Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

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VladTepes
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 7:07 pm

Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by VladTepes »

I've read the relevant information in the wiki but that left me wondering - what is actually 'best practice' ?

It occurs to me that as I am going to be ripping a heap of CD's to my computer this is something I should get correct from the outset.

No doubt there are people here who have tried various formats for directories, filenames and so on and found some to work very well, and other methods to be disastrous.

Therefore I would appreciate if people are willing to share the method/format they use, and have found best.

Thanks :D
Lowlander
Posts: 56492
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by Lowlander »

Best practice is what works for you.

Code: Select all

\\nas\Multimedia\$if(<Type>=Audiobook,Audiobooks,Music)\<Album Artist:1>\$Left(<Album Artist>,50)\[<Year>] $Left(<Album>,50)\$If(<Disc#>,<Disc#:2>-,)<Track#:2>. $Left(<Artist>,50) - $Left(<Title>,50)$if(<Type><>Audiobook,$if(<Rating>=0, (bad copy$),))
works for me
VladTepes
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 7:07 pm

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by VladTepes »

That complex code just blew my head up.... :)
Lowlander
Posts: 56492
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by Lowlander »

captain paranoia
Posts: 73
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:41 pm

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by captain paranoia »

I prefer my physical storage to reflect the actual CDs in my collection, or the source I got them from (if downloaded). This means I can re-rip if necessary, or know exactly where a track came from.

So, since most of my music is from CDs I own, I keep most of it in a directory with my name as root. If I have music I have downloaded, it goes into a folder at the same level as my folder, named with the source.

Below that, I have a fairly standard

<Album Artist>/<Album>/<Track#:02> Title.ext

So the full path is

<root>/Media/Music/<source>/<Album Artist>/<Album> [Disc #]/<Track#:02> Title.ext

There is no need to break this into date, genre, etc, as those can be addressed with metadata sorting (the Logical view). All good media managers support Physical and Logical views of your library.

For the the track filename, I use a 2-digit, leading zero track number, as this helps poor DLNA clients get album track order right.

I keep individual discs of multi-disc albums in separate folders, rather than using a disc prefix in the track filename. Again, this reflects the physical disc collection.

For 'Various Artists' albums, the Title consists of <Artist> - <Title>. This reflects the fact that I had hand-typed lists of CD track titles entered by hand dating back decades, and I used these to name ripped tracks (using my own unix scripting system), and then extract metadata from the path and track name, before I was online and able to access the likes of FreeDB.

Most online metadata databases have nonsense for genres. I prefer to override them with my own genres. Genre is subjective, and mostly nonsense anyway...

ps. Whatever you do, rip to a lossless format. You only want to rip once. Do it right. Do it lossless. HDD is cheap. Your time is not. Your physical health is important (back pain)... I'd suggest FLAC.
VladTepes
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 7:07 pm

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by VladTepes »

Thanks, as per another thread I just posted in - I've started ripping to FLAC at the moment using EAC.
Having found a file naming/organising method that works for me, I assume I'll be able to add them to the MM library in the same way.

Cheers for the input.
Lowlander
Posts: 56492
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Directory and filenames - what do YOU use?

Post by Lowlander »

Yes, by default MediaMonkey doesn't move/rename files when you scan them into the Library (but it can do this if you want to).
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