CD Filing

[amateur51]

I mean, I have tried... the Jap Specials are mostly over there and the HDCDs just up there... etc. The much neglected Chamber Music and "Unusual 20th Century Operas" are off on their own, best-organised because least-listened...

In the end there's only one principle chez moi - "look Darling, I really do know where everything is..."
Usually said to the pitying gaze of the Cat.

I've got all the right CDs. They're just in the wrong order.

Brilliant system & brilliant post jlw

[Roehre]

My LPs and CDs are shelved alphabetically by composer, then by concerto, symphony, chamber, vocal, where there is a large number (eg Mozart): similar I think to the system used by several previous posters. The LPs (all seven and a half thousand of them) are all on an Excel database and can be sorted by label, composer, work, soloists, conductor, orchestra. It would be a nightmare to do this from scratch, but I built it up gradually over many years, adding a few new ones every week. I havent bought any LPs for ages - cant find supplies, and I dont like buying on-line. I do buy CDs every month, and have about 800. I am gradually building up an Excel database for these too, adding a few each day, since it is a very boring job.
The big problem is compilation discs featuring more than one composer. I file them either by the first composer on side A or by the major work if one is obviously more major than the others. However, I have been too lazy to list all the composers on the databases, using just the one under which the disc is filed. This means that if I forget the other composers on the disc, I have no way of checking for their music when for example I hear it on the radio, and it is effectively lost in my collection until I re-discover it by chance - which in a way, is rather fun.

I started building my database as soon as I had a computer, december 1986. That means that I started before I got my first CD (in april 1988). By 1996 it was fully up-to-date without any back log. I have kept it as such ever since.

My ordering is according to the composer and the first work mentioned at the spine.
If a CD or an LP only has got a name (and hence must be a compilation) , e.g. Celebration of Welsh Music, it will be located as Celebration Welsh, and between the composers Ceballos and Cerha.

[amateur51]

My recently-rationalised and refreshingly-downsized CD collection can best be described by reference to a photo of same:



Top shelf: operas, by composer (Bernstein to Weill)

Next 8 shelves: classical by composer - with an overspill area at the end for various box-sets that annoyingly don't fit my shelves in the relevant place higher up: the EMI Jochum/Dresden Bruckner box, for example, or the Handley Bax Symphonies.

Last but one shelf: miscellaneous collections, not in any particular composer order but vaguely choral - instrumental - orchestral. Plus a space at the right hand end for the cases of CDs currently being listened to most (French choral music - Fauré, Alain, Roger-Ducasse/Les Eléments; Rachmaninov Chopin Variations/Sudbin, in case you're wondering )

Bottom row - jazz on the left, rock etc plus spoken word on the right.



It's been useful this: each shelf takes about 140 CDs in standard jewel cases, so I've been able to estimate the size of it now.

Not the whole story though: bottom left, you'll spot the Airport Express (connected to the HiFi which is in the cupboard underneath), so all recent purchases have been download only. I don't see the CD collection growing much from here on in.

You did ask!!

Very practical yet elegant Cali









You can tell he's tall though, with good working knees and eyesight too innit

[Ferretfancy]

Alphabetical order under composer, with concertos, symphonies etc. in sequence. If the disc has more than one composer,it's placed according to the longest item, with a cross reference on my database referring to the title of the disc as displayed on the back of the jewel case. All my single CDs are shelved this way, opera boxes are on different shelves but still in alphabetical order. The exceptions are for massive box sets like The Worst of Gustav Mahler or Emma Kirkby's Greatest Hits, they've ended up on the floor.

Now, what about movies on DVD ?

[Petrushka]

Shelves full of cds have a certain beauty,but so do tottering piles in their own way.

I hope Mrs ER shares your philosophy!

Fortunately for me (or at least where tottering piles of CDs are concerned) I live on my own and suspect that the same is true for most posters to this thread? I'm afraid that tidiness doesn't really come into the equation much at all.

I'm not sure I can see the point in cataloguing everything on a database. The time taken to start this from scratch would be pretty pointless and besides I know what I have whether on shelves or floor. The only point in a catalogue would be for insurance purposes if a fire should destroy them. Apart from that life's too short.

[Roehre]

Alphabetical order under composer, with concertos, symphonies etc. in sequence. If the disc has more than one composer,it's placed according to the longest item, with a cross reference on my database referring to the title of the disc as displayed on the back of the jewel case. All my single CDs are shelved this way, opera boxes are on different shelves but still in alphabetical order. The exceptions are for massive box sets like The Worst of Gustav Mahler or Emma Kirkby's Greatest Hits, they've ended up on the floor.

Now, what about movies on DVD ?

I have got only a handful of movies on DVD but quite a lot of documentaries.
Not catalogued, I know to find them on the one shelf which is mine.
Mrs R movie collection is much bigger, not catalogued, and IMVHO a mess

[Pianoman]

Everything's been digitised anyway by now, I don't even have a working CD player (unless my laptop counts)

Snap - between the Macbook digital library and Spotify Premium, I haven't loaded a physical disc for months. With re-decoration of the room looming, I have to think about the rather painful decision of whether to resign them to the loft...Of course, booklets and libretti are needed occasionally, ..arrgh

[AmpH]

[QUOTE=Caliban;420509]My recently-rationalised and refreshingly-downsized CD collection can best be described by reference to a photo of same:



I spy with my little eye ......... the Shostakovich / Barshai symphony box set

But, as the Actress said to the Bishop, " how on earth do you manage with so little ....... "

[teamsaint]

[QUOTE=AmpH;420602]

My recently-rationalised and refreshingly-downsized CD collection can best be described by reference to a photo of same:



I spy with my little eye ......... the Shostakovich / Barshai symphony box set

But, as the Actress said to the Bishop, " how on earth do you manage with so little ....... "

I would have one of the smaller collections of regular board posters, but as we know Amps, its not what you have, its what you do with it ......!!

(And seriously, its amazing the forgotten gems I dig out of my singles collection , my pride and joy,from time to time....)

[amateur51]

Shelves full of cds have a certain beauty,but so do tottering piles in their own way.

My tottering piles are due to be put pro tem into bookcases from which they will eventually wind-up in one of Ian's rotating free-standing Wizard jobs. Cost a fair packet they do but once Gideon has let me get at my pension fund it's my treat to myself

http://www.iansbespokefurniture.co.uk/products/wizard.html

They arrive from Harrogate fully erected (not a phrase you hear round here often these days! ) so there's little chance of it sitting in a box for months

[AmpH]

[QUOTE=teamsaint;420604]

I would have one of the smaller collections of regular board posters, but as we know Amps, its not what you have, its what you do with it ......!!

Absolutely, but quality and quantity really is a wonderfull thing ...... presumably !!

[teamsaint]

[QUOTE=AmpH;420609]

Absolutely, but quality and quantity really is a wonderfull thing ...... presumably !!

Well quite.

Incidentally, I notice that Rumpole cleverly adjusted the focus so that just a few prime items were identifiable.........

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I spy with my little eye ......... the Shostakovich / Barshai symphony box set

Yes - and the Solti Ring on the top shelf? I'm intrigued by the group towards the middle of the shelf above: it looks like about four NAXOS discs followed by half-a-dozen CHANDOSes.

[AmpH]

Yes - and the Solti Ring on the top shelf? I'm intrigued by the group towards the middle of the shelf above: it looks like about four NAXOS discs followed by half-a-dozen CHANDOSes.

Indeed, and a possible blue Schumann / Zinman box reveals itself, but, rather worryingly, a possible sighting of Bernard's RVW cycle just below the Shosty box.

[Petrushka]

Indeed, and a possible blue Schumann / Zinman box reveals itself, but, rather worryingly, a possible sighting of Bernard's RVW cycle just below the Shosty box.

Karajan Parsifal on the top shelf too if I'm not mistaken.