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Discussion: Classical Music
darichman:
--- Quote from: Frobozz on March 27, 2008, 11:09:37 pm ---I don't know how those of you with big classical collections managed to get everything ripped and tagged. It takes a lot of time. I'm in the middle of ripping my classical CDs. I have about 200 classical CDs and have about 40 to go till I'm done. It's a project that has stretched on for months.
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Honestly I think it's something you never really finish... you fill in bits and pieces as much as you can here and there, but in the end you just have to settle for what you're happy with in the database. I didn't rip all the music I have myself but I did most of the tagging, and I'm nowhere near finished...
--- Quote from: Frobozz on March 27, 2008, 11:09:37 pm ---What's a good way for dividing up the whole audio library amongst rock, jazz, classical, etc. to make it easy and convenient to jump from one to the next?
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There's no perfect way... here's a screenshot of how I do it, but depending on what you have and how you want to view it, it may not suit...
As you've done, I set up lots of view schemes with various filters based mainly on the genres fields mentioned above to filter the different styles of music, and then select appropriate panes to find those individual tracks... Pretty much all of my genres are based off of AMG's classifications (not perfect, but it is a standard at least to work from)
The alternative is to have all your music in view schemes which don't filter by genres, and to filter by genre through the panes instead... whatever works best for you.
Music
Click to enlarge.
Edit: Woops I just realised I should have expanded the music part of the tree, so that screen probably won't help you that much. Will repost if I get around to it :P
BillT:
--- Quote from: Listener on March 27, 2008, 01:29:48 am ---I'm stuck on the basics of just being able to find Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 performed by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in a library of over 2000 CDs. I counted 14 performances of that work in my library. I use a Sun_genre tag like your tag 2 to keep the list of works by a single composer. (Haydn wrote over 100 symphonies, a lot of string quartets and a lot of trios. I just want to shorten the list I have to browse.)
Bill
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My scheme for classical is pretty similar to Darichmans, with 2 subsidiary genres for better categorisation, but I've added a custom field called work, and my composer names are stored in the form "Britten, Benjamin". Then I've made a view scheme which selects composer (grouped), work and band. This lets you get to any specific performance of a given work with relatively few mouse clicks, and it works well in theatre view and with Music Lobby.
Listener:
--- Quote from: Frobozz on March 27, 2008, 11:09:37 pm ---I don't know how those of you with big classical collections managed to get everything ripped and tagged. It takes a lot of time. I'm in the middle of ripping my classical CDs. I have about 200 classical CDs and have about 40 to go till I'm done. It's a project that has stretched on for months.
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Ripping and tagging about 2000 CDs took me between 3 and 4 months.
--- Quote from: Frobozz on March 27, 2008, 11:09:37 pm ---My basic tagging has been to put the composers last name in the Artist field. That seems to make the most sense for interoperability with other media players and with portables. All players support the Artist field and can sort or organize by artist. Makes it convenient for browsing by composer in other players.
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You have to make a basic choice about classical music. Do you conform to the limits of the majority of players out there? Or do you choose the s/w player and portable player that permits a better solution? Once you make that choice you can choose the appropriate tagging scheme.
I didn't want to settle for an LCD solution. Flac and MC 11/12 let me do what I wanted without compromise. When I got around to buying a portable player a couple of months ago, I researched the alternatives. Now, I have an 80 GB iPod loaded with a subset of my music was the best choice for me. A few compromises were necessary:
- I make MP3 copies of everything to be stored on the iPod.
- I selected one or two performances of each work for the iPod. This allowed me to fit everything. It also keeps the lists I'm browsing small enough to be manageable on the small iPod screen.
- For a work with several movements in separate music files, I combined all the movements into a single file. (MC 12 didn't seem to provide a command for doing this so I used Foobar.) This reduces the number of files and makes it easier to select works to play. It also allows me to live with the iPod's limitations. And gaps or gapless between movements are handled corectly.
- I tagged the files slightly differently than in my PC based Flac files. Composer = Composer, Album = Work name, Artist = Performer(s) and (track) Name = Composer_Work_Artist = Song on the iPod.
- I use the following iPod browse sequence: Composer/Album/Song. For the last step, I'm usually picking from one or two different performances. I can also use the Artist/Album/Song browse sequence.
I make do some tagging variations for cases where there are a lot of small works on a type such as Chopin mazurkas. (Album = Mazurkas_Artist, Song = specific mazurka name.)
Since hard disk iPods are cheaper than most alternatives, it isn't a hardship.
You have a choice. Conform yourself to other people's bad designs or find a better way. Takes some work but it's worthwhile.
Bill
darichman:
--- Quote from: Listener on March 29, 2008, 02:26:01 am ---You have to make a basic choice about classical music. Do you conform to the limits of the majority of players out there? Or do you choose the s/w player and portable player that permits a better solution? Once you make that choice you can choose the appropriate tagging scheme.
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Now that's somewhere I haven't even been yet... figuring out a good way to sync what you want to a portable player and still any relevant info you want.
Good advice!
Frobozz:
--- Quote from: Listener on March 29, 2008, 02:26:01 am ---You have to make a basic choice about classical music. Do you conform to the limits of the majority of players out there? Or do you choose the s/w player and portable player that permits a better solution? Once you make that choice you can choose the appropriate tagging scheme.
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True. I intentionally went with a LCD and KISS approach. In part to have a tagging system that isn't tied too closely to custom tags in Media Center. In part because I can get a little too engrossed in filling out tagging details and relations if I let myself. So I made a conscious decision at the start that I was going to with a LCD and KISS approach.
I am mostly following the classical style guide at MusicBrainz for track, title, and format while trying to keep things within the standard MP3 tags. I diverge from the style guide in places. For example, I use "No.5" or "Op.125" (no space after the period) because that makes searching easier. It is easier to search on "No.5" than "No. 5" with most search engines.
I'm able to find what I want using my system. And my library is small enough that I can also browse and find what I want as well. Once I finish the ripping I'm going to go back and add Genre1 and Genre2 fields or something similar like darichman suggests. That will make searching and browsing even easier, but those tags would be MC specific custom tags.
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