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[darichman]

Now that King's new data master is out for MC12 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=36228.0), we have the ability to share custom fields.

I was thinking it might be a good idea to see what fields others were using and share some ideas? While deciding on a standard set of custom fields may be a bit contentious (and lets face it, we all have different setups and preferences anyway!) it would be nice to have a simple list of fields we could share...

I'll start the ball rolling... Here's what I'm using now. Any comments or suggestions or examples of field setups would be useful and greatly appreciated!

Genre
I organise files by three levels of genre, all are custom, list-type fields

[Genre 1] = the uppermost level of organisation. For broad categories of music
   eg Popular, Classical, Film, Comedy, Christmas, Game

[Genre 2] = major styles of music within each Genre 1
  eg Rock/Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop, Electronic/Dance, Jazz, World etc  (for popular music)
       Romantic, Classical Period, 20th Century, Baroque, Medieval etc (for Classical)

[Genre 3] = specific styles of music
  eg Adult Alternative, Britpop, Album, Rock, Midwest Rap etc (for Popular)
       Concerto, Symphony, Prelude, Fugue, Waltz etc (for classical)

Genres 2 & 3 are based on the "Genre" and "Style" fields used on AMG respectively (http://www.allmusic.com/)

Classical Music
I use the following fields for classical music. It would be really good to agree on some standard fields, as I have gigs worth of classical music tagged with the fields below.

Eg. Bach's: Brandenburg Concerto No.1 BWV 1046 in F Major I. Allegro

[Default Field]
[Custom Field]

[Composer] = Bach, Johann Sebastian
[Artist] = Johann Sebastian Bach
[Album] = Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 (ie the CD album purchased)
[Performer] = Emanuel Hurwitz (Violin); Peter Graeme (Oboe); Ifor James (French Horn); Anthony Randall (French Horn)
[Conductor] = Benjamin Britten
[Band] = English Chamber Orchestra (ie the orchestra or ensemble)

[Genre 1] = Classical (vs. Popular, Film, Comedy etc)
[Genre 2] = Baroque; Chamber Music
[Genre 3] = Concerto

[Works 1] = Concertos and Orchestral Suites
[Works 2] = Brandenburg Concertos

[Classical: Title] = Brandenburg Concerto No.1
[Classical: Name] = (ie common name of piece: not used for this piece)
[Classical: Opus] = BWV 1046
[Classical: Number] = (used for opus parts: not used for this piece)
[Classical: Movement] = I. Allegro
[Key] = F Major

[Date Written] = 1721
[Date Recorded] = 1995
[Date Released] = 1995

Edit: Sorry about long post!

[InflatableMouse]

Funny you would start this as I was just searching the forums on how different people have setup fields for sub genres.

Genre is also the field I have the most trouble with because 1) I hate putting things in boxes and 2) can never agree with myself what something is and 3) last but not least, I'm not sure how to use more fields for sub-genres.

So I'm here to suck your brains once more and will be watching this thread dropping a line or two every once in a while to steer it towards my personal needs 

[Jaguu]

darichman,

thank you for sharing your ideas. I use similar fields for classical music:

[Period]: Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Post-Romantic, Romantic, Modern

[Genre]: Classical, Film Music, Jazz, Meditation, Modern, New Age, Pop&Rock, Vocal, World

[Subgenre]: Adagio, Ballet, Band, Chamber, Choral, Concerto, Keyboard, Mass & Requiem, Opera, Orchestral, Overture, Serenade, Sonata, Symphony, Vocal

[Album]
[Artist]
[Composer] same value as Artist
[Instruments]
[Conductor]
[Orchestra] instead of [Band]
[Soloist] instead of [Performer], also use: name (instrument]
[Name] title of the piece
[Opus]

movement and key included in [name] field
Don't care for dates. It was too time consuming to collect the proper information.
Thought at some time to create separate fields for movement and key, but as MC does not support regular expressions in search+replace, it is difficult to split the name field in sub fields
I like the grouping of fields with the prefix Classical:, makes it easier for selecting fields.
Do you use separate separate values for field name and field display name?
Not clear for me why you use fields such as [Works1], [Works2], seems to me redundant information!

[darichman]

Thanks for the input guys!

InflatableMouse

I hate putting things in boxes

lol... that's why it's good to use list-type fields, you can put things into more than one box!

I'm not sure how to use more fields for sub-genres

You can make custom fields to do this:
Tools -> Options -> Library & Folders -> User Library Fields -> Add Field
Then Name it and decide whether you want a string, a list or a calculated field.

Jaguu

Don't care for dates. It was too time consuming to collect the proper information.

Tell me about it!

I like the grouping of fields with the prefix Classical:, makes it easier for selecting fields.

I did this so I could tag classical fields altogether without having to jump around the tag window. This isn't such an issue now though with the ability to organise how we view tags by visible columns.

Do you use separate separate values for field name and field display name?

No, I thought I'd try keeping things consistent. The longer field names do get a bit unwieldy though for searches and expressions, so I've been thinking of changing them. Any suggestions?

movement and key included in [name] field

I used to do this as well. In the end I found it got really difficult to tell which files had all the appropriate info and which didn't. Now, I just use the [Name] field for the name of the song exactly as it is written on the album.

I actually put together an expression (with Marko's help, of course ) to display proper classical display titles based on which of the above fields are filled in. I called this [Classical: Piece] which had a whole bunch of conditionals and outputed a readable format. This way, I can have separate fields (and so can see which files need more info) and this calculated field is updated automatically. I use it as the default display for [Genre 1] = Classical.

Would be happy to post it if anyone's interested.

Not clear for me why you use fields such as [Works1], [Works2], seems to me redundant information!

As I got more and more files, it became clear that sometimes genre wasn't the best way to browse to certain works. Some works contain multiple genres, for example. I set up Work 1 as a group of works (Keyboard works, Vocal works etc) and Work 2 as specific works (eg Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I" or Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker").

There is definitely a lot of redundancy, but it also allows navigation in a way that Genres / Album can't.

[sapnho]

Is there no default field in MC where "works, opus etc." can be stored? This seems to me such a vital information for classical music. Even iTunes does have a "works" field by default. Defining user fields is of course possible but when upgrading/reinstalling all this information needs to be entered again, so I try to avoid using custom fields.

Any ideas?

[hit_ny]

... but when upgrading/reinstalling all this information needs to be entered again, so I try to avoid using custom fields.

Library backups *do* keep note of custom fields.

Have not lost any to date while upgrading/re-installing.