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Author Topic: Classical transfer  (Read 3208 times)

wooster

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Classical transfer
« on: March 24, 2016, 05:09:06 am »

Hi

I have read that MC21 would be most suitable software for satisfactory tagging of classical music. My problem is that I have several hundred classical CDs which I ripped using XLD and tagged as best I can. I've been using iTunes for library sorting and Amarra for playback. All of this works fairly well but the limitations of tagging and my slightly inconsistent approach over the course of ripping makes things less than ideal.

If I used MC to tag my files, is it possible to transfer data fairly easily or would it be a laborious one by one process? Also when I transferred the information to MC would my iTunes tagging still be saved somehow or would I need to make a back up of this separately? I suppose I'm wondering if the new information would be stored within MC itself rather than alter the data I have added to the files on my HDD.

Does this make sense?

Thank you for helping if you can.
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AndyU

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2016, 05:58:27 am »

MC gives you the choice of writing tags back to your files, or just keeping them in MCs own database.  If you are retagging a lot of stuff and experimenting it can be worth just using MCs own database until you are happy, and then getting MC to write your chosen tags back to the files. Its up to you.

There's no real answer to tagging classical music, you just have to put in the work to get it the way you want, but it probably isn't necessary to do it on a one-by-one basis. If say you have been inconsistent using two spellings of a composers name, you can select all your tracks that have the spelling you don't like and change them in one operation to the spelling you prefer. There are also powerful query wizards which should help you find stuff that doesn't fit your chosen pattern. And because you can set up different views to your heart's content and MCs tag changes are almost instant, you can see the results of any changes immediately so you can knock your tagging into shape much quicker than in other systems which may require a long rescan.

Having done all this it's not impossible you may prefer MC for playback over Amarra too, but you are not committed!
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blgentry

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2016, 06:55:35 am »

What format are your files in?  ITUnes should be writing most tags to the files themselves, but maybe not all.

The good news is that you can try it out for free, as MC has a 30 day fully functional trial.  You might make a copy of 2 or 3 albums and use that as your MC test library to see what tags MC can see that you've created in itunes.  If they are non-standard tags, you may have to configure MC to see them.  Most standard tags, MC should pick up automatically.

Brian.
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wooster

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2016, 07:03:30 am »

Thank you both. I'm using AIFF for my files stored on the HDD. I will certainly try the 30 day trial and will download it this weekend.

 It took me months of work to rip the music so I am very wary of messing it up so it's good to know I can experiment without permanent change.

Thank you both for your help
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blgentry

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2016, 07:22:58 am »

If you want to be sure that MC does NOT write changes to your file tags, there is an option that controls that here:

Tools > Options > General > Importing & Tagging > update tags when file info changes > (uncheck)

That will turn tag writing off when unchecked.  I think it is ON by default.

Brian.
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wooster

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2016, 08:15:38 am »

Thank you. Just to be clear I can get MC to write new tags but just keep them in MC database leaving my own file tags unchanged?
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blgentry

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2016, 09:01:33 am »

Thank you. Just to be clear I can get MC to write new tags but just keep them in MC database leaving my own file tags unchanged?

"Writing tags" is what we say when we are talking about changing the tags INSIDE of the media files.  You're asking "will MC keep track of my new tags, even though I set it to NOT write inside the files?"

Yes, MC will always save tags that you set in it's internal database.  This is outside of your media files; MC has it's own sophisticated database system that keeps track of all kinds of things that aren't stored in the files.

So turn off the option I told you about above, and make changes to tags in MC as you like.  MC will keep them in it's database, but not write them to your media files.

Brian.
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wooster

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2016, 01:12:26 pm »

That's brilliant, Brian. Thanks for the clarification. I will bear in mind when talking about "tagging" in future to avoid confusion  :)

I will download MC tonight and start experimenting
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AndyU

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Re: Classical transfer
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2016, 03:12:21 pm »

One of the most useful things you might want to do once you get going is set up a custom view of just classical music grouped by composer. Then you can just work through composers fixing your tags. Then you'll need to think about recital type albums, boxed sets,  CDs with works from different composers .. endless fun!
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