UI element bugs and wrong tagging

[krYshuT]

Love the new Poweramp, it fixed a lot of bugs regarding displaying tags and visualizing it into the UI, it is a breeze to use it now.

However I still have some bugs to report and / or suggestions on how some of these bug-related UI elements should be diplayed correctly.

Also want to flex my MS Paint skills, and to keep things simple, made a numbered list related to the images of my concerns.

SCREENSHOT 1

SCREENSHOT 2

ITEM #1: In all libraries (except the Album Artist one), an "ARTIST" tag is used even when "ALBUMARTIST" tag is included in a track. Evidently, the last song on each album is used to display the artist tag in those libraries. This cause wrong sorting and displaying in this situation for example: IMAGE #3 - a James Brown album is shown and sorted as an Afrika Bambaataa album, because the last song on his album "Star Time" is actually from Afrika Bambaataa. Once opening the album from that library and playing that song, everything is shown as it should (ARTIST tag shown).

ITEM #2: The fast seekbar disapears when you sort the library by anything other than name. That's a shame. I guess everyone would find it better if the album section would be sorted first album artist, then by a year and then by name. Especially when you have more albums from one artist.

ITEM #3: The problem I started with continues here. The tag is correctly displayed in Album Artist library and sublibrary of every artist in there. But when you open the album from here, it continues to use the Album Artist tag and loads it differently than above. This section should now use the "ARTIST" tag.

ITEM #4: The problem continues. When you play the song from Album Artist library, even the now playing screen now shows the "ALBUMARTIST" tag instead of "ARTIST" so you won't see featured artists in "ARTIST" tag when included. The image above it shows it does display the featured artist when you play the same track from any other library.

ITEM #5: This is cosmetical and a bit of a feature request - it would be lovely if there was an option for a third line dedicated to album name (or maybe an editor on what to show and what not) and not showing it in a ARTIST - ALBUM format. The thing is that in the current state, it feels really crowded, a big portion of songs are just cut because the artist's or album's name is really long.

ITEM #6: On some songs, there is a big pitch in the track seekbar even though there is not anything pitching in the song. Is there any way to smooth these bugs and put in a more linear line?

ITEM #7: The default size of clickable song element is just too big when opening an album. I can change it, but I have to do that in every library. Is it really necessary having it that insanely big by default not even seing the full artist's name (and having the album tag after it).

ITEM #8: This is related to #2. Not a biggie. I guess everyone would find it better if the album section would be sorted first album artist, then by a year and then by name. Especially when you have more albums from one artist.

ITEM #9: There is lot of stuff going on here and I find it confusing. It is an opened album and it's size was set at the minimum by me (as it should be by default IMO like I said in #7). But even at the smallest size, it is so crowded. You just opened and album and want to play a song from it - why would you need an image art next to each song (it is especially annoying at the default size, see #7), why would you need an album tag after every artist tag in the list. It should be dedicated to just a song name, its length, an artist (as with featuring they differ) and maybe its track number (still better than 20 images in every opened album). There is already an album image, album name information on the top of the list, so there's no need for it, it's just confusing and poor use of space. If anything could be added, it is definitely a genre tag - on top of the list. Then there is the same bug as in the #1 item - the last song's "ARTIST" tag is used instead of "ALBUMARTIST" tag. Finally, last thing - the floating now playing window could use the same suggestion as I made in the #5 item - 3 lines instead of 2.

 

Keep up the great work!

[blaubär]

8 hours ago, krYshuT said:

ITEM #1: In all libraries (except the Album Artist one), an "ARTIST" tag is used even when "ALBUMARTIST" tag is included in a track.

What are your settings regarding the use of album artist ? Try to activate.

[blaubär]

8 hours ago, krYshuT said:

ITEM #6: On some songs, there is a big pitch in the track seekbar even though there is not anything pitching in the song.

The waveseek bar doesn't show pitch ( that is frequency ) but dynamics / volume.

[blaubär]

8 hours ago, krYshuT said:

ITEM #7: The default size of clickable song element is just too big when opening an album. I can change it, but I have to do that in every library. Is it really necessary having it that insanely big by default not even seing the full artist's name (and having the album tag after it). 

Feature, not bug, that should be done per library.

 Using "List - compact" doesn't use more vertical space with picture than it would without, as this is sufficiently small.

[blaubär]

8 hours ago, krYshuT said:

I guess everyone would find it better if the album section would be sorted first album artist, then by a year and then by name.

No, not everybody wants that. Some people would like an even more flexible and configurable sorting mechanism.

[blaubär]

8 hours ago, krYshuT said:

You just opened and album and want to play a song from it - why would you need an image art next to each song (it is especially annoying at the default size, see #7), why would you need an album tag after every artist tag in the list.

There may be a different art per song.

Some users want a configurable display here.

[krYshuT]

Thanks for the replies. I get that Poweramp is for a "poweruser", but my frustrations still remain and I think that most of these things are just a pain for anyone. These tag related features are commonplace for example in Windows Media Player for decades.

 

On 1/18/2019 at 5:12 AM, blaubär said:

What are your settings regarding the use of album artist ? Try to activate.

#1/3/4 These settings just forces to show certain tags, but from Artist type libraries, it has no effect. When you play a song with featured artists from withing Album Artist library, it doesn't show it. This is I think really frustrating to anyone, who has his library tagged with featured artists and so.

I still don't get why there are 3 types of Artist type libraries, not just that it's confusing, but as said before, other players does this by default in a common sense manner:

IF there IS an "albumartist" tag THEN use it next to an "album" tag AND IF there IS ALSO "artist" tag THEN show it next to a song "title" tag (in an opened album, player, notification)

IF there IS NOT an "albumartist" tag THEN use "artist" tag

Simple as that and there is no need for 3 types of libraries solving this "problem" that never should have been a problem in the first place. It seems like a solution in search of a problem.

 

On 1/18/2019 at 5:17 AM, blaubär said:

The waveseek bar doesn't show pitch ( that is frequency ) but dynamics / volume.

#6 Not an expert, sorry. Whether it's frequency or loudness, the bug still remains. There is no change in volume whatsoever on these types of songs, where you can see this sudden change.

 

On 1/18/2019 at 5:28 AM, blaubär said:

No, not everybody wants that. Some people would like an even more flexible and configurable sorting mechanism.

#2/8 I guess not everyone (beauty of configurabilty), but from a musical chronology logic, it seems like the most pliable way by default and Poweramp can't even do this. It's how a "music library" should look like. Other players do this (using WMP for decades on a PC). Also not having a seekbar is a pain, when you have 100+ albums.

 

On 1/18/2019 at 5:23 AM, blaubär said:

Feature, not bug, that should be done per library.

 Using "List - compact" doesn't use more vertical space with picture than it would without, as this is sufficiently small.

On 1/18/2019 at 5:30 AM, blaubär said:

There may be a different art per song.

Some users want a configurable display here.

#7/9 You're right, there may be a different art, but that happens in a queue (when it can stay), but not in an album or the likes of it.

Still, I mean really? Do we need one song taking one third of a screen? Why isn't compact list a default like in every other player? It's kinda annoying to apply this in every library. There is much more potential for this poor use of space.

[blaubär]

9 hours ago, krYshuT said:

I still don't get why there are 3 types of Artist type libraries, not just that it's confusing, but as said before, other players does this by default in a common sense manner:

IF there IS an "albumartist" tag THEN use it next to an "album" tag AND IF there IS ALSO "artist" tag THEN show it next to a song "title" tag (in an opened album, player, notification)

IF there IS NOT an "albumartist" tag THEN use "artist" tag

Simple as that and there is no need for 3 types of libraries solving this "problem" that never should have been a problem in the first place. It seems like a solution in search of a problem.

I don't know how to respond adequately to your post. It seems you've others players and the way they work in mind. Well, Poweramp has its own way of doing things, its own history and technical limitations. There are feature requests for customizable displays for the texts on the main screen and the list view, and perhaps max some day will implement something like that. I personally take Poweramp as it is. It has features that no other player has, mainly the customizing and the possibility to discuss things with some perspective of changing them. Such changes will have to be done incrementally, with the exception of main versions. Such a main version has just been delivered, and for me the UI now basically is the way it is.

[andrewilley]

I think the majority of what is being asked for (although there is probably far too much in one thread to follow easily) would be covered by a general request for Sort Ordering to be more customisable, which has been mentioned a number of times in the past. As @blaubär says, the current categories and sorting have developed and been refined over 8+ years of the product's existence - the most recent major change being the addition of recognition of Album Artist tags. Better transparent fallback between the existence of Album Artist and Track Artist tags without needing multiple category types would certainly be a good idea though.

I think the long-term answer to all of the various sorting threads over the years would be to implement a configurable nested sorting and grouping system, whereby you can define simple or complex layered formulas for sorting (such as Genre > Artist > Year > Album Title > Disc# > Track#) and then set user-defined grouping levels so you can say at which point you want a new drill-down level (for example, in the previous case you probably wouldn't want to see the year as an extra visible layer to click though, so within Artist you would go directly to Album titles. Same with Disc# and Track#, you'd just want to see a flattened layer at that point). I've no idea how technically feasible that would be, but it strikes me as the most simple but flexible way to answer a lot of long-term feature requests.

Andre

[blaubär]

2 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

I think the long-term answer to all of the various sorting threads over the years would be to implement a configurable nested sorting and grouping system, whereby you can define simple or complex layered formulas for sorting (such as Genre > Artist > Year > Album Title > Disc# > Track#) and then set user-defined grouping levels so you can say at which point you want a new drill-down level (for example, in the previous case you probably wouldn't want to see the year as an extra visible layer to click though, so within Artist you would go directly to Album titles. Same with Disc# and Track#, you'd just want to see a flattened layer at that point).

Yes, Andre, that would be THE solution !

[krYshuT]

On 2/4/2019 at 9:35 AM, andrewilley said:

I think the majority of what is being asked for (although there is probably far too much in one thread to follow easily) would be covered by a general request for Sort Ordering to be more customisable, which has been mentioned a number of times in the past. As @blaubär says, the current categories and sorting have developed and been refined over 8+ years of the product's existence - the most recent major change being the addition of recognition of Album Artist tags. Better transparent fallback between the existence of Album Artist and Track Artist tags without needing multiple category types would certainly be a good idea though.

I think the long-term answer to all of the various sorting threads over the years would be to implement a configurable nested sorting and grouping system, whereby you can define simple or complex layered formulas for sorting (such as Genre > Artist > Year > Album Title > Disc# > Track#) and then set user-defined grouping levels so you can say at which point you want a new drill-down level (for example, in the previous case you probably wouldn't want to see the year as an extra visible layer to click though, so within Artist you would go directly to Album titles. Same with Disc# and Track#, you'd just want to see a flattened layer at that point). I've no idea how technically feasible that would be, but it strikes me as the most simple but flexible way to answer a lot of long-term feature requests.

Andre

Thank you so much for considering and giving a complex answer.

I very much admire all the work, even though the default setting for libraries seems still very quirky. I can really mess around a whole hour with the new app and set it to how I think is "simple" and loving the process, but I think it can discourage a lot of not so patient or advanced user to use and eventually buy Poweramp.

Mainly the most "in your face" problems I face in everyday use from everything I meantioned above is the loss of seekbar when sorting by artist in the Albums library and secondly for someone who got his long-life collection for both artist and albumartist tags, it kinda sucks that as I use the Album Artist library, I cannot see the featured artists, which is the whole point of even using albumartist tag. You even mention this in setting, that it doesn't work.

THIS

Just why

Keep up the good work.

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, krYshuT said:

Mainly the most "in your face" problems I face in everyday use from everything I meantioned above is the loss of seekbar when sorting by artist in the Albums library

I assume by "seekbar" here you mean the vertical scroll bar, which for title sorting shows an A-Z list when scrolling, but not for other sort methods?

Andre

[maxmp]

On 2/4/2019 at 12:29 AM, krYshuT said:

IF there IS an "albumartist" tag THEN use it next to an "album" tag AND IF there IS ALSO "artist" tag THEN show it next to a song "title" tag (in an opened album, player, notification)

IF there IS NOT an "albumartist" tag THEN use "artist" tag

This is how it implemented if you enable Library / Lists / Album Artist Label for Tracks.

Also there is no such thing as "artist tag" for album. There are only tracks on storage - no any albums. Albums (and artists, and album artists) are inferred from tracks.

[krYshuT]

On 5/1/2019 at 6:07 PM, andrewilley said:

I assume by "seekbar" here you mean the vertical scroll bar, which for title sorting shows an A-Z list when scrolling, but not for other sort methods?

Andre

Exactly. I have almost 1000 albums and it is nuts to seek a letter by using it without the letters being there.

On 5/1/2019 at 8:46 PM, maxmp said:

This is how it implemented if you enable Library / Lists / Album Artist Label for Tracks.

Also there is no such thing as "artist tag" for album. There are only tracks on storage - no any albums. Albums (and artists, and album artists) are inferred from tracks.

It is not for an Album Artist library.

As I said here:

On 5/1/2019 at 4:48 PM, krYshuT said:

...and secondly for someone who got his long-life collection for both artist and albumartist tags, it kinda sucks that as I use the Album Artist library, I cannot see the featured artists, which is the whole point of even using albumartist tag. You even mention this in setting, that it doesn't work.

THIS

Just why

Keep up the good work.

 

[andrewilley]

If you have chosen to view by Album Artist (i.e. where any given group level only contains songs which have the same Album Artist, or technically the same TPE2 tag) then it is the album artist tag that should be displayed in the header area of each song list.

However for individual songs (and in any category view) the track artist name (technically the TPE1 tag) should be displayed beneath each song title, regardless of whether there is any Album Artist tag available or not. For example, each song within an album collection that has an overall 'Various Artists' TPE2 tag should show the actual track singer's name for each separate song, not 'Various Artists'. The only exception (and it would be rare) would be if a song has an Album Artist tag but no Track Artist tag, in which case as a fall-back the song should show the album artist name.

Is that what you are suggesting too?

Andre

[krYshuT]

On 5/4/2019 at 1:26 AM, andrewilley said:

If you have chosen to view by Album Artist (i.e. where any given group level only contains songs which have the same Album Artist, or technically the same TPE2 tag) then it is the album artist tag that should be displayed in the header area of each song list.

However for individual songs (and in any category view) the track artist name (technically the TPE1 tag) should be displayed beneath each song title, regardless of whether there is any Album Artist tag available or not. For example, each song within an album collection that has an overall 'Various Artists' TPE2 tag should show the actual track singer's name for each separate song, not 'Various Artists'. The only exception (and it would be rare) would be if a song has an Album Artist tag but no Track Artist tag, in which case as a fall-back the song should show the album artist name.

Is that what you are suggesting too?

Andre

I'm not so sure about the terminology here, so I'm gonna use images again. The logic of applying rules for these two various tags are basicly the "lower" you browse, the more specific tag should be used.

To solve this universally I see a potential to create just one Artist library.

VIEW #1 | VIEW #2 - show ALBUMARTIST (if there is none, use ARTIST)

VIEW #3 | VIEW #4 | NOTIFICATION | FLOATING QUICK PANEL - show ARTIST (if there is none, use ALBUMARTIST, but that's very rare as you stated)

 

Current state & my suggestions:

VIEW #1

· in Album Artist library, this is correct

· in other Artist libraries it makes a total mess when you use both tags (picture)

· a number of albums contained would be a lovely addition (just like song counter in an album)

VIEW #2

· in Album Artist library, this is of course again, correct

· everywhere else it is dependent on the setting “Album Artist Label for Albums” (Library > Lists), which is really quirky, if you don’t turn this setting on, it messes up your library when you use both tags and moves your albums all around it as the featured artists can be totally different from those main artists

· sorting by year in default seems primal to me here (and it’s great that year is shown next to each album)

· also the quick lettered search bar when artist sorted :)))

VIEW #3

· in Album Artist library this view shows just ALBUMARTIST tag (picture)

· this is where I see the transition, when it should show ARTIST tag and get more specific - you open a certain album and of course you want to see featurings here

· also why is there a need to show an album title next to EACH song in album - you already opened and album, you don’t need to waste this space and crowd it next to each song. the same applies for the album cover next to each song

· another important detail would be showing compact list by default and instead of album cover show track number

· a small thing - why not show a year or a genre tag above?

VIEW #4

· when the song is played from Album Artist library, the player shows just that (picture) - not like it should (picture) which is the whole point of having both tags and which it does only in other libraries (which are already messed up if you have both tags, like already described)

NOTIFICATION

· this one is working well (showing ARTIST tag) even when the song is played from Album Artist library

FLOATING QUICK PANEL

· not like in notification, this one depends on whether you play the song from Album Artist library or somewhere else

 

So in summary, it is pain to use either artist libraries, when using both tags in your collection. Hope I explained fully how my idea of a uniform, universal artist library would look like.

 

PS: In VIEW #4 + NOTIFICATION + FLOATING PANEL why not use 3 lines for:

SONG

ARTIST

ALBUM (YEAR)

instead of current 2 lines:

SONG

ARTIST - ALBUM

Seems neater to me and less crowded, other players, music TV channels use this. Phones are getting taller. Or maybe just a simple editor for this so it fits everyone

[krYshuT]

Thanks for having the option to show Artist label with songs in Album Artist library in the next update. Keep up the good work!

[krYshuT]

I've just noticed, there is an option in settings called "Symbols to split multiple genres" including likes of ";" a semicolon or "/" a slash. Why doesn't this option apply to artists as well? Windows Media Player did this for ages and seperates select songs (with featured artists) in many libraries. But as a result in Poweramp, a properly tagged songs with featured artists creates a mess in my Artist library and makes it virtually unusable...

Example:

Can you please make this appliable for ARTIST tag as well?

Thanks.

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, krYshuT said:

I've just noticed, there is an option in settings called "Symbols to split multiple genres" including likes of ";" a semicolon or "/" a slash. Why doesn't this option apply to artists as well?

There are several topic discussing this Feature Requests, and it is on the to-do list for implementing at some point.

Andre