Michael Koby - Latest Comments in Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

djdan — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:46:45 -0000

Great Article! tagging everything is time consuming I have spent allot of time with Tag&Rename and have been using eJukebox to visualize my collection and play all my files. i got every file type imaginable. thanks again for the article

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Rob — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:54:29 -0000

Thanks for the heads up on this Helium software. I found it at the following link:

http://www.helium-music-manager.com

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

John — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:25:38 -0000

Even though this article is 2 years old, it's still the top hit for "digital music library organization" on google. I wish I had run across a complete run-down like this when I was trying to figure all this stuff out.

For what it's worth, I'd like to throw in a mini-review of Helium Music Manager, which I've been using for about 2 years now. My library is currently up to about 12000 tracks. I've got mostly FLAC and mp3 files, and all are tagged for the basic stuff. I'm streaming these from a ReadyNAS NV+ to a Roku Soundbridge, using a Garmin iQue M5 as a remote. It's meant to be a roll-your-own Sonos system that has far more capabilities than the Sonos.

As for Helium, it's been mainly extremely helpful. The rip / tag / file process is this:

1. Rip from cd with Exact Audio Copy
2. Copy to NAS
3. Insert into Helium library
4. Retag

This process has been whittled down over time and I think it's about as streamlined as I'm going to get it with my current software. EAC does a good job of tagging from FreeDB, but I go through the extra step of retagging in Helium because it can access CDDB, which I find much more complete, especially when it comes to classical listings. I don't have many of them, but it's worth the trouble.

The bottom line with Helium is that it has a wealth of features. So many, in fact, that I'm probably not using all of them. There are many tag fields that I don't particularly care about (BPM etc.) Another gripe (with the 2007 version, anyway) is that it doesn't rip files with the ability to directly convert to flac. If this were the case, I'd stop using EAC altogether, which would probably save quite a bit of time.

My process in Helium is this:

1. Add files to library (ctrl + insert)
2. Use the Music Library tab to find the most recently added files with the File Date node
3. Sort tracks by artist or album
4. Select all tracks in an album
5. Retag items, downloading info from cddb

This process has become less troublesome over time. Still, when you add files to the library and choose the File Date node, items are not automatically grouped according to artist or album, which adds an extra step.

I think I've focused mainly on the negative here, but that's always the case, isn't it? One of the most useful features is the Untagged Items node, which groups untagged files by several criteria. So it's easy to figure out if you've added files to the database but have forgotten to tag them. Helium also does a really does a good job at organizing stuff in a way that's easily accessible once things are arranged correctly.

There are a bunch of things that I don't use which probably give endless amounts of customization. Overall, I trust it with the HUGE amount of time I've spent ripping discs, and that should be the main concern.

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Sista Stroke — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:00:34 -0000

Doing very well, indeed, babe! Life is crazy hectic, and i wouldn't dream of it being any other way!!!
If your'e interested, I've just posted a new mix on my blog,
www.sistastroke.com
it's called, "Put Some Grit In It"

Enjoy music and keep up the beautiful work!
love,
Sista!

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Michael Koby — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:44:34 -0000

@Sista Stroke, no problem, the comment is well earned :-) I hope you are doing well these days.

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Sista Stroke — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:10:07 -0000

Wow! Thanks for that lovely comment, Luv!!!

:-)
Peace.

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

michael — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:07:40 -0000

If I use Easy CD-DA Extractor for ripping, can I still use iTunes for playing and managing music?

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Michael Koby — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:16:12 -0000

The links now work, sorry about that.

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

michael — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:13:33 -0000

the link to the Part 1 of this post doesn't seem to work. I am very interested in reading it. Please provide. Thanks!

Re: Building Your Digital Music Library (Part 2 of 2)

Mark Thakkar — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:21:15 -0000

Very helpful article - thanks, Michael.