Quintet, the Miles Davis Sextet, Miles Davis +19 (Gil Evans, arranger) and Miles Davis as a solo artist/leader. To keep my list of Artists from getting out of control, I retag them all as Artist = 'Miles Davis', and specify the official group's name in the Album title, e.g., 'Miles Ahead - Miles Davis +19 (Gil Evans, arr.)' or 'Workin' - Miles Davis Quintet'. 

When I sort by Artists in the Library > Tag view, I don't want an 'Artist' with only a single track in my collection, taking up room in my already very long list of Artists. I can use 'Various Artists' to seek out unusual pairings of musicians, or compilations and anthologies.

Quote:Feel free to zip up a couple of albums and PM a download link to myself and @TheOldPresbyope and we'll see if we can repro the issue you are having.

PM sent. Thanks.
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