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[okvaal]

Hi. Does anyone have any experiences to share, regarding this topic? I could, off course have done some experimenting myself, but would like to have others' opinions as well. What I mean is, what do you find convenient for tagging composer/artist/performer? I know there is a 'composer' field in 'properties', but as I want to use as few columns as possible (easier to look up), I'd rather use the 'artist' field for composer. Any views?

Regards, Ole K, Trondheim, Norway

[Phydeaux]

Hi,

I have quite an extensive list of classical music and being quite a retentive individual, I have everything listed as they should be.

I have created a number of custom fields for classical music such as: Orchestra, Conductor, Soloist(s), Choir, Movement, Key Signature, Opus and Year Composed.

When it comes to tagging them, I use a combination of Orchestra (or Choir), Soloist and Conductor. For example: London Philharmonic / Biret / Bohm and then all the other details are filled in where they should be.

My reasoning is that Beethoven did not perform the Ninth Symphony and therefor cannot be the artist who is representing the music. Just because he wrote the piece does not mean to say that he will be performing it forever. Just as in pop music, versions of songs that are covered by other bands to not get attributed to the original band. Besides which, it would be really interesting to see Ludwig van running around and playing over 100 instruments and singing 4 voiceparts in a choir all simultaneously. Do you follow?

There is some support in this forum (specifically from the top!) for using playlists to categorise you music further. This means that you can have a piece of music that might fit nicely into two different genres, for example. Saint-Saens' Organ symphony is an example. It is considered by all to be a symphony, but because it is only a single instrument, it strictly is a Sonata. If I have a "Symphony" playlist and a "Sonata" playlist, I can add this piece of music to both. For the advanced user, you can then use playlist groups to integrate nicely with your Media Library view schemes.

I prefer, however, to keep information that is specific to the track. I thus have a few fields for "genre" when it comes to classical. In addition to "Genre", I use "Period" and "Style" to further classify my collection.

It is a possibility (depending on how well your collection is classified) to use the Year field and combine that with a smartlist to automatically generate your periods. Ie: the Baroque playlist might search for all music composed between 1700 and 1750. (Don't quote me on those years. They are likely to be wrong!!). However, that leaves little room for imagination and very often you get composers trying to imitate other periods.

So: There are some ideas for you. If you are a new user, you might want to experiment a little with a few tracks before going the whole way with your entire collection. Also: if you get stuck or need to ask questions, come back to this forum and ask away!

[okvaal]

Thanks to Phydeaux for an informative reply. Just a couple of more questions: is there a reason why you don't keep the 'period' (or other sub-genres) under 'Genre'? (I guess this goes for all sorts of music: is 'Genre' best kept with as few sub-categories as possible?). Also: where/how do you create custom fields? In MC9 I find only one such field . . .
Thanks again

[Jaguu]

okvaal:

go to Tools > Options > Tree & View Settings: There you see all database fields and you can add new ones such as composer, orchestra etc.

[okvaal]

HAH! There it was! I had already been fiddling around with it, not quite knowing what it was :-). Thanks a lot!

[aussie1]

Thanks to Phydeaux for posting ideas. I like the system and it has given me some things to try.

I'm hesitant to rely so heavily on custom MC fields because you can only see this tag information when you play files through MC. MC is my favorite player. It’s a great product and I use it exclusively at home. However, I also play music in my car, on portable devices, and at other locations where MC is not available. None of the players in those locations can read MC’s custom fields, rendering them useless.

The ID3V2 spec has fields to capture all of the information for classical music (see http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0.txt). It doesn’t quite capture all the detail Phydeaux uses. But, for most people, it would be better to use the agreed industry standard spec rather than creating custom fields:

TCON: Genre
TALB: Album
TIT1: Group Description
TIT2: Title
TIT3: Sub Title
TPE1: (Lead) Artist
TPE2: Orchestra
TPE3: Conductor
TPE4: Interpreted, remixed, or otherwise modified by
TPUB: Publisher
TCOM: Composer
TKEY: Initial key
TORY: Original Release Year
TYER: Year of Recording

There are free tagging programs on the market which create these tags.

The problem is that most software vendors, including JRiver, are behind in implementing this part of the spec. The IPod forced them to add TCOM, but, sadly, they are ignoring the other fields. I’m tagging my files according to the spec. Eventually, someone will implement it. And when they do, I’ll go with them.

I believe that the only reason vendors are not getting more requests for these fields is that most people do not know that they exist. Few actually sit down and read the spec. It will be a popular addition, however.

In the meantime, MC reads the basic fields (TCON, TALB, TIT2, TPE1, TCOM, TYER), (Although there is still a bug in their import routine which has been posted many times.) I’m limping along with that until a solution which is more satisfactory for my wants appears.

That said, I will always be an ardent JRiver supporter. Beyond the quality of the product, I like the atmosphere they have created on this forum.

[trussing]

My reasoning is that Beethoven did not perform the Ninth Symphony and therefor cannot be the artist who is representing the music. Just because he wrote the piece does not mean to say that he will be performing it forever. Just as in pop music, versions of songs that are covered by other bands to not get attributed to the original band. Besides which, it would be really interesting to see Ludwig van running around and playing over 100 instruments and singing 4 voiceparts in a choir all simultaneously. Do you follow?

This is all fantastic, but it's only a workable solution for someone who lives and breathes their audio collection.  I do not; I have a bunch of Beethoven titles, but I use "Beethoven" as the artist for all, no matter who is performing.

My reasoning is that if I want to hear Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which I have several copies, each by a different pianist, I think (oddly enough) "I'd like to hear Moonlight Sonata".  I do not think, "I'd like to hear something from Anton Dikov".  If I spent 17 hours per day organizing my music, and had absolutely nothing else to do with my life, I might do it differently.