CD collection database software (Mac) - any recommendations?

[Don Petter]

Like others on this thread, I use Excel to make a database of all my CDs. I have five columns:

A Composer
B Name of work
C Manufacturing company
D Identifying code
E Number of CDs in the set

And of course you can sort on any of those in an instant. I normally have it set up sorted by composer, so I can check whenever Gramophone recommends a new recording whether I want it, or whether I've got enough versions already.

The only serious shortcoming is that if I have a CD with more than one composer represented, I only enter the first one. So for example a recent Heritage CD of works by Havergal Brian and John Foulds is entered as Brian etc and poor old Foulds doesnt get named. This raises two problems: one, if another recording of the Foulds work is issued I shall look on the database and not find it, so I will go and buy it, whereas in fact I already have one recording and that's enough. The problem is that if a visitor says "Have you got anything by John Foulds?" I shall look on the database and not find him, so will say no, when in fact I have. I might of course remember that I have, but the whole point of the database is that I cant remember what I've got. In practice I get around this by inviting visitors to choose something from the shelves themselves.

The method I used to get over the 'Do I have it/Where is it' problem was to have a field for 'Filed Under'. Admittedly my index was by each individual work, but you could have a simplified version if you don't mind one extra entry for each additional composer on a 'Various' CD.

It works like this:

Decide under which composer the CD will be shelved. Any criterion you like, alphabetical, major composer, major work, etc. [Let's call this composer C1]

The first entry then has, obviously, C1 in your conventional 'Composer' field and nothing in the 'Filed Under' field.

The next entry, for the second composer [C2], has C2 in 'Composer' field, and C1 in the 'Filed Under' field.

Third entry has C3 in 'Composer' and C1 in 'Filed Under'.

And so on.

It sounds more complicated than it is. Everything works normally except that if you do see an entry in the 'Filed Under' field, that's where you will find the item.


It may depend on how many 'Various' CDs you have, and how big a retrospective job it would be.

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Don P., this looks very helpful and I will digest it more thoroughly tomorrow when I am more sober than I am at present. Meanwhile, on with ...

... Charles Tomlinson Griffes, 'Roman Sketches', played by Leonid Hambro. A rather crackly mono LP, but interesting music, easy on the ear, and no, I never heard of either of them, either.

Lyrichord LL 105, in case you want to buy a copy.

[DublinJimbo]

The method I used to get over the 'Do I have it/Where is it' problem was to have a field for 'Filed Under'. Admittedly my index was by each individual work, but you could have a simplified version if you don't mind one extra entry for each additional composer on a 'Various' CD.

Great minds ...

Back when I was confined to physical CDs I adopted this exact same strategy for my database. That became essential when (a) my collection got quite large and (b) a gradual shift from physical to file-based music caused forgetfulness to kick in as to what was coupled with what and where things were located on my shelves. Using your "C1" example, my rule of thumb was to shelve under the composer for whose work I bought the CD.

My actual database field was fu/cw (filed under / coupled with), which gave me a greater degree of flexibility. Taking another leaf from your book, I also indexed each individual work on each of my CDs (even to the extent of each song on song recital discs). This could be tedious and time-consuming in some instances, but the rewards in terms of searching and locating musical items more than justified the time spent. A time-saver technique at data-entry time was to begin with a database entry containing all common data and then to duplicate this record as necessary to dig down through the uniqueness hierarchy (and I still do that when editing metadata for my downloads in iTunes).

[Lento]

I seem to remember Collectorz working for a while on Mac, then suddenly stopping (not due to exceeding the free limit).

[PrincipessaDiGelo]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Now it's time for me to roll my sleeves up! I think I'm going to give Delicious a go, but if that doesn't do the job then I'll have the fun of constructing an Excel spreadsheet. Hooray???

[ChrisBennell]

Just a quick word again on using Excel - when I first constructed my catalogue, I was faced with about a thousand entries to type. I found it easiest and quickest to construct a Text file containing the data, with commas between the fields - the text file was then "imported" into Excel, which uses the commas as column delimiters. So everything (in theory) ends up in the correct column. If a column needs to be empty, you simply type two commas with no text.

Once the catalogue was finished, I abandoned the text file and just use the spreadsheet for new entries.

Example of an extract from my text file follows:

Bartok, Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta, Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Divertimento, CSO- Solti, Decca,
Bax, Symphony No 1, In the Faery Hills, The Garden of Fand, Royal Scottish SO, David Lloyd-Jones, Naxos
Bax, Symphony No 2, November Woods, Royal Scottish SO, David Lloyd-Jones, Naxos
Britten, Missa Brevis in D, The Sixteen - Harry Christophers
, Festival Te Deum,
, Jubilate Deo,
, Hymn to Saint Peter,
, Hym to the Virgin,
, A Hymn of Saint Columbia,
, Sweet was the song,
, A New Years Carol,
, A Shepherds Carol,
, A Ceremony of Carols,
Bach, Coffee Cantata, Academy of Ancient Music - Hogwood- David Thomas - Emma Kirkby
, Peasant Cantata,

and so-on