Talk:Classical Music Support

INTRODUCTION I'm sure I'm not the only person who has started to rip CDs from their classical music collection and pretty soon got disheartened by the banal fashion with which it is treated by most music software. Practically all the software available is based on a paradigm that says there is a Song by an Artist on an Album. It may allow for a Composer as well, but still assume that all composers write songs. There should (in theory) be at least two big benefits of ripping your collection: (1) the reduction in shelf space and (2) the ability to quickly locate the music you want. Most software achieves (1) but is not much help as regards (2). At the same time, now that the physical CD case is not to hand when the music is playing, you would like to see some information about it. Frequently this is rudimentary. And of course, you don't want to put in too much work to achieve the required result. This discussion is based on my approach to resolving these problems; an approach which I am sure will evolve over time. At the centre of this is the excellent "Muso" software which, for the first time, gives the classical music lover a "CD Insert" view of their albums coupled with powerful searching and linking facilities, plus an ability to play to either LMS or iTunes. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? There are five main hurdles to be faced in ripping and streaming classical CDs (some of which also apply to jazz albums) in a way that satisfies the music lover, rather than the casual listener. 1. Poor availability of metadata, particularly when the album has a variety of ensembles, conductors, soloists, instruments etc. 2. Lack of complete structure: failure to deal with the fact that much classical music has movements as parts of larger works which are not the same as physical albums. 3. A focus on the Artist rather than the Composer (even assuming the latter is displayed/accessible). 4. Player information screens usually limited to Song, Artist and Album. 5. Lack of integration of sleevenotes into the experience. This has meant that either the classical music lover has had to settle for a poor compromise or (in many cases, I suspect) just give up. Unless you pay someone else to rip your collection for you, the investment of time required to do it, given the quality of the resulting experience, does not seem worth it. A SOLUTION IN SIGHT Thankfully it would seem that things are starting to improve. Partly this is because of the growth in the digital download market for classical music and improving metadata libraries. However, the major development for me was the purchase of the "Muso" software which deals with several of the problems described. My approach in outline is now: 1. Rip the CDs to FLAC using dBpoweramp CD Ripper. This provides access to the best metadata available on the web, plus artwork. FLAC files are lossless, but compressed to save space, and provide for a limitless number and variety of tags for metadata. 2. Review the ripped discs in Mp3tag. I can easily see if tagging errors were made on ripping and correct them. Depending on the type of CD (see details below), I then run an automatic macro action that optimises the tags for Muso and the player software (in my case LMS and iTunes). 3. Import the music to Muso and check it looks right. 4. Convert the FLAC files to mp3 using dBpoweramp Batch Converter and import to iTunes (I only do this so that I can sync to my iPod and have a portable version). This still involves a bit of human review along the way, particularly to fix any shortcomings in the available metadata and each action stage needs to be initiated manually, so a little organisation is required. THE DETAILS