Brian is a relational data base application used to compile standard discography information. It is has been named after Brian Rust, who perfected the chronological recording session format for print discographies. Brian tracks every aspect of a record date, from sidemen to songs to composers to releases. All pieces of data are instantly cross referenced and searchable.
Basically, this program is an attempt to use a computer to produce a jazz discography that uses the Brian Rust format. This is much more ambitious than most record-oriented computer programs that are currently in use. Most extant programs are primarily inventory-oriented - they are catalogue programs rather than discographical tools, and their goal is to provide the user with a simple list of records.
However, the idea behind Brian is to start with the recording session itself, to include all details pertinent to the session, including location, date, full personnel, master numbers, tune titles, and all catalogue numbers of every performance issues. Going beyond the standard Rust format, we also include the song composers and full titles of issues instead of just the catalog numbers.
Brian could be used to produce a discography of an individual artist, or a general work - it can handle anything that's in Rust or Raben or whatever (as long as someone's willing to enter the data!).
Any Macintosh computer using version 10.4 (Tiger) of OS X can run Brian. The program requires about 55 MB of disk space and the data files require a minimum of 10MB and will grow according to the size of your discography.
Brian has been tested on Windows XP and reported by some users to work fine on Vista. There are no reports from users that Brian would not work on Vista. The develops do not have Vista so cannot test. Disk and memory requirements for Windows are similar to the Mac version.
The Windows version of Brian is functionally the same as the Mac version. This documentation uses the Mac version for screen shots of the examples. The Windows versions will look similar.
Installation intructions can be found on the download Brian page.