[MarkHastings]

How do you organize those various artists CD's, like Soundtracks or compilations?

With my old Creative MP3 player, I would keep the artist name as the name of the movie and then add the artists name to the end of the song (in parens):

Example:
With the Twister soundtrack, CDDB would name it this way...

"Humans Being" - "Van Halen" - "Twister Soundtrack"
"Virtual Reality" - "Rusted Root" - "Twister Soundtrack"
"Darling Pretty" - "Mark Knopfler" - "Twister Soundtrack"

but I would rename it this way

"Humans Being (Van Halen)" - "Twister" - "Twister Soundtrack"
"Virtual Reality (Rusted Root)" - "Twister" - "Twister Soundtrack"
"Darling Pretty (Mark Knopfler)" - "Twister" - "Twister Soundtrack"


Since I keep my lists ordered by artist, I'd be able to see the entire Twister soundtrack all together, but the problem is, the Van Halen song wouldn't show up when I looked in the "Van Halen" section.

Now that I just bought an iPod, I am recompressing my CD's into AAC's and I'm trying to reorganize my songs. Just thought I'd find out how everyone organizes their "Various Artists"?

[Michael Hein]

I make a various folder and go by first song name then band. Usually it mixes it up nicely that way. A pain to find a particular song but usually my various folder is the type I just like to leave playing without jumping around.I do that for all folders, (80s, 80s hip hop, 90's...) but then my more favorite discs I just make folder that says album name and songs.

[Mark Leiter]

My original solution was to put Various as the artist and then put the artist name in parenthesis at the end of the song name. This was never a true fix but it worked ok at the time. This past week I have moved to iPOD and would like to move to a better solution.

I was thinking (hoping) when I saw that there was a compilation check box under song info that this would solve this problem but I've tried using it several time and as far as I can see this dosen't do anything?!? Anyone have any ideas?

While we're on the subject. My biggest gripe with tagging protocols like CDDB and now iTunes is the naming convention for artists. Artists should be named using the standard format of last name, coma, first name.

Like... Beethoven, Ludwig van
not... Ludwig van Beethoven

It always drives me up a wall when I have to go to 'L' to find Beethoven or 'W' to find Mozart or even worse having to go to 'T' to find 'The Cars'. That makes no sense at all.

[MarkHastings]

Quote:

My original solution was to put Various as the artist and then put the artist name in parenthesis at the end of the song name. This was never a true fix but it worked ok at the time. This past week I have moved to iPOD and would like to move to a better solution

I used to do that too, but I would often forget. I don't know how many times I'd be looking for my various disco artists under "D" and not "V"

Quote:

I was thinking (hoping) when I saw that there was a compilation check box under song info that this would solve this problem but I've tried using it several time and as far as I can see this dosen't do anything?!? Anyone have any ideas?

Yeah, I thought that would help too, but it doesn't really do anything. I too would like to know how people use the "Compilation" feature?

I am considering breaking up the various artist CD's by artists, but the one thing I fear is when I do my 80's collections. There are so many "one hit wonders" on those collections (and band I've never heard of before) that I can never remember artists names. I guess I could resort by album, but I'm not crazy with that idea.

Ah the dilemmas of the digital age.

[AnthonyC]

I copy them onto my comp one at a time, changing the artist each time. This way, they go into the folder for the artist.

[Joseph S]

Quote:

Now that I just bought an iPod, I am recompressing my CD's into AAC's and I'm trying to reorganize my songs. Just thought I'd find out how everyone organizes their "Various Artists"?

I don't have any "Various Artists" with the compilation feature.

Quote:

It always drives me up a wall when I have to go to 'L' to find Beethoven or 'W' to find Mozart or even worse having to go to 'T' to find 'The Cars'. That makes no sense at all.

I don't have the "The" issue. I believe there is a checkbox or update that fixed this issue. The other issue could be fixed by simply selecting the files and just naming the artist as "Beethoven."

Quote:

Yeah, I thought that would help too, but it doesn't really do anything. I too would like to know how people use the "Compilation" feature?

In iTunes, I select the songs in the compilation as a group and edit the data selecting "Yes" for part of a compilation. My iTunes music folder is then automatically organized /compilations/albumname

I also use the grouping feature for my DVD->aiff/aac rips. For DVDs with multiple concert sites I use album name as the concert site and group all of them by the DVD name this way they're all easily viewed in iTunes and can be browsed effectively by pickng the artist on my iPod or mini and having the different concerts presented to me.

Quote:

Since I keep my lists ordered by artist, I'd be able to see the entire Twister soundtrack all together, but the problem is, the Van Halen song wouldn't show up when I looked in the "Van Halen" section.

It would show up on the iPod under browse artist/Van Halen if you kept the artist as it should be and not "twister." You'ld be able to view the Twister soundtrack on the iPod under browse /albums/Twister Soundtrack

For iTunes you can just enter "Van Halen" in the search box too see all if needed.

[MarkHastings]

Quote:

It would show up on the iPod under browse artist/Van Halen if you kept the artist as it should be and not "twister." You'ld be able to view the Twister soundtrack on the iPod under browse /albums/Twister Soundtrack

Yeah, I guess I have to start using the "Album" method more often.

Coming from the Creative MP3 player (which has a clunky application), I never bothered with the "album" view method.