Using tags for different search criteria?

[Northcoast Jim]

I am ripping all of our CDs to AIFF in preparation for an EverSolo Streamer/DAC. Our library is eclectic: ranging from classical to show tunes, folk dance, international, new age, etc. These different genres need different search criteria eg. by composer for classical, by country for international folk dance, movie title for soundtracks, etc. Can I ignore the default tag titles and just use them as placeholders and assign tags according to desired search criteria/hierarchy?

I'm trying to get things mostly right so I won't need to perform a major do-over.

[simbun]

What system will you be using to index and serve your collection?

I'd recommend sticking to the tagging standard and using a UPnP server - such as AssetUPnP or MinimServer (better support for classical) - for those custom hierarchies.

[WardenOfWales]

Yes, you can repurpose tag fields to suit your needs just stay consistent. Many media players support custom tagging, so using fields like "Artist" for composer or "Album" for movie title can work well for tailored searches.

[garym]

I am ripping all of our CDs to AIFF in preparation for an EverSolo Streamer/DAC. Our library is eclectic: ranging from classical to show tunes, folk dance, international, new age, etc. These different genres need different search criteria eg. by composer for classical, by country for international folk dance, movie title for soundtracks, etc. Can I ignore the default tag titles and just use them as placeholders and assign tags according to desired search criteria/hierarchy?

I'm trying to get things mostly right so I won't need to perform a major do-over.

You can of course use tags in any way you choose. Sticking to some basics/standards is likely a good idea (and then use custom tags for other things). Composer is standard in most players. And many use WORKS for classical as well. For country of origin, I'd either create a custom tag or use something like VENUE. I'd experiment a bit with examples of all these types of albums and see how your server/player deals with searches, custom tags, etc. AIFF, like WAV, is not the best at tagging and may have some limitations (as compared with FLAC, ALAC, etc.). I've seen some recent cases of folks using AIFF getting loud white noise bursts when moving from one song to another because of the way the server/player is reading the embedded tag in the AIFF file. Of course there is no reason to use AIFF or WAV in modern times (plenty of other bitperfect lossess codecs). Try to avoid the misinformation on the web regarding somehow AIFF and WAV being more "pure" digital representation of the CDs. But it's your music and your system. Mainly, just make sure your player can use the scheme you come up with.