UnitiServe and Compilations

Posted by: Bart on 30 December 2013

I'm hoping that one of the uServe or HDX owners can help me out.  I've still not figured out how to get compilations to show up as one album in nStream and nServe.  

 

I have used two different metadata editors to ensure that the 'part of a compilation' flag is set for each track.  What else do I need to do?

 

I have a copy of A Very Special Christmas: 25 years, but it shows up as 21 albums, all with that same name.  There must be something small I'm (still) doing wrong.

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by hungryhalibut

Hi Bart. I don't understand why you have a problem here. I've got loads of compilations. I just pop them into the Serve and they rip happily and stay as the original album. I wouldn't know how to fiddle with metadata even if I wanted to! I've had issues with iTunes, though - you are ripping them directly into the Serve, aren't you? 

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by ChrisH

Hi Bart, also no issue on my side with compilation CD's and ripping to US / nServe & nStream.

It rips the compilation as a complete album and stores it under Various Artists in 'Artists'.

The only issue I had was that when it rips and tags, it just tags as 'Various Artists' so you dont know who each track on the compilation is by.

I got round this by retagging each track on a compilation album with the Artist Name first, eg. 'Echo & the Bunnymen - The Cutter', etc.

But it always rips as 1 album in my case.

Or maybe you are talking about Hi-Res downloads?

 

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by Bart

Thanks guys, but I'm talking about a purchased download that I'm adding to the Downloads folder.  I agree -- if it's a physical cd that I rip, there are no issues.  It's something about the tagging that I don't have quite right, I THINK!

 

 

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by ChrisH

Thats one of my jobs for the next couple of days too Bart - the Linn 24 Bits of Christmas downloads.

They are all individual albums/folders at the moment with their own artwork.

I want to put them all together in one album of Various Artists,.

I think this is the query you have too.

If I manage it first I will post here how I tagged them.

If you manage it first with yours I guess you will post here!

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by Claus-Thoegersen
Originally Posted by ChrisH:

Thats one of my jobs for the next couple of days too Bart - the Linn 24 Bits of Christmas downloads.

They are all individual albums/folders at the moment with their own artwork.

I want to put them all together in one album of Various Artists,.

I think this is the query you have too.

 

For me the strategy that worked was.

Call the artist and album the same for me.

Linn Christmas Sampler 2013

 

And number the tracks 1  to  24 or how many tracks you managed to download.

 

this was suggested by another forum user last year, and it Works fine. this year I managed to get most of the tracks in both a 16 bit and 24 bit version, so I aded 16 bit or 24 bit to the title to make cd vs highres comparison easier.

Claus

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by ChrisH

Thanks Claus, I'll have a go at the tomorrow!

Maybe that will help you too Bart?

Posted on: 30 December 2013 by Bart

Yes I've done similar things in the past -- changing the metadata for the Artist so that each track is the same.  But that somewhat defeats the purpose of the 'compilation' tag as I understand it.  I would have thought that there is a more elegant solution that would allow me to keep the Artist tags accurate for each track of a compilation.

Posted on: 31 December 2013 by nudgerwilliams

I've "bodged" compilation downloads the same way, but suspect there is a better way.  One thing I've not got round to trying yet is putting the download into a folder called "various" or something similar. 

 

If you go into the desktop client, Tools tab, Settings & Functions, System Settings, there is an entry under general for Compilation Folders that lists "compilations; various; various artists" in my setup.

 

So I'm guessing that the US indexes stuff in a different way when it is in a folder with one of these titles. 

 

If anybody has tried this would be interested to know what happens.

 

David

Posted on: 31 December 2013 by Bart

David that may well be the key.  I've created a Various Artists folder in Downloads, and will see if that does the trick.