Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Sun, Nov 20 2011, 10:36PM
I am about to put my classical CDs on to a hard drive but I have been unable to find suitable software for cataloging my collection. The programs I have found have been designed for "popular" music, and are based on albums and songs, not composers, works and performers. I would appreciate suggestions for software that is suitable for cataloging classical CDs
Tue, Nov 22 2011, 8:51PM
#2
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Sat, Nov 26 2011, 12:23PM
#3
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Orange CD Cataologue is what I use, it has support for Classical.
Fri, Feb 24 2012, 8:29PM
#4
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Media Monkey works rather well and supports a wide variety of formats.
Sat, Feb 25 2012, 7:50AM
#5
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
I use mp3tag. It's free (you can make a donation) and my ripping software (flac) picks up metadata which sometimes needs adjusting, but it's simple enough to do.
I don't know how it compares with the above, however. It works well for me though.
Vic.
Fri, Mar 2 2012, 4:07AM
#6
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
I faced the same problem years ago and chose JRiver, since it allows you to create custom fields ('accompanist' or 'work', for example) which is useful for classical music (the standard ones are quite satisfatory though: composer, conductor, composer, artist....). It's a powerful audio&video player but I use it only to organize my library and it will get better if you decide to use a ripper like dbpoweramp. It's not free, but for the price of some cds you'll have the means to get it done. Take a look: I think they allow you to install and test it for a while. Good luck.
Tue, Mar 13 2012, 2:43AM
#7
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Followers may be interested in a (relatively) new cataloging software designed specifically for classical music collections. It's "musichi", available as a free trial download for three weeks from www.musichi.eu. It appears to be very flexible and in addition to the library manager module, it also includes ripper, tagger and music player modules (the latter with gapless playback). Purchase price is 39 euros and there are two reviews in the current issue of Fanfare magazine which can be read on the musichi website.
Sun, Mar 18 2012, 11:48AM
#8
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
This sounds like what I've been looking for.
I've looked at the Sonus system and others and the issue is always around cataloguing. With Pop oriented systems, is the artist Beethoven or Heifetz or Toscanini?
Also, tracks are labelled without the concept of an overall work, it seems you have to select to play movements 1, 2 and 3 separately.
What happens with an opera? Do you need to know the sequence of the arias?
Mike
Sat, Apr 14 2012, 5:57PM
#9
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
I've tried the sample programme now and it looks ok. Not quite as flexible as I hoped, I haven't yet worked out how to get a listing by composer/title other than putting it all in the album field, it's still rather 'pop' based. It really needs extending to take in fields such as opus number and allow access by all fields. Maybe I haven't explored it enough yet.
It works via my computer but has anyone tried it via a 'remote' system such as Sonus? I'd like to be able to keep my PC in the office and play CDs in the living room.
Mike
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 7:09PM
#10
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Impressed to get an Email from Musichi explaining how to list by composer/title, they'd picked up on this thread.
All I need to do now is work out how to play 'remotely' from my computer.
Looking good.
Mike
Tue, May 1 2012, 2:33AM
#11
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Reuven here in the states. You may like using Amarra or the less expensive Pure Music. It also works with itunes if you so choose. Here is a webite explaing how the Amarra software works;
http://www.avguide.com/review/sonicstudio-amarra-software-tas-202
Personally, I have my music library stored on the hard drive of my MacMini and use itunes with an Ayre QB9 Digital to Analogue Converter. I've tried these for-mentioned software programs with this itunes/DAC set up but I prefer not to use the software because it colors the sound coming from my components. However, every system is different and they will alow you to test it out with a brief trial period.
Mon, Jun 18 2012, 4:38PM
#12
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
With about 3K classical CDs/SACDs transfered to disk using XLD onto iTunes, I have tried many and found my own home brew.
I use iTunes Composer for Composer and for Artists, I list, soloist,conductor,symphony. For more complex choral, I list them them thereafter.
I use the name field carefully by putting in the Opus number for most and some conductors have their unique names like D, K, etc. With these I use Smart List to hunt for the composer and opus number. It has worked very well but after many years of hardwork and over 1K smart list, there are still improvements. GraceNote and their peers is not very accurate with classical music tag but most of the time, it is about 80% and I edit the rest.
Fri, Aug 31 2012, 11:00PM
#13
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Try Collectorz.com
Wed, Oct 31 2012, 10:36AM
#14
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
OK kind people (Andrew???) please help a newby. if I were to get a vortexbox to feed a naim uniti2 or superuniti, could I use musichi? How would I do that- put it on the same computer as I use to steer the vortexbox? I think the naim comes with its own software for controlling the playback of CDs, so would it use the tagging from musichi or would it take no notice and do its own thing?
Or does that only work if I use a NAS and a computer without any other software getting involved, which I am not sure I want to do (computer always on is a pain, kids will probably raid it to play angry birds while I am listening, plus I need a new amp anyway so am tempted to get the NAIM and build a system around the coming technology)
Thu, Feb 7 2013, 8:37AM
#15
RE: Cataloging classical music on a hard drive
Ellenoctopus, as far as I know, the NAIM is a DAC with a storage hard drive which will allow station presets for audio streaming. So it acts as a harddrive and an internet player but not as an amp or a preamp. I did consider this piece myself but found the software compliance to be a touch too restrictive for my preferences however it is a fine unit (though rather costly to say the least). Being in the UK, there should be a NAIM dealer with this component. I hope this helps but admittedly I've been wrong and or confused on many things.
bENNETT