Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to M4A

Get answers about syncing MediaMonkey 4 with iPods and other devices.

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komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to M4A

Post by komarek »

When I autosync FLAC files to my Ipod Classic, I often get multiple artists showing up for classical music on the ipod, which I don't want. I don't use the "classical music" "type" in MM -- everything is in my "Music" library and I manually set the "type" on every file to "music." A typical MM database listing for me is "Conductor;Orchestra" - the conversion to m4a sometimes sends this "as is" with both artists ("Conductor;Orchestra") instead of simplifying the entry to "Conductor" -- a single artist, which is what I want. There is a checkbox in the autosync settings that says to sync only the first artist, but the system ignores this. I wind up scrolling through the ipod database in MM editing out the extra listings to get the device's "cover flow" function to work correctly. I did not have this issue when I was using MP3s.

Is this what's supposed to happen when the "genre" is "Classical" and the "type" is "music"?

Any ideas about how to fix this?

Finally, some time ago I bought a "conversion pack" to be able to use Apple lossless - is that what's causing this?

Thanks!

--pk---
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Lowlander »

I think the first Artist only is done in the files tags, it is ignored in the database sync (something MediaMonkey does with Apple and MediaMonkey for Android devices).

Do you also have the multiple Artists in the Album Artist field?
Guest

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Guest »

Lowlander

Yes - the multiples are in "Album Artists" too. I'm pretty sure the issues is only happening in the initial conversion to m4a. Once i delete the second entries from the ipod, a second run of the auto-sync process does not reinstate the data I deleted.

--pk---
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Lowlander »

Then likely the issue is that you have multiple values in the Album Artist, try using only one.
komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by komarek »

Lowlander,

Thanks. I appreciate your help with this puzzle. I think the problem is that MM is not actually stripping the second and subsequent values from the tags BEFORE doing the FLAC to M4A conversion. Because MM retains all the data in the tags, the ipod interprets the data that's sent over, and does whatever it wants. (btw I deleted the previously installed codec pack, so this is native MM behavior).

Here's what happened when I tried auto-syncing a few discs.

One had multiple artists -- In my mm database, some tracks had (Conductor;Orchestra), others had (Soloist;Conductor;Orchestra) and all tracks showed "Conductor" as Album Artist. The ipod translated this as a compilation with "various artists" --- which is different from MM's view of the ipod database

Another CD in the series had just (Conductor;Orchestra) tracks and all had Conductor as Album Artist. The ipod showed "Conductor" as album artist -- the same as MM's view of the ipod database.

So I had CD1 and CD2 of a multi-disc set showing up as different Album Artist compilations -- even though I specified a single Album Artist for both.

A third had multiple "Album Artists" but all the tracks had Artist1;Artist2, and the disk came out as an album by Artist1.

For all of these tracks, the genre was Classical and the "type" was set to Music.

The answer to the puzzle, i think, is that MM is retaining data in the FLAC to M4A conversion that it should not be retaining, given that there is an option to remove the second and subsequent artist and genre in the tracks. The way I fix this is to edit the ipod database after the sync, which shouldn't be necessary.

--pk---
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Lowlander »

Note that MediaMonkey writes to the iPod database, so I'm not sure that the tags in the files matter.
komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by komarek »

Okay, then. If MM is writing to the IPOD database, shouldn't MM be stripping the second and subsequent entries from the database entries? The device configuration checkbox is still broken.

--pk---
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Lowlander »

I think it doesn't for database, but it does in the file. The feature is designed for devices that can't handle multiple values.
komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by komarek »

This is a bug, I think. The checkbox is not doing its job for Ipod Classics.

--pk---
komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Ipod Classic, FLAC to M4A, multiple artists not stripped out

Post by komarek »

I have an Ipod Classic. I have checked the box on the MM device sync options to strip out the second and subsequent artists and genres -- but the autosync still sends all the info across to the Ipod, and I end up with weird artist combos and doubles on albums in the database. Stripping out the second and subsequent artist info manually from the ipod database via MM puts everything back in order. I tried a variety of options at this place in the forum

http://forum.mediamonkey.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=86515

to no avail.

If you could fix that checkbox and make it do what it should, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

--pk---
Peke
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Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Can you please make screenshot of Ipod Content after Sync and device settings in MMW.

Please be sure that tracks in screenshot are not previously synced with iPod and that it contain multiple artists.

FYI I merged topics as there is no need for duplicates.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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How to attach PICTURE/SCREENSHOTS to forum posts
komarek
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 8:18 am

Re: Ipod Classic, Multiple Artists, Classical Music, FLAC to

Post by komarek »

Thanks, folks.

I'm uploading my screenshots and filling out the ticket now.

Regards,

--pk---
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