Disable autofill Album Artist

[richjoh]

How do I disable MM autofilling the Album-Artist field? MM writes to the field automatically placing the Artist name in the Artist-Album field. I'm constantly wiping the Album-Artist field since 100% of the time it is guessing incorrectly.

Rich J

[nohitter151]

Really? 100%?

It can't be turned off.

[richjoh]

yes 100% of the time is 100% wrong because I want the field to be blank. I don't care about Album names, it get in the way of my collection. I deal exclusively with single never bought an album in my life time, and I been since the 12 inch single.

[Lowlander]

If you don't care about the Album or Album Artist fields just hide them.

Album Artist will be filled in when Artist and Album are known and Album Artist is empty. This is how MediaMonkey deals with knowing what files belong to an Album. I presume you could give all a space as value so nothing visibly is shown.

Note: You'll likely want to disable Infer File Properties under Tools > Options > Library as it auto-guesses empty tags.

[Peke]

Well, by standard even 12" single records are Albums of sort. Especially as you have at least 4 versions of song and commonly 1 or 2 bonus tracks. So it is Classified as Album.

If you do not want to have Album Artist to show than Album should be blank also.

[richjoh]

If you don't care about the Album or Album Artist fields just hide them.

Album Artist will be filled in when Artist and Album are known and Album Artist is empty. This is how MediaMonkey deals with knowing what files belong to an Album. I presume you could give all a space as value so nothing visibly is shown.

Note: You'll likely want to disable Infer File Properties under Tools > Options > Library as it auto-guesses empty tags.

Hiding the fields won't work, I don't care about "Album Artist" since it not compatible with other software I use so I'm always wiping out the "Album Artist" field. If I have reedit any "album" or "artist" MM autofills "Album Artist" again (yoyoing again a field I wiped already).

You don't make it clear whether File Properties Tools > Option > Library option will suspend auto-tag "Album Artist" field, please confirm? (I tried it on a few already and it appear to disable the auto-tagging.)

Rich J

PS An original 12inch was used to extend the mix Disco (club) version (not for radio 3 minuted hooks). Side B was instrumental or another single that was never worth much club playing.

[Lowlander]

It guesses empty tags on scanning.

[nohitter151]

Hiding the fields won't work, I don't care about "Album Artist" since it not compatible with other software I use so I'm always wiping out the "Album Artist" field.

I don't understand why hiding it won't work. If it's not compatible with other software you use, then you wouldn't see the album artist in that software either. So what's the problem? Out of sight, out of mind.

[richjoh]

When the DJ software reads the Album Artist field its not interpreted correctly, skews other field that come after Album-Artist, or nothing shows after field. I set the software to read ID3V2 at the head of the file. If I set it for ID3V1, tail of the file, (no field for Album-Artist) things get more screwy.

Rich J

[Peke]

Well, album artist is a tricky thing due the fact that lots of apps interpret and implement their own solutions. Some allow customization some not.

OK lets assume that MMW is wrong. Can you please explain what is correct view. According to what you write app that you use outside MMW use but incorrectly Album Artist field. Where most common place is Compilations where Album artist is "Various" or Classical Music where Album Artist and artist is irrelevant but Performer is essential, ...

Personally I do not see any issue in MMW, but would like that you prove me wrong in order to improve MMW. Can you please make two pictures side by side of same track in MMW and in app you are referring which clearly show Track properties and which field is which and what do you think is wrong. Than I would need same track with wrong tag data and correct Tag Data in order to du brute force standard comparison in order to determine what/how/when and why.

[richjoh]

I'm not looking for correct fields or not, I'm looking for when I make the change the change persist, not guessing what I want in the field (100% wrong for what I want in the field, i.e. nothing, blank, zero). I don't care what album a song comes from, if an Album exist for the single, I could use the field for some-other tag or whatever, e.g. Dirty, Clean, acapella, version, dub, mix, beats etc.

Turn out Infer File Properties under Tools > Options > Library is still making guessing changes in Album Artist field although I've unchecked this feature to disable any Infer File Properties. I generate this by opening a batch of file where Album Artist exist, select them all clear the field (all at once), then select 1 file edit Album, hit enter, MM fills in the "Album Artist" field. That is wrong (because I batch wiped the "Album Artist" field prior to this. I have to manually wipe a second time clearing the field.

Guessing what goes in the field could screw up an entire Library. My DJ software make the final change to the tags, MM is just used for initial wiping of tags I don't care to have on my collection. I make a three step tag wiping process, MM is second step.

Rich J

[Lowlander]

As said if Artist and Album is know MediaMonkey will fill Album Artist, this can't be changed.

However it sounds like the other product is flawed as a program shouldn't have an issue with tags it doesn't use/understand being present in files.

[richjoh]

It my understanding that Album-Artist is not an official tag (it what iTunes and now WMP uses to group songs together). So MM is following iTunes defacto use of Album-Artist. There is no field in ID3V2 for an Album-Artist field, a commenter points out the correct field is TPE2 "Band/Orchestra/Accompaniment".

This is why other software doesn't know what the MM Album-Artist field is used for, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5922 ... using-java or full search https://duckduckgo.com/?q=idv3v2+tag+al ... ist+fields

Rich J

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey does use TPE2 for this, however I seem to recall other tags (it's not documented for MP3) are used as well for more compatibility with other software. Anyway a software should be able to deal with (ignore) unknown tags especially if they're used by the big players (WMP & iTunes).

At this point there is nothing you can do. There are outstanding requests to be able to disable writing of certain tags like with date, but nothing has been implemented yet.

[richjoh]

I don't see a need for Album Artist field. If I want to group a so called Album I put the relevant songs in a folder, name the folder after the Album & Album's Artist(s). WMP and ITunes are doing this all wrong just to handle issues where there's a compilation of songs as if "Various Artist" means something. If I have Micheal Jackson's Thriller album, I create a folder, name is "Thriller - Micheal Jackson" or vice versa, dump all the Thriller songs in there. I never and will never use ITunes or WMP for any music files, these are for casual users. They are not up to the specs, http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... b599b31bf5, http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... y-views%29. Actually these players are flawed, the TPE2 field is highjacked, my DJ software does not have an Ablum Artist field.

In all the songs I come across, Album Artist field is identical to the Artist field while Album is blank, its a waste of resources. I went ahead and down loaded an Album, I observed same setup where Album-Arist is identical to Artist, yet Album info exist. E.g. Album is XCAPE (Deluxe Album), Artist is Micheal Jackson, the Album Artist field reads "Micheal Jackson"... totally unnecessary.