Music Catalogue software

[musicfan]

I originally used Alpha 3, then Alpha 5. Superb database. Then it didn't work anymore when Win XP came around and I switched to Access. Not nearly as nice, but you can get any report you want. I've had limitations with formatting that I didn't have with Alpha. When they finally came up with a new version of Alpha, they wanted $500 for it. Bite me.

My first CD database was... I think db3, then Access. But for to build the functions that a program like Catraxx gives you, you have to write code for years.
About Alpha, I don't know it, but $500... I'm not so much interested to know it

[musicfan]

You can import Excel and Text files.

After you click "import" > Excel you have to setup a table crresponding to you SS I think.

I think you can download a full trial version. Give it a go and have a play.

Link down the bottom of the page http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/index.html

Catraxx has many import possibility. The standard are Excel and Text, but at http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/addons.html you can find a free import utility for
•AlbumPlayer
•AVCataloger
•Axialis AX-CDPlayer
•CD Datenbank
•CDPlayer.ini
•CD Trustee
•Davilex Music Manager 98/2000
•Discogs.com
•ERG Music Database
•Music Catalogue Master
•Music Collector
•Music Database 2000
•Music Library
•MusicManager
•MusicWise
•OrangeCD
•VisiTrax
I never tried this utility but there is.

[musicfan]

Don't get your hopes up:
http://www.fnprg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14890

I know, I know... the last post of that topic is mine but the things can change (better or worse)

[musicfan]

I've tried several systems over the years, which I've found to be lacking.

This is the reason why I love Catraxx and his family.

[rcarlberg]

Does Catraxx allow you to insert a CD into your computer and pull all the info off it that way?

[Burley Wright]

Roger, if you're online you put in the disc and it looks it up using Gracenote, pulls down info, cover art (if available), it's easy to record purchase date, price, any notes you want to record, etc. I love it.

[Duncan Glenday]

I've done a bit of research on CATtraxx. It looks like a very powerful tool.

I may be tempted to buy it. If the current version works relatively bug-free and does most of what I need, perhaps it won't matter if they've (apparently) stopped support / upgrades / the discussion forum.

[Azol]

I am using CATraxx for several months now (had to contact the developer directly to pay for a licence) and I enjoy the functionality very much. Pulling most info from Discogs (that does not require to insert the actual CDs, just enter title/artiast or barcode) then attaching actual audio files to the tracks in the DB. Very handy! With concert DVDs it's possible to attach the iso files if you like and set an automatic action on them - like mounting a virtual DVD etc.

[musicfan]

From Catraxx help:

"To manually add a new album, click the Add button on the toolbar. This will open the 'Album Edit' window.

To download data from CDDB, insert the CD into the CD drive, then click the Add - Download from CDDB button on the toolbar.

To download data from the Internet using the Manual Query, click the Add - Manual Query button on the toolbar. You see the 'Manual Query' window. Here you enter the artist name and/or the title/UPC code, select the site you want to query, then click the Search button. Select the album you want to download, then click the Add button to add the album to the database."

The sites for Manual Query are: Discogs, Amazon Canada, France, UK, Germany and USA.

Catraxx reads CD text too (very good if you have a CD with a your personal compilation) and, yes, it is bug free. At least I never had problem with it.

[musicfan]

This is the Catraxx help for audio files:

"In addition to cataloging physical media, you can also use CATraxx to catalog your audio file collection. Use the Scan Folder function to have CATraxx automatically create albums from folders containing audio files. CATraxx will read artist, title, etc. from either the audio file tag or the filename, and use this information to populate the database.

If you later add, or remove, audio files in a folder, use the Rescan Folder command to update the database. CATraxx will rescan the folders containing audio files linked to the database, and add new audio files not already in the database, and delete tracks that link to audio files that have been deleted.

If you would like to attach audio files to an album you have already added to the database, use the Attach Audio Files function. Specify the folder the files are located in, and CATraxx will automatically attach the audio files to the correct tracks.

After you have edited the track information, you can have CATraxx update the audio file tag in the attached audio files. Choose Write to Tag from the Audio menu to do this.

Audio files can be automatically organized into a folder structure and filename format of your choice based on information in the database. Use the Auto-Organize Files function to do this.

If you move all your audio files from one drive/folder to another, use the Update Path / Multimedia function on the Tools menu to update the file path stored in the database.

You can also create your own playlists. For more information, see Setting up playlists."

Just for info, I have cataloged almost 4.000 albums for about almost 82.000 tracks.

[Duncan Glenday]

[musicfan]

Another thing that could be useful: I have connected Catraxx with foobar2000 and this with LastFM. So, when I listen to a song/album from Catraxx, it does start fooba2000 and lastfm and I have the lyrics and artist info on monitor. A pc connection to the hi-fi system completes everything. Do you understand that is very difficult to have a substitute of this software?

[aplodon]

1. Aplon says their database has lots of entries, rarely misses. Of the first ten CDs I tried, nine of them failed. Is the licensed version different that the free trial? The CDs which failed are Brian Hopper's solo album, his Canterburied Sounds comps from a few years ago, Hugh Hopper's 1984 on the French Mantra label, and some classical. Where are the database's strengths? Where are its weaknesses?

It misses sometimes but not often, and that's mostly with very new albums that hasn't been added yet or very obscure stuff. If it's not in their own database they search Discogs, which has quite a lot. I don't have much classical so I can't answer for that.

2. My previous database (DOS-based a million years ago) had fields for "country of origin" and "country of release" because many are not the same. Music Collector seems to just have one "Country" field. Can it be customized to add another?

There are some fields thet you can customize to use for what you like. Don't know how many.

3. Their Movie Collector product, which I have used fairly regularly since it came out, does a good job of populating actors, directors, dates, countries etc. on movies from just a given title via a barcode scan. The Music Collector product on the other hand, in my limited trial, did NOT populate musician credits, producer and engineer credits, studio, country or anything like that. Just the title, cover scan, track list and sometimes year -- which was usually year of the CD release, not year of the original release. Did I get a bad trial?

You have to fill in musicians, producer and engineer credits, studio etc. yourself. I think conductor and orchestra etc. are populated on classical works, but as I said I have not much experience with adding classical stuff and none at all with classical in newer versions of the program.

[rcarlberg]

Do you understand that is very difficult to have a substitute of this software?

Yup, it sounds pretty darn capable. Too bad it's Windows-only

[jctcom]

This topic is pretty old but I thought I would chime in since there are 2 programs I am using that no one has mentioned. First off I should mention I have been using Catraxx for over 15 years and am quite sad to see the company now out of business. The one thing it lacked though was to be a good music player. The playing and creating of playlists was not very intuitive and kind of clumsy. The other thing it lacked was a viable interface to the iPhone (Or Android if you swing that way lol).

Now before I get to the program I use the most now I will mention 1 other program that I have also been using for many many years and that is Helium Music Manager ( http://www.helium-music-manager.com/ ). This is one of the best combinations of powerful database with amazing search capabilities plus player that automatically updates play counts and you can "Rate" your music on the fly as it's playing. I have had 1 caveat with HMM over the last 5 years or so and that is because I keep all of my music on my NAS server I have found the program has gotten quite slow.

As Such I have always been on the prowl for another solution that would top that one. about 6 months ago I found it! I can't believe I had not tried it before as it apparently has been around also for over 15 years or more.

That program is JRiver Media Center ( http://www.jriver.com/ ). Now you are going to think I work for these folks but I don't. I Downloaded the program and tested it and purchased it within 2 days (The trial runs for up to 30 days).

Pros:
1. Speed Speed Speed. This is by far the fastest of the bigger database programs I am used to.
2. Versatility. It takes a bit of learning but it uses a programming language (The forums were extremely helpful in allowing me to design some very powerful expressions for auto renaming / moving my files). you can create an "Expression" to do just about anything Including but not limited to: Tagging, Renaming / Moving based on tags, Creating Smart playlists etc.etc...
3. I have not played with the other components much yet but this program does Movies and Photos as well as audio.
4. Ease of Use. As mentioned earlier the program is extremely powerful but at the same time it is very easy to get started with it.
5. You can install the program on multiple computers and connect them together to access the same database. In fact you can even install off site and use the handy connection code and play your music to your office at a completely different location!
6. Amazing iPhone app that allows you to either remote control the program including Rating songs on the fly, searching and starting new playlists, adding to current playlist etc.... It also allows you to play your music directly to your iPhone. If you have a good data plan you can even easily play to your iPhone while on the road. Imagine having access to your full music collection (I have over 35,000 songs) while driving, biking, walking etc... anywhere you have an internet connection!
7. The only program I have found that allow to play directly to an ASIO compatible sound card. This means you can send the RAW data directly to your receiver and use it's Sound decoding / encoding functions just like you would if playing direct from your CD / DVD Player. The horrible Windows Sound drivers / functions are bypassed completely.

There are many other Pros but I could go on and on and on. The 30 day trial is free and will give you lots of time to decide.

Cons:
1. only allows to attach one picture (Album Cover) to the file. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine with this program which I have chosen to overlook because of the many other pros with it.
2. Although once you get it set up the way you like (I use a Panes view) the Search function(s) are lightning fast and super accurate I have found no easy way to generate a report such as an inventory list etc... (I am sure there is a way using the incredibly powerful expressions but I have not had the time to investigate that yet).

In any case. I still use my Music Collector (Collectorz.com) in order to maintain an off site (No Internet access) database on my iphone but I only use that when I am traveling out of the country or something.

Well that's my 2 cents (Ok 15 cents!). Hopefully someone will get some use out of this.

Carl.

[Azol]

First off I should mention I have been using Catraxx for over 15 years and am quite sad to see the company now out of business.

Yes, very sad, but, still, it uses Access DB format so you basically have tons of options to recover all the neccessary info if you decide to move on to some other software.

The one thing it lacked though was to be a good music player.

Do you know you can set up any 3rd party player (even multiple ones for different file formats) to use with Catraxx? Easily!

In any case. I still use my Music Collector (Collectorz.com)

I gave it another try recently. They are improving (particularly they eliminated that stupid separate mp3 cataloguing software and included all the functionality into the main app), but still fall flat on the face when asked to import musical DVDs (I ain't going to purchase two separate products for that!) and their csv import feature uses only a couple of fields - so you are going to lose most of the info if it's not in their Core database (and that means a lot of work for me!) Still not good importing multiple disk boxes/boxsets etc... too many glitches for my taste.

And, after all, Catraxx works perfectly and satisfies my needs 100%. I wonder if it will become open-source one day, goind to ask Fredrik (the developer) about it.

Thanks for the analysis of other existing options, I might want to keep checking these titles, but not ready to migrate at the moment. If it ain't broken... hehe.

[jctcom]

I do still use my Catraxx as my most comprehensive database for the desktop. My only real issue with it is it's lack of an easy to use sync with my iPhone. (I know there is a sort of solution but I have found it to be far too clumsy and difficult to configure and get working right. And I know that I can designate another Music player but I don't believe such a player writes changes back to the catraxx database such as ratings and play count statistics which is what I like about Helium Music Manager and Jriver Media Centre.

Carl.

[rcarlberg]

Movie Collector (from Collectorz, the same company that does Music Collector described above) recently came out with mobile versions so now I have my DVD collection on my iPhone so when shopping for used movies, I can tell for sure if I have it already (and what version). I imagine the Music Collector module has something similar.

I never bothered with it myself. In addition to the questions I posted way back in February -- which never got answered BTW -- the other big stumbling block for me is that Music Collector is for CDs only. That's only about 40% of my collection -- I still have tons of LPs and a fair number of cassettes and at least a thousand CD-Rs, and they'd all have to be entered manually. That would take months/years and the ROI would be minimal. My Professional File(TM) database has been offline for over a decade now, so even if I could recover what I did in the 1990s it would be little help today. Catching up would be a MONUMENTAL task.

I've given up. I can live without knowing stats or being able to lay hands instantly on obscure albums I can't remember the artist. It hurts my nerdcred but oh well.

[Rarebird]

I do everything by hand.
I have a Works database with all my albums, with the fields:
Artist, Album title, Country, Language, Label, Sublabel, Number, Original release year, Re-release year, Medium (CD, DVD, LP), Amount of CD's, CD-length (several fields)
And for for every album I have a printed sheet, with Artist, Album title, Tracks, Musicians and all label-information
If there is an orchestra and all orchestra-members are mentioned, they are all noted.

[Scott Bails]

That sounds a little time-consuming.

[JKL2000]

I used to have something like that but it was just in a text file. Alas, my collection eventually got the better of me and I stopped updating it.

[davis]

I have one MS Word 93 folder listing all the official releases I have. I have a Word folder bootleg listing artsits/dates/venues/location/duration of show/SQ, and 3 Word bootleg folders that have that information and setlists.

[Mikhael]

I have an easy way around all that - I don't have enough of a collection that I can't remember it all.

[Dana5140]

I have 4 paper notebooks that list all of my CDs, LPs, and cassette tapes. I am old school. iTunes lists my digital discs.

[WytchCrypt]

I do it by hand in a text file formatted for Vim. Vi was the most common text editor on the UNIX platform when I started tracking all my vinyl/CD/cassettes back in the late 80's (I was working at Sun Microsystems and all our computers ran UNIX. When I left Sun in 2000 I found - thankfully - that someone had ported Vi to the windows platform and renamed it Vim so I didn't have to transcribe all that data. I also have several programming scripts written in PERL that generate reports based on the Vi data file (albums by year, bands with the most albums, favourite songs by year, albums by language of lyrics, etc) and since PERL runs on all platforms I was able to pick up on windows right where I left off in UNIX.