Tagging dilemmas

[d6jg]

This is the sort of issue that really gets my OCD. I’d say that version 2 is the most correct but what this screeny doesn’t tell you is that the issue is spread across a dozen or more albums.




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[MrC]

It's inevitable, due to language vagaries, and moreso when artists themselves can't decide on their own name branding. See the first two albums in their discography:

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/academy-of-st-martin-in-the-fields-mn0000239382/discography

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-the-violin-concertos-mw0001343873

https://www.allmusic.com/album/rossini-complete-overtures-mw0001387533

You have to pick the variant that is best for you. You might standardize on the name used by Allmusic, Discogs, or MusicBrainz. Tools can help make the process of reducing the variations. Do it over time as you discover them. It's like homeownership and housecleaning; one requires the other.

[d6jg]

It's inevitable, due to language vagaries, and moreso when artists themselves can't decide on their own name branding. See the first two albums in their discography:

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/academy-of-st-martin-in-the-fields-mn0000239382/discography

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-the-violin-concertos-mw0001343873

https://www.allmusic.com/album/rossini-complete-overtures-mw0001387533

You have to pick the variant that is best for you. You might standardize on the name used by Allmusic, Discogs, or MusicBrainz. Tools can help make the process of reducing the variations. Do it over time as you discover them. It's like homeownership and housecleaning; one requires the other.

I was posting “tongue in cheek” the issue is of course that I can decide on a version then go and correct everything to meet my standard only for Qobuz (or another integrated Online Music Service) to choose something else and throw the whole thing up in the air again! If I keep that thought in mind it may stop me wasting a load of my time!

[MrC]

Understood.

You go to your longstanding doctor, he says you have malady X, but that you're welcome to get a second opinion. You get that second option from another doctor, she says you have malady Y. Dilemma... you need a tie breaker and get a third opinion. If the outcome is X, you're probably going to accept X (but always have some internal doubt). If it is Y, are you likely to feel as confident in your longstanding doctor, or do you switch, or ... ? If the malady is Z, you're no better off, perhaps even worse, than when you started.

All we can do is learn to live comfortably with ambiguity, use our best judgement, and move forward. Don't let the OCD ruin a good day. :-)

[Shozzer]

I try and follow AllMusic to get the most out of the MAI plugin. If you use streaming services then inevitably you will find differences. I have resigned myself to having multiple versions of the same artist!

Steve

I was posting “tongue in cheek” the issue is of course that I can decide on a version then go and correct everything to meet my standard only for Qobuz (or another integrated Online Music Service) to choose something else and throw the whole thing up in the air again! If I keep that thought in mind it may stop me wasting a load of my time!

[d6jg]

I try and follow AllMusic to get the most out of the MAI plugin. If you use streaming services then inevitably you will find differences. I have resigned myself to having multiple versions of the same artist!

Steve

Yes of course MAI comes into play big style. It would be easy to overlook that and decide on the right but wrong variant as far as AllMusic is concerned!

My example is perhaps a real extremity and makes Derek & The Dominos vs Derek and the Dominos look simplistic!

[elstensoftware]

In most cases you could come up with a set of regexes to govern whitespace, punctuation and abbreviations and change them to commonly accepted forms (but note this gets gnarly).

More difficult are the subtler alterations. MusicBrainz and Discogs both allow the recording of artist aliases, and these often include mis-spellings. By searching for the alias, you can sometimes find the "canonical" artist name. Then you can just use that.

[fishtoprecords]

In most cases you could come up with a set of regexes to govern whitespace, punctuation and abbreviations and change them to commonly accepted forms (but note this gets gnarly)..

Boy does it ever. I just spent a couple of weeks writing what I expected would be a couple of hour effort to bring sanity to the file names (to say nothing of the tags) for
a tiny portion of my music collection. All of mine were ripped and tagged in the early 2000s, well before Logitech. The regex started out fairly complex and got worse and worse.

Back in 1997, the quote is from Jamie Zawinski, a world class hacker:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.

During this effort, I learned about Musicbrainz and Picard, which makes the physical process of tagging easy, but does nothing for the inherent inconsistancies.

[jfo]

Have you checked out Bliss? I've used it to analyze and adjust file structure and tags.

[Grumpy Bob]

Have you checked out Bliss? I've used it to analyze and adjust file structure and tags.

I used Bliss some years ago to sort out some tags and album art way back when I started getting a bit more serious about curating my digital music library. It's very useful. And powerful. It's regularly updated too.
Just to note this is different to Craig's Bliss DTSM mixer.

I have a half-formed plan to try Bliss to rationalise my genre tags. I've never really paid much attention to genre tags.

Robert

[d6jg]

I used Bliss some years ago to sort out some tags and album art way back when I started getting a bit more serious about curating my digital music library. It's very useful. And powerful. It's regularly updated too.
Just to note this is different to Craig's Bliss DTSM mixer.

I have a half-formed plan to try Bliss to rationalise my genre tags. I've never really paid much attention to genre tags.

Robert

On Genre tags - me neither. If you develop a working methodology please let me know.

[garym]

I like PerfectTunes program (by the maker of dbPoweramp ripper/converter). I can run my library through it and it will suggest things, such as these three artists should be combined, say Derek & The Dominoes, Derek & the Dominoes, and Derek and the Dominoes (and let me say OK and what I want the final name to be). It can also fix artwork with better artwork, run after the fact AccurateRip confirmation, and lots of other stuff. See here, and some examples:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/perfecttunes.htm

[P Nelson]

I like PerfectTunes program (by the maker of dbPoweramp ripper/converter). I can run my library through it and it will suggest things, such as these three artists should be combined, say Derek & The Dominoes, Derek & the Dominoes, and Derek and the Dominoes (and let me say OK and what I want the final name to be). It can also fix artwork with better artwork, run after the fact AccurateRip confirmation, and lots of other stuff. See here, and some examples:

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/perfecttunes.htm

Gary,

Thanks for this tip. I use DBpoweramp, but I never investigated what PerfectTunes can do for me. This can some some problems as "Artist and Artist" vs "Artist & Artist" that I have in my collections.

Paul