Best Naming Convention?

[BillWit]

I am starting load up my CD's again, and had previously used a good naming convention that was supplied by a member here I think. I lost it as I was using the trial program. I am back at it now, having purchased the program, but can't remember the naming convention. It dealt well with compilations, though for most of my music, Artist, Album, Track is ok. Can anyone help to suggest an appropritate naming strings.

I have also read that for some folks, albums aren't a necessary or good filing method, but I sill think that way for my music, as it's all CD's or LP's. That leads to another question about converting LP's, but I will leave that till later.

Thanks for any help.

[Mike48]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

I use this one:

[album artist]\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc]-[][track] [title]

Note that there are several philosophies of using "album artist." I use it for how a disc would be filed in a record store: the single most known or important artist on the disc.

HTH

Mike

P.S. The music library software I have used does not rely on filenames; it gets its info from the files' tags. However, the player in my car does use the filenames. In that case, I tend to make lower-res copies with simplified filenames when the album artist or album name, or both, are long.

[BillWit]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Thanks I will use that. I also agree with using album artist as that's how I reference my collection.

[toNka64]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

[genre]\[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[year] [album]\[IFMULTI][disc][][track]. [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[year] [album]\[IFMULTI][disc][][track]. [title][]

[cobrien84]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Mike:

What "music library software" are you using? I've kinda defaulted to iTunes, due to the fact that it's nearly ubiquitous - but it's not without it's problems.

Thanks, Chuck

[Mike48]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Mike:

What "music library software" are you using? I've kinda defaulted to iTunes, due to the fact that it's nearly ubiquitous - but it's not without it's problems.

Thanks, Chuck

Hi Chuck. Are you using a PC or a Mac? Options vary.

I'm using a PC, and I run JRiver Media Center. It does a lot more than iTunes, is more configurable, and it hides less. It is a little more complex to use, though its GUI is quite functional, so there's a brief learning curve. The rumor is, it will be available for Mac soon. I like it.

I also tried a program called MusiCHI. It is designed to do a better job in tagging and sorting Classical music and Jazz (pop and rock are easy - any program will do OK with them), and I really appreciated those features. However, it doesn't stream music over a network, which JRiver will do. I plan to get a copy just for the excellent tagging aids for Classical music.

Both of those cost something, in the US$50 range. I think, in the scope of a music library and sound system, that's quite reasonable, especially given the frustration that good software can save you.

I am not familiar with options available for the Mac.

It seems to be accepted that iTunes does not give the best sound quality. On the PC, audiophiles tend to use something else, and (my impression is that) on the Mac, there are alternatives or add-ins such as Amarra that improve this. But maybe you are not obsessed with sound quality like some of us.

I hope that helps.

[garym]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

I use Foobar2000 for my windows computers. Completely customizable, handles virtually all (maybe all) Codecs, etc.

[cobrien84]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Mike:

That DEFINITELY helps, while I'm more than familiar with Macs, our family currently uses Win 7 PCs with a Sonos system for multi-room access to our common music library. I've heard of JRiver Media Center, but not MusiCHI or Amarra - so I will look into them

Thanks again, Chuck

[cjwdfw]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Hello, I am new here and I have CD's from the "old" Naptser days which show as "File 1" and so on. Is there a program that can identify and name these?

[cjwdfw]

Re: Best Naming Convention?

Hello, I am new here and I have CD's from the "old" Naptser days which show as "File 1" and so on. Is there a program that can identify and name these?