by emalvick » Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:34 am
Back to the tags thing, I am for supporting a wide variety of tags (date I say all the tags in file(s)). I use MM as my primary catalog and DAM (Digital Asset Manager) for my music. I'm sure I'm not the only one. As such, I would like to have every tag in a file available in the database.
I know that is a tall order, but implementation could be as simple as being able to read all the tags into a database so a user can at least read and view them (not necessarily write them). I think the problem ITunes has is that they try to dictate how the user uses and tags their files, and it isn't necessarily consistent with other software and causes problems because they are trying to make a lot of different methods conform to their standard. This happens in photography with Adobe trying to dictate the system.
However, the DAM system I use for photography takes a minimalist approach in terms of tags in that it simply reads everything into its database table (which is basically a large 1:1 table with as many columns as their are tags in the database), gives you the ability to setup a structure for browsing by any field in the database (similar to the MagicNodes add-on in MM), and then the ability to access and edit fields using scripts and forms. The software doesn't dictate how things are handled nor enforce anything outside the standard photography tags.
I would think MM could do something similar. I use a few "custom" tags in my audio files, that frustratingly I can't access in MM. Interestingly, I can access them in my media server (Logitech Media Server, LMS) because it has an add-on that lets one expand the database by letting the user define a list of custom tags to read in from each file (as available) and then define menus (similar to MagicNodes again). But, for cataloging in MM, I can't access those fields, and it is frustrating. Some of the tags I use probably aren't all that unusual or even standard (but not common).
Example tags (bold) I use (99% in FLAC files):
Style (sub-genre)
Work
Movement
Opus
Conductor
Orchestra
Venue (e.g. where a performance took place... I use for live Jazz dates, Classical, and concert recordings in popular music).
Performer (e.g. soloist in a symphony, or band-member in a Jazz ensemble)
Composer (standard composer field)
Many of the fields that might have a name/person associated with them will have a corresponding "Sort" field to parallel the Artist Sort tag, which some systems use.
In LMS, I can then define individual libraries and then setup browse menus based on those tags as I define it. The system even lets the user manually combine tags, so that when I want to browse (jazz albums for instance), I can combine Performer and Artist into one field (in its own database).
Anyway, it's a lot of info. As much as I like using MM for cataloging, I've actually started moving to Foobar to have a system I can use for cataloging just to access all the metadata for my files. In this day and age with such large libraries, I cannot invest in a software that won't give me all my data. MM4's catalog breadth (which was basically the same as MM3) is too limiting.
Granted, it may not be easy to get the features in there, but I think it is something that would have to be figured out.
That's just my feeling on it. I'm but one customer (potential customer for MM5). I've loved the program for years, but it has aged and is losing its usefulness to me.
Back to the tags thing, I am for supporting a wide variety of tags (date I say all the tags in file(s)). I use MM as my primary catalog and DAM (Digital Asset Manager) for my music. I'm sure I'm not the only one. As such, I would like to have every tag in a file available in the database.
I know that is a tall order, but implementation could be as simple as being able to read all the tags into a database so a user can at least read and view them (not necessarily write them). I think the problem ITunes has is that they try to dictate how the user uses and tags their files, and it isn't necessarily consistent with other software and causes problems because they are trying to make a lot of different methods conform to their standard. This happens in photography with Adobe trying to dictate the system.
However, the DAM system I use for photography takes a minimalist approach in terms of tags in that it simply reads everything into its database table (which is basically a large 1:1 table with as many columns as their are tags in the database), gives you the ability to setup a structure for browsing by any field in the database (similar to the MagicNodes add-on in MM), and then the ability to access and edit fields using scripts and forms. The software doesn't dictate how things are handled nor enforce anything outside the standard photography tags.
I would think MM could do something similar. I use a few "custom" tags in my audio files, that frustratingly I can't access in MM. Interestingly, I can access them in my media server (Logitech Media Server, LMS) because it has an add-on that lets one expand the database by letting the user define a list of custom tags to read in from each file (as available) and then define menus (similar to MagicNodes again). But, for cataloging in MM, I can't access those fields, and it is frustrating. Some of the tags I use probably aren't all that unusual or even standard (but not common).
Example tags (bold) I use (99% in FLAC files):
[b]Style[/b] (sub-genre)
[b]Work[/b]
[b]Movement[/b]
[b]Opus[/b]
[b]Conductor[/b]
[b]Orchestra[/b]
[b]Venue[/b] (e.g. where a performance took place... I use for live Jazz dates, Classical, and concert recordings in popular music).
[b]Performer[/b] (e.g. soloist in a symphony, or band-member in a Jazz ensemble)
[b]Composer[/b] (standard composer field)
Many of the fields that might have a name/person associated with them will have a corresponding "Sort" field to parallel the [b]Artist Sort[/b] tag, which some systems use.
In LMS, I can then define individual libraries and then setup browse menus based on those tags as I define it. The system even lets the user manually combine tags, so that when I want to browse (jazz albums for instance), I can combine Performer and Artist into one field (in its own database).
Anyway, it's a lot of info. As much as I like using MM for cataloging, I've actually started moving to Foobar to have a system I can use for cataloging just to access all the metadata for my files. In this day and age with such large libraries, I cannot invest in a software that won't give me all my data. MM4's catalog breadth (which was basically the same as MM3) is too limiting.
Granted, it may not be easy to get the features in there, but I think it is something that would have to be figured out.
That's just my feeling on it. I'm but one customer (potential customer for MM5). I've loved the program for years, but it has aged and is losing its usefulness to me.