How do you all handle Box Sets in MM?

[tmf]

Just curious as to how others handle Box Sets that contain several individual CDs of actual Albums while being able to keep track of the complete Box Set and also it's individual Albums.

[Lowlander]

You could use Original Title for the original Albums name. I do use Original Date to identify when the track was released, but Album, Date and Disc# would be determined by the boxset.

[toptip]

As for me I create a playlist for the box set and then add the individual albums to the playlist.

[IanRTaylorUK]

Consider the "Grouping" field and hierarchical Playlists.

For example, The Doors Perception Boxed Set = LA Woman + Morrison Hotel + Strange Days + The Doors + The Soft Parade + Waiting for the Sun.

So "Perception" in the Grouping field. Top Level Playlist is The Doors, 2nd Level is Perception and 3rd Level the above albums (in MMW5). This carries thru onto MMA i.e. The Doors (3 Playlists = Live in NY + Perception + Singles) but if you "open" Perception it shows the 6 albums mentioned.

[tmf]

I've been using MM Gold since version 3 (I think it was). I've uppgraded to Gold with each new release, but never have gotten my cataloging quite perfected. And unfortunately, I've used some fields for things other than their intended purpose. Prior thought was given to their mis-use before commiting, but it seems as though after entereing large quantities of data, something comes up to bite you.

I like the idea of using the Original Title field, but I think I have used that for some things already, mostly tracks with extra long titles I think is was. Will have to check and give that some thought, changes could be made. I do use the Date and Original Date fields as Lowlander describes above. I like to keep track of both the actual release data and the original release date of albums or tracks on VA albums where possible.

Playlists also sounds like a very good idea, and something I had not considered before? But the Grouping field is one I have used for everything in the database. Changing it isn't out of the question, but it would be a lot of work.

I've never used the playlist feature as described here so I'll definitely check it out further. That may be the most promising for box sets too? For playlists, I usually just add in a bunch of tracks and that's about it. I didn't know you could create them having different levels as described by toptip and further detailed by IanR above?

Not the Perception box set, but I do have The Doors - Complete Studio Recordings (2003) box set which is also a good example of one that contains individual albums.

All very good suggestions, and thanks to you all for commenting! I appreciate the assistance. It's always nice to hear how others are keeping track of things in their music collections. Great way to learn!

[IanRTaylorUK]

Playlists also sounds like a very good idea, and something I had not considered before? But the Grouping field is one I have used for everything in the database. Changing it isn't out of the question, but it would be a lot of work.

I've never used the playlist feature as described here so I'll definitely check it out further. That may be the most promising for box sets too? For playlists, I usually just add in a bunch of tracks and that's about it. I didn't know you could create them having different levels as described by toptip and further detailed by IanR above?

Not the Perception box set, but I do have The Doors - Complete Studio Recordings (2003) box set which is also a good example of one that contains individual albums.

All very good suggestions, and thanks to you all for commenting! I appreciate the assistance. It's always nice to hear how others are keeping track of things in their music collections. Great way to learn!

To use the hierarchical Playlists (based on The Doors example):
0). Check all tracks / albums you are working on have consistent artwork (see Files to Edit under the Entire Library Node) and have Disc # and Track #
1). Select the Playlist Node and create a "The Doors" playlist at the top level.
2). For each "Group" create a playlist with the name The Doors - Group Name
3). For each Album create a playlist for the album with the name The Doors - Album Name. Populate with tracks in disc / track order.
4). With "The Doors" top level playlist selected under the playlist node, drag and drop the Group and Album playlists into the centre. You can drag albums into "whitespace" or "over" a group.
5). When you are happy with the hierarchy, use "F2 rename" to remove "The Doors" from each group / album playlist name if you want to keep names to a minimum. The prefix was just there to keep ALL the related playlists together in the Playlist node to make the Drag & Drop easier!
6). From the menu, choose File / Export / Export All Playlists... then you have a backup!!!

Hope this makes sense.

P.S. I also used a "#" prefix to push all my "Auto" and non-Artist / non-Album Playlists to the top of the list. Check a few M3U files with a text editor and refine your Tools / Options / Tags & Playlists if needed.

[MattTown]

Nothing fancy in my approach but it sufficient for my purposes. Management of box sets is a combination of field setting and file storage:

• The Album Artist field is set to Artist name if it is a box set of one artist, otherwise "Various Artists" for generalised top hits compilations.

• Artist name is set to Artist name of course.

• Disk# is used to separate disks in the library.

• Auto Organise is configured to store tracks in subfolders by "Album Artist/Album", so physical file storage reflects the box set media.

• Main list gets sorted by Artist, Original Date, Album, Disk# and Track# which puts the box set/compilation tracks in with album tracks (once all the metadata is enterered), so that the MM library presents the box set tracks in the artist's context.

Cheers
Matt

[tmf]

To use the hierarchical Playlists (based on The Doors example):
0). Check all tracks / albums you are working on have consistent artwork (see Files to Edit under the Entire Library Node) and have Disc # and Track #
1). Select the Playlist Node and create a "The Doors" playlist at the top level.
2). For each "Group" create a playlist with the name The Doors - Group Name
3). For each Album create a playlist for the album with the name The Doors - Album Name. Populate with tracks in disc / track order.
4). With "The Doors" top level playlist selected under the playlist node, drag and drop the Group and Album playlists into the centre. You can drag albums into "whitespace" or "over" a group.
5). When you are happy with the hierarchy, use "F2 rename" to remove "The Doors" from each group / album playlist name if you want to keep names to a minimum. The prefix was just there to keep ALL the related playlists together in the Playlist node to make the Drag & Drop easier!
6). From the menu, choose File / Export / Export All Playlists... then you have a backup!!!

Hope this makes sense.

Yes, makes perfect sense, and thanks for the detailed description for all this. I have been fiddling with this a bit and it looks promising. It's given me some ideas for my other playlists too, they all need some updating anyway.

One question - Is it possible to order the albums in the playlist by their disc# as they are laid out in the box set, without adding a date or number or something to the album title for an alpha sort?

Thanks again.

[tmf]

Nothing fancy in my approach but it sufficient for my purposes. Management of box sets is a combination of field setting and file storage:

• The Album Artist field is set to Artist name if it is a box set of one artist, otherwise "Various Artists" for generalised top hits compilations.

• Artist name is set to Artist name of course.

• Disk# is used to separate disks in the library.

• Auto Organise is configured to store tracks in subfolders by "Album Artist/Album", so physical file storage reflects the box set media.

• Main list gets sorted by Artist, Original Date, Album, Disk# and Track# which puts the box set/compilation tracks in with album tracks (once all the metadata is enterered), so that the MM library presents the box set tracks in the artist's context.

Cheers
Matt

As far as storage on disc, metadata, etc. that's about the same as I have been doing box sets. I'll have to try your sorting suggestion for the main lists. My main lists are what I'm still fiddling with. Been fiddling with a 'Box Sets' collection and your sorting suggestions here might be the ticket for that one. I do fill in the original date field (with the albums original release date) but for some reason hadn't thought of using it to sort on?

Thanks for the suggestions.

[antirungkad777]

thanks
antirungkad777

[MattTown]

One question - Is it possible to order the albums in the playlist by their disc# as they are laid out in the box set, without adding a date or number or something to the album title for an alpha sort?.

I'm assuming from your question that you have a playlist that contains more than one artist or album, and you want the playlist to sort in album/disc/track order.

Assuming that you have the Disc# field populated (I sometimes find that I have to populate that manually) then you can display in artist/album/disc/track order by using a multi-level sort. To do that, click on the first sort column and then hold down CTRL while you click on subsequent columns to sort by.

Cheers
Matt

[IanRTaylorUK]

One question - Is it possible to order the albums in the playlist by their disc# as they are laid out in the box set, without adding a date or number or something to the album title for an alpha sort?

Thanks again.

I think I would handle this manually if just a few Boxed sets.

If more than a few, then consider using a "Collection / View" and set the sort order. For example, a Collection named "Boxed Sets" with the criterium that Grouping "Is Known". Then your view can be sorted by Grouping and then Disc # and then Track #.

You could also suffix the text in the Grouping field e.g. Perception1; Perception2 etc. I like this as it means the albums "stand alone" i.e. all track Disc 1 /2.

Remember in my example, albums existed in their own playlist (lowest in hierarchy) AND as these album playlists as the content of another "Group" playlist one level above.

[tmf]

With all the suggestions here (I'm using all of them in some way), I've greatly improved my previous system and things are shaping up nicely. Also, learned a thing or two, which is always good too.

Thanks to all for all the good comments!

[Dryst]

Just curious as to how others handle Box Sets that contain several individual CDs of actual Albums while being able to keep track of the complete Box Set and also it's individual Albums.

Originally I used to have individual directories for every single CD, but I stopped doing this years ago. It became super annoying. Also, physical media is reaching end of life. I would do something like this in the past:

James Brown\1991, Star Time (Disc 1)
James Brown\1991, Star Time (Disc 2)
James Brown\1991, Star Time (Disc 3)
James Brown\1991, Star Time (Disc 4)

I converted this along with all multi-disc releases to this:

James Brown\1991, Star Time

I manually change the track numbers per disc so that they are all consecutive and in order. The above folder has songs starting from track # 01 all the way to track #71. It's a manual task to re-number the tracks for discs 2 though 4, but it's a one time activity.