but "%albumartist% is used to determine if tracks are from the same album!
It is worth noting that same album artist and same album (title) does not mean tracks are from the same album! I have three albums that such a determination would mistake as one.
To solve this I have had to slightly pervert Album by adding the GTIN e.g. "La Cumparsita - Tango Argentina [00743625545623]"
Confirmed in V2.39i - thanks - but I found that the change doesn't show if the installation is over V2.39h - ALBUMARTIST reamins and BAND is absent on all fieldname lists (except Help's). I had to remove the program and reinstall.
You can just remove unwanted tag field names from any list via [Shift+Del] and type in BAND manually (e.g. at the edit dialog of the extended tags dialog).
You can just remove unwanted tag field names from any list via [Shift+Del]
That has no effect here e.g. in the edit dialog of the extended tags dialog or filter.
and type in BAND manually (e.g. at the edit dialog of the extended tags dialog).
Thanks... but since the install of a BAND-less version removed BAND, surely the install of a with-BAND version should have added it. Failure to do so is going to cause confusion in use and support, I suggest.
For me personally, I'd like to reset the list to the current version's default, retaining other config settings. Is there a way to do this?
Winamp is not defining the standard here, but ID3.org is. And the ID3v2.3/V2.4 standard is quite clear about this:
http://www.id3.org/id3v2.4.0-frames
This is intended to be used for a supporting band, orchestra or musician, not the main artist under whose name the album was released.
So when Mp3Tag is storing "album artist" in the TPE2 frame then it's not compliant to the ID3v2 standard (and actually breaking compatibility with ID3v2.3/v2.4 compliant players!). Instead a TXXX frame with a custom name would be more suitable for "album artist", because unfortunately there's no official ID3v2 frame that would fit to the idea of an "album artist" or "various artists".
Why should Mp3Tag follow Winamp's half-baked ideas instead of the ID3v2 standard?!? 
Just use "Album Artist" in Winamp and "Band" in Mp3Tag, and blame the developers of Winamp for being so ignorant (mis)using TPE2 instead of TXXX.
Why should Mp3Tag follow Winamp's half-baked ideas instead of the ID3v2 standard?
Because Winamp's use of TPE2 is the defacto standard adopted by Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey and countless other players... a standard that came into being because the half-baked IDE3v2 failed to provide a standardised Album Artist.
Instead a TXXX frame with a custom name would be more suitable for "album artist"
That would be rather a waste of time, because none of the major players recognise that as Album Artist. Nor are they likely to, since TPE2 now does the job fine.
Winamp's usage of TPE2 is also the standard adopted by Windows Explorer in Vista. I can't check earlier versions of Windows, but I'm guessing it goes back at least to XP. If the Album Artist column is displayed instead of Artists in Windows Explorer, it gets populated by TPE1 in the Explorer window if TPE2 is missing or blank. Also, check out Properties > Details on an .mp3 file in Windows Explorer. The tip displayed when entering data into Artists, which ends up in TPE1, thats one not two, is "Specify contributing artist". Oddly, there is no tip when entering Album Artist, which is stored in TPE2. That pretty much makes it the defacto standard.
EDIT:
Cookie Monster:
http://www.id3.org/id3v2.4.0-frames
This is intended to be used for a supporting band, orchestra or musician, not the main artist under whose name the album was released.
Take a look at both definitions in the reference document you quoted.
4.2.2 TPE1 Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)
4.2.2 TPE2 Band/orchestra/accompaniment
It can go the other way, and IMHO, it should. Take John Mayall's Blues Breakers album, Bluesbreaking!, which features Eric Clapton on the guitar as an example. I use TPE1 (Lead Performer/Soloist) for Eric Clapton, and TPE2 (Band) for John Mayall's Bluesbreaker's. When Winamp or Windows Explorer parse TPE1 and TPE2, they agree that the Album Artist is John Mayall's Blues Breakers and the featured artist is Eric Clapton. Winamp groups that album with other albums by JMBB, not with albums by Eric Clapton. I certainly wouldn't classify that album as an Eric Clapton album, so I prefer the interpretation that TPE2 is the Band and TPE1 is the featured artist.
Another example would be a Carlos Santana album that features different artists on different tracks. TPE2 would be Santana for all tracks, and TPE1 would be a different artist for each track. For some tracks TPE1 would be blank or Santana. The tracks should group by TPE2 when building the library, not TPE1.
dd_wizard
You missed the essential part of my post:
That's not very hard, IMHO.
It's a little more complicated than that. "Album Artist" != BAND. Consider an album consisting of tracks performed by Santana with different contributing artists on different tracks. Following the id3v2.4.0 standard, we will store the different contributing artists in TPE1 (ARTIST) and Santana in TPE2 (BAND). When a player sorts the tracks by TPE2, then TPE1 one album shows up.
Now consider an album that consists of tracks of Pavarotti performing with several orchestras. If we again follow the id3v2.4.0 standard, we will store Pavarotti in TPE1 (ARTIST) and the different orchestras in TPE2 (BAND). When a player sorts the tracks by TPE2, then TPE1 we get several albums showing up, one for each orchestra.
The id3 standard of abstracting TPE1 to soloist and TPE2 to band requires that a track organizer, i.e. a library manager, needs to know if the tracks of an album should be grouped by TPE2 (BAND) or TPE1 (ARTIST) first. By using TPE1 for contributing Artist, be it band or soloist; and TPE2 for "Album Artist", be it band or soloist, players and librarians can always sort and group by TPE2, then TPE1.
IMHO, the id3v2.4.0 standard definitions of TPE1 and TPE2 are inferior to the defacto industry standard in this regard.
dd_wizard
Now consider an album that consists of tracks of Pavarotti performing with
several orchestras. ... When a player sorts the tracks by TPE2, then TPE1
we get several albums showing up, one for each orchestra.
That's the fault of the player misinterpreting TPE1/2 as identification of the album.
Having said which, it is the fault of ID3 that it does not support any identification (as opposed to description) of the album, e.g. GTIN, EAN or UPC.
It's not just the player Winamp. Microsoft has also decided that TPE1 is for contributing artists, and that TPE2 is for the artist who released the album. This non-standard interpretation of id3v2.4 makes it trivial to sort/group albums by "Album Artist" or Artist without adding any new tags to the standard. If the definitions of TPE1 and TPE2 were changed in the standard, it would be a non issue.
If a track needs to be uniquely associated with a particular non-unique album title, add the releasing artist/band to TALB. That's what TALB is for, identifying a particular album.
dd_wizard
That's what TALB is for, identifying a particular album.
Not according to the ID3 standard. It is merely for the title of the album, and that does not necessarily identify it. I have many different albums with the same title.