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[MusicHawk]

I like to keep track of the exact origin of a rip because I often have several editions of a song, on one or more CDs, one or more vinyl albums, even one or more 45s. Right now I put the label name and Ccatalog Number in parentheses following the album title, but this can confuse cover art lookup.

Can anyone recommend the best field to use for this, a field that isn't also important for something else? Or does this require using a custom field?

If a custom field is required, that is simple but maybe surprising, because any commercial recording, CD, DVD, whatever, has a Catalog Number, these days usually printed with a bar code, and in older days as whatever numbering system a media publisher used. It could be the most reliable way to indicate the exact source of a recording, given that the same Album Name could be used for both CD and vinyl versions, and even for alternate or unrelated recordings.

At first I thought of using the Content ID field, but it's not editable so not useful for Catalog Number. However, I don't find Content ID mentioned in MC's Help or in the Wiki, and searching the forums I don't find it discussed. What is it used for? Which perhaps raises a need for one place (the Wiki?) where every standard library field is listed and its purpose defined.

[MusicHawk]

Answering my own question, sort of:

There don't seem to be standard library fields in MC to identify and catalog the source of a music file, so I created two custom fields:

RecSource field identifies the nature of the recording source before it was converted to a digital file. Since I'm digitizing a wide range of stuff collected over the years, my field options (mainly the codes used at radio/TV stations) are:
CD, LP, 45, 78, DV (DVD), AT (audio tape), VT (video tape), CS (cassette), TV (direct from television show), RD (direct from radio show)

ID field contains the catalog number or other unique identifier of the recording. For CDs it is the number associated with the bar code (including the type and checksum digits). This number incorporate the brand/label identification (which sometimes differs from the label name stated on the CD) so I don't also enter it. For LP and other pre-bar-code recordings I enter the label name and catalog number (as it was commonly called) on the album/single. For other stuff I use whatever best associates the digital recording with its source.

ID examples -- two CDs and two vinyl LPs:
0-11105-0814-2-9
0-1130-17668-2-3
RCA Victor LSP-2733
Liberty LST-7347