Maestro Manager's Focus Is Classical Music
Focusing solely on classical music enables the addition of unique features to Maestro Manager that enhance the listening and collecting experience of classical music lovers. Several of the features that distinguish Maestro Manager from other music collecting programs follow.
FEATURES MAESTRO MANAGER OTHER PROGRAMS • Understanding what's displayed is as simple as reading an album cover as ONE window displays all of the information written on an album's cover with a logical location for each item that relates to classical music collecting. Other classical music-specific content such as instruments played by solo artists, critical recommendations by reviewers, musical categories, and play prompts display within the ONE window. • Disjointed. Most cataloging programs support diverse types of music which inhibits displaying details essential to classical recordings. These programs are unable to display all of the content found on an album's cover or else require opening window after window to display similar content. Difficult to discern each composition's composer and the conductor, orchestra, and solo artists that perform on each composition. Other classical music-specific content such as instruments played by solo artists, critical recommendations by reviewers, musical categories, and play prompts are nonexistent. • Expedites creating questions that Maestro can respond to and expedites creating criteria used to generate reports. To accomplish this, users simply select pre-entered classical-specific details from scrollable lists and check boxes. • Laborious. With few if any scrollable lists specific to classical music, users spend time typing in search and report criteria. And in many instances, cannot use a diverse selection of classical music related items in searches. • Adapts to characteristics important to each user by tracking and prompting the selection of albums based on user-defined criteria such as a sonic characteristic, a time of day, names of music-loving friends who occasionally visit, a description of a performance or recording characteristic, a musical category, or anything relating to classical music or collecting. • Although several programs can adapt some characteristics, it's unclear whether you can use user-defined criteria to prompt the selection of albums. • Three album-entry methods expedite entering albums. Even the slowest method is fast as it primarily involves making selections from scrollable lists of pre-entered names and as automated functions augment this process by filling in some of the album description automatically. • The Archive method used to enter descriptions of LPs provides the ease of entry associated with Internet downloads of CD descriptions but without the need to connect to the Internet along with descriptions significantly enhanced relative to the downloaded ones.
• Entering album descriptions requires an enormous amount of typing, especially for LP collectors. Users might have to type in names such as Tchaikovsky, Knappertsbusch, Oistrakh, and Concertgebouw Orchestra over and over, that is each time that name pertains to an album. All in all, entering an album collection is a time-consuming tedious chore that may never be completed. Some cataloging programs can download album descriptions of classical CDs. Many downloaded album descriptions have sketchy details about album content and possibly misspelled names and lack musical categories, play prompts, reviewer’s critiques and other relevant details. Other than Maestro Manager, there is no service or cataloging program that provides pre-entered descriptions of LPs. • Typing is all but eliminated. Instead, users click on boxes or select names from fourteen scrollable lists each devoted to a topic applicable to classical music. • Lacking numerous scrollable lists and check boxes applicable to the classical repertoire, users of these programs must type in a significant portion of each album description. And that's only if other programs have sufficient locations or fields that can utilize classical-related details. Finding a logical location to enter/display basic content such as a composition's composer, conductor, orchestra, solo artist, and instrument played can be difficult. • Unlike other programs, Maestro Manager's scrollable lists are useable immediately. They contain the names—correctly spelled—of 470 composers, 14,000 composition titles (!), 420 conductors, 350 orchestras, 950 solo artists, 250 album labels, 145 album manufacturers, along with many instrument names, musical categories, and other related items. • The few scrollable lists relevant to classical music, typically, lack usability until the collector enters each name used in each list via typing in those names! ENHANCED
FEATURES FOR LPs• The LP Archive Library is a repository of pre-entered descriptions of LPs that users can add selectively into their Maestro Manager cataloging software in the most expeditious manner–with a button click. With the use of this optional enhancement to Maestro Manager, collectors have access to pre-entered album descriptions of many wonderful LPs on Angel, Capitol, Columbia, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Everest, London, Lyrita, Mercury, Philips, RCA, Westminster, and those made by other vendors. • Lack pre-entered libraries of LPs. This necessitates entering each album description manually–mostly via typing in each detail. • Each pre-entered description may include a wealth of information in addition to the details written on an album's cover. Along with the composers, composition titles, conductors, orchestras, and solo artist related information, each pre-entered LP description may include a musical category, comments that pertain to that album such as preferred pressings, and indicate whether a critic such as Robert Moon, Michael Gray, Arthur Salvatore, Sid Marks, Jonathan Valin, James Mitchell, or The Absolute Sound recommended that album and why. • Lack musical categories, descriptive commentary, and recommendations by reviewers. • Tracks specifics pertinent to each LP, such as pressing and label variations and other items unique to vinyl lovers. Ability to generate reports that list the pressing/label variations of each album. • Unable to track and create reports that indicate pressing and label variations.
ABSOLUTE CONTROL• Maestro answers an enormous variety of questions created by combining up to 20 items applicable to the classical repertoire and collector. Determining which LPs contain violin concertos performed by Ricci on The Absolute Sound's Super Disc list that have awesome string tone that you should play when your friend Jasmine visits is as simple to address as determining the filing location of all CDs that contain works conducted by Stokowski. • Minimal. Typically limited to creating search criteria from a few classical-related items, most programs can only answer the most basic questions. • Play prompts serve to prompt the selection of albums based on a specific characteristic. When a play prompt is part of a question's criteria, any albums mentioned in Maestro's response will be limited to those that share a particular play prompt and fulfill the rest of the question's criteria. By selecting to include a play prompt called "Play" into an album description, a user groups that album with others that the user wants to play in the near future. Before Maestro, that user had a large to-be-played stack of albums on the floor. These albums are now neatly filed within his collection as he let’s Maestro track their locations. As filing locations are part of the information Maestro provides when responding to questions, including "Play" in a question enables this user to pinpoint the location of any album on his "Play list" as fast as if they were still piled on his floor. Especially as Maestro pinpoints each album's filing location to a specific place within a specific cabinet, shelf, room, or storage area. • Lacking the ability to manage select groupings of albums in this manner, other cataloging programs provide no assist in removing those scattered and cluttered groupings of LPs off of the floor. • When responding to questions, Maestro's answers include the filing location of each copy of each album that fulfills a question's criteria. To ensure users can locate any album quickly, Maestro Manager pinpoints filing locations to a SPECIFIC PLACE within a SPECIFIC CABINET, shelf, room, or storage area. • With a collection of reasonable size, it is likely that some albums or compositions will be overlooked, misplaced, or possibly forgotten. For instance, if a user's sole rendition of the Berg Violin Concerto is filed in an area devoted to the album's other composer, the user may forget he owns a copy of the Berg concerto. It is essential, therefore, that a cataloging program has the ability to pinpoint the filing location of each album. When that user inquires about the Berg concerto, Maestro indicates it is located in the "Stravinsky" section of the "Hallway Closet".
• Maestro's responses to questions and the albums that list in reports, if desired, can be limited to those albums stored in specific locations defined by the user and that fulfill the rest of a question's criteria. Examples of specific locations include "Main Cabinet", "Duplicates", "For Sale", "Borrowed Albums", "All Locations", "Opera", "Cabinet #3", and "Bedroom Closet".
• Not every cataloging program tracks filing locations. Those programs that simply display descriptions of albums owned by a user provide limited value if the user cannot locate those albums.
• The few programs that track filing locations typically track to a single level. Instead of the “Bax” section in “Cabinet #2” other programs would track to “Cabinet #2.” This provides limited value. Just one example of many that demonstrate the limitations imposed by single level filing locations: If the albums in Cabinet #2 are filed by composer, where would you look in Cabinet #2 to locate an album that contains compositions written by multiple composers—such as one that contains works by Alwyn, Grainger, Elgar, Leigh, and Bax?
• Unable to limit search responses and the albums listed in reports to albums filed in specific storage locations.
• Enables filing albums in any order using any strategy or strategies as users can locate albums independent of where they're filed. Instead of trying to keep all piano concertos together, file them in various sections or locations devoted to other characteristics such as composers, album labels, 20th century music, conductors, and albums that are “For Sale”. Even if filed in this manner, Maestro can pinpoint the location of each copy of each album that contains a piano concerto performed by Emil Gilels. With this freedom, users may reorganize their collections creating filing sections for different vertical categories. These users were unable to use this approach previously as many items would become misplaced never to see the light of day unless found accidentally. • Provides no flexibility in how albums are filed.
BY REVIEWERS• Tracks whether the user or any critics known for their critiques of classical music recordings recommended an album as outstanding. Tracking a collector's own recommendations is beneficial with large collections as it is difficult to remember which albums out of the many owned are favored especially if the raves are based on listening experiences that occurred some time ago. • When a critic is part of a question's criteria, any albums mentioned in Maestro's response will be limited to those recommended by that critic and that fulfill the rest of the question's criteria. Able to generate reports that indicate critical recommendations.
• Unable to track or search for albums recommended by the user or other critics.