Elazmus 1873 Posted February 17, 2015 I've always been curious as to how other westerners sort and title Japanese music on their playlists or music libraries. Obviously we don't all have a grasp on Kanji to leave titles as is and remember them, but then comes the question of what alternative you want to use. Maybe I think too much on this but I know this is the place to ask. In the past I have listed song titles as: Kanji(Romaji) Kanji(Literal English) Romaji(Literal English) Romaji alone. As much as I want to become competent in reading Kanji, In high school I would keep whichever translations side by side with Kanji with parenthesis as such, but I found myself annoyed with long-ass titles to scroll through. Nowadays I use only Romanized translations but I do feel like it is a step away from understanding by comparison. How many of you can read well enough not to translate at all? How many of you skip Romaji all together? At this point making a uniform change to my library would be an endeavor, but I am still interested! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stylelover 1086 Posted February 17, 2015 no idea about other programs, but i use itunes and i just put the romaji in the "sort artist as" column. everything in my library has the correct names and i can still search for the romaji because its in the sorting options. 3 doombox, Kaye and Elazmus reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Biopanda 2675 Posted February 17, 2015 I just keep things with the original Japanese *shrug* Band names I can recognize, even if the names are in kanji and if I really need to know what a title is, then that's what google is for, but I'm rarely ever in a position where I need to know that sort of thing. 1 CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeus 7997 Posted February 17, 2015 no idea about other programs, but i use itunes and i just put the romaji in the "sort artist as" column. everything in my library has the correct names and i can still search for the romaji because its in the sorting options. I just keep things with the original Japanese *shrug* Band names I can recognize, even if the names are in kanji and if I really need to know what a title is, then that's what google is for, but I'm rarely ever in a position where I need to know that sort of thing. Some combination of these. I keep everything in kanji out of personal preference. After a while, I start to be able to "read" them enough to remember who they are, but I don't have them in any universal order. Tags that one program (like iTunes) will respect will be ignored by another (like my Walkman) so after a while I just gave up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tetsu_sama69 1119 Posted February 17, 2015 I mostly keep it in kanji and all of that fun stuff but in my folders I have the romaji next to the titles. That's what works for me. 1 Elazmus reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peace Heavy mk II 7200 Posted February 17, 2015 In my iTunes I utilize the "sort by" attribute and sort them by their romaji names for artists. This sometimes causes problems if they change their name to something that's pronounced the same, but written differently (looking at you Secilia Luna) since it makes my ipod freak out. I try to do the same for albums if I can find or read the title's romanized name, then sort alphabetically like that. I suppose you could also organize them "alphabetically" in their japanese forms (a - i - u - e - o - ka - ki - ku -ke - ko etc), but it just makes more sense to me to have everything based on the language I am most proficient at. I never romanize titles so I can read them, however, unless the files come out like that and I haven't gotten around to changing them. I'm into all the grammar fucks and special (read: useless) characters names have and find them a lot more pleasant to look at. e.g.: 残された月「・・・」惨劇の夜に・・・ vs. Nokosareta Tsuki [...] Zangeki No Yoru Ni... At the same time, I also don't turn occidental words into Katakana. If an album has a bunch of titles only in Japanese and they're kanji I'm not yet familiar with, I eventually remember which song is which based on track order since I'm able to retain that sort of information for whatever reason. I do have a bunch of unsorted bands with Japanese names at the bottom of my library, but they're usually from random omnibuses and aren't things I listen to anyway. An elephant graveyard, if you will. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrenGun 2261 Posted February 17, 2015 If I rip a CD I always use the original Japanese text, so the song title in "Kanji/Katakana/Hiragana". Sometimes I even re-name my downloads into the original Japapanese. I actually simply hate ROMANJI for music. And sometimes its difficult to know how to write a Kanji down. because it can be read in 2 ways. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eiheartx 1310 Posted February 17, 2015 All are in kanji (because last.fm; I hate having the wrong tag, it's annoying for me). Recently (yea sadly xDD), i discovered the way to sort out my artists on iTunes (with romaji). So, I scroll my library and when I want to go faster, I put a romaji band/artist name on my search function and voilaaa. I'm incapable to read japanese, so It's a little problem for me when I have to talk about some kanji songs for example, I just don't know their names for the majority xD so, I'm using 'track 08' or the kanji name but I don't know what it means at all. Not sure if I'm understandable. xD (I guess I can do a quick Google research, but I'm too lazy for that). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seimeisen 4406 Posted February 17, 2015 I have a considerable grasp for kanji, as I've spent several years picking a few things up here and there, and I've also made the effort to learn and memorise both kana systems (hiragana/katakana). As somebody who wants to learn Japanese, I absolutely despise romaji and tend to discourage people from using it. So here's what I do (in iTunes): kanji for the song titles (別レ日和ハ仄カニ染マル), use the sorting fields to put in romanisations (e.g: Sort name: Wakare Biyori Wa Honoka Ni Somaru; Sort artist: Kiryu; Sort album: 2011-03-02 Mugen Houyou), just so the songs/bands can be better ordered alphabetically, and albums sorted by date. And if there is a track title with kanji that I don't understand, I put the title in hiragana/katakana in the lyrics section (e.g: ワカれビヨリはホノかにソまる). That's what works for me! I used to try and do english translations in the title, but now that's something that I just sort of keep in my head, or I'll also put it in the lyrics section as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Reverend 3566 Posted February 17, 2015 Where's the option for "I'm lazy and leave it however it was tagged by the uploader or the program that ripped it..." I think I have Miyavi songs under four different artist tags at the moment. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beni 2149 Posted February 17, 2015 Back when I only used iTunes, all the tracks were either already romaji typed (and sometimes, even with the English translation besides this), or I change the text to that. But now, I'm still going through my library in foobar to get them all as the orginal titles since I now use Last.fm, and I'd feel pretty bad if I kept using incorrect tags. I'd keep them as romaji if I wasn't using Last.fm so that I could read and remember them since I don't know Japanese. But, for now, at least I'm making them as they should be, really. 1 CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted February 17, 2015 I just keep things with the original Japanese *shrug* Band names I can recognize, even if the names are in kanji and if I really need to know what a title is, then that's what google is for, but I'm rarely ever in a position where I need to know that sort of thing. Basically this. I keep everything in it's original/official form. True weeaboo desu. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
saishuu 3220 Posted February 17, 2015 I use kanji and original writing for everything. Most of the time I can recognize songs by identifying certain kanjis (it helps if I'm able to read kanjis from the song title too), and I don't think I need romaji to recognize anything. If I really want to know how a song is called for whatever reason, I just use a kanji to romaji converter. Being able to read katakana and hiragana also helps out a lot since a big majority of Japanese use them. I used to name my files in romaji in order to recognize songs better in the past, but my library's grown considerably and I've also grown more and more lazy to keep doing it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peace Heavy mk II 7200 Posted February 17, 2015 Where's the option for "I'm lazy and leave it however it was tagged by the uploader or the program that ripped it..." I think I have Miyavi songs under four different artist tags at the moment. legitimately disappointed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JukaForever 758 Posted February 17, 2015 I title songs as they are listed officially unless it isn't my rip or the title is using some weird format that isn't readable. It is kinda fun just listening to the track to figure which tune it is, I barely look at the titles anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Original Saku 1593 Posted February 17, 2015 I just keep things with the original Japanese *shrug* Band names I can recognize, even if the names are in kanji and if I really need to know what a title is, then that's what google is for, but I'm rarely ever in a position where I need to know that sort of thing. Basically this. I keep everything in it's original/official form. True weeaboo desu. Same. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scarlet Obsidian 383 Posted February 17, 2015 Once I used to rewrite the titles in romaji, cause my old computer was...well old xD and couldn't read japanese characters so I had to rename them all. Now that I have a new computer I keep the original kanji for every song and release I have and can easily read most of them! But when I don't know the readings or don't remember, I make a .pdf file and write the names I can't get in my mind. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doombox 4421 Posted February 17, 2015 no idea about other programs, but i use itunes and i just put the romaji in the "sort artist as" column. everything in my library has the correct names and i can still search for the romaji because its in the sorting options. I do the same. Keep the original kanji titles, and sort it as the romanized name. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fitear1590 2414 Posted February 17, 2015 I do the same. Keep the original kanji titles, and sort it as the romanized name. Samesies. Real talk though: I wonder how many of us actually would just romanize the band names if not for last.fm... I feel like that at least factors in how some of us do our tagging. 1 doombox reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doombox 4421 Posted February 17, 2015 Samesies. Real talk though: I wonder how many of us actually would just romanize the band names if not for last.fm... I feel like that at least factors in how some of us do our tagging. That is a great question. I know before last.fm my library was a hot mess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted February 17, 2015 Real talk though: I wonder how many of us actually would just romanize the band names if not for last.fm... I feel like that at least factors in how some of us do our tagging. The start of me organizing music actually began with the use of slsk, but I started using last.fm shortly after and that definitely ensured that my tags stayed intact. Though when I became a trader on utatane (Japanese p2p), that's when I got REALLY strict about organizing/tagging and basically became more anal than a power bottom. 6 stylelover, saishuu, doombox and 3 others reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peace Heavy mk II 7200 Posted February 17, 2015 ^yas get it Before I started last.fm I had messy tags and a lot of wrong information. I'm glad my life is more in order now, even if it means I have to butcher some things with unicode or extra spaces so I can have a perfectly cross-dressed library without having to share pages with nerds. 2 Seimeisen and stylelover reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seimeisen 4406 Posted February 18, 2015 I wonder how many of us actually would just romanize the band names if not for last.fm... I feel like that at least factors in how some of us do our tagging. ... yeah, last.fm is the main reason that I [try to] tag things as accurately as possible. I kinda miss being able to use these ･･･ ellipses for Japanese titles (灰降る丘･･･ vs. 灰降る丘…), and using “” instead of "" - and I also miss romanising katakana English titles (e.g: パノラマ → Panorama). Oh, and the half-width hook quotes ｢ ｣! And of course, I will consider removing a band from my iTunes library if I have to tag the artist field with annoying full-width U N I C O D E for last.fm reasons. Of course, even before last.fm, I still spent a lot of time tagging/organising my music library, just for my own sake. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Champ213 1858 Posted February 18, 2015 I used to romanize my filenames while keeping the tags kanji/kana. But at some point I just stopped bothering and left the filenames in kanji too when I got them that way. Now only my folders which carry the artist names are romanized because even after 10+ years of studying Japanese, the japanese ordering system of kana and kanji (specifically the latter) still weirds me out. 1 Seimeisen reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elazmus 1873 Posted February 18, 2015 Thanks everyone for your input! This is kind of what I was expecting really but I think I will start utilizing iTunes sorting the way a lot of people mentioned! Although I remembered I cant paste to MH so ill probably cite romaji when talking on here still lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
