Itzhak Perlman Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon & Warner

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Thinking outloud as a way of communicating what I did and what I got and what might be better for ripping two box sets devoted to Itzhak Perlman which I just purchased. To be clear, my post is not intended to complain. Rather to attract any suggestions for a better way of organizing my collection for two box sets devoted to the same artist, one with 25 CDs to rip and the second with 77 CDs.

The 25 CD box set arrived first; and I already ripped 13 discs. Perhaps, I am used to the synergy iTunes provided when I started ripping my music library back in 2011. I have over 6000+ albums.

What made sense to me was to differentiate the DG Complete Recordings 25 CDs as one collection and the Warner Bros 77 CDs as another collection. I choose for the DG collection as follows. Ripped each CD using the album title on the CD followed by “Disc 1 of 25” etc. For the cover art, I use the actual album cover art for each album as opposed to the generic cover art for the whole Deutsche Grammophon Collection. I prefer each album cover art to be specific as a further graphical method to easily identify (if it is easy) than 25 generic cover art identifying the actual collection in its totality. As iTunes provides a category for grouping, I entered (foolishly) Itzhak Perlman Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon as another way to keep the synergy of the collection. Foolishly because, I no longer watch iTunes Music collection and the iTunes Music Library stored on an external Raid 5 Thunderbolt 12TB R6 HDD. In other words, I first rip a CD and edit the metadata in iTunes application so that when I open iTunes (for whatever reason) the organization matches how I want my library to be. As iTunes offers a grouping category, that helps keep the 25CDs in that group. And using “Disc 1 of 25” helps keep the order of the discs in the same order as the collection was presented rather than alphabetically.

However, back to foolishly, the editing for the iTunes application does not, I believe, affect the actual stored iTunes Music on my external Thunderbolt HDD unless I add all that information to the album label. But if I open iTunes, the application, that metadata is operative.

After ripping 13 discs, I opened roon and waited for the watched folder to include those new additions. roon has it’s own system and synergy. Some of my cover art was changed to the generic collection cover art which is easy to change back to the actual album cover art. Some of the album titles were changed to Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and omitting the specific title of the album. That’s also easy to correct by going into Edit Track information and deselecting roon’s choice of title and checking my own metadata. It’s extra work that I am prepared to do to get the results I want. Don’t understand how roon accepts some of my metadata as I originally created it and changes some of the discs in a seemingly random selection of change. It’s all correctable.

Any suggestions? Does including information, i.e., “Disc 1 of 25” allow for the sequencing of the album order (to conform to the actual collection’s order)? Is there any utility in also adding the grouping information, i.e., Itzhak Perlman Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon Disc 1 etc.? to also organize and group those 25 CDs ripped to allow me access to that group without searching all over for each album?

I am not really proficient at metadata editing in conformance with how roon might receive my collection for a box set grouped as I would want it. And I am taking the time and space to construct this epic post before i finish ripping the remaining 12 albums of the Itzhak Perlman DG collection. And before I start on the Warner collection of 77 CDs. Yikes!

Sorry for the long post. Hope I have covered comprehensively what my outcome is for each collection, that is, group one collection all together in separate albums using the album title and not the collection title, using the individual album cover art, assembling the collection in a numerical order from disc 1 to disc 25 which makes some sense to me as it replicates the collection’s order of discs and follows the included booklet with the box set. And furthermore, helps me manage a fairly larger box set of 77 CDs that I want separate from the DG collection.

Is there a better method for editing or creating the metadata that will accomplish my outcome? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you for your attention.

Best,
Richard

PS
As an example of what I refer to as cover art generic and individual

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Hello Richard,

This is a problem that I’ve been struggling with as I’ve a number of big boxed sets, and am still trying to work out the best way to handle these in Roon. I’ve tended to give the collection title as the album title though, with the discs numbered separately.

Some, like the Rachmaninov Complete Works that came out recently on Decca have been straightforward. I ripped using Rachmaninov Complete Works as the album title, Various Artists as the album artist and with disc 1 of 32, 2 of 32, etc. Roon identified the album and found a review. The 22 disc Works of Igor Stravinsky was properly identified in the same way. Both of these seem to be ‘new’ compilations though rather than collections that replicate the original CDs

The Beethoven Complete Masterpieces sounds more like the Perlman set in that it’s a collection of previous releases, e.g. the Zinman Symphonies. I ripped this as one big collection, with one album art, but am now thinking of reorganising it into its component CDs/sets with the original album art for each. (I experimented by changing the symphonies set and Roon identified it correctly). I’d then use a tag to group them as Beethoven Complete Masterpieces. I find tags incredibly useful and have used them to group the Hyperion Schubert Edition as a collection for example. In your case you could have three tags - one to group each collection and one to group both under Perlman, though the artist search might for for that.

One thing I’m having problems with in Roon is how to group CDs within a big set. In JRiver, I use the grouping field to group the the individual operas in the Bayrueth set of Wagner operas, for example.

I don’t know if this helps but it’s just to let you know you’re not alone in looking for a solution to the ‘big set’ problem!

Chris

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Hello Chris,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful sharing and suggestions.

The first box set for Itzhak Perlman The Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, 25 CDs, I decided to use the cover art for each original album. Like you, I decided to use the album title and a touch more, i.e., in E minor, Op. XX and the last part of the title, as there is no grouping category, Itzhak Perlman The Complete…Disc X.

Thank you for the wake up call. I completely forgot about using TAGS as a method for grouping. What was I thinking? (Not!) I am going to try that with the Itzhak Perlman, The Warner Complete Recordings. With this box set there are 59 albums but 77 CDs, so I decided to sort by Album # and if multiple discs within the album, then Album X Disc 1, Album X Disc 2 etc. Again, I am using the original album cover art which Warner’s website makes it easy to “save as”.

For the DG collection, I discovered that the title characters are limited in number of characters if too much text is included in the title.

Simply, I design my box set synergy using the iTunes model, which I am used to. In other words, after I rip the CD with XLD or dBpoweramp, I add the tracks to a folder and sort the folder into my iTunes Music Library sorted either by Artist or Composer or Genre (OST original sound track). This works both for roon and iTunes as I use more than one software player, and this synergy works very well.

For roon, sometimes despite supplying the title and cover art, roon will use the actual box set cover art – the generic collection cover art, not the individual cover art for the album. It’s random; and I can’t make sense of what triggers that outcome. Also, despite supplying the title, along with the generic cover art, the title becomes the group title, i.e., Itzhak Perlman The Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon. So I presented with an album that is indistinguishable from each other, until, I do the following: Open the album I want to change, click on Edit tracks, replace the box set generic title with the custom specific title actually used for my iTunes library, and if the artists are limited, then select the artists I listed, and to cure the cover art generic choice roon made, I go down to the cover art section and select the one I included originally before roon scanned the album into the roon display library. This works fine!

But I have not thought to use tags, and since I only started on The Warner Collection up to album four of fifty-nine, I going to use your system to determine if it works for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have about a dozen + of Mosaic Jazz Artists Box Sets, McCartney, George Harrison, Pink Floyd. You get the idea. I also have the Miles Davis (Columbia Complete Collection 58 albums?) Decca, Julian Bream, Rubinstein and on and on. But those have already been done before roon existed. I could be busy for the next couple of years.

I am trying to come up with a model for the whole library or one that best conveys the genre collection, i.e., Classical, Jazz, Rock, etc. One template may not be best for all, or it will. I may be less particular about the metadata as some other members prefer. Cover art, artist, title, album artist is pretty much what I require to assist me in my selection. The majority of my preference is to listen to the music. And roon does a wonderful job of supplying information about composers, artists, etc.

Thank you for all your input and recommendations. Good fortune with your organization.

With appreciation,
Richard

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Hello Chris,

I am back. I just learned how to use Tags to my advantage. I did not realize I could link the whole collection by using tags such that when I click on one of the albums in the collection using tags, I can see the entire collection. I realize that this is apparently fundamental to most members, but, alas, it escaped me until your post in reply.

I am indebited to you.

With appreciation,
Richard

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Tags!

Did I mention I love Tags? Suddenly, as I am implementing them, I have a further command of the synergy of my collection in ways I am loving.

Excuse my excess. I am OK. I’ll get over it and calm down.

Best,
Richard