TWO ARTIST fields? No, THANKS...! but, wait...!

Support
1

Hi guys.

First of all, i'd like to thank all command of mp3tag developers. Your editor is pure happiness, just a treasure from another reality. God bless you.

So, i have another interesting problem - and would like to receive any help to solve that.
We have track, with filename: Delerium - Silence (ÆSTRAL Remix).flac
And vorbis tags with TWO fields of ARTIST - with different values, of course.
First ARTIST field is "main artist" - Delerium. It has same value as ALBUMARTIST field.
But... what's that?
SECOND (duplicate) field of ARTIST, with different value: Sarah McLachlan

I think that, probably, better (proper?) way is to rename filename, adjusting SECOND field of ARTIST - after field TITLE, using a particle 'ft.' (which should be "putted in brackets" - like as this phrase)...?

I think that MOST BETTER way is should be like:
Delerium - Silence (ÆSTRAL Remix) (ft. Sarah McLachlan)
OR the second, additional variant, like as:
Delerium (ft. Sarah McLachlan) - Silence (ÆSTRAL Remix)
which myself perhaps call as “a little bit less proper.”

How to make it "properly", BETTER, close to "standarts"? What YOU think?
WOULD LOVE TO HEAR OPINION OF EVERYONE.

Now i see just one "specific way", which can be something like that:
Actions > Format Value
Field:
_FILENAME
Format string:
$num(%track%,2). %albumartist% - %title% (ft. %artist%)

But... all that i can receive is:

  1. Delerium - Silence (ÆSTRAL Remix) (ft. Delerium).flac
    ">____<"

TASK THAT I WANT:

  1. firstly, sure, get right result (ft. SECONDARTIST at the end):
  1. Delerium - Silence (ÆSTRAL Remix) (ft. Sarah McLachlan).flac
    to copy value (or... leave it "as is"...?) of ALBUMARTIST to ARTIST (to get ARTIST: Delerium) ... then use fucking "SECONDARTIST" ARTIST FIELD VALUE (Sarah McLachlan) to ADJUST that AFTER TITLE (with particle "ft." in brackets)
    and...
    FORGOT
    ABOUT
    THAT
    ARTISTS
    "UNFORTUNATE PRANK"
    LIKE AS
    FUCKING
    NIGHTMARE, huh?!
  1. can't understand, how to get (identify) SECOND ARTIST FIELD VALUE (Sarah McLachlan)
    How to "format" it, by better way?! Cause that's have the SAME field name AS MAIN FIELD - ARTIST?!
    I would love to imagine that vorbis tags should be something like that:
    VORBIS FIELD: ARTIST - "Delerium"
    VORBIS FIELD: SECONDARTIST (FACEPALM...) - "Sarah McLachlan"
    to just fucking format that, as i want, without these problems...
    $num(%track%,2). %albumartist% - %title% (ft. %secondartist%)
    but... that was tagged "not as i want" (using ARTIST field duplicating, with different values).
    so... there is no way to do it?! just manually? or there is "HIDDEN MAGIC TARGET SECOND ARTIST FIELD" like as ARTIST#2... or something like that? :slight_smile:

and last question is... maybe it WAS - and SHOULD BE (?) PROPERLY TAGGED, using this way - duplicating ARTIST field, with different values? If that - i can't understand the reason... it's looking more like "wrong way of tagging, using by bastards, which just don't know, how to tag it properly", lol (as i can guess).

P.S: i'm not on amphetamines - just upgraded to a new version, clicked Mp3tag.exe, and... here we go again... (just kidding)

2

Please show us a screenshot from the current metadata (press Alt + T on your song).

3

Oh, sure, just forgot about that, sorry:

second artist
second artist625×400 14.5 KB

4

I assume you are searching for $meta(ARTIST,1) to get the second content from ARTIST.

From the documentation:

image
image923×118 8.17 KB

5

Interesting, that mp3tag is reading that artists tag, and shows in one field, like as ONE // SECOND. I want something how to do like that. :slight_smile:

artists
artists293×136 1.5 KB

6

The syntax
Delerium\\Sarah McLachlan
is only the Mp3tag visual representation of
ARTIST (0) Delerium
ARTIST (1) Sarah McLachlan

7

You are free to manage your library and metadata any way you prefer. Often it is your choice of player that will help you make this decision based on what it is capable of managing.

In most tagging structures it is common to use the "multi" field approach such as what you see in your example with two separate ARTIST fields. This allows some players to find either Delerium or Sarah McLachlan when searching by Artist. The same approach applies to Genre as well.

8

If you truly prefer not to have separate ARTIST fields you can combine them and specify any combination of characters as a separator. See the documentation here for more info.

Edit: Make sure this is what you really want to do. In many players this may add a significant number of ARTIST names since each combined group will effectively become a single Artist. I suggest considering a very unique combination of at least a couple of symbol characters in case you choose in the future to split these again.

9

@sadgasmane Please note, that if you go this way:

it will not become easier to split the combined field ARTIST, as you could do it currently with something like
$num(%track%,2). %albumartist% - %title% (ft. $meta(ARTIST,1))
or
$num(%track%,2). $meta(ARTIST,0) - %title% (ft. $meta(ARTIST,1))

10

THANKS FOR EVERYONE. Solved as i want. <3
That's more than enough, for beginning.

Do you have any samples?
Cause just i'm not powerful in "very unique combination" :smiley:

11

Use something you would not expect to find in typical everyday use. Prefer symbols over standard alphanumeric characters. The more unique the better. Some ideas below.
§§
¡¿¡
|
|*|

12

I'd only use these if a custom separator/delimiter can be specified in all players that @sadgasmane uses. Otherwise he might end up with seeing stuff like Kat Frankie¡¿¡BODIES as the artist which I personally don't find visually pleasing.

I've used ; as the separator for multi value tags for many years because that was the default in MediaMonkey or dBpoweramp (I'm not sure any more). There might be a few false splits but overall it's worked well for me.

I think that using multiple fields is superior to using separators/delimiters overall.

Pro multiple fields:

  • less computation needed to scan them (no need to split the values)
  • no wrongly split values
  • easy to access individual values

Con multiple fields:

  • tags consume more space since the field name is stored multiple times
  • not all players properly support them and might only use/display one of the values
  • harder to understand and use for novices

Pro delimiter/separator:

  • take up less space since the field name is only stored once
  • any player will display at least the joined value
  • easier to understand and use for novices

Con delimiter/separator:

  • more computation needed to scan them because values need to be split
  • errors might occur during splitting (false positives if the delimiter is not unique enough)
  • not all players support custom delimiters/separators
  • harder to access individual values

I personally have a mix of delimited multi-value tags (old files) and "real" multi value tags (multiple fields). Luckily the players I use (MusicBee, lms and Symfonium) handle both cases well.

I find it helpful to see how both delimited and real multi value tags are actually stored in a file with a hex editor.

Kat Frankie; BODIES

yields:
grafik

Kat Frankie\\BODIES

yields:
grafik

13

By the way, for sure! Must agree and support - i'm mostly prefer use exactly this way (as separator), if needed. Looks like that's most better way, close to ideals for setting the standarts (doesn't have any drawbacks?!)

14

This is the legacy method and does work most effectively in most older programs.

The only real drawback is it means the semicolon ";" character cannot be used in those fields for any reason except as this separator. This is why the separate fields allow for the most flexibility.

15

I've thought about that, after reading the topic and all of answers; it's a little bit ironic, but looks like to leave both artist fields "as is" - that's most better way, which i would prefer. Anyway, most important thing that now i know, how to identify both fields, and could use any of them as i want. Thanks to all, really appreciate your help.

Yeah, thats sad...

16

This is quite true and why the choice of delimiter should be carefully considered. You could choose something more pleasing such as a single bullet • character. As long as there is no chance this will be used elsewhere in your field at any time.

There are plenty of other Unicode characters as well. But not all work well with some players or devices. YMMV