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Unknown AlbumArtist showing in tag library for flac files with performer / composer
#1
Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help me with an issue I'm experiencing in moode 8.2.5. I have some flac files that are tagged with performer / composer information, like so:
Code:
METADATA block #2
 type: 4 (VORBIS_COMMENT)
 is last: false
 length: 798
 vendor string: reference libFLAC 1.3.2 20170101
 comments: 13
   comment[0]: TITLE=Curves Ahead
   comment[1]: ARTIST=The Rippingtons
   comment[2]: ALBUM=Curves Ahead
   comment[3]: DATE=1991
   comment[4]: TRACKNUMBER=1
   comment[5]: GENRE=Smooth Jazz
   comment[6]: ARRANGER=Engineer|David Hesse|Mixer|Brant Biles|Mixer|Robert Margouleff|Mixer|Russ Freeman|Producer|Dave Grusin|Producer|Larry Rosen|Producer|Russ Freeman|Producer|Carl Griffin|Arranger|Russ Freeman
   comment[7]: CATALOGNUMBER=GRP-96512
   comment[8]: COMPOSER=Russ Freeman
   comment[9]: SOURCEMEDIA=CD
   comment[10]: PERFORMER=Keyboards|Russ Freeman|Percussion|Steve Reid|Acoustic Guitar|Russ Freeman|Alto Saxophone|Jeff Kashiwa|Alto Saxophone|Nelson Rangell|Bass|Kim Stone|Electric Guitar|Russ Freeman|Synthesizer [Guitar]|Russ Freeman|Tenor Saxophone|Bobby Martin|Tenor Saxophone|Jeff Kashiwa|Trombone|Bruce Fowler|Trumpet|Steve Szabo
   comment[11]: PUBLISHER=GRP
   comment[12]: RELEASECOUNTRY=Europe
These files are shown in the tag view (when set to AlbumArtist) as having an album artist of 'Unknown AlbumArtist':
   
If I switch to Artist or Artist (strict) in tag view (which I'd prefer not to, to avoid 'noise' from compilation albums), I still see the album artist as unknown in the view:
   
Is there any way I can prevent this concatenation of performer / composer being used as Album Artist, and instead have it as being the same as Artist? I can see that files that do not have the performer / composer tags set are correctly shown in the tag view with the value of the artist tag being used for Album artist:
Code:
METADATA block #2
 type: 4 (VORBIS_COMMENT)
 is last: false
 length: 174
 vendor string: reference libFLAC 1.3.2 20170101
 comments: 8
   comment[0]: ARTIST=Afrocelts
   comment[1]: ALBUM=Seed
   comment[2]: TITLE=Cyberia
   comment[3]: DATE=2003
   comment[4]: TRACKNUMBER=01
   comment[5]: TRACKTOTAL=10
   comment[6]: CDDB=7a0fb20a
   comment[7]: GENRE=Afrobeat
   
Am I doing something wrong? I'd rather avoid retagging things if I can. I'm using Kid3 on mac, mostly using lookups from Discogs.com for metadata.
Any advice gratefully received. Thanks as always for this amazing project!
john

ETA: Looking at the code, I think I can see that it's not a concatenation of Artist / Performer / Composer, but rather Artist / Performer / Conductor. Either way, the behaviour is producing some odd results for me...
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#2
The approach moOde uses for Artist/AlbumArtist tag handling is as follows

1. An array named "$artist" is used to store the values of Artist, Performer and Conductor tags in the track
2. The AlbumArtist tag is set using the following logic

Code:
If AlbumArtist tag exists
   do nothing
else if the $artist array contains only 1 value
   set AlbumArtist to that value
else
   set AlbumArtist tag to 'Unknown AlbumArtist'

Basically if there are multiple "Artists" its not possible for moOde to know which one to pick as the AlbumArtist and so your best bet is to simply use a tag editor to set the value of the AlbumArtist tag in those tracks that have an Artist tag and one or more Performer or Conductor tags.
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
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#3
(01-25-2023, 12:06 PM)Tim Curtis Wrote: The approach moOde uses for Artist/AlbumArtist tag handling is as follows

1. An array named "$artist" is used to store the values of Artist, Performer and Conductor tags in the track
2. The AlbumArtist tag is set using the following logic

Code:
If AlbumArtist tag exists
   do nothing
else if the $artist array contains only 1 value
   set AlbumArtist to that value
else
   set AlbumArtist tag to 'Unknown AlbumArtist'

Basically if there are multiple "Artists" its not possible for moOde to know which one to pick as the AlbumArtist and so your best bet is to simply use a tag editor to set the value of the AlbumArtist tag in those tracks that have an Artist tag and one or more Performer or Conductor tags.

Although I totally agree with @Tim Curtis, may be we could improve the categorization:
 
Code:
else if the $artist array contains no value
   set AlbumArtist to "Unknown AlbumArtist"
else if the $artist array contains only 1 value
   set AlbumArtist to that value
else
   set AlbumArtist tag to 'Multiple AlbumArtists'
Does it make sense?

Apart from this (I know I am old-school), when faced these situations, I usually set the ARTIST to the one IMO is the MAIN one; then, in the COMMENT tag I add the fulfilling interesting information (e.g. for "The Orb, Metallic Spheres" I set the artist to "The Orb", and set the COMMENT tag to "feat. David Gilmour").

That said, I keep the AlbumArtist tag ALWAYS EMPTY (actually, I remove it), as it makes no sense to me.
I know this may be helpful in case (more often than never...) of classical performances: Mozart's Requiem (one of my favorite of Mr. Mozart) could be executed by different ensembles / directors, and you could have many different in your library (AS I DO)... But I just don't mess around with such tags as ARTIST + ALBUMARTIST + COMPOSER + PERFORMER + ARRANGER + PRODUCER + ANDWHATELSEYOUMIGHTBEINVENTINGHERE.

Just a side note:

If (a looong time ago, I agree...) you just were to take the CD out of its kristal-box, and just play it... uh?
Again, I agree, the info is a nice-to-have feature, but the overly cluttered metadata section in the audio containers does nothing to make it easier to understand what-is-what (most of the times, see this principle: too much detailed information == no useful information at all), c'mon don't you agree? Hence, I do it my way (semi-cit.) and I am happy with it. But that's me, of course.

P.S. As I'd love to have moOde behave like the most perfect player on the (free) market, I'd like to hear what my (unknown to him) mentor Kent, aka @TheOldPresbyope, could have to say in merit.

Noiw, sorry to everybody, back to clean-up some SQL leftover sh*t... nice day everybody from the Balkan Peninsula.
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#4
Maybe it helps to edit the "metadata_to_use" field in /etc/mpd.conf to only contain the tags you're interested in? I ended up writing a little script to remove all the tags I'd never use from my flacs because moOde has a habit of resetting that field to "+comment" occasionally and I only care about album, artist, track number and year.
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#5
Using "Multiple Artists" rather than "Unknown Artist" in the case where the artist array has many entries (and AlbumArtist is empty) makes sense I think.

I'm personally not a fan of the artist array, but I recognise it's utility to those who have more complicated tagging requirements than I do. I address me preference by always using Artist and AlbumArtist to describe tracks and albums the way I want them described, then removing any other "person of interest" information so the array only ever has "Artist" in it.
----------------
Robert
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#6
(01-25-2023, 03:32 PM)the_bertrum Wrote: Using "Multiple Artists" rather than "Unknown Artist" in the case where the artist array has many entries (and AlbumArtist is empty) makes sense I think.

I'm personally not a fan of the artist array, but I recognise it's utility to those who have more complicated tagging requirements than I do.  I address me preference by always using Artist and AlbumArtist to describe tracks and albums the way I want them described, then removing any other "person of interest" information so the array only ever has "Artist" in it.

But "Multiple artists" doesn't indicate that the issue is a missing AlbumArtist tag. I think most tagging utilities default to setting AlbumArtist tag = Artist or have an option to do so.
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
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#7
Thanks for the responses. I must say that the artist array seems to be focusing on a rather niche requirement - namely classical recordings. I'd prefer if it were either optional or configurable. Perhaps even the option to only apply this behaviour to specific genres. For now, I'll just update the affected files with a specific album artist tag.
At least I am reassured it's not me doing something wrong with the configuration...
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#8
(01-25-2023, 04:05 PM)new_bloke Wrote: Thanks for the responses. I must say that the artist array seems to be focusing on a rather niche requirement - namely classical recordings. I'd prefer if it were either optional or configurable. Perhaps even the option to only apply this behaviour to specific genres. For now, I'll just update the affected files with a specific album artist tag.
At least I am reassured it's not me doing something wrong with the configuration...

Actually, tagging classical music tracks is a mess. And a trauma... I have a lot, but I strip down the information, so I use the composer to be the ARTIST, and then I write the performer/orcherstra/director/whatsoever shortly in the COMMENT tag. This gives me enough information and means to discriminate between two or more performances of the same pièce. But again... I do not care who's performing, enough is to know WHAT is playing. At least for me.
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#9
(01-25-2023, 04:03 PM)Tim Curtis Wrote:
(01-25-2023, 03:32 PM)the_bertrum Wrote: Using "Multiple Artists" rather than "Unknown Artist" in the case where the artist array has many entries (and AlbumArtist is empty) makes sense I think.

I'm personally not a fan of the artist array, but I recognise it's utility to those who have more complicated tagging requirements than I do.  I address me preference by always using Artist and AlbumArtist to describe tracks and albums the way I want them described, then removing any other "person of interest" information so the array only ever has "Artist" in it.

But "Multiple artists" doesn't indicate that the issue is a missing AlbumArtist tag. I think most tagging utilities default to setting AlbumArtist tag = Artist or have an option to do so.

I see, the logic is to assume that AlbumArtist = Artist, when only one is found, but indicate that the AlbumArtist tag isn't filled in otherwise.  I get it.  Also reasonable to expect folk to ensure the AlbumArtist tag is populated if they intend to use it for selecting something to listen to Smile
----------------
Robert
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#10
(01-25-2023, 04:05 PM)new_bloke Wrote: Thanks for the responses. I must say that the artist array seems to be focusing on a rather niche requirement - namely classical recordings. I'd prefer if it were either optional or configurable. Perhaps even the option to only apply this behaviour to specific genres. For now, I'll just update the affected files with a specific album artist tag.
At least I am reassured it's not me doing something wrong with the configuration...

There will be plenty of folk along in a minute to say classical is far from niche!  Smile
An option to ignore the array and just use Artist could be n idea, although the number of Artist and AlbumArtist options is already high (I've my own track record of adding to the clutter in these options)
----------------
Robert
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