# Album Artist, Band and FLAC, again ...
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [June 28, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519 "2009-06-28T02:03:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@wout\_van\_vucht](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wout_van_vucht)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/21 "2009-09-25T15:56:02Z")
> [@Florian](#):
>
> [Mp3tag v2.44a](http://developer.mp3tag.de) now supports user-defined field name mapping for the various tag types.
>
> Kind regards,
> Florian
Indeed very good news.
Mapping was getting me mad. 😃
I will make a donation is the beta is "alfa".
Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/22 "2009-09-25T18:21:08Z")
Thank you, Florian. This looks like it will work well.
However, it's not working as I'd expect with ID3v2 tags. My preference would be to map common vorbis comment names to ID3v2 frames. When I create a new mapping, the default is ID3v2, so I assume you intend to be able to map names in ID3v2 as well as VorbisComment.
Here are the mappings that I've defined:
When I try to set COMPILATION=1 in an Mp3 file using ID3v2.3 I still get a TXXX/COMPILATION=1 frame (a user defined TXXX frame with a description of COMPILATION and value of 1), which is what I get with no mapping. At worst, if the mapping was working I would have expected a TXXX/TCMP=1 frame, but I hope to be able to write native frames.
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/23 "2009-09-25T18:31:58Z")
ID3v2 does not work on frame level
Your first ID3v2 example must be
ID3v2 \> BAND \> ALBUMARTIST
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### Author:  [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/24 "2009-09-25T18:50:10Z")
I don't understand. Going by the VorbisComment entries as examples, wherever in the program TRACKNUMBER is used, the actual vorbis comment field being written (and read) is TRACK. So I would expect
ID3v2 \> BAND \> ALBUMARTIST
to mean that wherever the field name BAND is used within the program, an ID3v2 frame of TXXX/ALBUMARTIST is written.
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/25 "2009-09-25T19:11:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Going by the VorbisComment entries as examples, wherever in the program TRACKNUMBER is used, the actual vorbis comment field being written (and read) is TRACK.
It's the other way around, TRACKNUMBER is written to the file, but Mp3tag displays TRACK to the user.
_ID3v2 \> BAND \> ALBUMARTIST_
means when you use ALBUMARTIST it reads from and writes to BAND (which actually is TPE2)
---
### Author:  [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/26 "2009-09-25T19:34:54Z")
> [@dano](#):
>
> It's the other way around
Ahhh, I get it now. And the source names must be Mp3tag's internal field names. So what I was trying to accomplish above is actually:
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### Author:  [@Lupercus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Lupercus)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/27 "2009-09-26T10:36:10Z")
> [@dano](#):
>
> If you want to use BAND as your Album artist placeholder for all formats then you should map VorbisComment \> ALBUM ARTIST \> BAND
Thanx, that works flawless!
This reads from and writes to a VorbisComment with fieldname ALBUM ARTIST in the FLAC, while Mp3tag works with the placeholder %band%.
Apparently the column titles are a bit counter-intuitive, for me f.i. the Target is the audiofile. This could be overcome by changing Target to something like "Mp3tag" and Source to "Audiofile". Just a suggestion.
**Florian** , again a million thanx for implementing this! In another thread I pledged a contribution for solving this ALBUM ARTIST problem, so I keep my promise and just made that donation.
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/28 "2009-09-26T10:56:31Z")
> [@Lupercus](#):
>
> Thanx, that works flawless!
Great! Also thanks dano, for your splendid explanations!
> [@](#):
>
> Apparently the column titles are a bit counter-intuitive, for me f.i. the Target is the audiofile. This could be overcome by changing Target to something like "Mp3tag" and Source to "Audiofile".
I've tried to make the help topic on this feature as specific as I could (given that it was around 23:00 and I spend almost the whole day coding). I'll have a look at it again and try to improve it based on your feedback.
> [@](#):
>
> **Florian** , again a million thanx for implementing this! In another thread I pledged a contribution for solving this ALBUM ARTIST problem, so I keep my promise and just made that donation.
Thanks a lot! I must have missed this topic, but it's a nice surprise after the countless hours of thinking about and working on that feature 🙂
---
### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/29 "2010-03-31T13:39:33Z")
Suggestion: an option in the process of installing a new version - **Don't change mappings**. I was surprised after installation of 2.46a over 2.46 - deleted mappings were recreated.
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### Author:  [@moravec](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/moravec)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/30 "2010-04-24T03:57:54Z")
This isn't working for me, if there are already values in it.
Example:
-.Flac File
- Mapping (VorbisComment/ALBUM ARTIST/BAND
If the file already has an ALBUM ARTIST its not visible in MP3Tag. If I write one in MP3Tag its added and visible in MP3TAG but only the one I added with MP3TAG.
In dbpoweramp I can see both.
See picture:
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/31 "2010-04-24T05:43:37Z")
The columns can only show the first value of a field unless you change the **value** of that column from i.e. %band% to _$meta\_sep(band,\\)_ at "View \> Customize columns"
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### Author:  [@moravec](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/moravec)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 7:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/32 "2010-04-24T07:21:28Z")
actually I don't want two or more values in album artist. But MP3TAG doesn't read/display the value and only shows a value which was entered with MP3TAG.
See the picture:
"Nicolas Simion Group" ist already in album artist - "aaaa" was entered with MP3TAG - MP3TAG only shows "aaaa". But actually would "write" at the correct place.
So there may be something wrong with the reading precedure but correct with the writing procedure...
christian
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/33 "2010-04-24T07:25:11Z")
Please show what's at "View \> Extended Tags" in Mp3tag.
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### Author:  [@moravec](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/moravec)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 8:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/34 "2010-04-24T08:41:14Z")
here:
MP3TAG and dbpoweramp
Actually I don't know whats right - but I don't like that BAND Tag...
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/35 "2010-04-24T14:31:04Z")
Let's see..
From that screens it shows that you have two different "Album artist" fields in your files.
ALBUMARTIST
and ALBUM ARTIST (this one shows as BAND in Mp3tag because of the mapping)
dbpoweramp shows you both as "Album artist" because there are several ways for album artist at flac. Some apps do it without a space, some with
So you have to decide which one you want to use.
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### Author:  [@moravec](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/moravec)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/36 "2010-04-25T12:24:08Z")
ok, I would like to use "album artist" what do I have to do in MP3TAG to use that?
"%album artist%" doesn't seems to dispay any value in the gui btw...
Christian
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/37 "2010-04-25T16:24:34Z")
If you have added
- Mapping (VorbisComment/ALBUM ARTIST/BAND)
then you don't have to make any further changes unless you don't like %band% as your tag name in Mp3tag for the album artist.
If a file now has an ALBUM ARTIST tag you will see that as BAND in Mp3tag.
Instead of %album artist% you must use %band% to get its value.
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### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/album-artist-band-and-flac-again/8519/38 "2010-04-25T16:52:16Z")
> [@dano](#):
>
> If you have added
>
> - Mapping (VorbisComment/ALBUM ARTIST/BAND)
Note: this can break scripts and custom columns as reported here: [Request: remedy new mapping's breakage of scripts etc.](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/10075/1)
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