Tagging Classical Music

2004-01-04 16:35:48

Hi.

I would like to know what are you guys doing in terms of classical music tagging. I'm using APEv2 tags along with ID3v1 for compatibility. I was trying to put all the info in the standard fields like artist, title, album, comment, but I don't think that's a good solution anymore.

More precisely:
1. Do you privilege the performer over the composer?
2. Do you create extra fields in APEv2 or ID3v2 for orchestra, conductor, composer, etc?
3. What about fitting all that info in the ID3v1 tag?
4. What do you do in those multi-performer, multi-composer, multi-works cd's?
5. Do you repeat the work title in every file followed by section title or you just use the section title?
6. etc, etc?

Thanks.

P.S. err... maybe I should've posted this in General Audio...

Tagging Classical Music

Reply #1 – 2004-01-04 17:09:38

Personally, I use iTunes, and I find that tagging classical music isn't a problem. My solutions are:

1. There is a field for both artist and composer. I fill in both and have a playlist for classical music that is sorted by composer.
2. If I were to add that kind of information, it would either be part of the artist or, more likely, go into the comments field. iTunes' internal search will still match against it.
3. AFAIK ID3v1 is quite restricted, so I doubt that would be possible.
4. I use "," and "&" - I believe that's what they're for  Multi-performer CDs I just mark as compilations.
5. I usually enter the title the way it appears on the cover.

Tagging Classical Music

Reply #2 – 2004-01-04 17:22:02

1. Do you privilege the performer over the composer?

That depends on the type of music. If you have a disc with Pavaroti alone and multiple composers, then performer would preceed composer. I use composer as artist, not performers or conductor.


2. Do you create extra fields in APEv2 or ID3v2 for orchestra, conductor, composer, etc?
Yes - I use this recommendation.
ARTIST, COMPOSER, CONDUCTOR, ENSEMBLE(s), PERFORMER(s), DATE(s), OPUS, PART, DATE(s)...


3. What about fitting all that info in the ID3v1 tag?
Not a chance


4. What do you do in those multi-performer, multi-composer, multi-works cd's?
Vorbiscomments allows you to have more fields of same name. It works with APE2 as well (at least in foobar2000) - might be a spec violation.

Tagging Classical Music

Reply #3 – 2004-01-04 17:40:52

I have some mpc with 6 PERFORMER fields. There are no problems at all with foobar2000 to create, edit and display them. It works fine.

You can even split most information.
COMPOSER NAME : Corelli
COMPOSER FIRST NAME : Arcangello
COMPOSER BIRTH : 1653
COMPOSER DEATH : 1713
COMPOSER NATION : Italy
WORK : Sonate da chiesa
COMPOSITION NAME : Sonata IV, in si minore
COMPOSITION PART : III. Adagio
COMPOSITION DATE : s/d
OPUS : Op. 3

Why? For foobar2000 playlist dispay (if you have place enough to display composer first name and dates, etc..., or for foobar2000 sorting, album list precision, etc...

Tagging Classical Music

Reply #4 – 2004-01-06 01:21:16

Thank you all for the suggestions. I've made my mind.

I'm using ID3v1 with composer as artist and section name as title. The reason I'm keeping an ID3v1 tag is because I'm hoping to have a portable mp3 unit one day and probably it won't support APEv2.

Then I have an APEv2 tag with all the info i can put in - thanks sshd for the recommendation you pointed.

Now i have a good reason to finally dive into the foobar2000 formatting site and learn how to display all the info in the playlist.

Thank you all again.