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[richspicko]

Curious what other people do....

How do you organize your files/library/views when you have multiple copies of the same sone with different bit rates?  That is, I ripped my CD collection in a lossless format and now I copy/convert them to a compressed format for burning mix CDs or uploading to my MP3 player.  So, I have multiple copies with different bit rates.

I've tried a couple different things.  I kept entirely separate directory trees called lossless and compressed songs.  Would be nice to have a library view that ONLY showed the highest or lowest quality w/o showing the copies.  I can sort by bit rate, but still not exactly what I'd like.

I also end up getting files where they don't belong when I convert occassionally and end up with a bit of a mess.  I've also tried having different naming conventions for compressed songs, but that is kinda ugly as well.

So - how do YOU manage multiple copies?  I also thing I need to learn how to manage views better, so I'll do some reading....

Thanks
Rich

[BartMan01]

I did it by giving up.  Tried several different 'work arounds', but they were too much of a pain at this point.  I just keep one copy of the file now (lossless - or highest quality if I don't currently have a lossless copy).  IF my library ever stabilizes (to the point I am not making constant large updates to or cleanup of the data) then I might try again.

For my iPod - I have MC convert on the fly.  Works fine unless I need a complete refresh - then it takes several over-night sessions to fully sync back up!

If you keep them in one library, try Marko's duplicate handling to filter out the lower quality versions:
http://www.theganghut.co.uk/mc/dupes/

[marko]

nah, not for this scenario... too many files with what I'm assuming is basically a lossy copy of a lossless library.

It might be worth looking at setting up a local directory as a handheld device, and have MC keep that in sync, auto converting to mp3 as required, and, though I'm not 100% certain, I'm sure you can then create a new library that includes only those files.

Short post that covers a lot of potentially complex stuff, shout if you need more help.

EDIT:
You might find some interesting reading in this thread: Any new thoughts about seamlessly handling APE/MP3 of same file?

[richspicko]

Thanks for the quick replies!

When I get a few minutes.  I'll look into your ideas in greater depth.  Sounds like some great thoughts!

Regards,
Rich

[BartMan01]

It might be worth looking at setting up a local directory as a handheld device, and have MC keep that in sync, auto converting to mp3 as required, and, though I'm not 100% certain, I'm sure you can then create a new library that includes only those files.

FYI - this is EXACTLY how I would approach it as things stand today.  It would mean having a separate library for each re-encode/device and would take multiple syncs to keep everything up to date.  Things would fall apart if the same files were being updated on different handhelds in one round of 'syncing'.

For example
Main library = lossless.
Create a folder (say "VBR") as a handheld and sync library to that as VBR encoded files.
Make 'VBR' library and set up iPod sync in that.  Use that library to sync files to/from iPod and update ratings.
Periodically open lossy library and sync it back to 'VBR' library to update data in main libraray.

Repeat above for each compression level desired (like say 128kbps for a shuffle).

This quickly becomes a lot of work if like me you are still in the (seemingly never-ending) process of 'cleaning up' your data.

[dcwebman]

I just created a separate library to hold for my smaller files. I don't want to duplicate my entire collection so switching to the smaller library made it easier for me. Only problem with that is that the MC Options sometimes need to change based on the library, like the File Locations.