Best software for Classical music?

[Speed Racer]

I think Roon is doing really well with Classical music. Better than anything else I have tried. The more I use Roon the more enamored I am with it. That's not how things have gone with other software!

[fragoulisnaval]

3 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Agreed and I do use this for tagging help but it does not support DSD and/or multichannel, both of which are essential for me.

the new version which is due to come up soon, will support DSD but not multichannel playback yet

[fragoulisnaval]

Here is a press release found on Facebook

 

https://musichieu.wordpress.com/2017/09/15/musichi-new-version-6-1-new-support-for-dsf-dsd-format-tablet-mode-and-more/#more-839

 

it will have a tablet mode, dsd support and a few other handy stuff for the already users

[Kal Rubinson]

Cool.  This means that I can now use MusiCHI for tagging my DSF files assuming it will recognize the multichannel ones as well as the stereo only ones.

[Bufo Bill]

Thanks so much for all these suggestions, many of which are new to me. I'll look into all of them over the next couple of weeks. 

Many thanks from Bill   

[EuroChamp]

On 13.9.2017 at 1:09 PM, Bufo Bill said:

Hi can anyone tell me if there's a good player/ library organiser for classical music? I currently have a small library of music on my SSD, so am not yet tied in to one format or system.

 

My preferred software is jRiver. It is incredible flexible, you can configure almost everything. You can build your customized views / querys. It is installed in a Windows headless computer. My remote control is a MacBook with jRiver installed on it. When the MacBook is not running, I like the iPad app jRemote. jRiver allows you to customize the views for the iPad too. I would say, it is really good for classics.

 

Before I import new music / downloads into my jRiver library, I do the initial tagging with Foobar2k and importing the cover photo is done by mp3tag. I know it sounds complicated, but it is not. The process is straight forward. Later tagging is done inside of jRiver, either by the jRiver software on the MAC or on the iPad.

[paultaylor]

Hi Bill

 

For tagging can I interest you in my own SongKong tagger, this does automated music tagging and properly understands works and movements, performers, composers, conductors, orchestras ectera - http://www.jthink.net/songkong/classical.jsp and supports DSD as well as comprehensive tagging for Wav/Aif etc.

 

I see you use iTunes, SongKong can update your iTunes library including updating the newish iTunes Work and Movement fields, but if you are looking for another way to play your music we have also done alot of work to get SongKong working very nice with http://minimserver.com/ which seems to me to be the be the most flexible UPnP server, and hence the best UPNP solution for Classical music

 

[Bufo Bill]

Hi all, thanks for all the help you've all provided, I guess an update would be a good idea. I eventually invested in a full version of JRiver, the player is good, but the customisation options for the tagging really sold this software to me. 

@paultaylor, thanks for posting, I will check out your product in the next couple of months, having to spend a lot on a new car ATM, when I get a bit of cash back in the bank, I will more than likely be in touch. 

[jcn3]

7 minutes ago, Bufo Bill said:

I eventually invested in a full version of JRiver

good choice -- it's a great player!

[Alpina_Lux]

On ‎9‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 5:23 PM, fragoulisnaval said:

For classical music, MUISChi wins hands down. The developer is a HUGE fan of classical music and he has developed the software with this in mind.

 

It comes with a preinstalled database for classical music which comes very handy in case yout files are lacking in tagging. This database is open source and can anyone contribute. However, every now and then he is updating it, enriching it with new content

 

Pricewise, it is very competitive.

 

If i were you, i would write a message in the Support section , telling him what i look for and want and want.

 

 

 

I fully second that.

 

I have tagged my entire classical music collection (about 6000 CDs) with this software and it works marvelous - all composers, works and artists tagged and individually searchable over the entire database just makes it perfectly accessible. It's a huge work to do, of course, in particular with large collections; but totally worth it.

 

I don't listen to it at the computer as most here seem to do, but through my stereo in the living room. Access the Synology-NAS stored collection through the Lumin app on my ipad - very simple and intuitive.

[semente]

iTunes +  HQ Player (drag'n'drop) for me:

 

[fragoulisnaval]

On 6/25/2018 at 10:35 AM, Alpina_Lux said:

 

I fully second that.

 

I have tagged my entire classical music collection (about 6000 CDs) with this software and it works marvelous - all composers, works and artists tagged and individually searchable over the entire database just makes it perfectly accessible. It's a huge work to do, of course, in particular with large collections; but totally worth it.

 

I don't listen to it at the computer as most here seem to do, but through my stereo in the living room. Access the Synology-NAS stored collection through the Lumin app on my ipad - very simple and intuitive.

 

I am using the client/server edition (still alpha version) on my stereo systems and sounds wonderful!

[astrotoy]

Just stumbled onto this thread.  For MusiCHI do we have mch capability yet.  I have lots of DSD64 mch albums.  Thanks,  Larry

[Avenging Fool]

On 9/13/2017 at 2:00 PM, S Vale said:

MusiChi is terrific as a classical library organizer/tagger.  It also has a player that I haven't tried.

 

You can organize your library with MusiChi, and play with any other player such as JRiver.

 

-SK

Is it possible to organize the files on a pc with Musichi, and then play them beck via a renderer such as Bluesound or the Network tab of an Oppo?

[audiventory]

On 9/13/2017 at 2:09 PM, Bufo Bill said:

Hi can anyone tell me if there's a good player/ library organiser for classical music?

 

I suppose, genre is not matter for player/organizer comparison. Sound quality is sound quality for any genre.

 

Maybe, there is need to account, that classical music files sometimes have long names and metadata.

[EuroChamp]

43 minutes ago, audiventory said:

 

I suppose, genre is not matter for player/organizer comparison. Sound quality is sound quality for any genre.

 

Maybe, there is need to account, that classical music files sometimes have long names and metadata.

 

For classical music the software should be able to use Composer, Orchestra, Conductor, Soloists on the same hierarchy level as Artist and Albumname.

Maybe some of us want to use even more, e.g. year of composition, ...

 

From a technical perspective, gapless playback is a must for some, as is with other live performances.

[audiventory]

1 hour ago, EuroChamp said:

From a technical perspective, gapless playback is a must for some, as is with other live performances.

 

Yes. Gapless playback ability is important.

[fragoulisnaval]

5 hours ago, Avenging Fool said:

Is it possible to organize the files on a pc with Musichi, and then play them beck via a renderer such as Bluesound or the Network tab of an Oppo?

I do not think so. What it is possible is that you organize the files in Musichi and then choose an external player as output.  And i do not think that a renderer can be seen as a player in MUSIChi...

 

You have nothing to loose by sending an email in MUSIChi support and ask them though

[fragoulisnaval]

2 hours ago, EuroChamp said:

 

For classical music the software should be able to use Composer, Orchestra, Conductor, Soloists on the same hierarchy level as Artist and Albumname.

Maybe some of us want to use even more, e.g. year of composition, ...

 

 

All these and more can are possible in MUSIChi

[Avenging Fool]

38 minutes ago, fragoulisnaval said:

I do not think so. What it is possible is that you organize the files in Musichi and then choose an external player as output.  And i do not think that a renderer can be seen as a player in MUSIChi...

 

You have nothing to loose by sending an email in MUSIChi support and ask them though

Thank you for your reply.  I see that as one, albeit minor, drawback to MusiCHI.  I believe that renders sonically are superior to PC based playback.  However, I have a large collection, and am burning several thousand more discs to my NAS.  It would be at least reassuring to know that there is at least one program that can potentially organize it.

[rodrigaj]

1 hour ago, fragoulisnaval said:

 

All these and more can are possible in MUSIChi

It's been a awhile since I looked at Musichi. Only in Windows, correct? 

[Avenging Fool]

5 hours ago, audiventory said:

 

I suppose, genre is not matter for player/organizer comparison. Sound quality is sound quality for any genre.

 

Maybe, there is need to account, that classical music files sometimes have long names and metadata.

MusiCHI is Windows only

[fragoulisnaval]

On 8/8/2018 at 5:39 PM, rodrigaj said:

It's been a awhile since I looked at Musichi. Only in Windows, correct? 

Yes, only in Windows for the time being.

 

Some have used it successfully in Linux through Windows emulator ( i believe it is called Lime?)

[filbert]

On 9/13/2017 at 2:00 PM, Musicophile said:

On a Mac, I find Audirvana to be the best compromise for tagging flexibility and sound quality. 

 

On PC (which seems to be your platform), MusiChi has received some good reviews, but I never used it.

 

http://www.musichi.eu

 

Alternatively, JRiver is also pretty flexible tagging wise. On a PC; I indeed wouldn't´t bother with iTunes. 

 

The link for MusiChi software is now here: https://musichieu.wordpress.com/about/ The original link is now used to sell a hardware based server device. I'm not sure how actively the software is being maintained these days, but I've been using the tagger and library manager on Windows for a few years and am very happy with it. I don't use the player as I have a Logitech Squeezebox linked to my NAS as a player. I pretty much keep a cheap Windows NUC for ripping and tagging and the occasional other thing that I don't have a Mac application for that I like using.

 

I'd love to find something that works well for classical music on my Mac laptop as I occasionally do use it as a player. Mainly, when I'm out of the house, it's Foobar 2000 on an iPad or iPhone. That works pretty well. I especially like the way it works with TuneFusion to keep the iPhone in sync with the collection on my NAS. Unfortunately, Foobar for Mac is very bare bones. 

 

I've seen JRiver recommended before and I must check it out. 

[Bob Stern]

12 hours ago, filbert said:

I'd love to find something that works well for classical music on my Mac laptop as I occasionally do use it as a player.

 

Swinsian ($25) has a user interface similar to iTunes and is compatible with FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, etc.  It has automatic completion (clairvoyance) when you type, which helps keep tagging consistent.

 

An unadvertised 3.0 Beta, which I have not tried, syncs with the iPhone music player.

 

https://swinsian.com