Tagging classical music

[DavidHB]

(30-04-2014 16:36)gnomus Wrote:  I think I am pretty close to getting what I want from the tagging scheme that I have adopted. With only a few taps, I can find a piece of music, I can see how many versions of it I have; and I can choose one of those and get it playing. (I was surprised at how many times the Egmont Overture popped up as an extra on my CDs.) I can also choose something from a specific conductor, orchestra or singer within seconds. This is well beyond the functionality that I had [note use of past tense]with my CD collection.

A salutary reminder. We agreed a couple of days ago that adding a streamer to one's music system can be a game changer. Things have come a long way in the seven years since Linn brought out their first network player.

(30-04-2014 16:36)gnomus Wrote:  The initial ripping and tagging job is a complete nightmare, but once I get through my library, I am hoping that adding the odd, new CD will not be too arduous.

I bet you start buying more CDs ... I have . However, once ripping and tagging settles into a familiar workflow, it all becomes easier in any case. I now have about 500 fully tagged CDs on line, and finishing the job seems a lot less daunting than when I started.

(30-04-2014 16:36)gnomus Wrote:  However, the only thing I really miss is the album notes, cast list and libretto, although with my worsening eyesight reading the liner notes on a CD is getting pretty tough.

It seems to me that this "liner note" issue cannot be too difficult to get around - it is surely a Control Point issue. All I need is a way of tapping within the CP to bring up a PDF (or similar) of "liner notes" that I have associated with the "Composition" to which I am listening. I could, of course, do this outside of the CP, but having that little "button" would be awfully helpful.

Its a lovely pipe dream. Sadly, I don't share your optimism. Getting CD booklets into PDF format at home is not a practical proposition (rendering small multi-page booklets as PDF on an A4 scanner is certainly not my idea of fun). Current tagging formats are not designed to support document formats, so any add-on to a control point has to work outside the normal tagging structure. This is probably not the kind of thing manufacturer-produced control points will readily support.

I accept that none of the technical problems are insuperable. The logistics are another matter. When the online libraries of basic metadata are so inadequate (see Simon's views on this and related issues in his previous post above), the likelihood that music companies will provide us with their back catalogue of classical CD booklets in PDF format seems very remote. And I don't see how accessing the booklet can become a normal part of the streamed music experience without such a library. But I'd love to be proved wrong.

(30-04-2014 16:36)gnomus Wrote:  Overall, however, this streaming business is pretty good.

Fully agree. It makes the music we already have that much more accessible and therefore that much more enjoyable.

David