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How do you sort (organise) your CDs, LPs, K7s, Tapes; physical medias

dualazmak

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My LP's were destroyed during a flood in 2017 along with the house which was torn down. CD's are all ripped and sitting in a box in a closet. Cassettes were tossed years ago. I have moved to high ground.

It is really heart-a-pain hearing about your experience of flooding. I too am living in the land of typhoon, earthquake and tsunami; I keep multiple backups, therefore, of my entire digital library in several HDDs and NAS at my home and also in remote at my daughter's home and son's (300 km and 100 km away!). Of course, I periodically update the remote backups at least once in 6 months.

Fortunately my current iron-frame house is on a little hill with solid ground, but no way to avoid possible mega earthquake (once in 600 years?) which might happen any place in Japan...
 

Inner Space

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Mine are CDs on shelves, in categories, pop/rock, soundtracks, singles, jazz, classical. Alphabetical by artist (composer in classical), fairly random in terms of date. My wife embroidered me a bookmark as a placeholder.

I like to keep the lights dim, so the fun starts if I haven't brought my reading glasses. Choices become effectively random. I enjoy those sessions. I don't forget my glasses on purpose, but I never go back to get them, either.
 

dualazmak

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Topical, then as above (so below).

I built a nice cherry CD case about the size of a bookcase with real pretty dovetails all over the place.

But by the time it was done, I had ripped everything on my computer and didn't need it...

Have you prepared all the PDF copies of the CD booklet as well as front and back covers? In my case, I did not for all of them, and this is one of the reasons I still keep the physical disks organized in my rather large shelves...
 
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dualazmak

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I and my wife are considering to donate all of our physical LPs and discs, together with the digitized libraries in HDD or SSD, to a university or college with music history courses, in the (near?) future.
 
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dualazmak

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BTW, I sometimes prepare (by scanning) 300 dpi PDF of an entire CD booklet, so that I can easily read the contents on PC monitor with enough enlargement.

And also the PDF content (after Acrobat OCR) can be now quite nicely translated into Japanese by web AI translators such as Google Trans and Microsoft Bing Trans, as English is not my native language and we can read Japanese much more quickly than English! Occasionally I also would like to understand the "original" context in French, Italian, Russian or Spanish, even though we usually have English translated pages which are not always properly conveying the nuance of the originals... I am somewhat OK for German language.
 
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Frank Dernie

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I continued with CDs the way I started with LPs over 50 years ago!
Classical music is in alphabetical order of composer, or principle composer in a mixed work disc. Usually I don't bother to sort the music for a given composer unless it is a big collection (like Bach or Mahler in my case) then I lump symphonies together in order, for example, but it isn't a big deal for me to look at a few to find the one I am searching for.
Compilation albums just together in no particular order at the end - luckily I don't have many.
Everything else is in alphabetical order of performer, whether folk rock or whatever, again with compilations at the end.
I was an early adopter of file based music about 20 years ago and it was particularly convenient when I was travelling to a different country every week for work.
I eventually got fed up with the plethora of different file types and tagging systems being useless for the classical part of my library so have gone back mainly to the physical media, mainly CDs but some LPs.
Perhaps if I had not ripped so many of my discs decades ago I would find it easier to do nowadays, but life is too short for me to do it all over again!
 

Wes

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Have you prepared all the PDF copies of the CD booklet as well as front and back covers? In my case, I did not for all of them, and this is one of the reasons I still keep the physical disks organized in my rather large shelves...

Nope - but if I care I can see them on the internet while listening.

Or buy LP covers

Or get Roon
 

Robin L

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Almost all of my physical media has been in storage for a year and a half. I'm not using physical media at all right now. I've got the bulk of my CDs ripped to Apple lossless. That's all in iTunes, alphabetical order by Composer, Composition, Performer if Classical, by Performer then Album Title otherwise. There's considerable re-organization of those files in my DAP to make Classical music searchable and to subdivide musical genres: Ambient, Avant, Blues, Classical [subdivided into historical eras, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc.], Collections, Country, and so on, ending in "World". So, "Classical" [within Classical] is Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini. Beethoven subdivides into composition type [Concerto, Symphony, Piano Sonata and so on] and performer within each composition type. Conductor first, so Bernstein's NYPO #2 & #7 are in the same folder as the complete cycle with the VPO. The folder of Bernstein's Beethoven Symphonies is within a folder of all of Beethoven's Symphonies, subdivided by Conductor. The same sort of file organization applies elsewhere. "The Beatles" are a folder in "Rock", subdivided by album, marked with the year of the transfer for that album. Some are needledrops of the Mono LP reissues from 2014, some are the 2009 transfers, some are otherwise. Used to have the "White Album" in three different formats [including the mono CD and the first CD transfer], now just have the frankenformat of the 2018 remix. World Music subdivides by country, then by performer. There's a "Collections" subdivision inside of "Country" and "Jazz", but "Oldies" [mostly Collections] has a folder for the 12 volumes of "East Side Story" and a folder for "Time-Life" collections. Collections within collections.

I made all these files and folders because the screen display of the Fiio M3K is very limited in the amount of text visible at any given moment, so searching is much easier with folders within folders. Also gives the whole enterprise that "Library of Babel", infinite archive vibe.
 
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renaudrenaud

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There's no more physical media at home except few LP.

Everything is stored on a NAS and indexed by the Logitech Media Server.

I believe accumulating physical media is possible when you don't move to much, a kind of luxury.
 
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Harmonie

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My LP's were destroyed during a flood in 2017 along with the house which was torn down. CD's are all ripped and sitting in a box in a closet. Cassettes were tossed years ago. I have moved to high ground.

I feel sorry for you, this and your other Hurricane Laura thread, and the snow ...
We have BEAUTIFUL weather in France these days !
 
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Harmonie

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There's no more physical media at home except few LP.

Everything is stored on a NAS and indexed by the Logitech Media Server.

I believe accumulating physical media is possible when you don't move to much, a kind of luxury.

You are so right, I would like to move, but need to clean up all the accumulated stuff (Hifi is the small part).
 
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Harmonie

Harmonie

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Almost all of my physical media has been in storage for a year and a half. I'm not using physical media at all right now. I've got the bulk of my CDs ripped to Apple lossless. That's all in iTunes, alphabetical order by Composer, Composition, Performer if Classical, by Performer then Album Title otherwise. There's considerable re-organization of those files in my DAP to make Classical music searchable and to subdivide musical genres: Ambient, Avant, Blues, Classical [subdivided into historical eras, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc.], Collections, Country, and so on, ending in "World". So, "Classical" [within Classical] is Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini. Beethoven subdivides into composition type [Concerto, Symphony, Piano Sonata and so on] and performer within each composition type. Conductor first, so Bernstein's NYPO #2 & #7 are in the same folder as the complete cycle with the VPO. The folder of Bernstein's Beethoven Symphonies is within a folder of all of Beethoven's Symphonies, subdivided by Conductor. The same sort of file organization applies elsewhere. "The Beatles" are a folder in "Rock", subdivided by album, marked with the year of the transfer for that album. Some are needledrops of the Mono LP reissues from 2014, some are the 2009 transfers, some are otherwise. Used to have the "White Album" in three different formats [including the mono CD and the first CD transfer], now just have the frankenformat of the 2018 remix. World Music subdivides by country, then by performer. There's a "Collections" subdivision inside of "Country" and "Jazz", but "Oldies" [mostly Collections] has a folder for the 12 volumes of "East Side Story" and a folder for "Time-Life" collections. Collections within collections.

I made all these files and folders because the screen display of the Fiio M3K is very limited in the amount of text visible at any given moment, so searching is much easier with folders within folders. Also gives the whole enterprise that "Library of Babel", infinite archive vibe.

I was expecting your post @Robin L :)
Nice to see your sub division system !
 

Ron Texas

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I feel sorry for you, this and your other Hurricane Laura thread, and the snow ...
We have BEAUTIFUL weather in France these days !

I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for me. However, a flood results in a major house cleaning. Hurricane Laura did not strike where I live. The freeze was scary and inconvenient, but damage was limited to plants. I do know people who had piles break indoors causing serious damage..

The weather in Houston is very good right now.
 
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Harmonie

Harmonie

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Alphabetical except ambient which is bunched together in the front, I have no idea why....

Surely the ambient are in a bunch because you don't care which you pick up it's only for ambient :p
I have a whole "Narada" section (yeah, I had such period in the nineties) I would say around 40 Cd's that I do sort same as you in a bunch.
 
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Harmonie

Harmonie

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BTW, I sometimes prepare (by scanning) 300 dpi PDF of an entire CD booklet, so that I can easily read the contents on PC monitor with enough enlargement.

And also the PDF content (after Acrobat OCR) can be now quite nicely translated into Japanese by web AI translators such as Google Trans and Microsoft Bing Trans, as English is not my native language and we can read Japanese much more quickly than English! Occasionally I also would like to understand the "original" context in French, Italian, Russian or Spanish, even though we usually have English translated pages which are not always properly conveying the nuance of the originals... I am somewhat OK for German language.

On the diverse composers CD's of the NRDS I mentioned earlier, I'm incorporating for each track the front and back cover mentioning the original CD's reference.
It takes hell of time to find the covers in sources like Discogs aso ...
 

Sal1950

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However, a flood results in a major house cleaning
Dang Ron, I don't remember you mentioning this before, that majorly sucks..
I had all my LP's stored in my basement after I switched to CDs and we had a small flood/backup of about 6" down there one time.
Didn't really affect the vinyl itself, I have to take them all out of the sleves and let them dry, plus then wash and dry the vinyl itself.
The big hurt came when I retired and decided to move to FL, I called a LP buyer/seller in Chicago who came out and inspected them all.
Then he told me how much the water damage to the album covers had devalued them on the market, even the rare ones like all the MoFi
and import stuff I had. Ouch.
Oh well, shitt happens. I keep everything on the hard drives now with a off site backup. The media player keeps it organized in most any way I choose.
 
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Harmonie

Harmonie

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I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for me. However, a flood results in a major house cleaning. Hurricane Laura did not strike where I live. The freeze was scary and inconvenient, but damage was limited to plants. I do know people who had piles break indoors causing serious damage..

The weather in Houston is very good right now.

There have been quite some floods lately in France and people saw their entire home "sailing away" a fe hundreds meters before crashing or disappearing in the flood's bed.
There is certainly some sympathy sharing from other's like me even if "sorry is not the hardest word ..."
 

Chrispy

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I've kept my vinyl alphabetically for the most part, altho I group some genres by themselves (like soundtracks or anthology type albums) but most of it that gets much playtime is just in a small rack next to my system with no organization except maybe in order of last played, the bulk of it is stored in the basement.

I used to try and keep cd jewel cases organized similarly but just got too numerous and a hassle to deal with the form factor and ended up ripping the collection to flac and don't bother with the physical discs much these days, and can sort any way I want. The other optical discs I still do play (bluray, sacd, dvd) by media type in alphabetic/genre too.
 

Ron Texas

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Dang Ron, I don't remember you mentioning this before, that majorly sucks..
I had all my LP's stored in my basement after I switched to CDs and we had a small flood/backup of about 6" down there one time.
Didn't really affect the vinyl itself, I have to take them all out of the sleves and let them dry, plus then wash and dry the vinyl itself.
The big hurt came when I retired and decided to move to FL, I called a LP buyer/seller in Chicago who came out and inspected them all.
Then he told me how much the water damage to the album covers had devalued them on the market, even the rare ones like all the MoFi
and import stuff I had. Ouch.
Oh well, shitt happens. I keep everything on the hard drives now with a off site backup. The media player keeps it organized in most any way I choose.

I considered drying everything out, but I was pretty sure the value would be trivial without the covers and at the time I had too many things to do. The place we have now is 3 stories and relative to the 100 year flood level about 10' higher than the last place. We still carry flood insurance because flooding is possible anywhere in Houston. It's at the minimum rate. A spec house was built on our old lot and it had to be raised 6' to get a building permit.
 

Martin Takamine

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CDs and LPs are stored alphabetical and chronological, band/artist last name with all “The” bands in the T’s.
LPs are mixed in on the bookshelf and CDs on shelves in cabinets.
CDs are sectioned as studio, compilation, live, soundtracks, and Led Zeppelin (so many versions).
 
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