Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Buying only the choice stuff keeps the collection manageable and the oranization easier. I'd also like to chime in on on David Overall and J. Vlietstra's comments from last week; sad isn't it.
Music collections have a way of running wild if they aren't kept organized. Do you have a good system for keeping your records and discs in order?
Alphabetically by composer for classical and by artist for jazz and rock. But I do hate records with a mix of composer. Should I put Heifetz' Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos in Brahms or Tchaikowsky or in the mixed department? If there are 3 or 4 composers on the same CD it is almost hopeless to find in most record stores. At least here in Japan they seem to avoid such records, maybe because they do not know where to put them.
I have thought of building a database in FileMaker Pro, but I can't get over the time costs of entering the existing collection, particularly when one includes artists, songwriters, producers, etc. So I alphabatize by genre, even if the result lacks precision
This has caused a lot of gray cells to be used up for me. I use the software package Keep Trak so it is fairly easy to slice the collection many ways, but storing, shelving, and acces- ing are a different story. We have about 1900 titles of cd's and vinyl, so I would guess 2300+ disc's. Finally settled on genre and then alpha by artist. Seems to be working at this early date. I will be interested in what others have found.
Hello, Are you guys sending my CDs over or what? It's been 4 months since I paid for the CDs with my credit card thru' the on-line internet order and so far all I have got for US$133.95 is zilch, zero, nothing. Please expedite. Regards Christopher BLK 109, TOA PAYOH LORONG 1, #06-306 SINGAPORE 310109 Fax: (65) 3551810 Please respond to jiverson@stereophile.com @ SMTP To: Christopher LIM/MOM/SINGOV@SINGOV cc: Subject: Re: Where are my Stereophile CDs??? Hi Chris, I've contacted the company that sends the CDs and asked them to respond to you as well as let me know what they are doing. I'll do this again and hope they will give you an explanation for what is happening. If you payed with a credit card, you may be able to cancel the charges. JON -- Jon Iverson http://www.stereophile.com http://www.guidetohometheater.com http://www.hifishow.com
I have a large classical collection (800 or so CDs) and until I inventoried it on my computer, I found it difficult to locate selections and even ended up unintentionally buying duplicate copies of some pieces. I initially set up the database using Q&A and later converted it to MS Access. CDs are arranged generally by composer and each gets a unique number making retrieval much easier.
I used to have the whole thing done alphabetically by artist. Then I ran out of room in my CD holder and rearranged the whole bit to fit into two holders. Then I filled up the second, but instead of rearranging again, I just started alphabetizing the new holder, so now I have several sections of CDs and LPs, all of these sections are alphabetized, but they aren't seperated by genre or anything like that. They are mearly placed as is convinient. This means I have Metalica next to Mahler, Big Sugar next to Roni Ben-Hur, Bob Marley coming just after Ligetti. All in different holders. It is funny, but this 'system' of mine is confusing to everyone who sees it. They ask,"How the hell do you find anything in here? It isn't organized!" I don't know, it just seems to make perfect sense to me. (c:
With a background in academic librarries I haven't made it further than genre and alphabet by artist or composer. I have been searching for a good Macintosh-based application to cover all my collection-wishes. Box of Rain looked promissing but the devolper is not to be found. Audoifile 4.x is the next best thing, I hope.
I use a fuzzy logic alphabetical by artist and divided into classical and everything else system. The fuzzy part comes in with things like jazz samplers and colections, they are all under J for jazz, as well as certain non logical choices of the second name like King Crimson under Crimson. I have been using a five column Excel spread sheet that includes artist, label, disc #, LP title, recording date. For classical I added the orch and performer. I print a ful size copy for home and a reduced double sided copy with just the CD name, artist and number for my wallet (necessary after you have bought the same CD twice) I have been thinking about an article I read about the ? Japanese having a system of colors displayed on car windshields which indicated the mood of the driver. Now if I could just figure out how to label my CD collection the same way and then paste the appropriate color on my forehead.....
It is easy to organize your collection first by type (CD, LP,Cassette) and then arrange each type alphabetically by Composer. However, when there are works of several composers in each CD,LP, etc, it becomes a problem. So I also have an additional category called "various" sorted by the record label to solve this problem.
My collection is in 2 parts: CDs/LPs and DATs. My CD/LPs are done alphabetically. DATs are done alphabetically and then chronologically within each artist. The only exception is bands for whome I run their archives, which at the moment is only 1. That band's DATs are seperated out.
By genre first, but for classical I have to separate into 2 sections: Composer Monographs which are alphabetically sorted (the bulk of my collection) and then Compilations which are usually sorted by the dominant instrument featrued. Orchestral compilations are sorted by the composer of the dominant piece on the CD. I also use MS Access database which helps to keep track of what I have and sort however I want on a printout.