Multiple Artist Tags?

Support
1

Hi there, I've been using MP3tag for a while now (various versions) to maintain a library of about 600 albums on a server (XP). This is then used by various networked PCs (XP and XP MCE, and Twonky via a couple of Pinnacle Soundbridges. Files are a mixture of MP3 and WMA

Some of the Artist tags I've used have Artist entries, which appear as ;

But I'm getting problems, especially in MCE where the individual artist entries are not being recognised. Tags are being picked up as just the first entry, or a string with both, with a semi colon in the middle.

ANy hints on how to set up and maintain multiple tag values succesfully?

2

First you should get the latest dev. version http://developer.mp3tag.de/

Then for your mp3 files, use this syntax:
artist1/artist2/artist3

For wma, use
artist1\\artist2\\artist3

3

Thanks, I'll give it a try

Later update: Brilliant, works a treat

4

Coo... are those defined in any standards specs?

5

My multiple artists MP3's that were originally tagged within foobar2k with V2.3 show in mp3tag with the "\\". Do you know why that is? It's really becoming a difficult task to keep my tags straight for fb2k & my iPod. Is there a handy system that I am not aware for this problem? Thanks for your advice.

6

\\ is used as the separator character sequence for multiple tag fields in Mp3tag. They will also show up as separate entries in the extended tag dialog.

7

Thank you for the answer, Florian! Also, does this explain why only one artist shows up in the "Customized Columns" of Mp3tag? Seems only the first artist listed shows in the column.

8

Exactly. This is an inconsistency that I'd like to address in a post-v2.40 version of Mp3tag.

9

\\ is used as the separator character sequence for multiple tag fields in Mp3tag.

Wow. I've for a long time been assuming that was odd data in tags from other sources. Thanks for the info.

May I suggest this be mentioned in the docs?

10

I have no idea where to put it.

11

Is there any reason you can't use and display the same separator in the columns, or were you thinking of doing something different?

12

I suggest a good place to put it is in help\main_tags.html , in a new section "Multiple tag fields".

13

May I vote for something different, please? It would be really poor to use a character sequence such that literal and marker instances were visually indistinguishable. Better would be something reserved from the lietral space, such as / or |.

14

Hmm..., I think that an unusual character sequence like '\\' when used as an inline multi tagfield separator consistently all over Mp3tag it would be the best choice, otherwise when using single characters like '/' or '|' as separator there would come up interferences with the tagfields content data itself.

DD.20080227.0727.CET

15

My suggestion was for / or | in bold, so that, unlike plain \\, the separator would be visually distinguishable from literal tag content.

16

So exactly how does one enter a separator in 'bold'? <_<

What's wrong with \\? Is that something that would interfere with your tagging strategy? Like maybe, ala Prince, ''The artist who calls himself "\\"'? Yeah, that might present a proboem.

17

So exactly how does one enter a separator in 'bold'? <_<

Whatever key combination Mp3tag assigns.

What's wrong with \\?

See previous messages in this topic.

18

I think there is no rich text user interface in Mp3tag.

DD.20080227.1417.CET

19

OK, can you suggest an alternative representation of the separator, that likewise is unambiguous with respect to literal content?

20

I think one should just stick to "/" and define a black list entry for AC/DC.
If that's the way how it's defined in the ID3v2.3 specs, it's the way to go.
WMP uses the slash, too, so we already have a wide user base.

Another solution is to let users choose their favoured separator strings themselves in program options.