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Wammer · 24-03-2012, 19:13

(08-02-2012 18:24)simoncn Wrote: MinimServer is designed to give you the ability to browse your collection by any combination of tags in any order. This means that your collection needs to be tagged with all the information you might want to look at while you're browsing. Classical music generally has a lot of information associated with it, and it's important to have a consistent scheme for recording all this information in your tags.

There's no right or wrong way to tag your music. I'm still experimenting with different approaches for my small but growing classical collection. I have a combination of downloads and CD rips, and for both of these I generally find the original tagging needs a bit (or a lot) of improvement. It's amazing how much variation there is in the standard of tagging between different record companies!

It would be great if people could share the schemes that they're using to tag classical music, so that we can learn from each other's experience. This thread is a place to do this and chat about different approaches. To start things off, here's the scheme that I'm currently using to tag my tracks.

1. Set the Album tag to the full official name of the album.
2. Use a separate Artist tag for each artist who's performing on the track. The order of these tags is significant, as it affects the order in which multiple artists appear on the control point display. I generally use the order in which the artists appear in the record company's descriptive material. I don't include the conductor (if there is one), but use a separate Conductor tag for that.
3. Use a Conductor tag for the conductor (if there is one).
4. Use a Composer tag (or multiple tags) for the composer. Don't include the composer name in the list of artists or in the track title.
5. Set the Date tag to the year of the recording / issue.
6. Set the TrackNumber tag to the track number (not including "/ totaltracks").
7. Use one or more Genre tags as appropriate. Each Genre is a separate tag.
8. Use the Group tag to group together any musical works with multiple movements that appear as consecutive tracks on the album. For example, I would tag each of the four movements of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 as Group=Symphony No. 5 and Composer=Beethoven. For some large musical works, I've used multiple groups rather than a single group.
9. Use the Composition tag for all multi-movement musical works, whether or not they're grouped. (They won't be grouped if they're not consecutive tracks.) Don't include the composer in the composition name.
10. Don't include the composer, conductor, artists or track number in the Title tag.

This is an evolving work in progress. I know it's not fully consistent at the moment. For example, I haven't currently got Composition tags on musical works that only consist of a single movement/track.

If you've read this far, you're probably interested in classical music and have a scheme of your own. Please share it so that we can all learn from each other's experience!

I have just started using MinimServer after using Twonky for the last few years, and just signed up for this Forum. Of my 1400 or so albums more than 75% are classical music, most of then ripped from CDs. The tagging has evolved in a haphazard way, and the flexibility offered by MinimServer compared to Twonky has prompted me to seriously consider retagging my entire collection - a major task given the number of albums involved, so it requires careful thought rather than just plunging in.

My initial thinking on the subject resulted in a scheme very similar to the one Simon has set out above. My search pattern usually starts with Genre (Concerto, Symphony, Chamber, Orchestral, Opera, etc.) then Composer, and then I manually scroll through the albums to find the one I want - although i may wish to further refine the search by conductor or artist where I have several versions of the same work, something that I could not do reliably with the limitations imposed by Twonky. The main exception is a compilation by a particular artist, where I would start with the artist. For pop and jazz Genres I generally refine my search by artist.

To make effective use of the search facility I need to be able to tag multiple artists, particularly for works where there is more than one soloist, such as an opera or a concertante work. However my knowledge of tagging is relatively basic and it would be help if someone could tell me (a) how to rip CDs in dBpoweramp with multiple artists; (b) how to add multiple artists to existing rips using mp3tag; and © what is the maximum number of artists MinimServer can handle for an individual track?

Once I have this information I can experiment with a few albums and develop a more considered strategy for tagging my classical collection that also takes into account my growing jazz collection and other non-classical genres, so I should appreciate any help that members can offer.

Wammer.