There are some artists who have made recordings using different names, or who are credited on records with different names; but are actually just one person. Some examples off the top of my head:
Walter Carlos / Wendy Carlos
Wayne County / Jayne County
Shane Fenton / Alvin Stardust
The Rev. Al Green / Al Green
Lemar / Lemar Obika
I don’t know whether it’s possible, or whether anyone else would be interested in this idea :D, but could there be a way to have these ‘multiple personalities’ considered as just one Artist in mAirListDB?
I should add that I can’t think of a way to actually do this.
A rule set that says do not play (as an example) a John Lennon song next to one by The Beatles or George Harrison next to Ringo etc. I guess the logic must include an sql routine using - if statements.
This routine would consider Lemar and Lemar Okiba as being related (not the same artist) but be close enough to stop 2 songs playing together.
Well, you could either include all of the related artists inside the existing “Artist” field or perhaps there could be an additional field for “Related Artists” but that would involve Torben making the DB (and scheduling algorithm) more “cleverer”… The problem with the 1st method is that you’ll end up - in the case of the Travelling Wilburys (surely it’s on your playlist?) having not only each member’s name, but also their respective groups and other related artists etc etc.
The 2nd option would work better from a user’s point of view - So a Beatles tracks would only contain that Artist in the display field but the Properties view would offer a list of the Related Artists. This would enable you to specify just who+how they are related and then of course they’ll form part of the Artist Repeat Interval which will keep your Genesis tracks away from Peter Gabriel (for example).
My opinion is that the current “Artists” field should be used for Artists on that particular recording - with the Related Artists handled by another part of the database/record-keeping.
I think you’ve all misunderstood my thinking: I don’t give two hoots about how tracks are scheduled. My concern is that a presenter might not realise that, for example, The Artist (the way that ‘squiggle’ representing Prince’s name during his hissy-fit-with-the record-label period is usually written) is actually one and the same person as Prince. And the letters P and T are far enough apart for them not to appear together in an alphabetical list.
Less important with Lemar and Lemar Obika (but again not so obvious), but moreso with Walter / Wendy Carlos, and with Rev. Al Green / Al Green (R and A).
All I care about is that you can see all the tracks by the same person in one list in the Database Library tab. Our presenters (bless them!) are not all experts in the minutiae and history of music and artists, hence my interest in having a way to achieve that, if possible. Even if this means having the list of tracks under (say) Wendy Carlos including those by (pre-op) Walter Carlos, and vice versa.
As Charlie suggests then another tab for each file listing an Alias for the artist, perhaps visible in a similar fashion to the comments if you have them active.
And how exactly would this allow one to see all the tracks by the person together under one (or both?) Artist names in the mAirListDB Library tab Artists list?
For example, what I’d want to see under Prince (and under The Artist) in the mAirListDB Artists list would be something like this:
TitleArtist
Endorphinmachine The Artist
Purple Rain Prince
Yes I see now. I should read the question in more depth.
Not something we would need as presenters do not have access to the database, we are not totally reliant on PC for audio playout - do not use scheduling and most would reach for a reference book anyway.
Who’s Trever Horn? A composer? Then I would just add his name as an attribute.
I believe Cad’s point is solely to group artist that appear under different names into the same node in the database tree so you can find their tracks more easily.
Of course the relationship should also be respected by the scheduler (for the artist separation) - and as Tony proposes, one could extend the mechanism so that you cannot only group artists which are in fact the same person, but also different artists that should be handled as the same person for the scheduler only, just like the typical John Lennon vs. The Beatles thing. This is why I think there should be a “kind of relationship” field in the table.
All in all a good idea, but nothing I can implement right now.
Well, no. Born in 1977. Raised in the 80s. And the music of that period is still one of my favorite genres. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I know a lot of it, and not only the few “hits” that are in the radio today.
But I must admit that I didn’t know that there was a producer named Trevor Horn, and that we was part of The Buggles. You live and learn.
As others have said, best known as a producer, but also as a musician and composer.
Correct! And your other thoughts would just be icing on the cake for yours truly.
Completely understood: I raised this simply to have the debate we’ve had, and also to see whether it could be done at all. As always, you have come up with a rather elegant method of addressing these issues in the future. ;D
Discussion over, I think; unless anyone has anything further to add to this subject?
