Cataloging Your Ripped CDs

[Josh]

I'm very (painfully) slowly ripping my massive CD collection into mp3 files.  Yes, I know mp3 is not the best way, but I'm not actually getting rid of any of the discs themselves, and I don't have enough digital storage to keep them all in lossless format yet.  And I don't have enough physical storage space to keep them in my living area, so it's into boxes they go!  Anyways, that's not what this is about.  I was actually interested in what other people do with regards to keeping some kind of list of their ripped CDs.

I've been doing it in a pretty cumbersome way, using two spreadsheets that I'm keeping in GoogleApps.  By the way, these are shareable, if anybody with a Google account wanted to see them.  I'm using two, because one is a list by CD... showing me that I've only ripped 114 of my probably around-3000 collection.  Ouch.  The other spreadsheet is by composer+work.  Needless to say, this one has quite a bit more than 114 lines already.  In both spreadsheets, the label, their proprietary catalog#, the orchestra/ensemble, conductor, soloist(s) are to be found, so there is a lot of duplication between the two.

I'm not sure that I really want to simplify it beyond what I have, even though it takes forever.  I really do like having all this information.  But, I'm still interested in how other people are dealing with this, or even other tips or pointers or experiences on ripping a CD or LP collection in general.  For instance, does anybody know a pretty good large-ish box I can buy multiple of, so that I can store these in something better than collapsing cardboard?

[gasman]

I use tagscanner (which is a FREE 'multifunction program for organizing and managing your music collection. It can edit tags of mostly state-of-the-art audio formats, rename files based on the tag information, generate tag information from filenames, and perform any transformations of the text from tags and filenames. Also you may get album info via online databases like freedb or Amazon. Supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments, APEv2, WindowsMedia and MP4(iTunes) tags. Powerful TAG editor with batch functions and special features. Playlist maker with ability to export playlists to HTML or Excel. Easy-to-use interface. Built-in player.')

The beauty of this program is that you are able to organise lists in formats like an excel spreadsheet automatically. If they are commercal rips then you can chase the tag info online from it - if it's organising the downloads from this site - it is easy to organise this info.

I'd thoroughly recommend it - hope this helps 

I'm very (painfully) slowly ripping my massive CD collection into mp3 files.  Yes, I know mp3 is not the best way, but I'm not actually getting rid of any of the discs themselves, and I don't have enough digital storage to keep them all in lossless format yet.  And I don't have enough physical storage space to keep them in my living area, so it's into boxes they go!  Anyways, that's not what this is about.  I was actually interested in what other people do with regards to keeping some kind of list of their ripped CDs.

I've been doing it in a pretty cumbersome way, using two spreadsheets that I'm keeping in GoogleApps.  By the way, these are shareable, if anybody with a Google account wanted to see them.  I'm using two, because one is a list by CD... showing me that I've only ripped 114 of my probably around-3000 collection.  Ouch.  The other spreadsheet is by composer+work.  Needless to say, this one has quite a bit more than 114 lines already.  In both spreadsheets, the label, their proprietary catalog#, the orchestra/ensemble, conductor, soloist(s) are to be found, so there is a lot of duplication between the two.

I'm not sure that I really want to simplify it beyond what I have, even though it takes forever.  I really do like having all this information.  But, I'm still interested in how other people are dealing with this, or even other tips or pointers or experiences on ripping a CD or LP collection in general.  For instance, does anybody know a pretty good large-ish box I can buy multiple of, so that I can store these in something better than collapsing cardboard?

[JollyRoger]

I have painstakingly updated the mp3 fields for all my downloads with album tile, track title, artist and the comments have all 3 plus additional info. Now I need a simple program to extract, and print an inventory based on these fields.
Any suggestions are welcome.

[jerfilm]

Well, this may not be helpful but here's what I have developed for me over the last  50 years.  I use Alpha Five, the database program.  There are two data bases, one of composers and whatever information you want to keep about them and the other is a database of the works, linked by a common field called "Id" which is a numeric field identifying the composer.  The Composition database can also contain as many fields as you have the time and ambition to input.   Every CD and tape is numbered.  Beyond that, I only keep track of the name of the composition with opus numbers or dates or both, plus a field which is a category (such as piano concertos, symphonys, etc.) so it can be sorted or searched without having to depend on alphabetical searches and the number of the CD or tape.  I keep no performer information,  commercial CD numbers, etc.  But you certainly can add as many fields as you like.  Alpha Five is fairly easy to set up - there are various "wizards" to help with this.

Oh, everything I download winds up on CDs and these are added into the numerical sequence of recordings.  Also, in numbering the CDs, cassettes and tapes, I only use one field with a one letter prefix before the number.  IE, R4598 is a CD, C458 is a cassette and T59 is a reel to reel tape.  This saves you the necessity of having a separate field to show what media you're dealing with.

Jerry