MusiCHI tagger - experiences

[Dan Gravell]

Tagging is always slower than simply playing music. If you think about it: playing just requires the bytes in a music file to be read no faster than the song is played. With tagging we expect the entire file to be read in and written out instantaneously.

Maybe the problem is your network connection. Are you connected to the NAS via a wired connection? If not, try that, because wifi is not really fit for purpose for this use.

Locating the tagging closer to the files is the ideal solution, yes.

[charvey]

Is MusiChi even still available for purchase? I cannot find a link anywhere to purchase a license.

[simoncn]

I found this page. At the bottom, there is an email address you can use to contact them.

[peterd]

As a new NAS user about to rip my classical collection and hopefully use Minimserver (all for the first time, so please bear with me) I have just purchased the Ultimo version of Musichi for 49 euros direct from the author using paypal transfer. Maybe over the top to get the complete Ultimo pack, but the portable player might be better than Foobar 2000 for a classical library when away from home and relying on contents of SD card on my phone. I hope to rip to FLAC using EAC or DB Poweramp but use the tagging and classical database of Musichi to get the meta data correct and consistent across my library.

The Musichi website advises keeping album and composition fields the same so that both include the composer, work and main performers. The reason given for including the main performers in the composition field is (I quote): "The “other way” (no performers in the end): In selecting in a same way, Ludwig van and Piano concerto, you end up with only 5 entries and you can pick the 3rd, but you have no idea who is playing the stuff, and the cover displayed will be the first coming up. To play something then you have to look in the track lists for performers and movements, hoping to have them in the right order, then select the 3 movements…"

My question to the experts on this forum is: if I intend to use something like Hifi Cast on my mobile phone or ipad controlling Minimserver on my NAS (containing my classical FLAC library) will I run into the trouble quoted above if I don't include the relevant album details in the composition field when tagging. Or can I get away with including just the composer and work in the composition field and rely on the intelligent browsing of Minimserver allow me to select first the composition, then view the eg. 6 different recordings of that composition in my library and once I have chosen which version (album) I want to hear will automatically load and play the relevant tracks without my having to do this manually?

[simoncn]

You are correct that MinimServer's Intelligent Browsing solves the problem that the author of MusiChi describes. The list of 5 options for the Beethoven concerto will have submenus to show performers and any other tagged information that distingushes the different performances (for example, recording date).

Also, with MinimServer it is usually better not to duplicate the same information between tags because MinimServer tag formatting provides a very flexible way to add any tagged data to any field that MinimServer sends to the control point. For example, if you have tagged Stabat Mater as the title and Palestrina as the composer, you can use tag formatting to add the composer to the title field to show Palestrina: Stabat Mater when playing this work. If you decide you want to change this to Stabat Mater (Palestrina), you can do this without any retagging.

I don't understand the point about movements. If these are tagged correctly, MinimServer will show them grouped together and in the correct order.

[peterd]

Simon, many thanks for the explanation and preemptive warning not to include the composer in the composition field. As you may have gathered I am new to all the software and hardware involved in both the ripping/tagging and playback of a classical library, so I will start individual topic threads in the appropriate sub-forums rather than take this thread off topic.

[simoncn]

There is no right or wrong here. Some people like to do this and some don't. If you like to browse by composer first, you should definitely not include the composer in the composition because this would produce visual clutter that adds no value because everything you are looking at will contain an identical composer. If you like to browse by artist first and then go straight to Compostion (rather than via Composer), there is an argument for including the composer in the composition as otherwise you could get an index entry for Symphony No. 3 with nothing to tell you whether the next level contains symphonies by Brahms, Beethoven, Mendelssohn or Mahler. You can select the index entry to find out but this is one extra click. It can be useful to start with a fairly small number of albums to find out which tagging scheme suits the way you like to browse.

[DavidL]

As many classical music CDs contain a selection of works when I started ripping my library to a NAS I chose to use the 'album' tag as 'work' and defined a fixed format for this: composer - work type [work detail].
e.g. Beethoven - Symphony No.3
I also defined genres to improve searching: classical-baroque, classical-classical, classical-romantic etc etc
This has worked well for me - as Simon notes there is no right or wrong approach. You need to choose a scheme that is best for your typical method of browsing your library.

[peterd]

I will start with a small number of cds as suggested. focusing on likely problem areas such as symphonies starting on track 5 of one cd and ending on track 2 of a different cd, operas, "recitals" with works by different composers etc

[simoncn]

(26-10-2020 22:37)peterd Wrote:  .... focusing on likely problem areas such as symphonies starting on track 5 of one cd and ending on track 2 of a different cd ....

MinimServer handles this by automatically merging the discs, renumbering the tracks and grouping the movements of the symphony. For the last of these, you need to use the GROUP tag (see this section).