Handling music boxes

[DavidHB]

I have used an arrangement similar to the one you propose, but I would not use it for every boxed set. There are a number of points to bear in mind here.

The first point is that you are in charge; the arrangement of your music library and its presentation in your control point should be what makes sense to you. There is no such thing as the 'right' method, and it makes sense to allow yourself some trial and error. Doing things differently is typically only a matter of editing some tags.

The second point is that the boxed set is, very largely, a function of the limitations of the CD (and, formerly, the LP) format and the marketing intentions of the record label. Those things may be meaningful to you when you come to rip the CDs in the set, or they may be irrelevant. There is nothing to stop you creating a different album grouping from the one in the boxed set.

The following example may help. I have a boxed set (22 discs) of all Stravinsky's recordings of his own works. Within the set, the discs are grouped (ballets, symphonies, concertos etc.), and I chose to use these groupings, rather than the complete set, as the basis for creating the individual albums in my digital library.

MinimServer regards a set of tracks as an album if they have the same album name and the same single value for AlbumArtist (see the relevant section of the User Guide for more details). In my library, all the tracks of an album will be in their own folder (and perhaps in sub-folders for individual discs) which will have the same name as the album, and each album will have its own album art. The album name may however be very different from what is on the CD cover.

I don't have a single fixed practice when it comes to listing the contents of the album by disc (or not, as the case may be). If the boxed set is of a single work (say a Mahler Symphony or an opera), I tend not to identify the individual discs, but to group the tracks by the sections (movements, acts or whatever) of the work. For something like a 'complete recordings' set, I may well preserve the disc organisation, as in such sets the record label will often try to arrange the works meaningfully within the set.

So my advice is to look at each set on its own merits, use tagging to organise it in your library in whatever manner is meaningful to you and presents itself sensibly in your control point, and not to worry too much about consistency or 'doing it the right way'.

I hope this helps.

David