Question re: Sorting Albums and Artists in Library > Tag view

[rongon]

Hi, it's me again. 

First off, thanks again for adding sorting options allowing me to view my Albums by Artist *only*. 
Everything looks good in v8.3.6, except I'm left with a few tagging 'misfits'. 

- I have Moode > Preferences > Advanced > Tag view artist set to Artist (Strict). 

In some of my FLAC files, if a Conductor or Performer tag is present, it will override the Artist tag. Is there a way to set the priority of different tags to sort the view in the Library > Tag view? 

In my current setup, in any album, if I have a Conductor tag set, I will see that Conductor shown as the Artist in the Tag view when I have it set to Browse by Artist. In Preferences > Advanced > Tag view artist is set to Artist (Strict). Shouldn't that list albums by Artist *only*?   

Is there a way to set the Browse by Artist view so that Artist overrides whatever might be in any Composer, Conductor or Performer tags? 

Thanks again.

[the_bertrum]

I don't use the Artist views so I'm not an expert in how they work. A quick test on my system suggests that Artist (strict) produced more entries than just Artist, which is the opposite of what I'd expect from the help descriptions. What behaviour do you see if you use Artist instead?

[Tim Curtis]

An "artist" is considered to be any of the tags artist, album artist, performer or conductor.

I don't really remember what usage scenario the Artist (Strict) option was meant to address but looking at the code all it seems to do is exclude the album artist tag from the list.

Maybe it was never implemented correctly?

[Nutul]

An "artist" is considered to be any of the tags artist, album artist, performer or conductor.

I don't really remember what usage scenario the Artist (Strict) option was meant to address but looking at the code all it seems to do is exclude the album artist tag from the list.

Maybe it was never implemented correctly?

I think that wherever a Composer (or whatever...) tag is present, it will be used.
To have moOde behave more consistently, I think we need to add some more configuration entries...
OnE being: ARTIST (keep reading: no matter whatever Else is there)
all the other... a smarter way to determine what needs to be used, among artist / composer / performer / etc...

I personally don't have a lot of classical music (for which "Composer" makes a lot of sense...) but anyway, I just set the compose as the Artist, and in the comment I add the performer... as:

1. Artist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Title: Requiem
3. Comment: Berliner Orchestra (or whatever...)

I know it's not the best, but it works excellently for me...

[Tim Curtis]

An "artist" is considered to be any of the tags artist, album artist, performer or conductor.

I don't really remember what usage scenario the Artist (Strict) option was meant to address but looking at the code all it seems to do is exclude the album artist tag from the list.

Maybe it was never implemented correctly?

I think that wherever a Composer (or whatever...) tag is present, it will be used.
To have moOde behave more consistently, I think we need to add some more configuration entries...
OnE being: ARTIST (keep reading: no matter whatever Else is there)
all the other... a smarter way to determine what needs to be used, among artist / composer / performer / etc...

I personally don't have a lot of classical music (for which "Composer" makes a lot of sense...) but anyway, I just set the compose as the Artist, and in the comment I add the performer... as:

1. Artist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Title: Requiem
3. Comment: Berliner Orchestra (or whatever...)

I know it's not the best, but it works excellently for me...

Composer is not considered an artist, only artist, album artist, performer or conductor. The composer tag is reported under the track title in the track list.

I think the code could be altered to have the "Artist (Strict)" option result in only the artist tag being used to populate the Artists list in tag view.

[TheOldPresbyope]

One of the easier ways to start a flamewar, in my experience, is to get into the "right" way to use the metadata fields offered in the various tagging schemes. So I don't!

[Aside: labels such as artist, composer, performer, conductor....an information modeler (the next new thing two decades or so ago) would have a field day with our loose definitions and usage.]

In my own case, I have a wildly eclectic collection with a ton of classical music (try defining "classical"!) and jazz, but tracks and albums representing many other genres as well, I've given up trying to be wholly consistent. Thankfully, recent releases of moOde offer more sophisticated search options. Unfortunately, we only see what comes through MPD's eye of the needle.

If the search options can be improved, great; just don't make any assumption about us endusers  

Regards,
Kent

[the_bertrum]

I think the code could be altered to have the "Artist (Strict)" option result in only the artist tag being used to populate the Artists list in tag view.

That would certainly make it match more clearly what the help suggests it does.

If the search options can be improved, great; just don't make any assumption about us endusers  

Ultimately, one must adapt one's tagging to the software, there will never be a software that fits all.

[Nutul]

Ultimately, one must adapt one's tagging to the software, there will never be a software that fits all.

Absolutely with you here.

Nevertheless, it would be good to define, withing moOde, what artist, composer, performer, conductor, and-all-the-hell may mean.
It could be easy to identify a (one) tag to make the job; but then also then remaining tags should be identified and treated properly.

FWIW, when I want to listen to some classical music, I do not search it for "director" (say, Von Karayan), or "performer" (say, the Viener Filarmoniker), but as "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart", which in my library identifies as the ARTIST.
I know I am not perfect, but I also know I am very close to it. We have too much food, and yet we're not hungry...
moOde is a piece of art, and just pretending poor metadata to be fixed by it is, IMO, the wrong approach.
You want everythinmg handled / filled / fulfilled / added / fixed / etc.? Go the Roon way.

[Tim Curtis]

Ultimately, one must adapt one's tagging to the software, there will never be a software that fits all.

Absolutely with you here.

Nevertheless, it would be good to define, withing moOde, what artist, composer, performer, conductor, and-all-the-hell may mean.
It could be easy to identify a (one) tag to make the job; but then also then remaining tags should be identified and treated properly.

FWIW, when I want to listen to some classical music, I do not search it for "director" (say, Von Karayan), or "performer" (say, the Viener Filarmoniker), but as "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart", which in my library identifies as the ARTIST.
I know I am not perfect, but I also know I am very close to it. We have too much food, and yet we're not hungry...
moOde is a piece of art, and just pretending poor metadata to be fixed by it is, IMO, the wrong approach.
You want everythinmg handled / filled / fulfilled / added / fixed / etc.? Go the Roon way.

Have you ever used R**n? I tried it back when I was testing the integration of RoonBridge (the actual player component) and the whole thing was pretty awful but as they say YMMV.

lol, if you ask 5 people how to organize Classical music you will get 23 different answers. 

Anyway, here's an easy improvement that will be included in upcoming 8.3.7. It preserves the existing behavior while adding a true strict artist option.

   

[TheOldPresbyope]

I was thinking in Aristotelian terms: moderation in all things. Recognizing there is a variety of software out there I don''t want to warp my tagging scheme too much in one direction or another.

To meet my inner most desire in the world of MPD-based players, I'd want to partition my library and have different moOde library views customized to the different partitions. I'm too old to embark on such a project.

Classical music may be the most extreme example. Works are almost invariably recorded in multiple tracks and a single commercial disc (remember those?) may contain one, more than one, or part of one and all of one or more other works. There are almost always multiple performances of a single work available on various labels. (Herbert von Karajan conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony 31 times for studio, film, and broadcast recordings!) The same and/or different orchestras/ensemble and soloists, etc., may be involved each time. Roles can be mixed. I have various recordings where the pianist was also the conductor on one and not the other, etc. I could go on. Most dyed-in-the-wool classical music buffs want real database-like interfaces. (I had a friend who wanted to be able to search recordings by the specific recording venue! I don't think he ever came outside.)

And yet, what I really enjoy is listening to the music and moOde hits the spot so I live with the search options!

Regards,
Kent