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I'm very (painfully) slowly ripping my massive CD collection into mp3 files.  Yes, I know mp3 is not the best way, but I'm not actually getting rid of any of the discs themselves, and I don't have enough digital storage to keep them all in lossless format yet.  And I don't have enough physical storage space to keep them in my living area, so it's into boxes they go!  Anyways, that's not what this is about.  I was actually interested in what other people do with regards to keeping some kind of list of their ripped CDs.

I've been doing it in a pretty cumbersome way, using two spreadsheets that I'm keeping in GoogleApps.  By the way, these are shareable, if anybody with a Google account wanted to see them.  I'm using two, because one is a list by CD... showing me that I've only ripped 114 of my probably around-3000 collection.  Ouch.  The other spreadsheet is by composer+work.  Needless to say, this one has quite a bit more than 114 lines already.  In both spreadsheets, the label, their proprietary catalog#, the orchestra/ensemble, conductor, soloist(s) are to be found, so there is a lot of duplication between the two.

I'm not sure that I really want to simplify it beyond what I have, even though it takes forever.  I really do like having all this information.  But, I'm still interested in how other people are dealing with this, or even other tips or pointers or experiences on ripping a CD or LP collection in general.  For instance, does anybody know a pretty good large-ish box I can buy multiple of, so that I can store these in something better than collapsing cardboard?

.ram files are played by the bloated quasi-malware known as Real Player.  You could also try something like Real Player Alternative, stuff like that.

http://www.real.com
This is a resource-consuming, overly-large space-waster that loads you up with unwanted ads, goes out and draws stuff from the Internet when you don't want it, and more.  I think it's just godawful.

I'd probably recommend instead:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/real_alternative.htm

Note that I don't think there's anything wrong with Real Media formats, just with the official player.  I recommend against converting it to mp3 or anything else, though.  You shouldn't ever go from lossy to lossy (for example, from mp3 to wma).  Lossy formats are those that are shrunk down from a more "raw", or lossless, audio type such as .ape or .wav.  If you've ever looked at the filesizes, those tend to be gargantuan, because they're not being tinkered with at all.  If you can only get the file in .ram, you should leave it that way and just get a player or plugin (I think Winamp even has some plugins to play it).  Just my opinion, of course, but I do have to warn you you that if you were to turn that file into an mp3, you'd notice definite audio quality deterioration.

I found a live performance from Bulgaria of a work that I've never even heard of before. It's on YouTube, from 12 November of 2010.  It's spread out over two videos. I'm a massive fan of Lindpaintner's Op.44 Bassoon Concerto, so I was just typing his name on YouTube and came across it. Surely, there aren't too many Romantic composers less sung than Lindpaintner! As far as I know, only a handful of his works have ever been recorded; I just discovered that the work from this YouTube video has appeared on CD once upon a time... I might have to buy this disc used!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCfGUpnzmX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ampCCH6QU

Here's the CD I just learned about today:
http://www.amazon.com/Sinfonie-Concertante-Winds-Orch-36-44/dp/B000001SQP/

[Die Feen]

If you want to get Romantic, there's always the very famous Richard Wagner and his Die Feen.  It's an opera I really like, but apparently its creator didn't care to have it performed again.  Or at least, I get that impression.  Overall, it's actually my favourite Wagner opera, and surely must be relatively unsung today.

I believe that the practice of obeying those dead composers' wishes in these matters is nothing but a reduction the possible musical experiences available to the world.  Even when it involves works that I loathe, I don't see anything positive about such a thing.

I'd like to point out that this entire thread is totally worth it if for nothing else than this poetic gem by Mark Thomas:

"that great flat featureless plain of Fürtwanglerisms traipses past me"

(Not because it involves Fürtwangler; I've never heard any of his music.)

Lately, this board is more about post-Romantic 20th century anyway, so maybe going back further into the past will offset that a bit!  The excerpts do sound pretty nice, I think I'll get this myself.  And by the way, most of Hérold's lifetime was in what is usually referred to as the Classical period (often considered to end in 1825 or so)... it's not so surprising that his music might sound that way!

Who are these amazing Steve's Bedroom Band people?  This surely has to be one of the most fantastic contributions ever made to the Internet in its entire history, in my opinion (and I'm not even kidding).  Some of the works they've put up - FOR FREE - are really outstanding, and without Steve's Bedroom Band, probably would never have been heard at all by most of us.

Do any of them have the sort of overall less-modernish "texture" like Somervell's?

It's about time!  These are probably the earliest extant French piano concertos.

I have at least one in my CD collection that's earlier, by Boieldieu.
But anyway, I really can't wait for this!  I have his two symphonies, and they were disappointing, but not unpleasant.  I'd like to have some more, since I know that, if nothing else, this guy could write catchy tunes!

There are two incomplete Beethoven piano concerti that have been worked into some semblance of partial (this one in the video here, Hess 15) or even complete (Hess 4) performing shape.  Actually, in the case of Hess 4 (Piano Concerto "#0" in E-Flat), he felt there was enough material that he did a completion himself; I have a recording of this one, but I don't think any original orchestration by the 13-year old Beethoven survives, only the piano part.

The first YouTube video there is a "completion" of sorts by Nicholas Cook of sketches for a first movement of what is usually called the Piano Concerto #6 in D Major, dating to the Winter of 1814-15.  Supposedly, a lot more of this material is original Beethoven than you might believe, but I only know what I've read about it from this site and one or two other places:

http://www.unheardbeethoven.org/search/search.pl?piece=hess15h.mid

There's also info on these works on - you guessed it - Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._0_(Beethoven)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._6_(Beethoven)

In short, no, not fake. Not all Beethoven, mind you, but not fake either.

I occasionally scan through these lists, and the one thing I get out of it is how glad I am that I'm not actually forced to make such a choice.  Don't get you get kinda miserable if you really try thinking about it?

[does]

Ranging far afield here, but hopefully people find this kind of thing interesting. Michael Haydn did compose a work sometimes called his "Trombone Symphony"; I have it on a CD where it is called a Divertimento in D Major.  It's like 8 or 9 or 10 movements long, and it's more properly a serenade that features a couple of different instruments as soloists, including the trombone. The "Trombone Symphony" is concocted by yanking three movements out of this serenade/divertimento.  It's just like when they pull two movements from a Leopold Mozart serenade to create his semi-famous Trombone Concerto, and another two form his slightly more famous Trumpet Concerto... from the same serenade!  So, to sum up... not really, no.  There is, however, a 1768 Symphony (yes, supposedly really a symphony) by Joseph Krottendorfer: 2 oboes, 8 trumpets (!), 2 trombones, strings.  As far as I know, this has yet to be recorded; I wonder if the score exists.

Sorry about the big tangent, but 18th century music is more my thing, and I can't help myself.

In any case, I obtained the Paine CDs a couple of years ago, and was utterly amazed by the 1st symphony, and then a hint disappointed by the 2nd. Strangely enough, the 2nd has started to grow on my after revisiting it recently, especially the 2nd movement (scherzo). While it does seem to ramble a little, I find the rambling through the core of the scherzo to be relaxing and pretty now, whereas on first listen I was a touch bored by it (I only listened to it once all the way through until this month!)  The 3rd movement contains some particularly interesting material, it just wanders on so long that it kind of frustrates me that several fantastic passages of music are dragged down by being surrounded with minutes of orchestral lethargy. I really think the 3rd movement could be a true gem, if Paine had heavily condensed it.

I think when I talked about it the first time, I said that it felt to me like Paine was trying too hard to emulate what was going on at the time with the big symphonists. As I mentioned above, my opinion of it has gotten slightly higher recently, but I still kind of get the same impression. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to be current; I just don't think there's anything wrong with looking backwards, either, and maybe that was more Paine's strong suit. Then again, I only have 3 works of his in my entire collection, so that's not enough to make such sweeping statements.  I don't like the idea of screwing around with composers' music, but at the same time, I'd be so tempted to endorse the practice here; I think a really excellent symphony could be created by chopping Paine's 2nd down to size. In all 3 works I have, the guy showed real flashes of talent and skill, and I'd like to hear more.

Speaking of rambling... sorry.

[thank you]

OK, I digitized andk uploaded the three Kreutzer Piano Concertos here: http://www.mediafire.com/?q75f4rll393ke

Wow... thank you, thank you, thank you!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am by this.

Thanks for the info!  I don't have access to Grove's, and I was hoping to know if it had anything.  I'm really excited to learn that all 3 of C.Kreutzer's Piano Concerti have been performed live, but that also makes me wonder why they haven't hit a CD yet.  He was a really good tunesmith, and I think a lot of people would like his music (at least, that which I've heard sounds really nice).

Here's what I have of his Piano Concerto #2.  I don't know if it's a single-movement work, or if the first movement is just really long.  This mp3 is nearly 14 megs in size, and even with a fair chunk missing, it's 15 minutes long.
http://www.mediafire.com/?6oow3fe8alsj33y