Beyond Category can import albums from the Orange CD application via the Import From Orange CD window. Select this window from the File–>Import–>Import Orange CD XML menu item. Before the Window opens, you will be directed to open the .oxl file that Orange CD uses to store album information.
On open, the window will display a list of album titles contained on Orange CD. Clicking on an album title from the list will display the album information as stored by the Orange CD app. BC will attempt to match this information with the songs, personnel names, instruments, and label that are already entered in BC. What is not found will be displayed in red text. It is up to the user to reconcile these unmatched data items before BC will allow the album to be loaded into the database.
How Beyond Category Determines Matches
Beyond Category will consider a data element as matching only if there is an exact match and only if there is only one item with the name on the Beyond Category database.
Tracks Tab
As shown in the image, the Orange CD albums are listed in the Album Title list on the left. Albums that are already entered into Beyond Category are displayed in black text. In this case, we are using the BC Starter Database which already has the Kind of Blue cd entered. BC uses the album title and catalog number to determine if there is a match.
The example below shows the track display when King of the Tenors is selected. As with the Album Title list, elements that are found in the BC database are displayed in black.
Selecting a track entry in the track list activates the Song Lookup field. Use that field to determine if there is a matching song entry in the database. In the example above, it can be seen that the song Cotton Tail is on the database, but the spelling in Orange CD did not match. By selecting the Cotton Tail entry from the lookup field, it will replace the misspelled entry in the track list.
Personnel Tab
The image above shows the personnel tab for the Importing From Orange CD window. Again, items in red are not found on the BC database.
The list of names under the Album Personnel heading is the list of musicians for album as provided by Orange CD. A name can appear multiple times depending on how may instruments an artist uses on the cd.
The list of names under the Artist Names heading contains one entry for each unique artist in the Album Personnel list. The skill field is the instrument designation for the artist record that BC can use to make an artist record unique. This designation may or may not be used in the Album Personnel list. For instance, you would likely enter Frank Sinatra with a skill field of v for vocalist and that is how he would be listed in the Artist Names list. But the album Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color would only have him as conductor in the Album Personnel list.
Data can be modified in both lists to attempt to find matches in the BC database. Artist names can only be updated in the Artist Names list. Any changes for that list will also update matching names in the Artist Personnel list. Use the Personnel Lookup field to modify any selected name from the Artist Names list.
Names in the Album Personnel list cannot be modified directly. Only the instruments can be modified. Click on any entry for an instrument abbreviation to change the designated instrument. Orange CD does not use instrument abbreviations. BC tries to reconcile instruments by matching the full name. In the case of the example above, BC uses Tenor Sax as the full instrument name, but the Orange CD file uses Tenor Saxophone. BC could not find a match, so the instrument abbreviation is left blank. Click on the blank entry and enter “ts” (the abbreviation used by BC) and the entry will change to the full name that BC uses.
In the example above, Harry Edison is on the BC database, but without his nickname, “Sweets” so there is no match. Benny Carter is on the database, but he has a skill field of as for Alto Saxophone. On BC, the instrument name is spelled as “Alto Sax”, not “Alto Saxophone”, so there is no match for Benny Carter in the Album Personnel list because the instrument does not match.