Hi all. I’m in the process of ripping all my CDs to a hard drive connected to my computer. I’m using Asset Management to stream this music using my Naim streamer. Just thought I’d unplug the hard drive and plug it directly into my streamer. I then looked at my Local Music server and there was my music. However, I couldn’t see any of my albums that are compilations. Only albums that had a designated artist. Is there any way I can see these compilation albums using Local Music Server. I’ve enclosed a photo of what I see when I click on Local Music. As I say, I normally just stream it using Asset but I want the option to plug the hard drive into my streamer. I’ve checked on the hard drive and there is definitely a folder named ‘Various Artists’
Behavior might differ depending on the software doing the ripping and inventory. (I.e. the meta data it writes into the tracks.)
I have my iTunes/Apple Music copied to an external SSD 1:1.
Plugged into my Nova, the compilations show
a) with the normal title in the list auf all albums, and
b) collected at an artist “Compilations”, when browsing by artist.
Maybe this works for you as well?
Note: the albums can be sorted by title or artist.
AssetUPnP works as a server on your PC but when you plug it in directly you are not accessing the Asset service and thus see something different depending on how the Naim streamer sees and uses the metadata i.e. you are no longer using Asset.
Is your PC switched off when you plug in directly and is the result then different?
dBpoweramp (normally) rips the the compilations with the AlbumArtist metadata as and the individual tracks metadata with the Artist.
Under Asset if you then access by AlbumArtist you normally see “” and the whole compilation. If you access by Artist (which I suggest is the normal method) you see only the tracks on the compilation for that artist.
It appears you do not have AlbumArtist functionality when plugged directly.
Stick to using your PC and Asset and your problem is solved.
Hi. Many thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes, if I use Asset to stream my music there is actually a specific ‘Additional’ tab I see on the Naim app and if I click on that I see a folder just for Compilations which is great. It’s just that my plan, once I’d ripped all my CDs was to simply plug the external hard drive directly into my streamer and leave it but if I do that I’ll never be able to access my compilations. Although I’ve discovered that if I use the USB option on the Naim app home page it will mirror my hard drive exactly showing a folder named ‘various artists’ which is where all my compilations are but you dont get any artwork and it’s very basic.
That is the issue with the Naim equipment and software as reported in several earlier topics. It is basic.
Go with AssetUPnP and you get better functionality and things like artwork work.
I have a dedicated PC for serving my music - any old PC will do because it uses little processing.
I once had Asset running on a netbook with the USB hard drive holding the music attached!
I agree with Paul_C. Use AssetUPnP and a proper server. I use a 12 yr old MacMini.
A key benefit of using a server is having a second hard drive that you can configure as a backup. If you have hundreds or thousands of CDs, a backup is essential.
I also keep a third copy offsite. It would literally take years to recreate my library, considering all the metadata edits and album artwork downloads I’ve done, so there’s no such thing as “too careful!”
I’m wondering if as an experiment, with my compilations, like you say, there is no ‘album artist’. What if in the album artist field I was to type ‘compilation’? Would all the compilations show separately or would they all just become one massive album?
As there is no AlbumArtist category when plugged directly you cannot see them whatever you call them.
Under AssetUPnP you see all the albums under AlbumArtist and " Various Artists " - it is under group 0-9 as it starts “<”.
This is the normal standard and dBpoweramp rips this way.
I understand now, that you want a “top level folder” for your compilations - whether one shows up or not is part of the server implemenation how to present and order the content of the library. So, seems like Asset has this, and the Naim inbuilt server does not.
To all I know, these parts are not standardized.
However, I doubt that the music does not show somewhere in the Naim server view. That’s why I explained how/where my own complitations show up, which I’ve setup with iTunes.
They have the “this is a compliation flag”, and the albums have various types of artists attached to the album (whether there’s still a main artist the complilation is about, or really a random mix of artists, …).
I know iTunes puts all compilations into a common folder, but the Naim server should ignore the folder structure and just act on the meta-data/tags, when building the server view.
For me this works fine - but maybe, because the behavior is nearly the same like in iTunes (Apple Music).
