Classical music tagging

[MDE]

The best way of tagging classical music has been a matter of debate for some years. There have been some improvements in both software and metadata since the days when classical music lovers were told to tag composers as artists and works as albums. In particular I am a fan of Muso which integrates well with Logitech Media Server and allows for proper structuring of compositions and a rich set of metadata.
I have developed a tagging scheme to (in my view) optimise the way in which Muso and LMS work together and I am very happy with the result. There are two versions - a really simple method that is easy to implement and a much "richer" method that requires use of Mp3tag (via a custom-built action) to keep everything in harmony.
A complete description is provided at my website. Any suggestions for improvements (or bug detection) can be posted to this thread or the one in the Muso forum.

[Apesbrain]

One of the benefits of LMS 7.9 is that you can search on just about anything. It's great for classical where I'm often looking for a particular conductor, soloist, or orchestra. There are even custom browse modes by COMPOSER and CONDUCTOR.

[MDE]

One of the benefits of LMS 7.9 is that you can search on just about anything. It's great for classical where I'm often looking for a particular conductor, soloist, or orchestra. There are even custom browse modes by COMPOSER and CONDUCTOR.

Agreed - the additional browse modes are helpful (and mean that custom browse is less necessary). The Mp3tag action I describe sets up all the sort fields for the additional contributors.

[Daverz]

To go beyond the Composer browse mode in 7.9, I think you'll have to go to Erland's custom scan/custom browse. I add custom WORK tag and RECORDING tags to create hierarchical menu COMPOSER->WORK->RECORDING. RECORDING is a brief description (usually a combination of artist, conductor, band, date, location, record label, etc.) that distinguishes one recording of a work from another. Yes, it is a lot of work to maintain.

[MDE]

To go beyond the Composer browse mode in 7.9, I think you'll have to go to Erland's custom scan/custom browse. I add custom WORK tag and RECORDING tags to create hierarchical menu COMPOSER->WORK->RECORDING. RECORDING is a brief description (usually a combination of artist, conductor, band, date, location, record label, etc.) that distinguishes one recording of a work from another. Yes, it is a lot of work to maintain.

I used "custom browse" for a while and it does help in structuring works as you describe. However, I find Muso so much better for this (although you need a windows machine to run it). Muso gives you group headings (for works) and sub headers for additional info as well as conductor, band, label etc. If you format the title as "work::subheader:movement" then it will display it all nicely for you.
The problem I have with custom browse is that custom scan takes a long time and interferes with playing on my system. I have turned off automatic scanning and just update it occasionally.

[Daverz]

I used "custom browse" for a while and it does help in structuring works as you describe. However, I find Muso so much better for this (although you need a windows machine to run it).

That sounds really interesting. Does it require LMS to be running on the same machine? My Library is on a linux box.

Yup, downside of custom scan is the very long scan times, and no incremental scan.

[MDE]

That sounds really interesting. Does it require LMS to be running on the same machine? My Library is on a linux box.

Yup, downside of custom scan is the very long scan times, and no incremental scan.

I have Muso running on my windows laptop and LMS on a Rasperry Pi (i.e. Linux) and it works very well. Muso also has a (local) web interface so you can access a subset of the functionality from a tablet/phone.