Archiving your music, directory structure etc. Options

[dux]

Something that's been bugging me for a long while is how I should go about organizing all my audio, be it mp3 mpc acc, any of it. Way early on I just did Artist - Album - Track - Title and threw them into my musik folder but this really isn't the best approachas I have found out later.

I've seen things like

CODE

Artist \ Album(s) \ Track - Title.*

and

CODE

Artist - Year - Album \ Track - Title.*

among many other things. The folder approach seems lots better obviosuly because you can store replay gain info, cue sheets, playlists, etc.

But which is the best? I hate chooisng one standard to follow, following it for months or years, and then discovering something else that needs to be changed later on after you've archived tons of media under the pervios standard(don't we all).

What do hydrogenaudio users prefer? Any tips or advice on the best way from your experience on how to organize your audio on your hard drive? Or any excellent applications that do it for you?

Thanks for any input.

[Linkin]

I am using:

CODE

Artist - Album\Tracknumber-Title.*

This post has been edited by Linkin: Mar 15 2004, 15:51

[0x1ff]

Hi dux,

my directory structure looks like this:

CODE

Audio/X - X/Artist/Artist - Year - Album [Encoder Codec Bitrate]/Artist - Tracknumber - Title

Example:

CODE

Audio/M - N/Mono No Aware/Mono No Aware - 2002 - Kika No Sekai [Lame MP3 192]/Mono No Aware - 02 - Nemuru Bijin.mp3

CODE

Audio/G - H/Gathering, The/Gathering, The - 1999 - Superheat [MPC -q6]/The Gathering - 03 - Probably Built In The Fifties.mpc

Quite long paths but very well sturctured.




Cheers, 0x1ff

[calx]

CODE

Artist\[Year] Album\Track - Title

[dux]

Thanks for the input so far , and a very good idea 0x1ff, I think I may adapt something from that. Keep the examples coming so we can learn from the experience/ideas of others.

[BoneJazz]

Artist - Album (Date)\Tracknumber - Title

this is also the input scheme that I use with Foobar-Masstagger-Edit Tags-Guess Values From Filename.

BoneJazz

[o770]

Each artist has a folder and file names look like this - where # = track number:

CODE

ARTIST - ALBUM - # Title.*

Depending on the collection (eg compilations, bootlegs) the format changes:

CODE

COLLECTION NAME - # ARTIST - Title.*
ARTIST - Extra Info - # SYMPHONY - Title.*

I beleive that a single folder for each artist is good enough and simple as long as files has an album name. Capital letters are also good.

[JeanLuc]

For me, it is handy like this ...

Albums: First Letter\Artist - Album\Track - Title
Compilations: First Letter\Album\Track - Artist - Title

Release year, genre & encoder are fields I only use in tags ...

[FautVoir]

Basic hierarchy goes like this :

First Letter\Artist\Artist [Year] AlbumTitle\Track [Performer] Title.

Example :

P\Prince\Prince [1993] The Hits (CD 1)\11 [Prince & Rosie Gaines] Nothing Compares 2 U.ape

[ChangFest]

Mine is somewhat similar to calx's but without the brackets surrounding the year value and a longer file naming scheme.

CODE

Main Music Folder/Artist/Year - Album/Artist - Album - Track #(leading with a zero e.g. 01 to 09 and 10-infinity) - Title

I use the long naming scheme for my files because I'm paranoid. If they ever get displased or whatnot, I'll be able to quickly know(just by looking at the file name) where they belong.

[_Balint_]

No matter what naming scheme you choose (as your primary one), making extensive use of symlinks (in Linux/*BSD/etc.) can be a big help in organizing your collection.

[High Fidelity]

That's what I figured out to work best for me:

Genre\Artist\Year - Album\[Track] Title

(Track with leading zero -> 01-09)
Advantages are a clear structure, short but organized filenames.
-> short filenames and a not too bloated structure are important if you want to burn CDs : ISO9660 / ISO Level1 Mode1 supports only 11 characters, Level2 max. 31 characters

For music with various artists, I'm using either another HD, or:

! Various Artists\Genre\Year - Album\[Track] Title - Artist

(The "!" brings the folder on top)

This post has been edited by High Fidelity: Mar 15 2004, 19:13

[WaldoMonster]

album artist\[date – ]album\[track – ][title artist – ]title.extension

date:
1990 = 1990
199010 = October 1990

track:
01 = track 1
101 = cd 1 track 1
102 = cd 1 track 2


Examples:

Moby\199708 - I like to score (compilation)\01 - Novio.flac
Kruder & Dorfmeister\1996 – Conversions\01 - DJ Unknown face - Dat's cool.mpc

[dux]

Mine is somewhat similar to calx's but without the brackets surrounding the year value and a longer file naming scheme.

CODE

Main Music Folder/Artist/Year - Album/Artist - Album - Track #(leading with a zero e.g. 01 to 09 and 10-infinity) - Title

I use the long naming scheme for my files because I'm paranoid.  If they ever get displased or whatnot, I'll be able to quickly know(just by looking at the file name) where they belong.

I see your concern, but as long as you've got all your stuff tagged, you can use small filenames (e.g. just title or just track and title) and easily refill the info if needed.

It's for that reason I'm ALWAYS sure to have the tags sufficently supplied (and because I'm anal retentive like most of the people here), you never know when it could get renamed or lost.

[High Fidelity]

But which is the best? I hate chooisng one standard to follow, following it for months or years, and then discovering something else that needs to be changed later on after you've archived tons of media under the pervios standard(don't we all).

If you have everything properly tagged or kept the principle of your naming scheme with discipline and did not mix it over the time it is no big problem to convert to another structure.
You can do that easily with an advanced tagging program like "Tagger", "mp3tag", .....

If you have not everything tagged and mixed structures this might be helpful: "Lupas Rename"

This post has been edited by High Fidelity: Mar 15 2004, 18:59

[FautVoir]

I see your concern, but as long as you've got all your stuff tagged, you can use small filenames (e.g. just title or just track and title) and easily refill the info if needed.

It's for that reason I'm ALWAYS sure to have the tags sufficently supplied (and because I'm anal retentive like most of the people here), you never know when it could get renamed or lost.

Being an anal-retentive myself ( ), I'm more concerned about my tags loss than for my files to be renamed. That's why I put everything but the kitchen sink in the filenames, in addition to tags. I've never seen a program that messed the filenames, except maybe iTunes's first release. While there's a lot of programs that do mess the tags. Even Foobar has that thing with DATE/YEAR, which can be tricky.

[o770]

..I agree to even not using the tags at all. I don't really miss them in the music I rip.

[Treefingers]

My hierarchy is very simple:

2 main directories:
Modern music (which contains jazz / pop / rock / compilations / O.s.t.)
Classical music (orchestral / chamber / instrumental)

Modern music is Artist / Album [year] / tracks in alphabetical order (no numbers: the folder contains also textfile playlist + m3u playlist + cuesheet + logfile)
Example:

CODE

Bjørnstad, Ketil / Water Stories (1993) / ...

Classical music is Composer (birth year - death year) / Single opus [performer/s]
Example 1:

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Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827) / Sonata für Klavier und Violine Nr. 2 A-dur op. 12 Nr. 2 [Kremer - Argerich]

Example 2:

CODE

Jarrett, Keith (1945 - ) / The Celestial Hawk for piano and orchestra [Jarrett - Syracuse SO - Keene]

[ChangFest]

I see your concern, but as long as you've got all your stuff tagged, you can use small filenames (e.g. just title or just track and title) and easily refill the info if needed.

It's for that reason I'm ALWAYS sure to have the tags sufficently supplied (and because I'm anal retentive like most of the people here), you never know when it could get renamed or lost.

If they ever get displased or whatnot, I'll be able to quickly know(just by looking at the file name) where they belong.

All my files are tagged correctly. Tags can get messed up more easily than filenames. I'd be able to tag from filename quite easily if many of my tags got messed up.

[M]

Since I prefer to keep my directories structured chronologically, but since many of the artists I focus on were recording in an era when it was perfectly acceptable - and expected! - for them to release more than one album in a year, and due to the fact that I also collect monophonic & stereophonic variations of those albums, when available, I settled on a slightly different approach.

For example, the first Beatles album Parlophone released in the UK was Please Please Me, so I stored it as follows:

CODE

Beatles
 UKa) Please Please Me (mono) PMC 1202
        M01 I Saw Her Standing There.flac
        M02 Misery.flac
        M03 Anna (Go to Him).flac
        M04 Chains.flac
        M05 Boys.flac
        M06 Ask Me Why.flac
        M07 Please Please Me.flac
        M08 Love Me Do.flac
        M09 P.S. I Love You.flac
        M10 Baby It's You.flac
        M11 Do You Want to Know a Secret.flac
        M12 A Taste of Honey.flac
        M13 There's a Place.flac
        M14 Twist and Shout.flac
 UKa) Please Please Me (stereo) MFSL 1-101
        S01 I Saw Her Standing There.flac
        S02 Misery.flac
        S03 Anna (Go to Him).flac
        S04 Chains.flac
        S05 Boys.flac
        S06 Ask Me Why.flac
        S07 Please Please Me.flac
        S08 Love Me Do.flac
        S09 P.S. I Love You.flac
        S10 Baby It's You.flac
        S11 Do You Want to Know a Secret.flac
        S12 A Taste of Honey.flac
        S13 There's a Place.flac
        S14 Twist and Shout.flac

... but their first Capitol album in the US was Meet the Beatles, so it is stored thus:

CODE

Beatles
 USa) Meet the Beatles (mono) T 2047
        M01 I Want to Hold Your Hand.flac
        M02 I Saw Her Standing There.flac
        M03 This Boy.flac
        M04 It Won't Be Long.flac
        M05 All I've Got to Do.flac
        M06 All My Loving.flac
        M07 Don't Bother Me.flac
        M08 Little Child.flac
        M09 Till There Was You.flac
        M10 Hold Me Tight.flac
        M11 I Wanna Be Your Man.flac
        M12 Not a Second Time.flac
 USa) Meet the Beatles (stereo) ST 2047
        S01 I Want to Hold Your Hand.flac
        S02 I Saw Her Standing There.flac
        S03 This Boy.flac
        S04 It Won't Be Long.flac
        S05 All I've Got to Do.flac
        S06 All My Loving.flac
        S07 Don't Bother Me.flac
        S08 Little Child.flac
        S09 Till There Was You.flac
        S10 Hold Me Tight.flac
        S11 I Wanna Be Your Man.flac
        S12 Not a Second Time.flac

Subsequent albums are stored as UK/USb), UK/USc), UK/USd).... The advantage of this method is that as I acquire other variations of an album, they may be integrated into the overall structure and still remain sorted to my preference. Within each individual file, I also add tags for the following metadata:

TITLE
TRACK NUMBER
ALBUM
ARTIST
DATE
GENRE
COMPOSER
GROUPING

For artwork, I then store 300dpi scans of all relative covers in the appropriate album directory.

- M.

Edit: Clarification.

This post has been edited by M: Mar 15 2004, 23:06

[razer]

I answered this already in a previous post, though that was more directed towards filenames than directory structure. Have a look:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=163979

This post has been edited by razer: Mar 15 2004, 22:44

[manusate]

Here's the tree structure I use:

Audio format / Artist - Year - Album / Tracknumber - Title

[mmortal03]

Here's the tree structure I use:

Audio format / Artist - Year - Album / Tracknumber - Title

ditto

[Deimos]

Here's my file scheme:

Year - Artist - Album - Track - Title

directory structure is not decided yet...
I'm reading your posts with interest.

[Cerebus]

I'm more of a

Format / Artist / (Year) Album / ## - Title
Format / VA / (Year) Album / ## - Artist - Title

person meself.