[BRX]

[quote pid='21957' dateline='1528841494']
In other words, is there any functional advantage to option 1 (going into the attributes of each song and adding a keyword such as "ballad") over option 2 (creating a collection of ballads and including the songs that way)?  Option 2 is sure a lot faster when starting from scratch.
[/quote]

Well there are several ways to edit with different advantages and purposes. Get acquainted with them, read the manual and decide what works for you.

But I don't get why you don't use the genre tag and rider which actually are predefined (but editable) collections for genre.

[Wynton]

The reason I didn't choose the genre tag is because it didn't occur to me that I could identify songs as quickly as I can with collections.

With collections, I can add songs quickly just by checking a box next to each tune.  I thought that I would have to use the edit song option to indicate genres for each tune.  If that is correct - and maybe it's not - the process would be much slower.

[Wynton]

Ah, I just discovered that I could add songs by genre in the same way, just as fast.

[chrisss]

FWIW, here's how I used the fields:
Genre: like swing, bop, latin, etc ---- and note that a song can be labeled with multiple genres - for example, Just a Closer Walk with Thee can be labeled with both Faith and Dixieland genres.
Collection: what I play with a specific band or group.  When I show up for a band- practice or a gig without a previously-arranged playlist -- I can filter on that band's collection, and only be looking at the group of songs that that band will select from that night.
Setlist: if there is a playlist for night / gig, then I set up a setlist with what we're playing that night, in the specific order in which we're playing it.

In regard to getting music into to program:
I think a batch import from a folder might be more helpful to you than the CSV. To my knowledge, I think the CSV can only import a single PDF with multiple songs (indexed in the CSV file).  I don't recall reading that you can use a CSV to index a bunch of individual PDF.

In the batch import, you set up all the fields you want filled just once up front (genre for example) then MSP will apply those fields to all the songs it gets from that folder.  You can also do folder+subfolders, + I believe you can tell MSP to put the sub-folder name into a specific field.  Definitely worth looking at the manual ... I'd guess 10-15 minutes in the manual might save you hours of coding 2500 songs, even doing it the fast way by editing collections + genres.

Hope it helps.

[Wynton]

I think there may be some speed advantage to using the collection feature more than the others.  I'm interested in knowing if I'm wrong.

As I mentioned before, it is easy to add multiple songs to a collection, without having to go into the edit function.
While songs can also be categorized quickly by genre (through batch edit), can't that method only be done initially?

In other words, after initially identifying a bunch of tunes as falling in one genre, if I want to then indicate that a subset of tunes is in another genre, won't I need to edit those particular songs individual song at a time?

I suppose my question can be rephrased like this: if I select 2 tunes to "batch edit" - with the goal of making sure they share 1 overlapping genre  - won't the end result be that they share all of their genres?

I tried a test with a couple of tunes and thought that was the result I was seeing.

[Wynton]

Had I bothered to read the manual carefully, I think batch import might have been the best approach.  But even with that approach, I think I might have had to do a lot of individual editing also.

I should apologize for not reading the manual thoroughly before taking up everyone's time.

[chrisss]

I suppose my question can be rephrased like this: if I select 2 tunes to "batch edit" - with the goal of making sure they share 1 overlapping genre  - won't the end result be that they share all of their genres?

I tried a test with a couple of tunes and thought that was the result I was seeing.

I think that's how "batch edit" of songs works too, tho I'm not 100.0% sure.

But there's another approach - edit the Genre itself, rather than batch edit songs.  Like this:

Tap on the Genres tab at the top.  MSP shows u all the genres in the library.
Tap+HOLD on a Genre that you want to edit. MSP will put boxes to the left of all the Genre rows, and put a tick in that Genre's box.
In the menu at the top right, tap EDIT. MSP will show a split screen - all the songs already in the Genre on the left, and all the songs in the library (FILTERED) on the right.  Be careful not to have filters active when u do this, or you'll only see the library as filtered by the active filters - not the whole library.

[Wynton]

Chriss, this last suggestion of yours is perfect, and provides me with a fast way of identifying tunes not just by genre, but artist, composer and other fields.  Exactly the time saver I was seeking,