General question on tagging/organizing iTunes files, compilation albums, loose song titles Options

[gnostic19]

I just started using iTunes and am confused about how the tagging works, and how i can control the tagging. I have ripped a compilation dub CD that, when listed in iTunes, is listed as 16 separate albums by 16 separate artists. How can i ensure that such an album gets all the songs grouped together as one album?

Also, sometimes i'll have an album listed twice, where one or two songs will be "loose", meaning the songs somehow got separated from the main album and got listed separately.

I use MAX to rip files to lossless Apple codec, fwiw.

[Roseval]

Albums don’t exist in PC audio, there are songs and they are tagged.
If iTunes think an album is everything with the same album title and album artist, it will split compilations. Often this can be solved by using Various Artist for the Album Artist and using Contributing Artist to contain the name of the performer.

Maybe this link is of use: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/TG/Tagging.html
This link is about WMP but iTunes probably works more or less the same: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/WMP/Artist.htm

[gnostic19]

Albums don’t exist in PC audio, there are songs and they are tagged.
If iTunes think an album is everything with the same album title and album artist, it will split compilations. Often this can be solved by using Various Artist for the Album Artist and using Contributing Artist to contain the name of the performer.

thanks.

some of teh albums were d'loaded via file-sharing, so the tags could have been all messed up from the get-go.I just don't know enough about writing tag info to correct errors ann ensure that all the songs from a specific album are stored as one title and not split in to two or threee different album. I write this before checking out those links, so maybe i can get some help there.

[db1989]

Preferences > General > Group compilations when browsing

[FunkyBrewster]

I just started using iTunes and that drove me crazy at first. It happens even if the files are tagged correctly sometimes. If the Album field is tagged correctly (all the files have the same or almost the same album name), switch to list view, sort by Album, select all the files in question, right click, click Get Info, click yes, then type the correct information for the Album Title. If that still doesn't work, try using the Grouping field. If it's a compilation, set the Artist to Various Artists, and click "Part of a Compilation" under Advanced. So far some combination of the above has worked for me every time I've had this issue so far.