Yesterday I went looking for albums by Elisabeth Leonskaja there are 10 or so in my library
Started with L for Leonskaja Nothing, then E for Elisabeth Nothing.
So I used Search and found her, clicked Edit and saw Sort AS Franz Schubert, Elisabeth Leonskaja
Where is this coming from because all the albums are Artist = Elisabeth Leonskaja as is the Album Artist with 2 exceptions where she is in a chamber ensemble.
Franz Schubert didn’t come from my metadata , it would not have Franz if it did , and I NEVER have the composer in the Artist Tag. I must assume a lookup from MusicBrainz
To all intents that artist is invisible unless you know how to go digging
This is one example there are many others. This renders Audirvana pretty near useless certainly as far as Classical music is concerned. Imagine 70k classical tracks randomly displayed ?
In this case simply honouring the Artist and Album Artist tag would cure the issue rather than imposing an unwanted sort name. I don’t even care if its first name or last name sorted as long as it’s one
I have reported this repeatedly , is there any chance that something is going to happen or do I start punting for a refund (again)
Before the die hard’s chirp in, yes I do know how to fix it, I have been using AS on and off since it’s launch. Indeed in this case I did , but it begs the question , how do you know it needs fixing until you are disappointed (and frustrated) in a selection ?
First is ON, if I turn it OFF now will it help or is the damage done already. I am happy to rebuild the library if it helps.
Second is OFF - if its on it modifies my entire library
If the second is ON it means a full BU as it will change every file in my library which will the cause Roon to do a full import etc
I don’t mind MB data in the db will turning that off stop the odd sort by tags
This to me is a design flaw , not allowing the sort at user choice. User tags are being “overwritten” in the db if not in the file. The Artist and Album Artist name is being ignored in preference for a look up value.
The Schubert, Franz, sort would not exist in my tags so it must be a lookup from Music Brainz
Yes my file structure is logical and I could navigate that way but it sorta defeats the object of a software based library system.. A bit back to the dark ages of Windows
I have used JRiver and Roon for years both are an abstraction layer above the file structure as AS should be as well BUT it’s not. It’s making navigation worse not better .
I look at my local collection mainly by folder or file location because I’ve never encountered an abstraction layer that reads my mind. For example, I like Jordi Savall as a conductor and artist, so his Beethoven symphony series is in the Jordi Savall folder. Other conductors’ Beethoven symphonies are in the Beethoven folder. That’s one instance of many.
I know a lot of people love the way Roon organizes things, but I gave it a tryout and tired of what was essentially a Google search of my collection that didn’t always return the results I wanted. (See above re: my personal idiosyncratic organization method.)
So for me personally, looking at my collection by folder or file location works great, but I recognize this isn’t the case for many, perhaps most, other folks.
I have renamed the db, and restarted AS so as to get a clean db, then re-imported with both switches OFF.
Immediately I see an error, there is an album with both Artists but many others with only Isabelle Faust. How does AS handle this , they will be as a semi-colon delimited list
Isabelle Faust; Alexander Melnikov
There will be many more examples. So once again I cannot find a specific artist of which there are 17 albums in the library.
This is not so much a bug as a design error, I would be happy to upload my db if that helps, although I think Antoine already has a copy.
For example, I like Jordi Savall as a conductor and artist, so his Beethoven symphony series is in the Jordi Savall folder. Other conductors’ Beethoven symphonies are in the Beethoven folder. That’s one instance of many.
