[matthewd5]

hello!

i have a pretty decent sized collection of cd's

about 400-450

it is growing rapidly and i need to get a good way to sort it all out.

the main problem is that i listen to cd's in so many different places...

at home (less than 25%)

in the car(s) (more than 25%)

at work (about 50%)

so the most obvious thing is keeping them from being spread all over.

what i do now is try to never take the originals out of the house. i make a copy of a cd as soon as i get it and use that in the car and at work.

is this just a losing battle or does anyone have anything to share that has worked for them??

matthew

 

[carlo]

matthew,

i split mine up into two sections: the archives and the regular rotation. i keep two of the tall skinny wood cd towers from ikea in the listening room (approx 300 cds, gorgeous finish - about $45/ea) and a few more in my bedroom for the stuff i don't listen to as regularly. i sort my archives by sections based on genre and a special section for the artists i collect. for me its much easier than alphabetically, especially since if i'm in the mood for a certain style of music i can just grab a stack of cds and don't have too much of a chore of sorting them back after i'm done. i use little post it cutouts above each self stating the category, a lot of people think it resembles the library but it works for me.

in the listening room its basically the same except there isn't an "artists collected" section but there is a "really good ****" block in easy reach. i can easily read the titles from my listening chair, which is nice since i can decide what the next set of stuff is while staring off into space. i keep a small wire unit (about 20 cds) below my cd player for the heaviest rotation.

for the burned copies on the go i use a bunch of small (about 40 count) case logic books sorted by mood (driving music, chill out music, whatever), once again maybe a bit unorthodox but the best solution i've found

the lps are alphabetically aranged by artist then divided by date of original release of the title (remasters are grouped together). same goes for the collected artists section of the cd archives. with vinyl alphabetical is the easiest solution since plastic sleeves make the spines hard to read, and i just move the postits on top according to growth. i keep a bunch of lps in two cut up wood crates by the turntable (divided into recently cleaned and need to be cleaned) for easy flipping through titles, and i make an effort to keep them alphabetical while they're in the listening room.

all of this seems much creepier typed out, but it really is very easy and makes my collection much more manageable.

best,
carlo.

 

[kelly]

Carlo is so completely wrong here. Obviously within an alpha by artist system, the remasters are intermixed with the original releases in order of the original release of the album. Man, my respect just went way down for Carlo. How barbaric.

 

[pigmode]

carlo, where can the Ikea CD racks be found?

 

[Braver]

err, that's kinda obvious isn't it? at the local Ikea!

are those the ones with the curved wood? they look great man.

 

[carlo]

kelly,

man that was a lot more confusing than meant to be. yeah, like for dylan blonde on blonde would be original first (with pressing order) then remasters grouped together afterwards (not necessarily by release date), then greatest hits, then the john wesley harding section. sorry should have made that more clear

pigmode and braver,

i actually went for the benno, although i swore it was called something else when i bought it (http://www.ikea-usa.com/product_pres...ART&id=471,468) for the cds, the redwood version. total cd count in the original post was with the two shelves together - i like the no wire method since there's no issue with craming and there's space on the top of each shelf to squeeze in two more cds if need be. plus the shelves are adjustable, which is nice for box sets and stuff.

best,
carlo

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by carlo man that was a lot more confusing than meant to be. yeah, like for dylan blonde on blonde would be original first (with pressing order) then remasters grouped together afterwards (not necessarily by release date), then greatest hits, then the john wesley harding section. sorry should have made that more clear

Carlo, I'm pretty sure I understand you, but you're still wrong.

Let's take your favorite group for example:
If Pink Floyd remasters their entire catalog in 2002 but you already have their latest recording, The Division Bell and then bought the remastered work Dark Side of the Moon, DSOM should be shelved prior to Divsion Bell because its ORIGINAL album release date came first. That is to say: one should value the chronology of the content over the chrnology of the technology. I'm terribly sorry for exposing your secret love of Pink Floyd, but you left me no choice.

 

[carlo]

kelly,

pink floyd was one funny guy, eating all those apples and oranges and loving pigs and sheep. the damn hippie

yeah, we're still agreeing. i think the confusion is that i have multiple pressings, so lets take dark side of the moon: 2nd pressing, UK import, UK only, and the mofi remaster. so i'd place the 2nd pressing first, then the imports, then the remaster. if i had more than one remaster i'd group those together and move on to the next title. then would come their subsequent albums, which i'd have except i don't buy crap

so yeah, date by original release with remasters grouped together (under the original release date of the record but after the original pressing, before the next chronological release of the subsequent title). i don't really bother with order within a title (multiple copies of same album) except the first (or closest to first) pressing is in the front.

yes, i am insane.

carlo.