Getting composer names for classical music

[Pabby]

Just been trying OrangeCD for my collection and like much of what I have tried today. However since my collection is mostly classical music, the online downloads are a real mess. Until now, I have used Excel, but still have to enter too much. Because this system has so many advantages, I hope I can find an answer:
1) Mostly albums are listed sometimes by composer, sometimes by the artist. This means I have albums all over the place But I store them currently by composer.
2) Also, most of them do not list the label. Am I doing something wrong to not get the label name?
THE GOOD: usually lists all tracks with timing, etc. Which I like very much since I never listed that way in Excel - too much typing!!
Also good is the speed (I have DSL) which is so fast that I can barely get a new CD ready before it is ready for the next one.
Thanks for any help.

[Guest]

I

[Charles_Litton]

My collection is entirely classical, and I agree that there are some limitations in OrangeCD when working with classical CDs. However, I think your suggestions generally go too far.

The way I have addressed some of these issues is as follows.

Artist: I use this for the name of the composer. If more than one composer is represented on a CD, I use the "Various Artists" entry.

Composer: I filled this in with the actual composer for every track, giving a more detailed resolution than the artist view. Now I can switch the directory tree to "artist," displaying all major composers; or I can switch to "composer," which then lists every composer represented in my collection. (Note that you could do this a little more easily with designating an artist for every track and not even using the composer field.)

Genre: You can customize this field, and I have entered 20 genre types here (cantata, concerto, etc.). You can display genres in the content tree, and even filter further (genre and artist, etc.).

Performers: The "Recording" tab has some fields available for this, but not enough. So, until more fields are added, I enter performer information in the "Notes" field. There is no real disadvantage to this, since you can do a text search.

Multi-movement works: Your suggestion with "sub tracks" seems very cumbersome. My solution appears below. The first track of every work lists the work title, and each successive track begins with a dash.
[1] Concerto in D RV 207 - Allegro
[2] - Largo
[3] - Allegro
[4] Concerto in e RV 277 - Allegro
[5] - Andante
...

Before buying OrangeCD a few months ago, I tested the other applications out there (after years of keeping a text file and then an ugly Access database)--and OrangeCD was the best solution. I am extremely happy with the program.

[Guest]

Charles, thanks for your thoughts and I

[Pabby]

Both persons who replied on this discussion are most helpful. Since writing, I found that a system were I placed the composer in the artist field worked best. The only problem is that this takes a good deal of re-entering material since most of the online entries seem to take a different style even with a 2 disc set. For instance, the first disc of a 2 CD set will have the composer as the "artist" field, but the second disc in the set (and here I am talking about a set that comes ONLY as a two disc set) will have the performer as the"artist" field. Since most of the entries are done by "we the people", I guess, it seems strange that someone would enter them in this manner - seems illogical to me!!
I have found this to be definitely the best of 5 that I tried over the last month, and will purchase it.
If there is some chance that they might come up with some method to make it easier for classical music collectors I would be especially happy and impressed.
One other comment: I still have not fould a way to remove the"album Kind" column in the standard report. My listing has this column for all 22 pages saying "album". Does anyone have any suggestion for making this have some entry that has a more important field?
Thanks for the suggestions. I am using them now.
Paul

[arcogi]

I agree with Phil Morris in that something more hopefully will be done for classical music. I just purchased Orangecd and like it very much for rock music...a bit less for classical music.

[palu]

Basically I make with my classic collection the same approach, with a small differencd: sometimes there collections like "Hamelin play Liszt". The I use the General Artist field also with the Interpret; so teh Artist is either the composer or the performer. The composer on tracklevel is the real composer as well as the Artist is the track artist even if the General Artist is the Composer (easy ???).

I made proposal:
1. To put also the composer on General level
2. To make a possibility to copy on Track level (frm Tr a to x up to z), this make daata entry easier.

I some poeple disapointed of the downloads: The Software can not be better the the standard of entering data to freedb, and there is no standard really fitting to classic.
From large store (some 10,000 items!) in I know that the desperatly looking for a good SW - any recommodation!