Upgrade and tags again

[Musky]

I've just installed Subsonic and updated to 1.7 (no problem except Vortexbox mini froze up and I had to unplug it but now working fine again?). Main problem is that I have several albums listed as Various and several as Various Artists. I've changed them to be whatever they should be in Mp3tag rescanned the whole library and they didn't change, hence downloading Subsonic but they are already correct in that so I can't change them. What am I doing wrong?


Also have some artwork that is nothing to do with the album its been put with - how do I remove and/or replace it?


Sorry still very much a noob. Took me ages to figure out where my music was for Subsonic so you can see what you are up against

[Musky]

No ideas anyone?

[Ron Olsen]

Re: Various vs. Various Artists. Are you talking about how things are listed in Subsonic or in SqueezeBox Server?


What directories do you have under /storage/music/flac? Do you have a /storage/music/flac/Various? A /storage/music/flac/Various_Artists? Every directory you have under /storage/music/flac will show up in a list of Artists in Subsonic.


Re: artwork. SqueezeBox Server looks in cover.jpg in the album directory for the artwork. Make sure the cover.jpg in each album directory is correct.


If you've got mp3s with embedded artwork, that might be the problem.


Look at the songs/albums in question with mp3tag to see if there is any embedded art in your mp3s that is not what you want. If so, delete it.

[Musky]

I've changed the tags to read either Various or Various Artists on Mp3tag and checked them on Subsonic but Squeezebox Server doesn't change even after a full scan. These are fairly old homemade compilations that have no artwork (that I know of - I'll try and check). Some also had old homemade titles some of which have changed so I'm confused why one changes and yet if I do the same tagging another doesn't. This is not a disaster just a bit annoying. I only have 5 "Various" on Mp3tag but dozens on SBS eg "Various_Artists_-_Radio_Caroline_Calling_70's_Flashback_Cd1" on Mp3tag is "Home>Artists>Various>Radio Caroline Calling 70's Flashback Cd1" on SBS.


Its probably me just not understanding something but it still has the same effect of not working

[Ron Olsen]

If you want SBS to display all your compilation albums as "Various Artists", you'll have to set the Artist tag to "Various Artists", not "Various", in every file in every compilation album.


If you have entered the actual artist name for each track in a compilation album instead of using "Various Artists", you will have to add a COMPILATION=1 tag to every file in that album. Use the "View->Extended Tags" feature of mp3tag to do this.


Then rescan your SBS library (Look for new and changed music).

[avalx]

Ron Olsen said:

If you want SBS to display all your compilation albums as "Various Artists", you'll have to set the Artist tag to "Various Artists", not "Various", in every file in every compilation album.




I have both "Various" and "Various Artists" on my system and the only difference that I see is that "Various Artists" are listed at the very beginning if all Artists and "Various" are listed under "V". The tracks are named like "Artist / Title" and none of them has COMPILATION=1 tag set.

[Ron Olsen]

To change the was SBS handles compilation albums, go to SBS->Settings->My Music to see the options.


The COMPILATION=1 tag is useful for handling multi-CD compilation albums properly, and is recommended as a general practice for all compilation albums by experienced SqueezeBox users.


In my opinion the best way to handle compilation albums is this:


1. If you know the artist for each track, use it as the Artist tag for that track. Remove the artist name from the track title. Use the correct track title as the Title tag.



2. If you don't know the artist name for each track, use "Various Artists" as the artist for every track.


3. Set the COMPILATION=1 tag in each track.


4. Have no ALBUMARTIST tag for compilations.


5. Adjust the SqueezeBox Server Settings->My Music->Compilation options the way you want.


6. Clear SBS library and rescan everything.


I find this works well with the SBS web interface, Duet Controller, and iPeng/SqueezePad on an iPad.


There are other approaches that will work. But the above is "best practice" in my opinion, for SqueezeBox Server.

[avalx]

Ron,


your recommedation are really a good way to organize compilation albums. Unfortunatelly on the VBA this means that some additional manual work is needed. The compilation albums are not ripped like that by default so one has to change/add the tags and maybe the filenames as well. Is there a way to set the ripping process to do as per your suggestion?


In my opinion there is also no single "best way" to organize ones music library - I believe it is up to the person to organize how he/she feels most comfortable with (al least that's what I do with my music collection).

[Musky]

Ron Olsen said:

If you want SBS to display all your compilation albums as "Various Artists", you'll have to set the Artist tag to "Various Artists", not "Various", in every file in every compilation album.


But I don't want it to call them all the same - some are called Various Artists but others I want to be called Various and this is what I have tagged them as so why doesn't SBS see it that way


If you have entered the actual artist name for each track in a compilation album instead of using "Various Artists", you will have to add a COMPILATION=1 tag to every file in that album. Use the "View->Extended Tags" feature of mp3tag to do this.


I have changed all the tracks (which started off saying unknown everything) to the correct artist name and track name. The track tags have all stuck but its the overall album artist/title that hasn't on some.


Then rescan your SBS library (Look for new and changed music).

[Musky]

Ron Olsen said:

To change the was SBS handles compilation albums, go to SBS->Settings->My Music to see the options.


The COMPILATION=1 tag is useful for handling multi-CD compilation albums properly, and is recommended as a general practice for all compilation albums by experienced SqueezeBox users.


In my opinion the best way to handle compilation albums is this:


1. If you know the artist for each track, use it as the Artist tag for that track. Remove the artist name from the track title. Use the correct track title as the Title tag.


As far as I know this is what I have done, are you saying that I need to add COMPILATION =1 on the end of each track tag and then alter the settings as below? If so why have some worked ok without this? Don't get me wrong I don't mind changing them but don't want to if I've done something else wrong





2. If you don't know the artist name for each track, use "Various Artists" as the artist for every track.


3. Set the COMPILATION=1 tag in each track.


4. Have no ALBUMARTIST tag for compilations.


5. Adjust the SqueezeBox Server Settings->My Music->Compilation options the way you want.


6. Clear SBS library and rescan everything.


I find this works well with the SBS web interface, Duet Controller, and iPeng/SqueezePad on an iPad.


There are other approaches that will work. But the above is "best practice" in my opinion, for SqueezeBox Server.