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[KenEis]

I'm three days into using JRiver MCv19. As a classical music listener I find the view not very helpful. In iTunes I have a composer (different from artist) field and a comments field as well as all the other fields viewable in MC. My Comments field is critical because it contains an integer number that is an index number that is physically attached to each CD/DVD I have ripped so I can find it in my CD shelves.  So how do I make these two fields show up? Is this a "Skin" issue?

Just like iTunes MC doesn't appear to be able to index on two search fields. Classical listeners often want all of composer x's symphonies which requires two serial searches

[Vincent Kars]

You can display any tag
A nice overview can be found here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68960.0

This is how I use JRiver for classical: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/JRiver/Classical.htm

If you type Beet Sym in the search box you get all symphonies by Beethoven

[drmimosa]

Welcome to the forum.

Take your time and learn how to customize views and organize tags. JRiver has limitless options here, and soon you will have it running circles around Itunes for classical recordings. I would never go back and only regret not starting with JRiver 10 years ago!

Vincent's extensive resources above are a great start.

Also check out these guides:

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Up_and_Running

Good luck!

[kstuart]

There is a toolbar above, click on "Search" and then click on "Advanced Search" and then TICK the box:

" Search in topic subjects only "

and then type "Classical" into the search-for box and click "Search".

[dtc]

You may have already found some of these options, but here is a start. The references in the posts above will give you a lot more details. All of this is in Category View

To display and edit tags.
        Click on an album and display the tracks.
        Right click on the track and select TAG.
        All the available tags will be displayed in the lower left corner.
        Edit at will.
        You can select all the tracks to change a tag for all tracks.

To create a custom tag
      Select Tools - Options
      Select Library and Folders
      Select Manage Library Fields
           You can use an expression (see WIKI) in the Calculated Field Option

To display the tags in Category View
      Click on the View Name (like Albums) in the top line
      Click on Thumbnail Text
      Add tags like
               Composer
               Album
               Artist

To Sort the View
       Click on the View Name (like Album) at the top of the display
       Select Sort By
       Add the tags to sort by.

To Create a Custom View for Classical
      Right click on one of the standard views (like Album) in the left hand side "Tree"
            (Alternatively, you can right click on the views in the Tree and select Add Library View)
      Add to Show Categories in this Order   in order to determine display order
      Click on Set Rules for Files Display
      Add a  Rule like Genre Is Classical
      When exiting, name the View to something like Classical or Albums - Classical
     

Learn About Expressions from the WIKI. You can use these in tags (define in the Manage Library Fields above) in sorting, is displaying tags, etc.

As others said, there are a huge number of options to customize as needed.

Good luck.

[saiyan]

Just curious.

For those who have classical music albums entered into JRiver MC, do you use a single library (e.g the Main Library) for all your albums including classical music and music genre?
Or do you create a separate library specifically for classical music albums?

[Arindelle]

Just curious. For those who have classical music albums entered into JRiver MC, do you use a single library (e.g the Main Library) for all your albums including classical music and music genre? Or do you create a separate library specifically for classical music albums?

Single Library. IMO I can see no benefit whatsoever to creating separate libraries, and lots of negatives. Especially within a media type like Audio. I'd be interested in hearing reasons why people do do this, by the way.

If you are a passionate classical collector, or you just have multiple recordings of the same works, you probably will want to create separate Views however, and probably want to add a custom field or two like Opus or Work. It is easy to show or hide information through Views if the information is available in a single library by filtering tags. If you create multiple libraries the information isn't available until you unload one and load the second. @dtc - nice of you to post that resume and Vincent's links are indeed a treasure trove 

Actually, I have all media - Images, Audio, Video in one Library called "Main" on my PC running media server. The only separate library I have is located locally on a client PC containing Mp3s for my iphone. On my clients, its is referred to as "Downstairs". Certain setups might benefit by having multiple libraries, however - like a Home theater set-up in the basement playing only video files where the physical files are stored in that location, audio in another location, images in another etc.

Basically, I always recommend 1 unique library unless you really know what you are doing and have very specific reasons for doing so.

[saiyan]

Single Library. IMO I can see no benefit whatsoever to creating separate libraries, and lots of negatives. Especially within a media type like Audio. I'd be interested in hearing reasons why people do do this, by the way.

I have not yet entered any classical music albums into MC19 yet. I'm still busy ripping and entering other music genre CDs.
However, I created a test Library View to show Composer and albums and I'm surprised to see some pop music files have songwriter names attached to the Composer tags in media files.  (These are mostly iTunes AAC and Amazon MP3 files I downloaded instead of files I ripped from CDs).

I can imagine how annoyed I will be when I see bunch of pop music songwriters' names displayed next to Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi on the same list.
If I'm going to use a single library, I will need to create filtering rules to exclude non-classical music albums when creating a Composers library view.

[Vincent Kars]

When tagging e.g. performers of classical music, it is nice to have a pick list with musicians playing classical only, not all musicians.
By creating separate libraries for major genres, you have a better overview of what is relevant for the genre at hand.
So I created libs for classical, pop, jazz and blues.
However, the moment you switch from classical to jazz, you have to load an entire library.
If you want to have both classical and jazz on your mobile, you have to create to sync list in to different libraries,
Etc, etc.

Separate libs improve overview but the switching needed I found to akward.

In the end I decided to use the file structure by organizing my files into 4 sub folders, Classical, Jazz, blues, pop.
Defined views and use the “rules for file display” to limit the view to a certain genre.
This suites me best, 1 library offering you all and dedicated views for a better overview given a genre.

[AndyU]

I can imagine how annoyed I will be when I see bunch of pop music songwriters' names displayed next to Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi on the same list.
If I'm going to use a single library, I will need to create filtering rules to exclude non-classical music albums when creating a Composers library view.

I have a single library, but with specific views for Classical music - the principal one is by Composer (actually ComposerSort) but with a bit of MC trickery I wangle Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Vivaldi to the top of the sort order because they dominate my library and my tastes. MC is superb at getting just the views you want - there's no need to worry about seeing Burt Bacharach next to Johann Sebastian Bach if you don't want to!  And don't forget you can create your own tags - possibly using expressions - to further enhance your browsing pleasure. "Work" and "Sub-Genre" can be quite handy for classical.

[Listener]

Plenty of good advice in this thread.  I'll add some other info.

- I use several libraries for different collections that I want to keep completely separated.  However, I keep my permanent music collection in one library - all genres of music.

- There is no reason to be limited to the standard views that are present in MC.

- When you define a new view, consider using a panes view for classical music.  This screenshot shows one I use for most classical music browsing



Note that the panes for Sub-genre, Composer, Work name, Artist and version are all visible and stay visible.  Select a value for sub-genre (for example "Orchestral") and the other panes are filtered to show only values occurring in files with the tag value you just selected ("Orchestral".

This provides a great basis for browsing your collection to see what you have.

Bill

[AndyU]

I honestly find it hard to understand how anyone can possibly prefer iTunes to JRiver for classical music. I think apple stuff is great, but iTunes is definitely more for fans of Miley Cyrus than fans of Monteverdi.

[BillT]

Just one library here as well. I have three genre categories that are used in conjunction with views to let me organise my library as I want, so only the items that I want to see are visible.

For music the first genre will be Classical or Pop which immediately lets you segregate the two genres. For classical music the second genre subdivides it into ensemble size, chamber, orchestral etc then the display is by composer. For me this is an easy way to get to any album quickly, but obviously it won't work for most people. That's the beauty of JRiver; you can make it do pretty much anything you want, with enough effort!

[MikeO]

Hi

My 2 Penneth

I am about a year in using JRiver and still learning .

I have one library (around 32k files) with all genres combined so navigation can be quite a challenge , I am a mad 70's rock fanatic who loves Beethoven Bach etc... the split is around 50:50.

I split genres into a lot of detail , not just classical / rock but Organ , Piano , Piano Duet , String Quartet etc... and similarly for rock , hard rock , progressive etc

I use Theatre View almost exclusively for play back with my HTPC , other views just to manage content on my Lap Top, prior to transfer to my HTPC.

There is one customisations I find useful especially for Classical music,

I have created 2 Custom Tags -- BoxSet and Disc (Name), then I created a custom view "Box Sets" based on the Disc Names. Add >> BoxSet- Disc which shows me a series of Box Set names and thumbnails , a single click shows me the individual discs, another click the track names.

Now take for example Beethoven Piano Sonatas , I have 5 individual sets (OK I may be obsessive BUT) where the Box Set is named  Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff Mono   so when I select the Box Set> Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff  -- I see 8 (say) individually named disc thumbnails. Named >  1 - Opus 2 , 2 - Opus 7, 10 etc . Now I can play each individual CD in effect. It was a bit of effort naming tags  etc to set it up but I think it pays dividends.

I find this a great short cut for navigating to whatever I want. When I originally ripped my collection there were a lot of Box Sets 60-70 + which I struggled with , this fixed it.

Originally I took a box set and named the Album Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Kempff Mono for all discs with Disc# set as 1..9 etc , now when I select the album , I get 100 + tracks to navigate , the box set route makes it almost like selecting a CD from the box. I still see the 100 + tracks in the standard Album view so all is not lost, if you want to play all 100 + tracks sequentially.

On the Rock / Pop front it works too with say Tamla Motown Chartbusters 1 - 6 as a Box Set "Tamla Motown Chartbusters" (OK no judgement , I am very old  ) and then see the individual named discs, and hence to tracks.

As an aside , on the rock front , I modified the standard Albums view to show the Release Date. Originally I toyed with [Date] - [Album] , but I have settled the other way , [Album] +[Date] so that albums sort alpha with there date as a suffix, I found "1973 - Houses of the Holy" more difficult to navigate (as it sorted albums by date not by name) , than "Houses of the Holy 1973", equally if there is no Release Date in the Tag it just shows the Album name and sorts right. I started with (1973) and eventually dropped the brackets as it looked better with no date specified.

With classical , box sets often comprise several release dates so you have make a call or this technique splits them up a lot


Just a few ideas that have made my life a bit easier.

As a final thought , you simply can't customise iTunes like this , I don't even have it installed I manage my iPod with JRiver . Long Live Media Centre 19

Mike