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[Von]

Just a quick question, is there a recommended way of tagging composers or other tags that can have multiple entries?

I do most of my tagging manually. I usually do this for composers:
Hart, Lorenz / Rodgers, Richard

I see this is quite common:
Lorenz Hart; Richard Rodgers

Any "best" practice? Is the semicolon the best separator? "First name last name" or the other way around? I'd like to know what is most useful with regards to the more advanced features of MC, smartlists etc.

[glynor]

The Semicolon is the standard list delimiter in MC.

Try out the [Keywords] field on a few files to see how it works.

[AndrewFG]

The Semicolon is the standard list delimiter in MC.

+1

[Von]

Thanks. Does it matter if I use first name first or last name first?

[MrC]

It is really a matter of personal preference as to which one you use.

However, something to consider.  It is difficult, or impossible reliably, to go from First Last -> Last, First, whereas going from Last, First -> First Last is trivial.  So you might want to having one field that tracks Last, First, and derive the other from that.   This can be accomplished with the expression language.  See others posts regarding classical:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=45824.msg314107#msg314107
   http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/TG/2_Classical.html

[Vincent Kars]

Thanks. Does it matter if I use first name first or last name first?

If a tag is updated by an internet database it is almost all of the time First/Last.
If you go for Last/First you might have a nice uphill battle against the datbases

[Von]

Thanks for your input. I will have to think about this a little. Tough decisions! 

[AndrewFG]

... and I never did find the "correct" answer about how Ludwig van Beethoven is supposed to fit into a last/first model ...

[Vincent Kars]

In classical we say Beethoven hence
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

[AndrewFG]

He was born van Beethoven and he was baptised Ludwig..

[Vincent Kars]

Sure but it is common to spell van (rare) or von (from) in lower case and put it at the end just like Weber, Carl Maria von (1786-1826)
It is not a 'law' but a very common convention in classical.

[glynor]

For the record... For [Artist]:

I go with Lastname, Firstname for all individual artists (Amos, Tori).
I go with Firstname Lastname if the artist has an associated "band" that they ALWAYS play with such that it is "the name of the band", not a person's name (Dave Matthews Band).

There's some stuff in the middle, of course.  For example, Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.  Sometimes Lavay Smith plays with them, and sometimes solo.  Béla Fleck is another good example.

In the vast majority of these cases, I file them under their individual name, and note the band name in another field (so it can be found by searching).  If I ONLY have, and only expect to have, tracks from the band, and I think I'll probably "look for" them by that name, then I do the reverse.

My rules for [Composer] are easier: always Lastname ONLY (unless the composer only has one name, in which case I just fill that).  kstuart convinced me of this method and I'm very happy he did.  What I do is put the full name in another field (for searching) but my categories use the [Composer] tag, and that is all lastnames-only.

For [Actor] and [Director] and most other fields that might have a name, I do Firstname Lastname, because this:

If a tag is updated by an internet database it is almost all of the time First/Last.
If you go for Last/First you might have a nice uphill battle against the datbases

See also:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=78210.msg532794#msg532794
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80231.5

[AndrewFG]

I just write peoples names the way they would write it themselves...

[Vincent Kars]

Last name only?

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788)
Bach, Johann Christian (1735-1782)
Bach, Johann Christoph (1642-1703)
Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795)
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784)

[MrC]

I just write peoples names the way they would write it themselves...

This would be a good rule.  But I've posted examples of many artists and bands whose ambivalence about consistent naming defeats your rule.

[glynor]

I don't have a massive collection of Classical, so collisions in my own collection are reasonably rare, and for my purposes (and the way my views are structured) you'd never see some of those people together.

But, that's just me.

Before I used my [Artist] "rule" for [Composer] too, but it was difficult to manage.

[glynor]

This would be a good rule.  But I've posted examples of many artists and bands whose ambivalence about consistent naming defeats your rule.

Good for writing.  Not so good for browsing.

My rules are based on "how will I want to look this up in the future, using Categories in Theater View and Standard View".  That consideration obliterates all others.  I DO NOT want to have to look for Tori Amos under "T".

Not because of Tori, but because of "Random Bluegrass Player Guy #13" that I might remember his last name, but is he Bob or Robert or John?

PS. If my Library was full of Icelandic musicians, I'd probably have to make a special case for them.  Luckily, I pretty much just have Björk and she's a single-namer.

[AndrewFG]

.. artists .. whose ambivalence about consistent naming defeats your rule.

The artist formerly known as Prince  ??

[Vincent Kars]

I just write peoples names the way they would write it themselves...

Good strategy
https://www.google.nl/search?q=beethoven+signature&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=dqv&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=slt-U_uSNcut7QaJ_YDwCA&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1608&bih=922

[AndrewFG]

Hey. I don't see any of your proposals on that page...

[glynor]

The artist formerly known as Prince  ??

John Cougar Mellencamp is a pretty good example.  I have a TON of people who are sometimes John.  Sometimes Jon.  Sometimes Jonathan.  And sometimes "Billy-Bob" just to tick you off.  And others where name spellings switch around for different releases (happens with Hindi, Arabic, and other music from "Asia" all the time -- mostly due to translation problems but also because English-language labels just don't care).  I don't have enough time to figure it all out.

I pick whatever one looks the best to me, or whichever happens to have the most entries already in my Library, and standardize on that.

[MrC]

The artist formerly known as Prince  ??

Not just that, but there are many who across their albums have use "The XXX" and just "XXX", or their names vary by letter case, or use "and" vs "&", or use subtitles like Jr. sometimes, or sometimes include a middle name.

I agree with glynor above.  Categorize/name in anyway that suits your needs, and accept any limitations that come with a particular scheme.

[Vincent Kars]

Hey. I don't see any of your proposals on that page...

 

[Frobozz]

If a tag is updated by an internet database it is almost all of the time First/Last.
If you go for Last/First you might have a nice uphill battle against the datbases

Tagging classical is always an uphill battle -- no matter what you do or how well you try to plan ahead.

I'm still paying the price for choices I made a decade ago when first tagging my music.  Every year I make a new year resolution to clean up my tags and get things rocking in amazing ways in MC.  And every year I fail to follow through.  It's a big job.  And I'm lazy.  And already have a big backlog of other projects related to organizing the music collection.  So it never gets done.

My advice is get it right the first time.  Cause you're not likely to get around to cleaning things up afterwards. 

A decade ago I made the choice to have composer as first/last as in Ludwig van Beethoven.  I'm still doing it that way because I'm too lazy to do things better.  It all works fine as is.  I can search on Beethoven and get all the Beethoven.  Can search on Bach and get the right Bach (there's more than one Bach).  I'm not the best example on how to best use MC to manage things.  But it all ultimately works well for me.