What about Metadata

Metadata is essential for retrieving music, but it's difficult to add metadata so that most players will interpret it identical.(subtitled in English and Dutch - Nederlands ondertiteld).
The written English version: link follows soon
Dutch written version: de link komt spoedig.
Link to my book: thehbproject.co...
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[@virtualmike13]

This should be required viewing before anyone begins ripping their CD collection. Well done sir!

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

Thanks!

[@cmacd8879]

Coming to this metadata video late as Hans recorded it in 2016, which coincidentally was about when I ripped my CD collection and went to file based audio. I would say that almost four years later, the need for a very structured file directory system is far less, and I even say is almost unimportant. As Hans alludes to in a later reply, most players now construct their own indexing system with your files, which lets their control apps display your collection by many of the key tags people use, even the conductor tag is now showing up on apps from players like Aurender. The power of finding your collection quickly is through the tags, not through the files, so the tags become even more important (ie. that you are consistent, and that they work for you) and the files become unimportant. The only exception that argues for some file organization is when you find a mis-entered tag and have to edit it, it helps to actually dig into your hard drive to find the offending CD files and correct it. But this is rare compared to listening, and you do not need to be completely rigid with structure to find one of your CDs. And for genres; I recommend genres that work for your material, I try to have each genre with under 50-60 CDs or so, in order that I can quickly roam a genre I feel like listening to. If for example I end up with 100 CDs in my "Choral" genre, maybe I should split it into "Pre-17th Century Choral" and "Post-17th Century Choral", or something. This may involve re-tagging this one tag, but I can do this for 50 CDs in less than 15 minutes. When I purchase new digital recordings, I just need to be as consistent as possible with the genre tags I use, and then the genre becomes useful when you are deciding on what to listen to.

[@Camus376]

You should get nominated for your videos. They are so well explained. Keep up the great work.

[@slam854]

A very important topic. File naming consistency is key to knowing what you have and where it is. You have given me much to think about, Thank You.

[@vincentgizzi9716]

Excellent information, as always. My suggestion for genres: I listen mostly to classical music and have found that iTunes works very well as a library manager. Downloads and rips often come with specific genres: chamber music, opera, baroque, etc. I find changing these a major, and unnecessary, task. Instead, I create "smart playlists" such as "Classical" which include all the more specific genres that can be considered "classical". I can also create additional smart lists that only include "opera". This method allows you to re-organize your library by editing the smart list instead of the metadata. Many of the alternate music players ride on top of iTunes, allowing you to use iTunes as the library manager and the "hi fi" player for processing.

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+Vincent Gizzi Thanks, good suggestion.

[@robertstigter9195]

Thanks Hans, Very informative series of presentations on "Computer Music". Love your explanation on file formats. I've been struggeling with this issue some years and bought J.River as my "Music Organiser" 2 years ago. After laptop crash (virus) , J.River could not be re-installed and the support was misserable, they only want to sell a new "subsription" Subsequently I went back to a Foobar 2000 installation and am very satified now.

[@error079]

Thank you! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one struggling with this.

[@creepinwhileyousleepin]

I cracked up when you mentioned turning off iTunes organization, that threw me off big time when I thought all my music was deleted, nope turns out they automatically make individual folders for everything. Recently I found Mp3tag v2.8 and unified all my tag and title information. One thing I noticed, even with an ssd is searches for specific tracks are a lot quicker after cleaning the tags.

[@raunak_jyotishi]

I am using mp3tag for tagging my files using the discogs library i get genres etc its the best way to run or mac or windows

[@4smartprocllc]

Like this video. A lot of information

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

Glad it was helpful!

[@maxpower571]

HI Hans - good video (as always). A couple of thoughts: 1) Don't use 'Artist' when structuring directories . . . always use 'Album Artist' . . . think what a mess 'Various Artists' would become 2) You should also cover 'Vorbis Comments' tags . . . Flac files generally don't rely on IDvX.X tags at all and the Flac container is very popular Keep the great videos coming!

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+David Wiblin You are right, that should have been Album Artists. I'll look into the Vorbis comments.

[@JonSaperia]

Can you explain the intended difference between 'Artist' and 'Album Artist'. I have seen this in some software packages even though I can not find it in the ID3 spec - which has poor explanations anyway. Thanks

[@JonSaperia]

I have seen a lot of your videos and am surprised I missed this great one. You suggest a file structure that I am not sure will work for me because 80% of the music I listen to is classical. To attempt to put too much into a directory structure would make it too complex and I think maybe not the right solution. The Tags (the id3v2.4 standard calls them 'frames' unless I have missed something) have all the items I need, like Composer, Soloist, Conductor, Orchestra, Encoding, Date of Recording, and esoteric items like and Involved peoples list for an ensemble or an orchestra. It even has a Publishers official web page that might make sense as the download site from which the file was purchased. It has all the other obvious things needed as well. Would I be wrong to go with a very simple directory structure? If so, something like you suggested /Music/Album/MediaName#/MediaName# - Track# trackname?

[@cmacd8879]

Late reply I know; but, as Hans actually mentions in a reply to another comment, the directory structure is no longer really that important. The reason is that almost all players, whether on a computer or actual audio component players, construct an indexed database, that corresponds to the search or display options in a control app on a phone or tablet. My library is also 80% classical, and I pay almost no attention to directory structure. But - your main tags must be as accurate as possible, and consistent. Then the control app will just create, from the index, the correct list of album titles, artist, conductor, etc. depending on how you choose to browse your collection.

[@pyroslavx7922]

I miss WINAMP so much... on any platform/os that can not run the good "old skinned" windows one, and most of all, the mouse wheel press+scroll shortcut for rewind/forward while playing a file, and vol. up/down when scrolling (turning the mouse wheel...) while not pressed ;-)

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

The list of players is very long and my days are short. So unfortunately I can't review all players.

[@pyroslavx7922]

No need to review this one...winamp is, mostly, a relic from the first days of pirate P2P file sharing boom ;-)

[@errornosignal]

"I went the dark-route. So, I know...." -Hans Beekhuyzen, 2016 haha, classic!

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

🙏

[@brianbarefootburns3521]

Can you clarify what you mean by the term "Dark Route?" It isn't clear from the discussion in your video how the term applies to its section. Thanks!

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

proletarian shopping, illegal downloading, copying cd's from friends and things like that.

[@cillyede]

Great and interesting video! Thanks for sharing. Take care - Hubert

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+Hu ‘cillyede’ Ko Thanks for the compliment. Spread the word.

[@cillyede]

I will!

[@MetaBrainz]

Are you familiar with MusicBrainz and our tagger MusicBrainz Picard? It seems like these are tackling pretty much everything you've touched on here, except for genres (because, man, genres are *hard*!). If you are already familiar with these projects, great, if not, you seem like someone who might find them interesting. :) -Freso

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+MetaBrainz I have used them but prefer my choices. Please note that this is personal.

[@pwhittak88]

Thought you were posting a link to your book?

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+Paul Whittaker Oups, had a busy day (married for 40 years:-). Here is the link: thehbproject.com/en/news/116/file_based_audio

[@pwhittak88]

Thanks, I am considering purchasing. I like your videos and I am happy to support the channel.

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+Paul Whittaker Most kind, that does help.

[@EdoDijkgraaf]

Save for web in Photoshop is not as good as the (Dutch) service TinyPNG. TinyPNG even has a plugin for Photoshop. I use it professionaly daily. More about it at: combron.nl/fotos-en-afbeeldingen-op-website-laden-sneller-tinypng/

[@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel]

+Edo Dijkgraaf Thanks for the tip

[@EdoDijkgraaf]

You're welcome! It works great!