@Maury_Finkle thanks for opening this thread.
Guys, would like to hear from anyone with experience of using any of these tools for classical.
Regards,
Lindsay
ah - thanks makes sense. I have little need for all of that…and it would really slow you down if you’re starting to catalogue a large collection from scratch
Also a question for you Excel guys - do you just keep the artist, title, format - or more info than that??
the more I think about this, the more I see an opportunity for a student who’d like to make a bit of cash while home over the holidays…this just takes a lot of time.
Doing a free trial on CZL - seems very good.
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Mp3tag allows you to export your collection as a csv/excel file if you have the time to read the whole of your collection. I use EAC to convert CD to FLAC.
Easy! Rip it, and file under ‘Bin’. Then finding it is simple 
OrangeCD now appears to be free, It will handle “classical” - I have a mix of both classical & rock. If you know any HTML/Javascript, then you can customise the display screens.
But it’s not really being supported anymore, and it won’t look up your disc on the various internet music databases.
All cds ripped onto NAS, so simple task to check on Naim app.
And your LPs?
Don’t have any… all CD I’m afraid.
Asset does it for us (we just have to make sure we get the tags right).
I have an MS Excel spreadsheet, which I’ve kept for years. I email updates of that to myself so that it’s on my phone, where it can be checked before any potential purchase.
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Collectorz on my PC for CDs and download files; the CLZ Music portable version for my phone. I find this really useful when I’m buying CDs - can check which I’ve already got!
I catalogue all my music (physical or files) with Eastgate Tinderbox which allows me to build a clickable structures of recordings, texts, descriptions of types of music, links to web pages etc.
I use excel, set up as a database, recording all relevant data, using various formulae the sheet tells me on a ‘live’ basis how many of each format and size (for vinyl) I have, also cost etc. This is continuosly copied to my Onedrive account so I can access it anywhere on my phone or tablet. I set this up a few years ago mainly for insurance purposes, did the same for our books, DVD/Blu-Ray, jewellery and house contents etc, so we could have a continuously updating value of everything of value that we own -simples!
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My Excel file has -
Artist/Album/Label/Number/Media
eg-
PJ Harvey/Dry/Too Pure/PURE CD10/CD
Discogs for me. I started in earnest during lockdown and it took about two years to catalogue my ~3,100 records, giving it maybe 10 or 15 minutes a day. It sounds tedious, but it was very satisfying.
I added some custom fields, so each entry has Media Condition, Sleeve Condition, Acquired [e.g. eBay], Acquired Detail [optional, e.g. eBay vendor name], Date, Country, Notes [optional], Currency [3-letter currency code], Price.
Discogs’ searching and filtering is limited, so I periodically export my collection (and my wantlist) to Excel, which also serves as a backup.
Ah, so you can export to excel…
CLZ music user myself
Interesting topic.
I find if you over catalogue, then things are easy to find but you invariably are forced to listen to whatever your can actually think about at the time. If you are thinking about The Police, you’ll find it and play it. But that’s the problem. You almost never think of the other hundreds or thousands of albums. For that reason, until recently, I took all my CDs and just plonked them on CD shelves any which way. No order. No cataloguing. If I wanted something, I had to stare at the collection and glance over it - often picking out something I’d not thought of in years. I’ve a few friends with truly gigantic CD collections in the 20ks and they do the same thing: 4 or 5 vague groups. No sorting at all after that. For the same reason I stated. You can’t keep them all in your head and the rebrowsing your own media is the only way you rediscover stuff.
These days, I simply group them via Box Sets, J-Pop, House. Easy Listening, and Everything Else (which is where 90% are). Within those vague groupings, no order whatsoever. Just throw them on the shelves.
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