Audacity Forum

In order to have the tags be most readable, searchable, etc. is there a best format? For example for ARTIST is it best to put Neil Young or Young, Neil and for multiple artists, best to use just last names, separate by commas or not, etc. Let's say I have a recording of 5 mixed artists that I am saving all as one track, yet I would like to be able to find this FLAC file again by looking for any one of the 5 performers' names, e.g., on a Sonos system. I realize that I won't be able to locate the artist's performance within the file without listening to the whole thing, but at least I will have the mix in which that performer is located.
Thanks, Richard

This is a problem that has confused taxonomists for several years - and confused thos amongst us who like to keep our LPs and CDs in some sort of accessible order

I always sorted my records by artiste last name (but it gets confusing with bands like The Rolling Stones- do you file them under R or S - even under T?)

Since I now have an iPod and use iTunes as my jukebox, Apple have confused this by oredering based on artiste first name - they do ignore the definite artice in English (i.e. "The") - but in foreign languages they do not.

So really it's down to personal choice ...

WC

My file naming format is like this:

Elvis Presley - I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone.mp3.

When files named like that are dropped into a computer folder, they are going to be sorted by the first characters encountered. In a folder, you would see Elvis before Frank Sinatra and you would see Frank Sinatra before Frank Williams. I use I-Tunes for playback and it also sorts by first name. I've grown to accept that as all computer-related files are sorted that way.

I never search or sort by tag. The main reason I care about tags for artist and song title is that my tagging application (MP3 Tag) can rename a file by forcing the file name to correspond to the tags.

For instance, many times I will have this situation:

The title is actually Sleepwalk

The artist is actually Santo and Johnny

The file name might be Santo & Johnnie - Sleep Walk.mp3

The title tag might be Sleepwalk

The artist tag might be Santo and Johnny

So, the file name is incorrect, but the tags are correct. Any decent tag application can make the file name agree with the tags with a single keystroke. Santo & Johnnie - Sleep Walk.mp3 becomes Santo and Johnny - Sleepwalk.mp3 without any manual editing, saving a lot of time when dealing with hundreds or thousands of files.

I don't bother to delete any erroneous tag a song might have. I don't care if an Elvis song is for some reason categorized as Rap or shows an 1844 recording date.

At times, I will use creative file names to identify exactly what the song is, so maybe 5% of my collection has titles such as:

Elvis Presley - Shake, Rattle, and Roll.mp3
Elvis Presley - Shake, Rattle, and Roll (alternate take).mp3

Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon.mp3
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin - Fly Me To The Moon.mp3
Frank Sinatra (live in Australia, 1957) - Fly Me To The Moon.mp3
Tommy Dorsey (vocal Frank Sinatra) - I'll Never Smile Again.mp3

Jay McShann (Charlie Parker, alto saxophone) - Hootie Blues.mp3
Bessie Smith (with Louis Armstrong) - You've Been A Good Old Wagon.mp3

And so forth. I figure it's better to see the necessary detail in plain sight in the file name, rather than in a tag I can't immediately see at a glance.

There is a fantastic free file renaming application out there called "Name It Your Way". I urge anyone interested in mass renaming to get it.

I used it yesterday to replace "&" with "and" in 200 file names. Took about 60 seconds from startup to shutdown. In another 60 seconds, I was able to change the tags to agree with the new file name with mp3 Tag.

The following attachment gives a little insight into my own taxonomy structure: You can see that I have folders for different media types: LP/tape/radio etc.
Then within those there are subcategories for music types: folk/blues/pop/jazz etc.
Within those there is a folder for each artiste (ordered by first name)
Within those there is a folder for each album
And within those (You can't see this cos this was a work-in-progress) is a WAV file for each song: 01 <track_name_1>, 02 <track_name_2>, etc.

This is the structure that I use on my PC while recording and editing - and the full structure is maintained on my external USB backup disks.

With this taxonomy I vcan usually find what I am looking for - only occasionally resorting to the Windows Explorer search function!

WC

My stuff is organized like a record store since I am highly accustomed to that breakdown.

I have 10 major categories of music. Each of the 10 has individual artist names.

I have no "albums". Everything is just individual single songs.

If I have at least 4 songs by someone, I make a folder for the artist name.

I have only 2 comedy tracks by Robert Klein, so those 2 files are in the comedy folder itself, and don't show in this picture.

A few artist names have subfolders for further sorting, but that is uncommon.