changing song artist also changes album artist

[Felix Atagong]

First thing first: it's not because we complain about 'bugs' that Songs-db isn't a GREAT PROGRAM.

Second: I noticed a thing when doing the multimedia keyboard testing a few minute ago. On the Robert Wyatt cd that I was listening to 2 so-called extra tracks were played by other bands. I went into properties on that particular track and when I changed the song artist, the field with album artist was also changed automatically. This I didn't want to happen so I had to alter the album artist back to 'Robert Wyatt'.

I'm not pretty sure this is a bug or not and maybe I have overlooked an option somewhere...

NP: Bryan Ferry - In Your Mind...

[Felix Atagong]

Same result again with the album that is playing now, as I wanted to change track 5 from Pat Metheny Group to David Bowie it also changed the album artist to Bowie although that had to stay unaltered, so I had to over type that back to the initial artist.

However, I did this change direct in the My Computer\D tree (not in the library) and when I added the 'tracks to the library' Songs-DB made my input undone by automatically changing David Bowie (on track 5) back to Pat Metheny as song artist.

So I had to retype again the song artist, this time at the library, and yep, same thing happened again, changing the track artist also changed the album artist...

NP: (as you have figured out by now): Pat Metheny Group - The Falcon And The Snowman, but with David Bowie on track 5

[rusty]

Felix, Thanks for the feedback--both the compliment and the critique.

re. the first issue (editing Song artist changes Album Artist), this is by design. Let me explain the logic of the design, and you can let me know if you think of something that would work better:

If Track Artist=Album Artist, and user edits the Track Artist THEN Track Artist and Album Artist change EXCEPT if the Album is a multi-artist Album (i.e. if there exists at least one track where Track ortist != Album Artist).

The pros are that in most cases, when editing a track artist it saves you from having to to make the same change to the album artist. The downside is what you experienced: if you are making the change on a multi-artist album that Songs-DB doesn't 'realize' is a multi-artist album (because Track Artist=Album Artist for all tracks), then the Album Artist will also change.

Any better ideas?

re. the second issue (changes to properties made via My Computer aren't registered) I'm not sure what the problem is--this works fine in my environment. Possibilities are:
1) The tags weren't updated for some reason when they were edited (this still occurs on a small percentage of files which have improperly formed ID3v2 tags)
2) Your configuration was set to first read filename data and then tag data, so although you edited the tags, the filename information was used to deduce the Artist/Album Artist.

If you think it's 1) please send me the file (you can verify by re-opening the track in My Computer to view the properties to see if they were saved). If it's 2) you can change this in Tools|Options|Library.

[Felix Atagong]

Point 1: if it is like that, it is like that! I can see the point and I will only have the problem with overview compilations by artists that have been in different bands (a George Harrison compilation with some Beatles tracks, for instance, I will store under GH and not under Various Artists).
Point 2: I had this with introducing a (legal) cd and my settings are:
Infer missing tracks info into filenames
Use: filename only
Prefer: tags
Get album titles and track numbers from: Tags then playlists.

Thanks for your infinite wisdom, and I hope that I can mail again, as I have found an odbc database error yesterday, if only I could find back my notes!

NP: T'Pau - Bridge of Spies (I know )

[rusty]

Re. point 1: I'm not completely sure I understand . The issue should not affect how you decide to store your albums--you could store your GH track with GH or Various as the Album Artist . The only impact of the 'auto fill' feature is that the first track that you change to a different artist will have an incorrect Album Artist and will need to be edited. Any additional tracks will not experience this problem.

Re. point 2: thanks for the feedback. The reason this occurs is that when changes are made to the properties of a CD that's not part of the library, they aren't stored anywhere (no tags are written for CD audio tracks, the cdplayer.ini file isn't updated, and the DB isn't updated since the Album isn't part of the db). Two possible solutions: 1) prevent editing of the properties of such tracks or 2) write the data to cdplayer.ini.

[Felix Atagong]

The only impact of the 'auto fill' feature is that the first track that you change to a different artist will have an incorrect Album Artist and will need to be edited. Any additional tracks will not experience this problem.

Rusty, sorry that I start to sound as Grumpy, but it isn't.
I just put in a cd containing Thomas Fehlmann tracks + songs he remixed from other bands + tracks from him remixed by other DJ's. I just imported the data into the library and then started to change some track properties at the 'artist' node.

On the 2 occassions I had to change the 'track artist' the program changed also the 'album artist' so this happened not once as you predicted but twice. (as I said before, I can live with it...)

BTW, wouldn't it be a good idea to put a 'mix' field in the properties boxes, I never know where to put the remix information now, so a separate field could be handy, no?

NP: Thomas Fehlmann - one to three. Overflow; ninenine / nd

[rusty]

Felix, I don't think you're grumpy--in fact I appreciate your very constructive criticism.

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know that there _was_ a bug in the logic re. automatic updates to the album artist, and it's been fixed in beta 5. Moreover, the logic has been improved somewhat--now, if the edit operation is being performed on a CD that has been added to the library, Album Artist isn't automatically changed (the auto-update feature is more for individual files for which Artist/Album Artists are liable to be incorrect) --Let me know if you still have a problem. thx.

[Felix Atagong]

Just downloaded the new build, and guess what: it works! Apparently the program doesn't attempt anymore to change read-only cda tracks as well. Thanks, rusty and jiri...

NP: Snowy White - Goldtop (groups and sessions compilation cd with 6 different bands)