Your Collection

[mahler10th]

Wee collections.  Big collections.  Ten discs.  Ten thousand discs.  An LP collection.  A tape collection.  An Mp3 extravaganza.  A collection nearing Harry-gantuan proportions.  Or just a 1976 BASF tape of Verdis Requiem from a radio.  
This thread is about our precious collections.  
Anything about our collections, because we all have them to a greater or lesser extent; mixed media, CD's only, Digital, DVD's etc...how do we keep them, catalogue them and store them?  What are the most precious in our collectons?  How many have we 'borrowed' and 'lended'?  What kind of cataloging system do you use?  How often do you add to it?  WHAT do you add to it?  Do you take stuff away from it over time?  Do you give a flying furtwangler about your collection at all?  How do you clean your collection?  Are things in sleeves, cases or what, and are your covernotes kept separte?  If you have something of a Digital collection, what about it?  Do you press labels?  What do you keep it on?  Do you have boxes, shelves, racks or what?  Do you group by year, composer or what?  What else is in your collection? And why does the Sun roate the Earth at curious angles?   
Well, this is just to get things going, selfishly, because today I just completed the task of cataloging everything, printing collection sheets from Excel, re-organising in order, etc...and I am very satisfied that my wee collection is as fine as it had been before the Great Fire of Glasgow.  It took me all day to do it, and with such yearly frothing my collection has grown.  It's contents, cleaning and cataloging and stuff I will reveal as things go on...

MODERATORS:  Eh...I seem to have put this 'sub-thread' in the wrong 'thread.'  Can it be moved to 'Genereal Classical Music Discussion' ?

[Bogey]

Maybe this can be a start, John:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,572.msg10307.html#msg10307

[snyprrr]

I'm a huge prick, but I'm also a huge believer in Used, Library, Listening-by-Any-Means, and Selling, so, I'm currently weighing in at a very svelte 600. You should see me trim the fat, baby! The Library's as tight as a du...

I can play Shostakovich in my head anytime I want; why do I need a cd?

[Que]

A lot of topics on collection in the OP, some of wich have been covered before.

Other relevant threads:

How do you organize your recordings?

Show us your classical CD collection

CD storage solutions

Q

[mahler10th]

By all the symphonies!   
The puropse of starting this post was out of a collectors interest in what others are doing with theirs, not to be hit with links which have already 'been covered' (some of them four years ago  ) and thereby kill much of the the post before it begins.  BY all the Gods I am so disappointed.  I will find a collectors forum somewhere then, where people are interested in what others are doing NOW with their collections and how they're enhanced.   
I also started it in the wrong thread.   

I can play Shostakovich in my head anytime I want; why do I need a cd?

I too am a bit of a 'huge prick'  , so I would say the answer to your dichotomy is probably in the listening to the music media rather than the mental playing of it. 

[mc ukrneal]

By all the symphonies!   
The puropse of starting this post was out of a collectors interest in what others are doing with theirs, not to be hit with links which have already 'been covered' (some of them four years ago  ) and thereby kill much of the the post before it begins.  BY all the Gods I am so disappointed.  I will find a collectors forum somewhere then, where people are interested in what others are doing NOW with their collections and how they're enhanced.   
I also started it in the wrong thread.   
I too am a bit of a 'huge prick'  , so I would say the answer to your dichotomy is probably in the listening to the music media rather than the mental playing of it. 

Hey, cheer up. People were trying to be helpful, not be spoil sports. It was hard to understand what you really wanted with the first post (that is, it went every which way), so perhaps they did not go the direction you really wanted.  I'm still not entirely sure myself.

And congratulations on the cataloging!! That is a lot of work! I am actually doing something similar . I have an id column that so far is blank (and no idea what will go there).  I like keeping the jewel cases pristine (meaning without anything sticky - I really hate that), so I can't see myself actually putting any markings on the cds, booklets or cases. I also keep them in virtually no order. And people in my house think they (the cds) look ugly, so most of them are in boxes. Thus, my real focus has been on a) keeping track of what I have and b) keeping statistics of my collection (I love statistics), though most of it is done with the electronic version of the collection and not the discs themselves.

I rarely look at most of the cds anymore, though I try to look at some that I know could have bronzing issues. I think I've found all the ones that might have been impacted as no problem cds have appeared in the last 5-6 years. I never clean them, but that is beacause I don't touch them much anymore. I've bought one cd rack over 20+ years, so I tend not to spend money on that. But as I mentioned, I keep them in boxes pretty much (which is a pain when I want to find a particular libretto - no, I don't box them in any order either).

I do download the booklets from Chandos and Hyperion where available. I wish more companies made the booklet available.

[Opus106]

I will find a collectors forum somewhere then, where people are interested in what others are doing NOW with their collections and how they're enhanced.   

You're trying to find higher ground standing on Mt. Everest.

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm a huge prick, but....

I too am a bit of a 'huge prick' ...

I too have a huge prick....oh wait...are you guys talking about the same thing I am? Anyway, since links to older threads on this topic have been posted, I don't know if John's thread will take off. I will wait then before saying anything more about my collection.

Sarge

[Opus106]

I do download the booklets from Chandos and Hyperion where available. I wish more companies made the booklet available.

Just an FYI: Naxos does that, as does SDG. Pretty nice of them.

[The Diner]

CDs do collect, yes they do.

[mahler10th]

ukrneal:  cheer up...most of it is done with the electronic version of the collection and not the discs themselves...

Does this mean you back your collection up to digital and catalogue from there, or do you use an 'electronic' program to catalogue your Audio CDs?

I have a collection of mixed media formats, so that all my disparate hardware can play it all at the drop of a hat, although I do not wear hats.  I use a wee program called 'My Music Collection' by Nuclear Coffee to catalogue everything, although for some years now I have looked for a program dedicated to cataloging Classical Music only, and haven't found ANYTHING satisfactory.     Still, the little program I use has some statistical analysis in it, so here's a peek...not very good, I know, but a robust and multi-faceted Classically dedicated program has not yet been developed anywhere.   

I keep all CDs in 120mcg clear wallets, with cover and notes where possible.  In the digital realm, everything is is MP3 format with minimum ripping @ 192kbps.  Digital and Audio CD's share the same space and are in alphabetical order by COMPOSER.  Because of the space saving by digital compression and use of clear wallets instead of cases (I hate cases, my greedy wee fingers burst them too easily), my collection whilst satisfactory for my needs at the moment, looks somewhat paltry and small compared to...er...the labyrinths of Harry et al!

I also churned out a printed, appendable catalogue and a 'list' of the works I have, which can be seen in this photo of my little 'drawer' of music.  The media device on display is not my primary one.

[mc ukrneal]

Does this mean you back your collection up to digital and catalogue from there, or do you use an 'electronic' program to catalogue your Audio CDs?

I haven't spent money on programs nor spent time poking around what is available for free online. I use one of a couple programs to rip (more in a moment on that) and I use excel to catalog. I enter it all in myself (by hand, which keeps me close to the collection). Eventually I will create the tables and graphics (pie charts) you showed when I have everything input. This has the added bonus of keeping me up to date on excel!

I rip my classical collection to 320 kbps (sometimes VBR for opera or other cross-track pieces), although I started at 128. I quickly decided that I needed better quality when I got good headphones and shifted to 256 kbps (eventually 320). Because I often travel, I use portable external drives, so space was an issue at fist. I expect to ultimately rip a second FLAC version and keep both file extensions on one or two external drives. They get bigger every year, so hoping to get at least a 1 TB portable drive this year. This means eventually re-ripping everything, but that's ok (I'm in no rush). I have a backup, but it is starting to get out of date and I probably need to copy it to my newest drive. I rip everything to mp3. I keep my rock/jazz/latin discs on itunes, which allows me to see classical in one place and everything else in another.

I've never been staisfied with any media programs. EAC has always been slow for me (and I rarely have discs with scratches, so rarely need it). I used winamp and Media Monkey at times (and one that I forget off the top of my head). I was thinking of using winamp for the FLAC files. Windows Media and itunes seem no better or worse than others from my opinion. They all pretty much stink for classical users.

Your catalog looks cool, and I hope to eventually create cool looking charts like you have. Incidentally, since 2005/06, I've started keeping track of the cost too. Currently at about $8.3 per disc as of my last check some months ago.

[Opus106]

Okay, here's a question (to anyone who wishes to answer): what would be the features of an ideal cataloguing program catered for western classical music enthusiasts? Thanks in advance.

[mahler10th]

Okay, here's a question (to anyone who wishes to answer): what would be the features of an ideal cataloguing program catered for western classical music enthusiasts? Thanks in advance.

Navneeth, my Astonomical friend, I have a spec sheet!
It must be dedicated solely to Classical Music, with appropriate logos and wording.  There was only ever one of those out there and it went defunct in 2006, but it was sadly lacking features.
It must have the capacity to investigate any popular media format with connection to Amazon, freedb, gracenote, etc, and the optional ability to re-write digital tags with the new/discovered data.  Addition and extaction of Pictures (covers, etc) is also handy.  An easy to input and extract information schema.  Auto look up Audio CD's.  Export to Excel, CSV, etc.  Simple Database sorting.  Variety of printout options.  DVD and Blu Ray support.  A little player on it would also be nice... ...

[MishaK]

I use a wee program called 'My Music Collection' by Nuclear Coffee to catalogue everything, although for some years now I have looked for a program dedicated to cataloging Classical Music only, and haven't found ANYTHING satisfactory.

Two questions:

a) Does this program cost money?

b) Does the cataloguing system allow for a field for recording date? This is very important once you get into multiple performances of the same pieces by the same people (e.g. Wand, Furtwängler, Karajan's multiple cycles of everything, etc.).

I have over 2000 CDs, some 60-odd LPs, and a not very well organized collection of mp3s of streaming radio broadcasts. I started an excel sheet a while ago but managed to make a total mess of it and then never bothered to clean it up or update it. I do a lot of comparative listening, so I would love to have a decent catalogue if only to remind myself of other performances I have in other collections or on other media.

[Gurn Blanston]

Navneeth, my Astonomical friend, I have a spec sheet!
It must be dedicated solely to Classical Music, with appropriate logos and wording.  There was only ever one of those out there and it went defunct in 2006, but it was sadly lacking features.
It must have the capacity to investigate any popular media format with connection to Amazon, freedb, gracenote, etc, and the optional ability to re-write digital tags with the new/discovered data.  Addition and extaction of Pictures (covers, etc) is also handy.  An easy to input and extract information schema.  Auto look up Audio CD's.  Export to Excel, CSV, etc.  Simple Database sorting.  Variety of printout options.  DVD and Blu Ray support.  A little player on it would also be nice... ...

John,
I use the greatest MP3 tagging program ever. It is called MP3 Tag. It not only does all that stuff, but if you keep a master folder with all your music divided into sub-folders, then you can open as many folders as you want, up to and including all of them, and it will export reports in a variety of formats. It can do stuff that I haven't figured out yet, so probably more than one can ever hope. I suspect that since one of the formats is HTML, that I can open it with Excel and play around til my heart's content.

Did I mention that it's free?

MP3Tag

[mc ukrneal]

John,
I use the greatest MP3 tagging program ever. It is called MP3 Tag. It not only does all that stuff, but if you keep a master folder with all your music divided into sub-folders, then you can open as many folders as you want, up to and including all of them, and it will export reports in a variety of formats. It can do stuff that I haven't figured out yet, so probably more than one can ever hope. I suspect that since one of the formats is HTML, that I can open it with Excel and play around til my heart's content.

Did I mention that it's free?

MP3Tag

How does it work? Let's say you have 20 discs ripped already to Windows Media, Itunes or other player. Can you import all the data to this tag program, manipulate it to your heart's content (including changing it using external sources like Amazaon, freedb, etc. without manually entering in data) and then export the updated info back to the player without screwing things up everywhere?

[Opus106]

How does it work? Let's say you have 20 discs ripped already to Windows Media, Itunes or other player. Can you import all the data to this tag program, manipulate it to your heart's content (including changing it using external sources like Amazaon, freedb, etc. without manually entering in data) and then export the updated info back to the player without screwing things up everywhere?

http://mp3tag.de/en/index.html

[From experience] You just have to open the folder which contains the ripped sources and start editing. It's as simple as that. When you access those files again using your favourite media player, the tags will be as you'd edited them.

[Gurn Blanston]

How does it work? Let's say you have 20 discs ripped already to Windows Media, Itunes or other player. Can you import all the data to this tag program, manipulate it to your heart's content (including changing it using external sources like Amazaon, freedb, etc. without manually entering in data) and then export the updated info back to the player without screwing things up everywhere?

I don't know, I don't do that. Let me know though.

I use it for all my tagging. When I rip, my ripper downloads from various online db's. I never like the tags, so I open the folder I ripped to in this program and modify the tags to suit myself, including the file names. At that point, however many files you have open (and I never had more open than it could handle so I don't know what the limit it) are subject to being a 'report'. Or a playlist if that's what you want. But if you select 20 files, for example, and then select File>Export... then you can choose which format you want, and which fields you want, and then save it. If it is a compatible format, you can open in Excel and do as you wish.  You can do all sorts of custom fields too. It has lots of capabilities that I don't use. My wants are finite; I want to put tags I can live with on digital files. All the other stuff is extra for me, but it might be perfect for you.

It's free, did I mention? 

[mahler10th]

John,
I use the greatest MP3 tagging program ever. It is called MP3 Tag.

Yes Gurn, I agree it is an outstanding program, it is what I have used since 2008 for all my music.  But it doesn't have advanced cataloging features.   

Mensch:  a) Does this program cost money?
b) Does the cataloguing system allow for a field for recording date? This is very important once you get into multiple performances of the same pieces by the same people (e.g. Wand, Furtwängler, Karajan's multiple cycles of everything, etc.).

Yes.  It costs about £30.
Yes.  It makes allowance for recording dates.  It also makes allowance for 'Classical' collections, with "composer" fields etc.  But it is still not exclusively Classical.  Nice easy interface, the best exporting to Excel I've found.  I don't recommend it, but I don't not recommend it.