smart view custom query

[sretsof]

just updated to the new winamp, from the previous version with album list installed.
so now i'm just trying to get winamp to work the way i want without any 3rd party plugins.
it's looking good so far, but i want to know if it's possible to write a smart view query to group albums with various artists:
so instead of having loads of artists in the list with one track and one album to its name, the could be grouped under "various artists". and when clicked on show the various artists albums.
a easy workaround for this would be to change the tags(ie: artist=various artists, track=artist-track) but i really don't want to do that.
i've attached a screen shot trying to show what i mean a bit more clearly.
thanks for any help whatsoever

[DJ Egg]

Set the "Album Artist" field to "Various Artists", then you can do a Smart View with "Album Artist" as the top left pane instead of Artist.

[sretsof]

wow, it sounds so simple. but i can get it to work
could explain step by step?

[DJ Egg]

Select all the Various Artists albums in either the Artist or Album pane,
then in the bottom Tracks pane:
select all (Ctrl+A), right-click > Edit Selected Items
Set the "Album Artist" field to "Various Artists", click Update
(Note: don't checkmark any other fields, only 'Album Artist')

Then right-click the 'Local Media' tree item and select "Add smart view"
Select a 2 or 3 pane view (up to you) where Album Artist is the first pane.

In my example below, I'm using a 3 pane view of Album Artist, Album, Album Art along the top (although, for the benefit of this post, I've hidden the 3rd-pane by dragging it to the right - original 3-pane Art view example here).

[sretsof]

dj egg, you the man. plain and simple.
you've helped me in the past too. tbh, i surprised you're still here dishing out quick and expert support if i met you IRL, i'd buy you a few bevies
thanks again

[DJ Egg]

[MJAldridge6]

I got rid of those three buttons left of the search bar and now I can't figure out how to get them back, any thoughts?

[TheUniqueTiger]

Originally posted by MJAldridge6
I got rid of those three buttons left of the search bar and now I can't figure out how to get them back, any thoughts?

Those buttons are shown depending on the album/artist view that you are currently in... For example in 'Local Media' it doesn't show those buttons, but in 'Audio' it shows 3 buttons. So apart from the 'Local Media' smart view, if its any of your own smart views then select that smart view, right-click -> Edit smart view... Under 'Filters' select anything other than 'Simple' and Winamp will show 2 to 3 buttons depending on the smart view.

[Ikarus7]

what if i dont like to set thousands of files to "various artists" ???

[J_Darnley]

What? If you don't want to set the album artist field then you will have to put up with what ever problem you have.

[Blackbirdkd]

YEA i DONT WANNA HAVE A THOUSENDS VARIOS ARTISTS
come on must be so easy to show files in a folder with the same album name.... so that it apears as one ALBUM
COME ON!
...do something THERE ARE ENDLESS VARIOUS ARTISTS!!!

[J_Darnley]

This is how Album Art works at this time so you will either have to do what has been suggested or wait for changes to be made, if they ever will.

In case you didn't realise I should point this out. You don't have to use Various Artists, Winamp doesn't treat this value any differently from any other. You could use the album name, a list of every artist on the album, "Various", "Assorted", etc.

[paridox]

i better wait to winamp team make the changes coz if i do otherwise i will lose thousand of complx names of artist who deserve their credit when i listen to their song/music

[DJ Egg]

Album Artist and Artist are two entirely separate fields.
Editing the 'Album Artist' field doesn't affect the Artist tag whatsoever.
Artist will still be the same as before (ie. Artist = Track Artist).

[flexoken]

After searching, searching and searching I finally found what I'm looking at, and the most importand is, this solution works great!

A very thx to Mr DJ Egg

[JoeDanski]

You can easily change 1000s of files with one click if you use a tagging program that allows you to edit mp3-tags, like f.i. I use Tag&Rename but there are many more. Edit the Album Artist field and all works. By default the Album Artist = Artist.

Another option would have been to put all those files in a separate directory and create a Smart View with filname contains that directory, but working with mp3-tags is the better way, and automatically it will also work on ipod or other players/software

[dav1129]

I had I think the same problem and came across this thread after first using google and then searching these forums so I hope I am on topic.

Well I am not sure if my problem was exactly the same. I just didn't want to see a whole heap of single track artists who featured in a various artists album. I use Helium Music Manager to manage my music files and I had I thought already populated the fields properly to do this (see below)



But switching the smart view to Album Artist\Album (see below) still seemed to show the Track Artist as the Album Artist



I read the first few posts but not the whole thread because I quickly found that DJ Egg's solution also worked for me.

But interestinlgy back in Helium Music Manager I find Winamp has not populated the field which Helium reads as Album Artist but instead a field called Band/Orchestra (see below)



So Winamp appears to be mapping a different field as Album Artist and I have two fields which read Various Artists

As inconsequential as it perhaps is, does anyone have an opinion on whether this is a bug with Helium Music Manager or Winamp and if Winamp, does anyone want to take it up to be fixed? Or how and who should I report the mapping error to?

Thanks

[Joe Danski]

Populating the Album Artist field with the program I use (Tag&Rename) works fine, and results in the right results in Winamp, Ipod etc. So problem of last poster is more likely due to the tagging software