• Registered: 2012-03-12

Topic: Release Attribute Fields Mono/Stereo and Studio/Live

I'm new here and not a database designer, just an average collector/consumer, but thought I would post something to say hi and get my "feet wet".

I just wondered if anyone had proposed having separate fields for either of these release group or release level attributes.  They would be optional fields but might be useful fields for data import/export and identification.

One field would allow you to indicate release was either monaural, stereo, or mixed. Some compilations of older and newer music are mixed. Currently this is handled in the disambiguation field, but that is used for other things as well.

The other field I would propose would allow you to chose studio or live. Currently you must chose "album" or "live" at the release group level, but I don't think of "album" and "live" as mutually exclusive.

Perhaps this has already been considered and rejected, but I notice that CD Universe tries to (correctly?) capture those attributes, and it seems useful to me to know these things about a particular release (before considering a purchase, for example).

  • From: Singapore
  • Registered: 2007-02-13

Re: Release Attribute Fields Mono/Stereo and Studio/Live

Allowing multiple "types" for releases, and a more flexible setup than we have now has been proposed and discussed many times before; but prior to May last year, we didn't have a database schema that really allowed this to be easily done. We're in a better position now with "NGS", however the last 9 months have mainly been spent stabilizing NGS, adding missing features and trying to improve the editing workflow as it has got a lot more complicated.

You can read an old (and probably still roughly relevant) proposal for expanding the types here. I think there was one for moving them to more "tag-like" multi-select attributes but it's pretty major and has implications for the way other websites consume MB's data so has to be carefully thought through. Lots of other post-NGS Style issues for the mailing list to wade through :)

Regarding what we currently have, I think most people think of "Album" as "Studio Album" in the English language sense. I know the word "album" can have issues across languages, cultures and its colloquial use; but i believe most regular editors try to keep the "Album" definition as clean as possible. Confusing releases such as Mixtapes, Demos, part-live part-compilation tend to end up in the Compilation or Other dumping grounds in order to keep "Album" as clean and usable as possible.

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  • From: here
  • Registered: 2006-12-19

Re: Release Attribute Fields Mono/Stereo and Studio/Live

Nomalights, in the mean time, you can set the mono/stereo in the disambiguation comment for either the releases (if it’s release-wide correct) or the recordings (some compilations mix mono and stereo tracks).
Here are some examples or such recordings (you can use these tags too… mono/stereo) and releases (pending edits… mono/stereo).

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