Gang I just had my computer upgraded and to cut a long story very very short, my Davilex Music Manger database does not like my new XP system. In fact it hates it. I remember reading here from Tom (?) who had a very tasty database but I can't find any search on it at all. I feel very vurnable as I have over 2000 albums/28000 tracks and I'm scared s*hitless something is going to happen -- Davilex dont support this product no more so I'm looking for a safe secure supportable database system for the future. Any suggestions gratefully received. Will
Music Collector Pro is what I use, very good it is too: http://www.collectorz.com/music/ Integrates very well with CDDB and other online sources. -- Ian
I'll second that. Does the job very well. The export options are handy too - I've set it up so that I can generate an HTML report to keep on my Pocket PC. Useful when out CD shopping to avoid duplicates.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. Have downloaded the trial version from Music Collector which seems to to the job. Talk to ya later
Music Collector looks very interesting, I could really do with a good record / CD database. Can it be used as a selling tool? I love the on-line search facility and the ability to use a bar code scanner, but what I would need as well is to be able to add fields like 'cover condition', 'record condition', 'comments' 'selling price' etc and get it to export fields of my choice into a comma or tab delimited text file suitable for uploading to the likes of gemm.com, i.e. lines of data such as: LP, T. Rex, The Slider, EMI BLN 5001, EX, EX, £15.00, 1972 1st pressing with inner. etc etc… If it can do that I'll buy it! Tony.
Tony, there are user-defined fields that can be used for any purpose you like (there are also a huge number of optional fields available for each database record, I haven't checked, but condition may well already be one; comments, price, and catalogue number certainly are), and you can export whatever fields you choose into CSV, HTML, or XML. You can create export templates that determine what gets exported. You'll need the Pro version for this, but it's only 40 euros. -- Ian
The number of fields it already has is vast and you can rename them all to what you prefer. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can add your own fields but I think the existing ones plus the user-defined ones would probably cover what you need. Oh I see - Ian beat me to it Superb bit of software IMO. Michael.
Hi Gang Just to bring you up to date I have now bought Music Collector Pro - £23.50 no fuss download in a thrice. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It took me a few hours just to aclimatise to it but I have the hang of it now. I think.
I've finally downloaded the trial of Music Collector… Is there any way to get it to sort artists properly by surname/firstname? Nat Adderly should be under 'A' not 'N' in any sane record collection. I'd really like the database to reflect how the records are shelved. That's my main gripe so far, but the fact you can't search by catalogue number comes a very close second – I'd far prefer to be able to enter 'EMI BLNA 7751' than have to type 'T.Rex Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow / A creamed cage in august'! Ok, 'T.Rex Zinc' would probably get it, but I'd still like a catalogue number facility as in most cases it should be able to get the format and country info from that. Still trying to figure out how to add columns for gradings, but it looks ok assuming I can resolve the stupid first name search order. Tony.
Hi Tony Right click on the Artist folder and then click on Edit Artist. You then get the option to sort them however the hell you fancy. Usually for christian name, surname just click on the Generate button and it will swap them round automatically. To search by catalogue number just type it into the Filter box at the top of the screen and press enter. Should do the job. Ha - just re-read your post and you mean search the on-line databases by catalogue number! Good point - give the guys a shout on the MuC forum - there's a link in the Help screen - they are VERY helpful and open to ideas Cheers Rich
LPDB? Yes, but is there an equivalent of CDDB for LPs anywhere? I'm sold on Music Collector for CD but do I really have to type in all the LP stuff by hand?
Rich, thanks for the artist search tip – that works. I've just tried some CDs in an attempt to catch it out, I'm astounded by how well the online search works. I dug out some seriously obscure CDs in an attempt to trip it up: two early Sigur Ros singles plus their two first albums (all never released outside of Iceland!), Bay Bird's Fatherhood (only1000 copies pressed), Stockhausen's Hymnen box (a private pressing on his own label) and Black Dog Production's Temple of Transparent Balls (deleted long enough ago to be worth about 40 quid now) and Spicelab's Spies vs. Spice (obscure German techno). It got the whole bloody lot! That is going to make doing the CDs a real breeze. The LPs may however take some time! Tony.
See also the parallel discussion at https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1487 I tried the trial version of Music Collector but it failed to register any of the Hänssler Bach cantatas in the original CD version. It recognised the repackaged and reissued versions, but I have more of the originals (cheaper!). I also tried it out with an obscure version of Beethoven's 9th, and it dug up just about every version except that one! So, the thought of doing all those by hand (plus 400-odd (very) LPs) put me right off.
I've got Music Collector too after a recommendation from michaelab. I haven't looked back. It was a bit daughting at first seeing a large pile of CDs waiting to be fed into the CD tray. I started going about 30 discs a night. About a month later at they were done. I found you do have to watch what it digs up from the CDDB but I can use the custom fields to record whether I have ripped the CD to hard disc and whether I have loaned out any albums. The HTML export is also nice for accompanying me to the record shop!
S/w list & possible classical LP solution There's a list of software at the seriously named Record Collector's Guild including one called Maestro Manager that looks like it could be good for classical LPs - could save a lot of typing with the pre-installed field-lists and ability to upload more e.g. all Mercury Living Presence. Could be a lot easier to pick one's recording details from a list than to type them in anyway. I haven't installed it yet or checked out whether there's a way to get a list out to a PDA
Tony I had my LPs catalogued in MS Access (they used to do a sample template for music collections which was simple but nowhere near as powerful as MuC). Alwin at MuC took my Access file and converted all the entries into my Music Collector file for me - free of charge! Needed a bit of tidying up but saved a helluva lot of time. What I'm saying is if you have 'em catalogued in some kinda format now then they may well be able to help you. I do find with adding new LPs that I usually have to take the CD version from CDDB etc and edit it accordingly (deleting all those extra T Rex b-sides is a bit of shame!). Most of the vinyl hits from the on-line searches are either empty (i.e. no tracks!) or plain wrong. My only problem with it at the mo is it gives a diffeent icon for the different formats (CD, CD single, LP, 7 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch etc) but the icons for LP and 12 inch are the same which is a bit crap when looking down an artist and not being able to differentiate bewteen LPs and 12 inchers. Cheers Rich PS It does have a great Statistics feature which you can call up by artist, format etc!
