I've finally begun the slow process of putting all my cd's on a NAS. Is there a rule of thumb or good way to organize it all?

I prefer files categorized and organized on a pc. So far each ripped cd has it's own personal directory, and I plan on sorting them into sub folders based on music type with another sub folder for the artist, then the albums.

Example would be:
root -> rock -> Rolling Stones -> - Forty Licks disk 1


Is there a simpler way to do it for someone who wants everything organized like me?

I've finally begun the slow process of putting all my cd's on a NAS. Is there a rule of thumb or good way to organize it all?

I prefer files categorized and organized on a pc. So far each ripped cd has it's own personal directory, and I plan on sorting them into sub folders based on music type with another sub folder for the artist, then the albums.

Example would be:
root -> rock -> Rolling Stones -> - Forty Licks disk 1


Is there a simpler way to do it for someone who wants everything organized like me?

Well Pete, it depends on why you're organizing; is it so you know where to find files, or your player? If it's for you, organizine however makes sense to you. But if it's just so your player can search by band, album title, genre, etc., then you'll want to take advantage of tagging. That way, you don't really need a 'Rock' folder; your player will know to find a certain album under 'Rock' because you've tagged it as such (and you can also put The Stones into multiple genres if you wish, such as 'Classic Rock', or 'Old Geezers' perhaps...lol). What do you rip with? It should incorporate some kind of tagging.

CD

Example would be:
root -> rock -> Rolling Stones -> - Forty Licks disk 1

Is there any reason to designate Disc1 and Disc2? That is a limitation of the CD format which doesn't apply to a hard drive collection. I'd just number them 01-40 in the same folder.

I have all my music in folders by artist\album\## Artist Name – Song Name.flac. So for your example in my setup it would be \\NAS\Music\Rolling Stones\Forty Licks\23 Rolling Stones – Miss You.flac. As you can see in the above example there is no need to split into disc 1 and 2. You should rely on the tags for all sorting of genre in my opinion.

Laters,
Jeff

I just catergorize them the by artist, i dont mind what cd there on cause every song on there i obviously like.

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Well Pete, it depends on why you're organizing; is it so you know where to find files

Just 'my anal about certain things' self, I'm golden on ripping and tagging. EAC with Moreo to do both flac and mp3 in 1 shot. Somethings I like extremely organized; and when you are dealing with music collections and ripping, it's something you only want to do once.

I like this idea:
root\artist\album\*.flac/mp3

I'm not a fan of having that much in one folder because that is a lot to scroll through/load up which I know would irritate me.

Where as:
root\category\artist\album\*.flac/mp3

That would ease it up, but would get confusing quickly on placement.



I'm probably just going to suck it up and do artist\album and deal with my issues.

Pete_P, consider using letter directories instead of category directories. I've found it helps considerably to limit the overwhelming nature of just artist/album organization.

Example:
/music/a/Air/1000Hz Legend/
/music/b/Bjork/Vespertine/

After all the ripping is done and everything in there directories the way they want or you want. What Program or Programs are you using for these directories to be view. Did anyone try more than one before they stayed with the one they have now. Lets leave out Xbox, and use Computer Server
Programs which were best for you. I'm looking to move on from Xbox to something else with Server. Thanks, Silver-Fox.

How does TVersity work for the people who tried it? Thanks again.

MediaMonkey hows this one?

Most tagging programs will let you (mass) rename your folders and files based on the tag values. For example, I use Helium Music Manager (highly recommended, Windows only) to tag and rename my music collection based on the following logic:

-> <Artist>
-> <Release Year> - <Album>
-> <Artist> - <Album> - #<Current Track> of <Total Tracks> - <Title>

This way when I have 2 different releases of the same album they end up in different folders because of the release year. I'm still contemplating if I should use Media (for example CD or LP etc) in there too: Release Year - Media - Album to distinguish them even further.

Anyway, when you decide to re-organize your collection it should be as simple as selecting each file and renaming it according to the new rules you want.

///BFO