Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

[schmidj]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi again Paul,

Your listening is much more serious than mine. I do occasionally listen at home, I should more, but tend to be too busy. Here I listen to FLAC from my master library, and usually select what I'm listening to.

But although semi-retired, I'm now the Chief Engineer of two radio stations about 70 miles from here. Most weeks I'm driving there and back twice a week, sometimes more. I use Waze on my phone to warn about traffic jams and the police. (Speed limit is 55 but most traffic moves 70-75 when traffic is light to moderate, most of the time. Cops ticket apparently only when they have a quota to fill... If you drive at 55 you'll be the slowest vehicle on the road and at risk of being rear ended.)

So, since I have the radio set to Bluetooth to hear the directions from Waze, I also listen to my music, stored on a (full) 256 GB SD card in the phone. M4a's converted from the FLACs, now VBR, in the range of 150Kb/s. Sounds fine in the noisy car. 99 percent of the time it's on random choice, I don't want to be thinking about choice of music or dealing with selecting it when driving. But, if it was doable, I'd narrow the random choice somewhat, particularly on a given day. The software doesn't appear to be there yet for that, although Spoon's TuneFusion appears to be a step in the right direction. This becomes semi background music, and I hear a lot of music I have in my collection that would probably never get listened to otherwise. Yes, it can be jarring to go from a soft movement from a symphony to a 160 BPM Soca hit, but so be it.

I started ripping and listening on an Ipod when I was still working full time in the city and commuting by train. The chatter of people on the train on their cell phones was going to drive me to the crazy house. Listening to my music with a good pair of headphones kept me sane...

The issue with "concept" albums is real. I have a number of recordings of live steelband performances with an MC introducing the next number. The MC announcement is a separate track from the following performance. Very annoying to hear the announcement without the music that it refers to. Also, it might be nice to hear all the movements of a symphony together, in order, sometimes.

I did, in an earlier post here suggest adding a couple of tags to music files: If selected, play the track before this one first, and If selected, play the following track after playing this track. ("yes" or "no" tags) But players would have to be programmed to execute those commands. Realistically not likely. It would, however solve the concept album problem.

John

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Thanks for your kind input John.

Your listening is much more serious than mine. I do occasionally listen at home, I should more, but tend to be too busy. Here I listen to FLAC from my master library, and usually select what I'm listening to.

I am trying to train my 'ears' properly, and so I do very little passive-listening. I often spend up to 3 months listening to the same album round & round!

But although semi-retired, I'm now the Chief Engineer of two radio stations about 70 miles from here. Most weeks I'm driving there and back twice a week, sometimes more.

That's a long round-trip! At least you are still actively involved with music.

99 percent of the time it's on random choice, I don't want to be thinking about choice of music or dealing with selecting it when driving. But, if it was doable, I'd narrow the random choice somewhat, particularly on a given day. The software doesn't appear to be there yet for that, although Spoon's TuneFusion appears to be a step in the right direction. This becomes semi background music, and I hear a lot of music I have in my collection that would probably never get listened to otherwise. Yes, it can be jarring to go from a soft movement from a symphony to a 160 BPM Soca hit, but so be it.

You have hit the nail on the head regarding 'random' play. I have not looked into 'TuneFusion' as yet. In fact, I don't even know what it is? As you are aware, I have spent the past 9 months just trying to rip my CD collection whilst learning 'dBpa'. I do run 'PerfTunes' though a couple of times per week; just to check for any inaccurate rips etc.

I started ripping and listening on an Ipod when I was still working full time in the city and commuting by train. The chatter of people on the train on their cell phones was going to drive me to the crazy house. Listening to my music with a good pair of headphones kept me sane...

I always seem to be a very late-starter in life with everything! I'm age 50 this year and really I should have been learning all of this PC stuff 20+ years ago!

The issue with "concept" albums is real. I have a number of recordings of live steelband performances with an MC introducing the next number. The MC announcement is a separate track from the following performance. Very annoying to hear the announcement without the music that it refers to. Also, it might be nice to hear all the movements of a symphony together, in order, sometimes.

Again, your comments on 'random' play are spot-on.

I did, in an earlier post here suggest adding a couple of tags to music files: If selected, play the track before this one first, and If selected, play the following track after playing this track. ("yes" or "no" tags) But players would have to be programmed to execute those commands. Realistically not likely. It would, however solve the concept album problem.

You are full of bright ideas!

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Oggy,

I am now adding the OPUS No. to every TRACK TITLE. I was not so sure about this at first; but I would rather have it omni-present on all my classicals, rather than just on the ones where every track was different. Meaning, I am going for 'consistency' above all, once again.

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

CONDUCTORSORT has (where applicable) now been added to all of my: Jazz, Pop, and Film-score genres!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi,

A bit of a pedantic question, I know, but I waned to ask, please:

Do people prefer to use, or omit, what I believe is called the 'Oxford' comma in their tagging?

For example, I have ripped Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Kontakte':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontakte

The title of the track in question is:

"Kontakte, For Piano, Percussion And Electronic Sounds (Part 1)"

And so, would one tag this as per above?, or might one prefer:

"Kontakte, For Piano, Percussion, And Electronic Sounds (Part 1)"

(ie. comma after 'Percussion').

Many thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi again,

With ref. to Messien's 'Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps; La Mer Noir':

https://www.discogs.com/Messiaen-Gru...release/885566

For ARTIST - because the compositions are performed by 4 players, and because the ensemble does not have a name (eg. 'The Vienna String Quartet') - would you include the name of every musician (plus the composer) in the ARTIST tag?:

ARTIST = William Pleeth; Gervase de Peyer; Erich Gruenberg; Michel Béroff; Olivier Messien

Or would you only use the composer?:

ARTIST = Olivier Messien

I suppose another option might be to use the SOLOIST tag?:

SOLOIST = William Pleeth; Gervase de Peyer; Erich Gruenberg; Michel Béroff

I have not really used the SOLOIST tag very much but I am thinking this might be an applicable scenario to apply it?

Secondly, - and possibly a bit of a stupid question, and something I perhaps should have asked a while ago! - does it matter in such tags (ie. with multiple-name entries) which ORDER the names are in, please? I mean, the above are not in alphabetic order.

Much appreciated.

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hello again,

If the album title (eg. Olivier Messien's 'Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps') is in French/German/Italian etc., then do you:

translate the title into one's native language:

Quartet For The End Of Time

tag the title as it is on the CD (ie. in its language of origin):

Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps

or, include the translation into one's native language in parentheses:

Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (Quartet For The End Of Time)

Cheers guys,

Paul

[schmidj]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Paul,

Your choice, but that issue is one reason I chose to put the composer in the composer tag and leave the artist tag for the actual artists, including conductor. Then, because my car player didn't display composer tags, I added the composer to the title so I could tell whose symphony I was listening to. In my mind, the composer's name is part of the title of the work, even if not listed individually for each track on the artwork.

But, again this isn't how my database of owned media (designed far longer ago than any ripping) is set up, there for classical music the composer is in the artist field.

So I can't really help you there.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi John,

So you are referring to post: 426?

Your choice, but that issue is one reason I chose to put the composer in the composer tag and leave the artist tag for the actual artists, including conductor. Then, because my car player didn't display composer tags, I added the composer to the title so I could tell whose symphony I was listening to. In my mind, the composer's name is part of the title of the work, even if not listed individually for each track on the artwork.

But, again this isn't how my database of owned media (designed far longer ago than any ripping) is set up, there for classical music the composer is in the artist field.

OK, I think I see what you are doing now. And so you might have something that looks like:

ALBUM = 'Beethoven - Symphony No. 5'

Have you placed the composer in the album titles of ALL your genres? Or just in classical? (where such exceptions seem to be commonplace!).

Cheers,

Paul

[Oggy]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hi again,

With ref. to Messien's 'Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps; La Mer Noir':

https://www.discogs.com/Messiaen-Gru...release/885566

For ARTIST - because the compositions are performed by 4 players, and because the ensemble does not have a name (eg. 'The Vienna String Quartet') - would you include the name of every musician (plus the composer) in the ARTIST tag?:

ARTIST = William Pleeth; Gervase de Peyer; Erich Gruenberg; Michel Béroff; Olivier Messien

Or would you only use the composer?:

ARTIST = Olivier Messien

I suppose another option might be to use the SOLOIST tag?:

SOLOIST = William Pleeth; Gervase de Peyer; Erich Gruenberg; Michel Béroff

I have not really used the SOLOIST tag very much but I am thinking this might be an applicable scenario to apply it?

Secondly, - and possibly a bit of a stupid question, and something I perhaps should have asked a while ago! - does it matter in such tags (ie. with multiple-name entries) which ORDER the names are in, please? I mean, the above are not in alphabetic order.

Much appreciated.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I personally wouldn't put the soloists anywhere for that CD, but if I needed them, would put them in Soloists.

Order? Hmm. Take your pick!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Cheers Oggy,

I personally wouldn't put the soloists anywhere for that CD, but if I needed them, would put them in Soloists.

Order? Hmm. Take your pick!

The SOLOIST tag is something fairly new to me to be honest. I do need to get my head around this one though! Again, I would like to try and agree upon something that would remain consistent (throughout my classical genre).

"Order" - yes, it was a very serious question!

Thanks.

[Oggy]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Hello again,

If the album title (eg. Olivier Messien's 'Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps') is in French/German/Italian etc., then do you:

translate the title into one's native language:

Quartet For The End Of Time

tag the title as it is on the CD (ie. in its language of origin):

Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps

or, include the translation into one's native language in parentheses:

Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (Quartet For The End Of Time)

Cheers guys,

Paul

Paul,

Again these are purely personal choices, but I would use the name from the CD. I would probably only use an English translation if I couldn't understand the French, or rather more probably, German: ignorance isn't always bliss!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Again these are purely personal choices, but I would use the name from the CD. I would probably only use an English translation if I couldn't understand the French, or rather more probably, German: ignorance isn't always bliss!

Thanks Oggy,

I think - because I can only speak/read English! - I will include the translation in parenthesis.

[Jailhouse]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Do people prefer to use, or omit, what I believe is called the 'Oxford' comma in their tagging?

Yes. That is, some use it all the time and some never use it. The two groups often argue with one another.

Certainly use it when leaving it out could lead to ambiguity and possible misinterpretation and you can't (or don't want to) change the list order. In the case you mention, that isn't an issue.

Note, though, that sometimes an Oxford comma (aka 'serial comma') can cause ambiguity.

Whichever you prefer, (and it comes down to preference unless you have to follow a style guide), careful parsing of the resulting list is a must.

[Oggy]

Re: Tags, Tags, and more Tags ...

Cheers Oggy,



The SOLOIST tag is something fairly new to me to be honest. I do need to get my head around this one though! Again, I would like to try and agree upon something that would remain consistent (throughout my classical genre).

"Order" - yes, it was a very serious question!

Thanks.

Are those soloists important to you?

How visible do you want those soloists to be?

I know you were being serious about order, but not knowing any of those artists it is incredibly difficult to come up with a rule. Alphabetical Christian name? Alphabetical surname?

If the names have no significance to you, do you need them?