How do you handle "mix" cds? I have some from who knows what source at this point. I can go through and determine the song and artist, do you simply pluck those into a "singles" type folder and dump them in?

How do you handle music that isn't found via the EAC databases? I have also recently received several CDs from bands that haven't "made" it yet. Luckily, some of it has a website (myspace believe it or not) that lists the album and track titles. I am betting though, that I am going to find things by artist who I don't know.

Last one for now, what about keeping the original discs?

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original post:
I have begun the task of converting the myriad of Compact Discs (CDs) that I have to digital files (mp3 format).

In doing so, I have created a FLAC copy that I then compress into a MP3.

I am curious about how others do a few things with their digital catalogs. For example, I create a folder for the artist, I then create sub-folders for each album.

I am also curious how you choose to name your files. I have opted for the format of "artist - album - track number - song title.mp3" This seems to work for the most part in my truck unless the filenames become drastically long.

My truck was the primary reason for undergoing this process. I have the stock head unit in a 2015 Nissan Titan Pro-4X. I haven't quite sorted out why some album art doesn't display while others do, but that is only a minor annoyance. Most of what I have done, displays the album art, artist, album and song title.

As with anything, there isn't a right or wrong way, but I am curious what works best across the most platforms.

Once you have completed the tasks, where/how do you store the files and also use them? I snagged on of these SanDisc dual drives with a 256GB capacity. Right now, I have a mere 22.5GB of mp3s which equates to 4,954 files in 584 folders.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ffips,

The way you do it has been the way I've been cataloging music for nearly 20 years. (Just make sure to keep all track numbers in two digit format, such as 01, 02, etc.)

Do you have anything other than memory that allows you to search through what you have? I used to use something years ago but that was back in the days of win95. If I recall correctly it was called something like music wizard?

edited to add
Also, what about play lists, any special trick to that?

I pretty much have to remember what I'm looking for but everything is listed alphabetically according to artist in my music folder. For some genres, I'll create a sub-folder within my music folder and dump everything specific to the genre into it, again in alphabetical order. I don't use any sort of catalog program.

For playback on my computer, I use winamp. For playback in a vehicle, my music is uploaded to an iPad or iPhone and played through Bluetooth or a USB connection. I create my playlists by picking and choosing songs or albums under a playlist name directly on those iDevices. Your Sandisk is fine for carrying music but it just makes it a little more difficult to make a specific selection since you have to use your truck's radio.

My collection is nowhere near the largest on sigforum but it currently stands at 423GBs. 79,661 files in 6,632 folders.

I do band name - album # ie 01,02 album name - Track # 01,02 - then track name all in one folder.

The audi only searches by file name but the toyota searches by the file information, newer vehicle must have newer tech in head unit.

So having the file name with all the info is good for the audi that I can scroll through in specific order by band alphabetically, then by album chronologically and track.

example.



It does get long sometimes so I have abbreviated some of the names/titles

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nickelsig229,

for rock: by album
classical: by composer

I have them on my network storage as:

\\Artist\Album\Tracks
\\Singles\random files

I use SONOS at home, and it's done a pretty sweet job of picking up ID3 tags or adding data where necessary.

The shares are all read-only except by a specific login from a specific computer. I've been ripping CD's since the late 90s and there are plenty of apps (iTunes for instance) that will decide to reorganize on a whim and completely ruin the structure.

If this makes sense.

//tower/music/Artist/Album/Artist - Title.mp3
All other data (including album art) is embedded in the file.
Unless the album art is larger than 500x500px, my truck displays album/track/art from SD card - I have about 40GB of music for truck (mostly listen to XM).

I have something north of 150GB/15k songs in my main library, then some of the wife crappy Pop/latino music and some stuff I might listen to someday but don't want crowding my main library in another folder (mostly covers & obscure stuff - weird Al, etc)

mediamonkey does a good job cataloging/tagging & syncing to SD cards. It's AutoPlaylist is great for syncing genre, artist, date range, etc.
mp3tag for finding & fixing missing tags.

I tried flac, didn't see the need & the requirement to keep 2 copies. I can't tell the difference between CD, flac & 320kbps mp3s on any of the low-midrange equipment I've tried. I can start to tell the difference at <192kbps, so I just make sure all my mp3s are above that. I have enough trouble managing 1 library, don't want a 2nd.

Artist folder
Subfolder per album.

I use the built in Windows track details, so IIRC the majority of mine are only the title visible, with the artist, album, etc in additional columns.

I had downloaded some freeware converter that extracted the data pretty well, but after the trial ended, it gave garbled useless data & I had to manually retitle/edit the data on a handful of albums.

Everything is ripped to FLAC with DBPoweramp CD Ripper which automatically categorizes and organizes it including album art.
Then I use my DLNA server software (located on NAS) to play on my devices on the LAN.
I copy off the folders to a SSD Drive which I can play my entire collection through my ALpine Car Stereo.
If I had a MP3/FLAC (don't use MP3) player like Fiio I would just copy them to a SD drive and play with that.
On my devices (computer) I use JRiver Media Player to play.
But ultimately the DBPoweramp CD Ripper auto organizes it to get it any way you want with a media player.
YMMV

New questions in original post.

Thanks in advance.

I keep compilations under the title of the CD. I just make sure the id tags reflect the artist and track name rather than the album title. If music doesn't come up automatically by the database, I resort to manually inputting the information. What's really difficult is finding appropriate sources for album covers. Having to resize them and possibly convert them to a strange format is too taxing for me. I have some albums loaded onto my iDevices that have no album art.

Check into using a third party program like Tune Up to help you catalog your music.

By the way, this is what my music looks like in the folder:
http://superdimension.net/images/collection1.jpg
http://superdimension.net/images/collection1.2.jpg
http://superdimension.net/images/collection1.4.jpg

http://superdimension.net/images/compilation1.jpg
http://superdimension.net/images/compilation1.2.jpg
http://superdimension.net/images/compilation1.4.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
Last one for now, what about keeping the original discs?

If you go by the book, Mister Copyright Law says you have to keep them to backstop your having rights to the digital files you've ripped from them.

I have mine in 200-CD Case Logic wallet binders, like these:

Thank you both. Seeing the file layout assisted. Impressive collection. Mine is growing, but it will be some time before I push the boundaries of 256gb on the mp3 side.

I have started trolling craigslist for large caches of CDs that are being sold cheap. Picked up a box of CDs for $20 the other day. There seems to be a lot of demo albums from unknown bands in it.

My MP3s were ending up looking like Nickelsig229's. So, I have decided to let the FLAC files be named like that and then once I convert to Mp3, I can shorten the name as desired.

I also have multiple case logic folios.