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[sKiZo]

Not sure if this qualifies as a skin or not, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Just picked up the Toscanini - The Complete RCA Collection box set. 84 CDs, many of them multiple composer. If left to it's own devices and JRiver's defaults for ripping, we're talking around 500 new folders at least. With a bit of tweaking, I end up with ... (drumroll please) 84 folders, once for each new rip.

Here's one in Windows Explorer, already ripped and converted. The original CDs had miles long titles that I changed to the disk numbers:



Simple and sweet. This one would have been six folders using JRiver's import default settings.

And here's what it looks like inside JRiver when imported into a special collection:



There's a similar view for each of the six composers you see listed in Windows Explorer. The file names are also "fixed" for display in JRiver - the original actual file names are untouched - I never really need to look at those, and the information shows in album name, year, artist, etc. The "folder.jpg" you see listed in Explorer is the album cover pulled down on import - the pic shown in the track listing is in a special image folder for composers so I can use those across views and collections. I went with the composers instead of the original CD covers for this view. Google is good for that - type in the composer's name, and you get the perfect shots at the top of the screen. View and save to the main directory and change that manually.

I'm just sorry I didn't think of that earlier. What with the Decca, Mercury, et all collection sets, I figure I'd be about a 1000 folders lighter and way better organized if I had. On the bright side, it's not something I notice inside MC, and no real need to see the files otherwise.

I can do the same for any of the collections listed in the left pane in JRiver. If I want to find ALL the stuff in ALL the collections by a composer, I use the universal search, or I also have a special view for COMPOSERS that ferret out all the matches in the library.

PS ... the Toscanini collection is quite the deal. The entire output of Red Seal releases conducted by the maestro hisself, and the original vinyl release went for around $1200. Yikes! This box set was revised in 2012 and cleans up a lot of mastering problems with the earlier CD sets. Just got mine the other day at Arkiv Music for $59 ...

(oh ... they're currently sold out ... neener neener) 

Worth mentioning ... the tagging on these collections tend to be shite, so be prepared to put a bit of work into organizing them. This one has tags from a couple different set versions, as well as no tags at all, and tags that are just plain wrong. That said, there's no easier way to get quality copies for your listening pleasure. They dug long and hard for the very best masters available, and were very careful to clean them up WITHOUT impacting the music. Kudos to Sony for the effort!