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[twopkings]

I am brand spanking new to JRiver, and as such, thought it would be a good idea to sort out my audio files / folders scheme prior to my initial setup. Is there any preferred system ie. Folders for Artists with Albums Folders within? If so, how to deal with compilations. I simply want a good practical method that will be permanent. Cheers, Paul

[JimH]

Welcome to the forum.  I moved this here.  I assume you have MC24 on Windows.

MC uses file tags to build its database, so where you put the files is less important.  Most people probably use Artist and Album as their directory structures.

You can use MC's tool called Rename, Move, and Copy to move your files to directories according to their tags.  Try a few before you do very many.

The wiki has a lot of useful information.  In this case, please read the topic on Album Artist.

[Spike1000]

MC uses file tags to build its database, so where you put the files is less important.  Most people probably use Artist and Album as their directory structures.

Jim's nailed the key points. Tags are more important than directories. The Views in MC come from the Tags in the database, not the directory structure.
Artist Folders with Album folders underneath seems to be the most common as it's simple and logical. Some people prefix the album name with the year of release but the chronology isn't important to me for the directory structure; simple and logical is.

My compilations are simply under a folder called 'Various'; the tags in the tracks ensure the MC Views display the tracks in the right place.

There's been lots of posts on this to the forum (look under previous versions of MC). The one 'exception' (or at least complication) is classical music. I'd search the forum for posts on that if that's important to you as there's not one correct answer.

Spike

[Fitzcaraldo215]

Jim's nailed the key points. Tags are more important than directories. The Views in MC come from the Tags in the database, not the directory structure.
Artist Folders with Album folders underneath seems to be the most common as it's simple and logical. Some people prefix the album name with the year of release but the chronology isn't important to me for the directory structure; simple and logical is.

My compilations are simply under a folder called 'Various'; the tags in the tracks ensure the MC Views display the tracks in the right place.

There's been lots of posts on this to the forum (look under previous versions of MC). The one 'exception' (or at least complication) is classical music. I'd search the forum for posts on that if that's important to you as there's not one correct answer.

Spike

Absolutely!  Tags are the important thing.

With thousands of classical albums in JRiver, the only folder structure I use is a separate subfolder containing each separate batch of rips -Bxx - within my single main media file folder.  Bxx then contains the individual album folders, each named by the ripper with the metadata directly from the disc.  If there is a problem with a media file, I can search JRiver's Filename tag by batch number if I ever need to, which is only occasional.

Occasionally, ripped albums come up with an "Unknown Album" folder name.  I do edit that folder name to make it unique and descriptive in a simple way for later reference.  You can always look up the drive letter:folder/file path in the JR library and use that to navigate to the media file folder via Windows.  But, getting the Album Name and other fields used in searching right and consistent in the tags is much more important. 

Rarely, some classical album tracks exceed Windows limit of about 256(?) characters in total path length from the disc letter on down to the track name in the directory tree for my media files.  This usually shows up only in copying or moving media files in Windows.  For those, and only those, I shorten the media file folder name in Windows, since it is part of the full file path to the track.

Other than that, I never mess with media file naming or organizing in Windows as determined by the rip.  It offers no advantage and is useless manual work vs. the tags.

[~OHM~]

as all have said the tags are very important: I myself prefer a organized windows structure I have a very very large collection and I add to it frequently. My structure for windows is "Main Folder" inside lay the "Artist folders"(one for each artist) and a folder for the actual CD "1970 Name of the album" this way the albums are in chronological order for each artist. Good Luck and have fun MC is by far the best Player out there!

[twopkings]

WOW. Thanks everyone for the responses. Isn't it great to see an active community. Thanks again for making an effort, it means a lot, even when the question is very simple.
Actually i'm a Mac person (whispered!), so putting it here in the Windows section is fine, but i'm ready to duck if the stones start flying overhead!
I was thinking about how i used to arrange my CD's. Past tense, as everything is in storage and has been for 10 years as we have been travelling. The CD's were in Artist / Album order, so yes there is simple logic here. Thanks for the  tip re. release year - album name. Again, all solid pointers.
Unfortunately, as we are in New Zealand, a fair chunk of our CD library are non US or UK versions. I'm guessing these are the most heavily populated in databases like MusicBrainz. But, some CD's haven't tagged correctly, as the NZ or Australian version may be slightly different. A nightmare, as I can't access the original CD's easily. I am considering erasing all the tag data on these Albums, and doing a new clean import. I'm hoping this may have better results.
- I was wondering though, does the name of the folder have any baring on the identifying / tagging process if the tracks are simply tracks 1,2,3 etc. Eg "Children of Sanchez" folder with tracks1 - 6 within this folder, and it was added 1 folder at a time to JRiver to simplify the tagging process.

[MikeO]

Just food for thought

I split Rock, Jazz & Classical separate and have A..Z folders.

A folder per Band, Composer and a "Mixed Composer" & Collections folder for where stuff don't fit !!
 
The pics say it all.

As everybody says Tags are vital but I find a logical layout helps as well

Cheers

Mike

[Spike1000]

I was wondering though, does the name of the folder have any baring on the identifying / tagging process if the tracks are simply tracks 1,2,3 etc. Eg "Children of Sanchez" folder with tracks1 - 6 within this folder, and it was added 1 folder at a time to JRiver to simplify the tagging process.

My 2p is that I like to get an overview of the tagging situation outside of MC. I use MP3Tag to edit, fix, copy, move, number tags. It shows the tags in a big table. it can work with 10,000s of files at once and at a glance you can see things that are missing not in the format you want. You can copy tags from other fields, or part of fields (eg filename or track name) using re-useable 'expressions'. It's neat and fast. I then import into MC.

You can edit tags in MC but I just use that for 'tweaking' tags as I find MP3Tag layout better and faster. MP3Tag can import tag data from other sites with as little as an album and artist; this may help with your 'international' album versions.

The downside is it's a Windows app. . .  There may be Mac equivalents or you may have access to virtual copy of Windows.

You can have MC manipulate tags on import and fix consistent issues but I prefer to fix in MP3Tag first and run a 'simple' import. YMMV.

Spike

[JimH]

My 2p is that I like to get an overview of the tagging situation outside of MC. I use MP3Tag to edit, fix, copy, move, number tags. It shows the tags in a big table. it can work with 10,000s of files at once and at a glance you can see things that are missing not in the format you want. You can copy tags from other fields, or part of fields (eg filename or track name) using re-useable 'expressions'. It's neat and fast. I then import into MC.

Other than the table format, I believe MC does all of that.

[Spike1000]

Other than the table format, I believe MC does all of that.

Indeed it does Jim. I don't mean to belittle MC's abilities in the slightest. The 'table' layout is the key benefit for me when working with a number of files; and the fact I've been using Mp3Tag for many many years so all my editing 'moves' are in my muscle memory or in macros

Spike