I came across a couple of releases that, for whatever reason, have same relationship type with diffrerent description (not the right term, maybe, but I can’t think of one)
For instance, here Ted Lundström plays “bass” on CD 1 and “electric bass guitar” on CD2, the guitarists play “guitar” on CD 1 and “electric guitar” on CD 2, and the singer is "lead vocals” on CD 1 and just “vocals” on CD 2.
Would it be ok if I edit this to be consistent throughout the release? I dont mean the discography, but at least the same naming in the album.
I’m asking because I don’t want to go through a couple of edits, and then get a lot of “what are you doing?” messages…
Maybe there’s a thread/post or guideline I didn’t see, but I’d like to know your opinion.
CD1 and CD2 have different recording dates and may have different instrument and vocal crediting. My opinion is to stay with the documentation if there is documentation. Be aware that a re-release my add more or less information in its documentation.
In the genre I work with I could have guitar, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, electric guitar, etc. For bass its bass fiddle, bass guitar, electric bass guitar, upright bass, etc. For vocals its just about everything. And yes, there is a reason for all those different credits.
It is very likely what you are seeing are recording credits entered by different people from different sources. CD1 may have been entered by “Tom” looking at the original booklet. And CD2 entered by “John” looking at a different more detailed booklet.
As long as you can point to a source, or at least really sure you can hear the difference, then it is okay to make this consistent. For example “bass” is pretty generic and refers to both a double bass and a electric bass guitar. So if you know this artist is definitely playing an electric bass guitar on these tracks, then you can correct it.
The music credits are about the music and how it is played. So more specific is better if you are certain this is what it is.
I have previously watched videos of gigs to take note of who is playing what and when.