Collections are pretty fun. Most people probably tend to accumulate things, and the smarter ones tend to realize that organization is the only way that one’s collection will ever see effective use.
Kid Loco on KDE4/Dolphin
DJing relies pretty heavily on having and knowing a lot of music. It’s also probably the coolest collection-based hobby/profession. Stamp and rock collections just don’t cut it. It’s easy to find examples of organization taken too far, but luckily my hobby supports my misprioritization, and I have a very organized MP3 collection. So, here’s how I do it.
- torrent or slsk or audiograbber (w/ lame) my music
- Use MusicBrainz Picard to complete incomplete tags and cluster/manually tag most music. It’s a little bit different, but it’s ridiculuously automated and very handy for letting you know when you have an incomplete album, etc. Before this, I used PsychicMP3 and discogs pages.
MusicBrainz Picard Automated MP3 Tagger on Windows
- Optional: Automatically record most of the bpm info into the file with MixMeister BPM analyzer. Even if you’re just making a playlist for your workout, knowing the speed of the tracks can help you create a much more cohesive and flowing mix.
- I tag anything rare or unrecognized by MusicBrainz with Mp3Tag at this point. Also, MixMeister’s not so good on swing rhythms and some stranger time signatures, or bpms less than 80/greater than 160, so I check them in Mp3Tag with a javascript bpm tapper.
- For when I feel like being crazy, I’ll run MP3Gain or something. MP3Gain can automatically normalize your music so you don’t have super loud or super soft tracks. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can introduce distortion, though. Usually, if the track sounds ok, I’ll leave well enough alone.
- I check for untagged/low quality files that got through before I started doing all this with MP3 Check
I stick to MP3, 192kbps or higher, VBR or CBR. I like to keep the sample rate at 44100hz, as that’s what the DN-S1200s support. I get FLAC albums (when I can find them), for my real faves, but of course keep the MP3s for portability reasons.
As for folder structure, I’m a sucker for Artist/Album (Year)/Tracks. A lot of renaming and tagging software will move stuff around for you, so yay. Oh, and I have to say that one of the most consistently frustrating things about tagging music is having to pick a genre for a song/album. I wish I could just leave it blank, but I’m a completionist.
So, is this waaay too much work? Did you note that all of these tools are Windows-based (except for Picard!)? Luckily, I store my MP3s on my server and grab them with samba, but if Linux had these tools, you know I’d grab that ebuild. If I missed them, let me know. Also, Amarok2 not working on amd64 gentoo is ridiculous. Not only that, but when I got it working, it blew chunks compared to amarok 1. Too much focus on peripheral media, not enough collection- and tag-based power.
Superdrivel 