Calssical music library

Discussion about anything that might be of interest to MediaMonkey users.

Moderator: Gurus

FonsKasbergen
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:21 pm

Calssical music library

Post by FonsKasbergen »

I am looking for somebody with experience in building a classical music library in Media Monkey.

To describe the issue:
Firstly I am ripping my classical music cd’s into a special folder, which is picked up and processed by MM. At the start of the ripping process I indicate the format to be Genre (Dutch for Style or category) (ex: Klassiek), Album artist (ex: J.S. Bach), Album (ex: Concerto for organ), Title (ex: Toccata in D-minor).
However, this varies by classical music cd, and I find it hard to standardize/organize this.
The program puts the tracks into the library, but as a result of the foregoing problem in a totally disorganised way.
Anybody with suggestions?
steve_c
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:06 am
Location: SE Norway

Post by steve_c »

Slim devices have a suggestion at http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?B ... oClassical but personally I prefer the directory structure to be //music/album-artist/album-title/track, and to fill in the composer field, and in addition I put the composer's surname as a prefix to the album title so that I can see it on those devices that do not normally show the composer field.
vilbs
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:34 am

Post by vilbs »

Mine is:

\ !Classical \ <Composer> \ <album title> \ <track_nr>. <composer> - <track title>.mp3

ie

\ !Classical \ Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus \ Eine Kleine Nacht Musik \ 01. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Une petite musique de nuit Piccola musica notturna, In G Major: I Allegro.mp3

In short it all depends on how clued up on Classical music you are. I love my Classical but I still wouldnt be able to find Elgar's Cello Concerto by performer (ie Yo Yo Ma) or by conductor - I'm just not that well versed. I would always have to file by artist - the overall album title - as listed in the shops - rather than by any KV style cataloguing method.

Additionally as long as you fill in as much additional info in the tags as possible it will allow you to "reorganise" based on tags in the future.

Hope that helps...
vilbs
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:34 am

Post by vilbs »

ps the reason the root subfolder is "!Classical" is that the rest of the root is "normal" ie non classical artists. The only other special folder in the root is "!Various".
soundbyte
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:14 pm

Post by soundbyte »

I've divided my MM library into three super-directories (much like vilbs): \Classical, \Non-Classical
and \New.

Albums in Non-Classical super-directory are filed \<artist>\<album title>\<track title>.mp3

In the Classical super-directory, most albums are in sub-folders by \<composer> (surname first)\<album title>\<track title>.mp3 .

However, if it's an artist-based or compilation classical album, I file it by \<album title>\<composer> - <track title>.mp3 .

The New super-directory is where I stick new music before I've vetted the tag and gotten it auto-organized.

I used to worry about the inconsistencies ... they're inevitable. But I realized that I don't really use the folder structure. As long as you get the tags right, MM will let you find any piece of music or album through search.

But as noted above, if your MP3 device can't handle composers, then you do need to be a bit more rigorous in keeping those composer directories accurate and adding the composer name to the track titles in compilations.

Mostly, I'm astonished at how obsessed I am with all this. I wish my desk were as well organized as my music collection!
Post Reply