Database

[pwhinson]

Has anyone done any specific research as to how best catalog a large classical music collection. I find myself having to edit the metdata imported from virtually every cd I load into itunes. What would be ideal would be a database in which you could list label and the label's catalogue number and as much other data as you could i order to, for example easily identify different performances of the same piece. Ocassionally I have multiple performances of a piece by the same artist, one performed in the early 60s and an earlier all digital of the same music by the same performers. Classical music presents special problems with regard to cataloging. Another issue is producing reports from the database so that you could easily identify "gaps" in your collection. I don't always remember what all I have (3000+ records). I know there are many people out there who have 3 or more times the number of cds in my collection and I'm sure others have faced the same dilemma. Any ideas? I've tried Delicious Library (although I don't have the most current version. It doens't seem to be very flexible with regard to report generation etc. I don't really care whether or not I have to scan the barcodes on each cd in my collection in order to produce a working, detailed database that can meet my needs or provide enough customizaton built in to meet my needs. Maybe just a regular library cataloging software would be better?

 

[Audio_ELF]

Not sure if it will do what you want, but I've had success with Collectorz.com CD / Music library software in the past.

 

Another alternative is CDPedia

 

Eloise

 

 

 

[BobH]

dbPoweramp has a utility codec available for it, called Audio Info. This will export the CD's info into 'tab delimited' format and this can then be plugged into a spreadsheet.

 

The advatage of a spreadsheet is that you can easily exclude any info you don't need and multiple filters can be applied across the sheet to very quickly get you to the info you want. You can sort the info in any order you desire and extract any sort of report that you might deem necessary. A bit off the wall, I know, but if regular cataloguing tools aren't doing the job for you, then a relatively simple spreadsheet just might!

 

You could, of course, run this in addition to normal software, say iTunes or MediaMonkey, and maybe get the best of both worlds - ease of use for everyday stuff and power and flexibility when you need it.

 

[pwhinson]

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I will have to investigate further. I knew about the collectorz software stuff but didn't know anything about CDpedia and it looks like it has some good features along with itunes integration. I may give that a shot. If only the powers that attach various tag information to classical music would develop some kind of standard instead of screwing it all up (i.e. composer in the performer field, etc. etc. etc.). this wouldn't be such an ordeal.