Storing CDs successfully [and finding them again]

[salymap]

I wonder whether anyone has used the 'Arrowfile' Amadeus
CD organiser file and how they rate them?

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this!

[antongould]

Morning
Sorry no I use the "Wrong Place" filing system always fails!

[Ferretfancy]

I use Arrowfile albums for storing my 'reserve collection', CDs that I don't want to part with but might not want to hear for a while ( Quite a lot of Mahler in there! ) They are economical on shelf space if rather bulky. I remove the CDs from their cases, take out the notes and the back liners and put them into the pockets in the album in alphabetic order. This is a bit fiddly when you want to shuffle the pack and add new items.
The great mass of my CDs is shelved, again in alphabetical order of composer, and discs with more than one composer go in by the longest item on the CD.
It helps to have a computer catalogue suitably cross referenced, but the data entry takes a lot of time for multiple items like song recitals!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My CDs are stored on purpose built shelves, alphabetically by composer. Mixed composer CDs involve compromise, but CDs are like old friends - I know where to find them.

[salymap]

Thanks. Ferret, I hadn't thought of the shuffling the pack to add new items. That sounds like the trouble i have now with plastic racks that only hold about 24 CDs.

[BBMmk2]

I have mine in composer index! Always works well. Then sub section them for composers such as LvB or JSB, in Orchestral, Choral and Song, Opera(if any), Instrumental.

[mikealdren]

I have mine split in a rather idiosyncratic way that's a bit like the old Penguin Guide sequence. I split them into main content areas: Symphonies, Concertos, Instrumental, Chamber and Vocal. Within this, they are ordered by Composer OR performers for recital type discs. Finally, because I have a lot, violin music is in a separate category and this is all by soloist. Everything is in my database so I trace it all anyway - I did think of simply storing them in CD number sequence.

Mike

[Bax-of-Delights]

I used to have them in alphabetical order by composer with the usual gaggle of odds and sods (Light Music collections, shows etc) at the end. But, as usual, things quickly got of order and now they are stored in no particular order and I pick at random. Yesterday I found a CD of Arnell symphonies that I hadn't realised I had. Serendipity!

[ostuni]

I have mine in roughly chronological order (of composer): renaissance, early baroque, late baroque, etc. My original thinking, when I didn't have many LPs (this was back in the 70s): if I felt like some romantic piano music, for instance, then I'd head for a certain area in the shelves. However, the problem lies on the table which houses the cd player: tottering piles of as-yet-unheard discs...

[Don Petter]

I have mine in composer index! Always works well. Then sub section them for composers such as LvB or JSB, in Orchestral, Choral and Song, Opera(if any), Instrumental.

That’s how I’ve always done it, though it only really works if you can keep up to date with a good index. My order within composer is the old Gramophone one (Orchestral, Chamber, Instrumental, Vocal, Opera).

The keeping up, unfortunately, broke down some years ago, but the method did work well. The problem of mixed composers was treated as follows:

In principle, the CD is physically filed under the first composer alphabetically, though this can be ‘bent’ without a problem if there is say, a symphony by Schubert with a snippet by Arensky – then file it more logically under the Schubert.

Then, in the database index, which has an entry for every work, there is a field for ‘Shelf’. If the CD is filed on the shelf under the composer of the work in question, this field is left empty. If it is to be found physically under another composer, that composer is given in the ’Shelf’ field. So it is immediately obvious within quite a small area on the shelf where that recording of that work can be found. (Even if it's with a prolific composer, one knows that it will be in the 'Chamber' section, or whatever.)

CDs with many short works by different composers are filed at the end of the shelves after 'Z' and classified as ‘Collection’. In this case each entry for a work has ‘Collection’ in the ‘Shelf’ field.

Here is an extract from my old index, started in the ‘70s when I had to print it out on an 80 column printer! Hence the fields had to be fixed in size and entries abbreviated. They are Composer, Work, Date/Opus/Key (optional), Performer, Recording Catalogue Prefix, Recording Catalogue Number, Shelf, Format Code, Number of Recordings in Set.

The Format Code (single character) indicated which set of shelving contained the item:

[blank] LP (normal sized sleeve)
+ LP box set
* 10" LP
% cassette tape
@ CD


PAQUE............QUARTET 7.......96.......MONNAIE......3.....1378-2.........@..1
PAQUE............SOUVENIR DE CURIS VC4....LONDON MOZAR.CC....1007......KLEN.@..1
PARADIES.........SICILIENNE [V/P].........NEVEU/S-WINK.RLS...739.......COLL.+..4
PARADIES.........SICILIENNE [V/P].........NEVEU/S-WINK.SBT...1010......COLL.@..1
PARAY............MASS JOAN OF ARC.........PARAY........432...719-2.....SAIN.@..1
PARAY............SPEECH...................PARAY... .....432...719-2.....SAIN.@..1
PAREJA...........MUNDUS & MUSICA..........SAVALL.......E.....8723......CARC. @..1
PARROTT..........QUARTET 4.......1963.....CARDIFF......SRCS..52........HARR ....1
PARRY............12 SHORT PIECES V/P......GRUENBERG/VI.A.....66157.............1
PARRY............2 INTERMEZZI [ST3].......THAMYSE......AIR 2.9005......BERK....1
PARRY............BLEST PAIR OF SIRENS.....BOULT........CDM5..65107 2........@..1
PARRY............BRIDAL MARCH....1883.....BOULT........SRCD..220.......... ..@..1

[The dots are not in the original file, but it's the only way I can get the layout to print in this Forum text box and preserve the columns without all the spaces being collapsed to single ones! And even then it has put in extra spaces in four lines which aren't in my text, and I can't get rid of them!]


The index got as far as a database using Foxpro, partway into the CD era, with several thousand entries. I did a pilot scheme to transfer everything to an Access database with full sized fields, but never really had the energy to complete the task, as the 'yet uncatalogued' pile grew and admonished me every day! It does become quite a chore when you have CDs with many short works.

I still have the database on PC and in print, frozen in time, and it is useful to check what recordings I have up to that point. I used to carry a printout round with me when shopping, to avoid unwanted duplications, but now I don't bother as it is rather out of date, and friends benefit when I get home with an inadvertent double.

[reinerfan]

I use a program that I bought some years ago called "Classifile", which was designed by a computer programer who was also a keen record collector. It is possible to put virtually every detail of a recording in, but one can, of course, enter only brief details. Every CD, as it is bought, is alloted the next number, catalogued, and filed in numerical order. I have found that this is the only practical way to keep track as I have over 10,000 CDs and around 2000 cassettes, as well as some remaining LPs. Because I enter details of every work, this system enables me to find, for example, all one composers works, or his piano sonatas, or even 18th. century Harpsichord Concertos from what was Czechoslovakia, very rapidly.

[Panjandrum]

One can do it onself with Excel: enter details of composer, work, label, catalogue number, year, artist(s) in discrete columns, and then use the filter or sort function to find. You do have to be diligent about entering details for every new purchase. Of course, it can't tell you where you have filed the wretched thing however.

[mikealdren]

Reinerfan,
Yes I built my own database 20 years ago before they were commercially available and it has been very useful. I've catalogued every piece although not every track which would restrict me if I want to use it as an index for storing the music on the PC too.

The database has advantages over Excel in allowing me to select and sort more complex queries although Excel is much easier to set up. Also, for larger collections, Excel is limited to 64k entries although I've only got a quarter of that so far.

Mike

[Don Petter]

One can do it onself with Excel: enter details of composer, work, label, catalogue number, year, artist(s) in discrete columns, and then use the filter or sort function to find. You do have to be diligent about entering details for every new purchase. Of course, it can't tell you where you have filed the wretched thing however.

Access, being a database, would be better than Excel, in that you then have all the flexibilty of SQL querying, which can be more versatile than just filtering. It is more daunting to set up, though.

I must admit that I set up an Excel sheet for SWMBO to catalogue her DVD collection, and that works pretty well for her needs. (Printing off updates since the last main print, etc)

If you can be disciplined enough, you should be able to have a field in the spreadsheet to tell you where to find the item, depending on your shelving system? See my earlier post for one method.

[Roehre]

Access, being a database, would be better than Excel, in that you then have all the flexibilty of SQL querying, which can be more versatile than just filtering. It is more daunting to set up, though.

My collection was originally in a Q&A (an old but very effective 1980s early SQL database program) file, but transferred without any problems to Excel, because of the flexibility of the SQL [Structured Query Language] (which I wouldn't have done if Windows XL would have supported my original Q&A database btw).

my records are filed by

Composer - title - key - opus number - sub-number - alternative number - year of composition or publication - remarks (version - arrangment - "special category") - CD? - LP? - MC? - location - date of entry.

the three colums of opus number - sub-number and alternative number are necessary in case more than one catalogue of number-set applying to a composer's output, e.g. Beethoven (opus/WoO/Hess), Mozart (different numbers in K1 and K3), Haydn (Hoboken/opus numbers e.g. in String quartets). The remarks column is used to define different versions, e.g. which Bruckner symphony exactly, or which Mahler 10 completion or Mozart Requiem ditto.