How do I tag compilations to show as ONE album ??

Originaly for Twonky this problem was solved by making the album artist Various Artists and let the artist of the song be the real artist. However when I moved to asset this also didn't work and the compilation things also didn;t work for me. So I did it the hard way and selected the main artist as being  the artist or called it various artists.

Hi Michael,

my workaround is to retag to include the track artist in the same section as the track name.

For example I would have:

Track Name: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Sounds of the '70s, blah blah blah

Its not ideal, but it does the job.

I guess I dont have a huge amount of compilations so it doesnt affect me too much, but it doesnt do my OCD any good! 

Thanks, sure that is an option. I have some 800-900 albums, and not sure how many compilations, so it is not really a method I fancy since it may be some job to carry through.

I would rather that NAIM took this issue a bit more serious ... 

If you are a fan of Torsten Profrock, 'Various Artists' is one of his aliases, so if he's in your collection (as he is in mine) you can't use Various Artists for Various Artists (comps). I use 'Various' instead, and avoid buying comps at all costs!!

Is the following any help?

My music NAS storage heirarchy is Artist>Album>Track. Each track is tagged to match the folder that contains it with the artists' name duplicated in both the 'Artist' tag and 'Album Artist' tag. Searching by Album in the App gives a list of albums in alpha order with one occurrence of each album showing one of the tracks on the album. Selecting the album gives a list of all the tracks/artist on the album. If it's a compilation many artists will appear, if it isn't then only the one artist appears.

I tend to just tag the 'albumartist' field as '<album title> – Various artists', and leave the artist field as is for the different artists.

So then I can find the album under the artist search as

NowThat'sWhatICallNepaleseThroatSinging – Various Arists

or whatever, and also individual tracks by the artists involved by searching for each artist's name.

Hello Michael

i had the same problem. i used Mp3tag programme to add a compilation tag to all my 'Various Artists'

compilation discs / files. (You can bulk add the tag so is quick to do) This adds a -1 value for all my flac files and my Naim Streamer shows the correct information.

I use DBpoweramp ripping software (Asset) for conversion to flac format, storing on an Assetnas feeding Naim Streamer.

I don't know wether the -1 value is unique to Asset or if it will work with other software.

Naim equipment can only display the tag information as embedded in the file, it is down to how that information has been 'Tagged'

Don't really think it's fair laying the blame at Naim's door, iTunes and many other library programmes handle the data in just about  the same way. It's an object lesson in how you should think out how you want to handle your data before setting up your library. As you are now finding out it's an expensive exercise timewise if you get it wrong in the beginning!

I'm not clear whether the root problem you're describing here is metadata/tagging, or how the album is physically stored (folder structure) on the NAS ?

Are we talking about CD rips, and if so how/where do you rip them ?  If on the Unitiserve that would be appear to be a Naim issue.  iTunes is known to occasionally run amok when ripping, saving CD files scatter gun style across multiple folders (one for each artist), when clearly a single album (whether compilation or not) should always exist in one folder, so it can easily be located and copied elsewhere when necessary.  

If you are using iTunes at present I would use another ripping solution which offers more control & customisation of settings, but that won't fix your existing problem.  For that, I guess you'll need one of the metadata editors suggested by others above.....

Thank you, but I believe I have been doing this already. I mark the compilations as "Compilations", meaning setting the compilation flag, but still I cannot get Naim to show the album as one album. It is still shown as 14 albums (or whatever No. of artists) - one for each artist. And as far as I know Naim offers no tools to correct this (I am on Mac).

I use Metadatics, which is a rather advanced tagging tool.

So far the only thing that works is to replace all artists with one artist name under "track artist" ... 

Flac or WAV doesn't make a difference, the "Compilation" flag changes nothing. Neither does "Album Artist".

I use UnitiServe SSD to rip my CDs.

It appears to me that there is no problem when the US SSD has ripped a compilation, because it strips the "track artist" and replaces it with "Various", but then you loose the artist information.

I can do the same on my own downloaded WAVs and FLACs, but I think that is a poor solution if NAIM is not able to read the "compilation" tag and ONLY index albums based on "Track Artist" without using the compilation tag.

I would rather prefer that NAIM would read the compilation tag.

I don't agree here, see my other comment a bit further up the thread. The problem is that NAIM UnitiServe SSD does not read the "compilation" tag. When the SSD rips a CD it strips the "track artist" and replaces it with "Various" as far as I can see. 

The file structure doesn't matter ... the SSD indexes based on tags to my knowledge.

Hello Michael

I am not familiar with Metadatics?

Are you able to read the metadata on your ripped files?

I include a screen shot link 

Using MP3tag it is a simple matter of adding a compilation tag and the correct information shows up for various artist albums. 

Hello Michael

With reference to my previous post,

Try this link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5lta...a%20Example.jpg?dl=0

I can't see tags on CD WAV files ripped by the US SSD - believe they are stored somewhere else, but I can see what the n-Serve App gives me regarding ripped CDs.

However, I can of course see tags on files (using Metadatics) that I downloaded myself  - the compilation tag is set by a checked box down the left side:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvk2...ompilation.tiff?dl=0

And the corresponding view on my Naim App in iPhone, where you see that a new album is shown for each artist:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rk7s...5y/IMG_4214.jpg?dl=0

In this particular case I put in multiple track-artists, the first one being always Peter Gabriel and the second one being the actual artist (just to experiment), but no luck. The only thing that works is to completely remove all track-artists and replace by just one e.g. "Peter Gabriel", but then again, I loose all the artist information. And I don't like that if it is only because Naim doesn't read the Compilation tag.

From your screen shot the file name has the correct tag (Artist.Title) The track artist should be the individual artist (David Byrne, Bon Iver etc) The album artist should be left blank - (not Peter Gabriel as in your example) (This is because you have ticked part of compilation) 

It would appear that you need to access the 'All Tag Section' and add the value Compilation and set this to -1. (This works with Flac files) (0 for the dreaded MP3's) I'm not sure for Wav files. Try -1.

Your ripped CD Wav files? Temporary on SSD then moved to a separate hard drive? 

Try consulting the Naim App user guide

Silly boy!

I did just exactly how you described and - in fact - it made it worse. Now, there is no place where I can see and play the entire album. 

Going into "albums" will show one album for each artist combination.

Going into "artists" will not show the album under the main artist, but Naim now created a number of new artists - one for each artist combination .... 

Tried setting the flag to -1 ... made no difference ...

Using your example (Dropbox Compilation) screenshot: Album Artist should be left blank, track artist should be individual artist (Bon Iver, Peter Gabriel etc) part of compilation should be ticked. There should be a compilation in the tag section heading with a =1 in the value section. (There does not appear to be a compilation tag in your screen shot)

Your compilations need to be stored in their own folder (Various Artists for example or Compilations) The tags set will direct the server software to that folder / album / title etc and display the correct information.

I am wondering as I use a windows based program (Mp3tag) and you use a mac based program (metadatics) whether there is a difference in the 'Tagging' conformity.

I know when I used I Tunes this created individual folders for every artist in compilation albums

irrespective of ticking compilation tag or not! 

Take a look at my screen shot in previous message and compare with your example, subtle differences but that's all it takes to get it working correctly. 

I am not sure on Forum Rules but if you are able to contact directly I am willing to assist.

I believe, that I did just exactly like you suggested. I even created a new tag called "Compilation" and set it to "1":

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t9j4...mpilation2.tiff?dl=0

... but all the effort with the same result:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/68b7...oq/IMG_4218.jpg?dl=0

Had a short email correspondence with Phil and he suggested - as I mentioned earlier in this thread - the only way is to replace "track artist" with just one artist name throughout all tracks. Then, as someone else suggested - put the artist name in the "track title" to preserve it and keep it readable on the iPad.

Change the compilation tag from 1 to =1

if this does not work then your unitiserve must handle metadata in a different way.

all my 'various artist' albums are tagged the way I have described and the information is displayed correctly.

Setting the tag parameter to "1" or "=1" gives the same result, unfortunately.

My conclusion after testing many suggestions from this thread is that the SSD UnitiServe does not read and interpret the "Partofacompilation" tag or "Compilation" tag.

There is only one way of making a "self-downloaded compilation album" appear as ONE album instead of one album for each artist appearing on the album.

Set the "track artist" to the same artist for all tracks. 

If you don't want to loose the correct track artist information, then you need to include the correct track artist in the "track title" e.g. like this: "Lou Reed - Solsbury Hill" or in the file name like "11- Lou Reed - Solsbury Hill.wav"

Annoying, but these are my findings ... :-(