(2021-05-04, 18:38)DaveBlake Wrote: Actually Picard does not necessarily separate multiple album artists (or artists) with a semicolon, it just displays tags that have multiple values as a single line using semicolons on its UI. The actual metadata values may not have any semicolons at all, it all depends on the tag format. Formats like ID3 v2.4 (mp3 files) or Vorbis comments (FLAC files) support multi-value tags, and Kodi has no problem in reading and storing the separate values. However older ID3 v2.3 format is single frame, and the standard is to use " / " as a separator, but it sounds like that isn't what you have.
When you tag using Picard it provides:
a single string value for ALBUMARTIST = "Composer: Conductor; Orchestra; Soloist"
but multiple values for ALBUMARTISTS = "Composer", "Conductor", "Orchestra", "Soloist"
which is displays on the screen as a line of values separated by semicolons.
Kodi reads both lots of data, shows ALBUMARTIST string as the album artist display, but lists the individual artists (from ALBUMARTISTS) in the artist node.
Assuming that the music files that you manually tag are using the same format, then it sounds like the tagging tool is either not providing an ALBUMARTIST value or is converting the separate ALBUMARTISTS values into ALBUMARTIST "Composer / Conductor / Orchestra / Soloist". What tagging tool are you using, and what format of tagging?
If you provide an example of a manually tagged classical music file then I can tell you why you are seeing what you are seeing.
I'm posting (partial) outputs of `metaflac --list filename.flac`
First file (tagged by Picard):
comment[0]: MUSICBRAINZ_RELEASEGROUPID=dd7c3b33-d6af-4b47-b84e-a2819628f2ae
comment[1]: ORIGINALDATE=2016-04-29
comment[2]: ORIGINALYEAR=2016
comment[3]: RELEASETYPE=album
comment[4]: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID=7b689f15-f25d-4a78-91a9-a0719626572e
comment[5]: ASIN=B01DC8N3XW
comment[6]: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMARTISTID=1f9df192-a621-4f54-8850-2c5373b7eac9
comment[7]: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMARTISTID=dea28aa9-1086-4ffa-8739-0ccc759de1ce
comment[8]: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMARTISTID=80c3bce9-0b54-409c-aa10-3b0c7dbbc597
comment[9]: ALBUMARTIST=Beethoven; Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle
comment[10]: ALBUMARTISTSORT=Beethoven, Ludwig van; Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, Simon
comment[11]: LABEL=Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings
comment[12]: CATALOGNUMBER=BPHR 160091
comment[13]: DATE=2016
comment[14]: ALBUM=Symphonien 1-9
comment[15]: BARCODE=4260306180912
comment[16]: RELEASESTATUS=official
comment[17]: TOTALDISCS=5
comment[18]: MEDIA=CD
comment[19]: DISCNUMBER=1
comment[20]: TOTALTRACKS=8
comment[21]: DISCSUBTITLE=Symphonien Nr. 1 & 3
comment[22]: MUSICBRAINZ_TRACKID=034d6e1d-a45f-4587-b2bf-484fc4b15faa
comment[23]: MUSICBRAINZ_ARTISTID=1f9df192-a621-4f54-8850-2c5373b7eac9
comment[24]: ARTIST=Ludwig van Beethoven
comment[25]: ARTISTSORT=Beethoven, Ludwig van
comment[26]: ARTISTS=Ludwig van Beethoven
comment[27]: TITLE=Symphony no. 1 in C major, op. 21: I. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
comment[28]: CONDUCTOR=Simon Rattle
comment[29]: PERFORMER=Berliner Philharmoniker (orchestra)
comment[30]: PRODUCER=Christoph Franke
comment[31]: ENGINEER=René Möller
comment[32]: MUSICBRAINZ_WORKID=80297632-7cf5-3dae-b36e-230c87ef8c30
comment[33]: LANGUAGE=zxx
comment[34]: WORK=Symphony no. 1 in C major, op. 21: I. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
comment[35]: COMPOSER=Ludwig van Beethoven
comment[36]: COMPOSERSORT=Beethoven, Ludwig van
comment[37]: MUSICBRAINZ_RELEASETRACKID=af706a7f-ce80-4892-8475-d459abd190c9
comment[38]: TRACKNUMBER=1
comment[39]: ALBUMARTISTS=Beethoven
comment[40]: ALBUMARTISTS=Berliner Philharmoniker
comment[41]: ALBUMARTISTS=Sir Simon Rattle
comment[42]: ACOUSTID_ID=7e12735d-71db-463f-bafa-1f141168aa0f
comment[43]: GENRE=Classical
comment[44]: TRACKTOTAL=8
comment[45]: DISCTOTAL=5
Second file (tagged by hand using Puddletag, some data might be from freedb, some data by the ripper)
comment[0]: album=Pianoforte 8
comment[1]: artist=Ludwig van Beethoven
comment[2]: musicbrainz_discid=k7HZ2KxQFGRK.MVc7NzQMusd6PA-
comment[3]: title=Concerto no. 3 in C minor: Allegro con Brio
comment[4]: tracknumber=1
comment[5]: genre=Classical
comment[6]: freedb_disc_id=240cf804
comment[7]: freedb_category=classical
comment[8]: date=1994
comment[9]: albumartist=Beethoven; Wilhelm Backhaus, Wiener Philharmoniker, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Lili Kraus, Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Gianfranco Rivoli
In Kodi, when I list all albums, in the first case it shows `Beethoven; ...`, whereas in the second case, it shows `Beethoven / ...`