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Mike48 · 30-12-2012, 20:09

(08-02-2012 18:24)simoncn Wrote: 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.

I am pretty new at this, and I don't claim my system is perfectly refined. I'm still changing it, but for the most part, it works for me.

Of course, we all are influenced by the software we use for cataloging. I'm using JRiver Media Center (JRMC), which uses ";" to separate multiple values of tags such as "Artist" and has other defaults in its database.

1. Album - same as you, but sometimes I add the composer name, as some browsers don't always give that information. Also, I sometimes shorten the album name. For example: "Haydn: Quartets Opp. 51, 76". When I have many versions of a work, I sometimes standardize the name and include the artist. For example: "Goldberg Variations (Rangell)".

2. Artist(s) - I'm working on a system, and don't have it down yet. Right now, some album tags include all artists, and some have the main artist with an additional People tag with entries like "András Schiff (p)".

3. Conductor - Same as you.
4. Composer - same as you.

5. Date - same as you. If the information is available, I prefer the recording date, which is often earlier than the copyright or (P) date printed on the insert.

6. Tracknumber - Same as you. The ripper I use (dBPowerAmp) does store total track information as a tag.

7. Only one Genre tag per track. Not sure if JRMC supports >1.

8. Group - This is a default tag in JRMC, but I haven't used it. I see the value in using it or the Composition tag.

9. Composition - The JRMC default database setup doesn't have such a tag (but it can be added easily). I am considering adding it or switching software to MusiChi, which is preconfigured to use this. I see the value, but not sure it's worth the effort now.

10. Same as you.

Comments:

My rule of thumb for "Album Artist" is that it's where I would look for the album in a record store that files by performer. In other words, the leading performer on the album.

For solo works, the name of the soloist.
For single-instrument concertos, the name of the soloist.
For duets, the player listed first on the album (a terrible solution).
For orchestral works, the conductor's last name , "/", and the abbreviated orchestra name.
For chamber ensembles (e.g. quartets), the name of the ensemble.
For jazz groups, the name of the group or leading player.
For other cases -- improvise.

I am not quite sure why one would need both "Group" and "Composition" tags. Care to elaborate?

The lack of standardization among databases is frustrating.

JRMC considers Artist a single-value field, but displays it as a list field if values are separated by ";".

Mike