Organizing digital music files: Need tips

[Huey P. Freeman]

Finding this pretty daunting. I didn't have the same trouble organizing vinyl. What are some thing you guys/gals are doing to organize your digital music?

[Jamie 3:26]

Finding this pretty daunting. I didn't have the same trouble organizing vinyl. What are some thing you guys/gals are doing to organize your digital music?

Man,this is some hard shit....

What I have started to do is make folders for sites I dl from,folders for genres and so forth.

I am still working on separating vocals,tracks,and so forth,but that's the plan.

I just wish that I didn't have the long tags on some files I purchased.It would make it so much easier to arrange by title.

Once I get this new external,I will mos def have things arranged much better.

[Kenrick _]

with mp3s I use Smart play lists in ITunes.

Wav files are a bit more challenging since they don't have id3 tags; what I do is I enter them into iTunes, fill out the info - name, artist, year, genre, bpm etc.. like I was updating mp3 id3 tags then copy and paste the info from Itunes into a spreadsheet that I can search and sort on later. I do the spread sheet because if I ever have to restore from back up all that info I just typed out for the Wav files will be lost since Wav does not support id3 tags.

[Sean G]

I can arrange files on my Hard Drive well enough. But when it comes to aranging the CDs...what to put on each cd, how much to put on each cd, how cds are gonna jump out at me etc, Im beat. Seriously. I was thinking of doing one track (plus dub and beats if theyre available) per CD and arranging them in boxes like vinyl (getting rid of CD books).

[GROOVE VICTIM]

I build a Media Server a few months ago and now I'm able to stream music to my Home Theater via my Wifi Network, and I gotta say, like others have already mentioned, it's a dauting task to organize the music. It's one of those, I'm gonna be busy this weekend, don't bother me, type of deals.

You're pretty much doing alot of cutting and pasting, dragging and dropping, creating folders, etc etc. In a few months I'm gonna replace my PC with a Playstation 3 and use it not only for a Gaming Console/HD Movie device, but as a media hub as well.



Peace

[Kenrick _]

Man,this is some hard shit....

What I have started to do is make folders for sites I dl from,folders for genres and so forth.

I am still working on separating vocals,tracks,and so forth,but that's the plan.

I just wish that I didn't have the long tags on some files I purchased.It would make it so much easier to arrange by title.

Once I get this new external,I will mos def have things arranged much better.

you can consider adding "vocal" or "track" to the grouping or composer field of the id3 tags. this way you can search or filter on that in iTunes or whatever you are using... If you are using iTunes you can build smart play lists based on any field.

** the comment field is a bit funny so I would not use that unless you have time to mess with it.

[Kenrick _]

I can arrange files on my Hard Drive well enough. But when it comes to aranging the CDs...what to put on each cd, how much to put on each cd, how cds are gonna jump out at me etc, Im beat. Seriously. I was thinking of doing one track (plus dub and beats if theyre available) per CD and arranging them in boxes like vinyl (getting rid of CD books).

not a bad idea for CDs... just the time to burn all that stuff.

[The Buddy Love Show]

I use the i-tunes functionality and library and coordinate it with Traktor. I havent had any problems so far. I do however wish that their were icons to provide visual cues

[Jay Rags]

When I began the process of organizing my files I created folders for different periods in dance/disco/house/etc. For instance some folders are:
Garage/Disco
PreHouse
90's House
80's
2000's
2007
2008
Acapellas
Once I open Serato and import the files. I immediately put them into the crates I create, according to what I would use them for in a set.