Organizing music

[audiventory]

Non-incremental backup is simpler and (theoretically from technical point of view) more safe.

 

It depend on realisation of incremental backup algorithm. Here you can check only in own experience.

 

Audio library backup is one-direction process.

 

Contact syncing bi-directional. Thus it more complex and less stable than the backup.

[Dan Gravell]

We can consider RAID as transparent for user some replacement of backup storage.

 

As example, we have 2 HDD only.

 

[examples...]

Well, you can consider it that way, but I wouldn't!

 

The use cases are completely different and they were invented for different purposes. The enabling approach to both is to have redundant copies of data, but that's where the similarity ends imo.

[Allan F]

RAID is not a backup solution. It's an availability solution.

 

Use of RAID to create clones of your library on two drives provides "redundancy" rather than backup. If one drive fails, the other is there to allow you continue seamlessly until you replace the failed drive. However, if you accidentally delete files, they are deleted on both drives, so you can see the need for "backup". Also, if the NAS fails, both drives can be affected. Therefore, external backup is a must. I create incremental backups to a USB drive connected to my NAS, and disconnect it after the backup is completed (I actually create backups on two USB drives which are stored in different locations for added security).

[Dan Gravell]

Use of RAID to create clones of your library on two drives provides "redundancy" rather than backup....

Correct. Redundancy isn't a use case though, it's an approach to solving the problem and can be used in different scenarios.

[audiventory]

Also RAID give transparentcy (what copy of audio file is readed) for audio player.

[jabbr]

Use of RAID to create clones of your library on two drives provides "redundancy" rather than backup. If one drive fails, the other is there to allow you continue seamlessly until you replace the failed drive. However, if you accidentally delete files, they are deleted on both drives, so you can see the need for "backup". Also, if the NAS fails, both drives can be affected. Therefore, external backup is a must. I create incremental backups to a USB drive connected to my NAS, and disconnect it after the backup is completed (I actually create backups on two USB drives which are stored in different locations for added security).

 

Modern filesystems such as ZFS as well as modern storage systems handle backup as well as availability. There can be many levels of redundancy from multiple copies of files in a storage system, to multiple copies of blocks spread across discs, to redundant storage systems i.e. mirroring across a storage area network. To give an example, one half of a "mirror" could be a google drive (this is an example for illustration). Filesystems can snapshot and filesystems can themselves send and receive incremental copies.

 

In the old days we always backup up hard drives to tape. Nowadays I tend to back up to disc and so what used to be a crisp distinction between RAID and backup is less so. FWIW for really important data I use two separate RAID systems onsite on two different floors and a third RAID at a remote over fiber.

[Timothy Wright]

I have a 16TB NAS with about 3,000 movies and about 24,000 songs. I know a little about backing up. Recently I re-ripped all my music files to FLAC format and I have less than 500 GB of music files on my workstation that I need to copy onto the NAS. Every day I get a few more CD and when I rip them I also need to copy those files on to the NAS.

 

For big copy jobs I prefer a free program called Teracopy for speed and accuracy. Over Gigabit Ethernet copying 500 GB roughly requires 24 hours.

 

I would rather copy than "Back up" because that way if I can see it, it is useful.

 

For copying only updates in either direction I prefer a program named "Beyond Compare 4" which can identify only the differences in a whole directory structure and then selectively update in either or both directions.

 

My NAS supports 6TB red drives. Sometime this summer I expect to replace the (4) 4TB in my NAS. They will get moved to new home and I'll copy some 9-10 TB of files back on to the NAS from my workstation.

 

Simple math, at 1/2 TB per day, 10 TB of data will require 20 days to copy the data.

[Jabs1542]

Sad to say but my main music drive has been flaky and I finally took it offline last night. Fortunately, like many others here, I have backups (note plural, I have two backups). I managed to repoint my music players to the backup drive (easy actually, though I didn't like doing it) and everything is back to business as usual. Now I must get another drive, repopulate it, and get everything back the way it was. I do have to admit that if my primary drive was a RAID setup, with an external USB backup, this whole process would have been MUCH easier - so now I see the value in RAID (up till now I have never had a hard drive fail in my house). This begs a question, if a drive starts to get flaky (not fully dying) will the RAID device tell you about it?

 

Flaky: Losing files. The folder is there but it may be empty, or the files may be there with 0 MB file sizes, or other weird behavior.

[astropuppy]

I have a 16TB NAS with about 3,000 movies and about 24,000 songs. I know a little about backing up. Recently I re-ripped all my music files to FLAC format and I have less than 500 GB of music files on my workstation that I need to copy onto the NAS. Every day I get a few more CD and when I rip them I also need to copy those files on to the NAS.

 

For big copy jobs I prefer a free program called Teracopy for speed and accuracy. Over Gigabit Ethernet copying 500 GB roughly requires 24 hours.

 

I would rather copy than "Back up" because that way if I can see it, it is useful.

 

For copying only updates in either direction I prefer a program named "Beyond Compare 4" which can identify only the differences in a whole directory structure and then selectively update in either or both directions.

 

My NAS supports 6TB red drives. Sometime this summer I expect to replace the (4) 4TB in my NAS. They will get moved to new home and I'll copy some 9-10 TB of files back on to the NAS from my workstation.

 

Simple math, at 1/2 TB per day, 10 TB of data will require 20 days to copy the data.

 

Not nearly the amount of data; I do something similar with a program called syncback

[blownsi]

I use Vortexbox for both file structure and backup. My backup is kept off-site appx 15 miles away on a portable 6tb drive. I'm completely in the minority but I loathe tags and prefer a clean directory structure to choose my songs with a simple player such as VLC. The vortexbox file structure provides this for me. It of course does tags too but I choose not to use them nor deal with all their issues.

[Jim Sylva]

For copying only updates in either direction I prefer a program named "Beyond Compare 4" which can identify only the differences in a whole directory structure and then selectively update in either or both directions.

Thanks for the information! I have been looking for the functionality of this application for the last eight months.

[Timothy Wright]

One pays for "Beyond compare 4" but I have found it well worth it. Someone was kind enough to recommend the program to me. You are very welcome, in time charity makes a big circle and returns home to the giver.

 

My inexpensive WD EX4 NAS is filling up. It would take weeks replace the hard drives and put all the files back so I'm thinking of adding a second NAS so that I would have no down time. My first NAS was a learning experience for me.

 

This time I thing I will go up market and buy a Synology DS1815+ for speed, much better software and 8 drive bays.

 

On my stereo the difference between FLAC files and MP3 files is easy to hear. Dem' FLAC files eat a hell of a lot of room. I can see standardizing on Blu-ray movies as opposed to DVD's. They also eat up a lot of room. I would not have to fill all 8 bays on day one. I could load up the bays as needed.

[semente]

For me it's simple: all stuff that iTunes reads is organized by iTunes.

 

The handful of DSD files I have are in a separate folder with sub folders by genre that both A+ and Jriver monitor.

 

iTunes (with it's column browser) is, in my view the best GUI for browsing and playing files but I don't like the way it organizes classical music recordings in folders named after the ARTIST.

 

But I agree that if one gets the tags right, then the database doesn't matter so much because one can browse by any of the given tags.

For classical music I prefer to tag each file manually (Gracenote is pretty worthless for this genre).

 

In order to avoid track duplication (i.e. I have over half a dozen recordings of Schumann's Cello Concerto) I have added some extra information to each album [Artist; Maestro, Orchestra - Recording Year]:

 

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 In E-flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica" [schmidt-Isserstedt, VPO - 1965]

 

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy In E-flat Major, Op. 46 [Chung; Kempe, LPO - 1972]

 

I have chosen to eliminate the DISC NUMBER information and decided to split all CDs into isolated musical pieces so that each of them is now an ALBUM.

 

GROUPINGS is used to group works into different categories like Cello Sonatas, Piano Solo, Orchestral, Ballet, Songs and Cantatas, etc.

And GENRE is used to describe the musical period (i.e. Romantic or Baroque)

 

I have also installed a couple of very handy scripts, FIND & REPLACE and RE-EMBED ARTWORK.

These can be found here: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/

 

I have also chosen to split my music over eight different libraries:

 

- Classical, Romantic & Post-Romantic

- Early, Renaissance & Baroque

- Minimalist & Modern

- Opera

- Ethnic

- Jazz

- Rock & Pop

- Soundtracks

 

For the time being I have decided not to buy any downloads / high resolution files.

 

R

[Timothy Wright]

Mr. Semente

 

Classical music is notorious for being difficult to tag well. I could never offer my advise on that topic. In my much simpler world my top category is by Genre and in all caps so that when I rip new CDs I can easily spot them in lower case.

 

My top Genre look like this: AUDIOPHILE, CHRISTMAS, CLASSICAL, COUNTRY-FOLK, DANCE, EASY LISTENING, JAZZ-BLUES, PRAYERS, RELIGIOUS, ROCK-POP, STAGE-SCREEN.

 

Next level down is by artist, then actual CDs are prefaced by year, so that a recording artist's works will always be chronological.

 

The folks who sell DBpoweramp also have a program called "Perfect tunes" for sorting out tags and folder art. Myself I don't mind duplicates. If one considers one CD as a complete creative effort, cutting one up and passing it around seems violent to me.

 

My category Audiophile includes any other genre, but they are all audiophile recordings, as in heavy on TELARC.

 

Christmas includes any holiday music.

 

Most of my Classical stuff is hidden but not well organized in the Audiophile genre.

 

Country-Folk includes bluegrass, well it does for me.

 

I don't dance much, but I have known a few attractive lady friends who do. I had nice friend from Columbia and if I played dance music for her you might thing I put something in her drink. For her it is transformative.

 

Easy Listening is a big category for me, even when it is not easy. There is a whole sub genre of philharmonics performing the works of rock groups. It is fun to have an orchestral version of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.

 

I don't know where the line is between Jazz and Blues so they are grouped together, as is Rock and Pop for the same reason, as is Stage and Screen.

[semente]

Hi Mr. Wright,

 

As mentioned previously, my music has been split over different libraries and I let iTunes tag Ethnic, Jazz, Rock & Pop and Soundtracks CDs automatically.

It's only the "classical" CDs that are split into musical pieces and tagged manually.

But I add the covers manually to all files that have been extracted from a CD.

 

Best,

Ricardo

[Timothy Wright]

Thank you Ricardo for that clarification. I apologize for missing that. On a given day if I have 15 -20 CDs come in I will unpack each one then log in the stack one at a time into my excel spread sheet. I scan all my own covers and use DBpoweramp to add the cover art from the scan directory. A 200 dpi scan yields a 800x800 cover art which is the maximum size allowed by DBpoweramp.

 

I have not found the online meta tags all that reliable with respect to genre or year so I keep allmusic.com open in a tab to verify those fields. Often I'll keep the online genre tag because it may be more specific, such as "fusion jazz" or "R&B" and I find that helpful but when I am done ripping all 20 or so CDs I force it into one of my broader genre categories.

 

Last time I went on a major music binge was in 2011, so guess I do major library updates about once every 4 years. This time around I got my Oppo 105D and the difference between a FLAC file and a MP3 file is very apparent to me when listening (not so much when listening on my computer but when listening on my living room system) ; so I went back and re ripped every CD into FLAC format.

 

It was when I in the middle of that process that wondered if just a few new CDs might not help fill in gaps in my collection, and perhaps you know how a few can become 200? This time I replaced a lot of music that I once owned on LP, and searched Amazon more diligently for SACD and audiophile bargains.

 

I get nostalgic when ever I do this, I remember those last words from my fleeing X-wife: "I never did like your taste in music anyway." May she die a horrible death in a traffic accident. I haven't seen her in almost 30 years. It took me that long to replace her "A group named Smith" Lp with a brand new CD. I feel more complete now.

 

BTW, is "Land of the Angles" any where near "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles ", cue up Randy Newman? Set the amp on "eleven".

[audiventory]

Same to need has several different views of one pull of files.

 

As example, system work so:

 

1. All files placed in own directories (artist - album or other), have tags. Files can distributed in several phisical/logical storages.

 

2. All this data stored in single registry (database with link to the files).

 

3. User can select one of the preferable views with pictures (by maestro, by composer, by orchestra,....). Even different in different time.

 

4. In background: back-up and automatical offline adjusting sample rate.

[Timothy Wright]

Yuri,

 

Your English is much better than my Russian. ;-)

 

In theory once everything is in a database and searchable, the structure is secondary. But I am old fashion guy who more often than not likes to browse my collection. In my case having a limited number of broad genre serves that need very well.

 

Information can get "lost" in a data base. Blues, Jazz or Classical can have dozens of sub-genre. If you are not searching using the precise term you can miss something you may care to listen to. Using broad inclusive genre lessens that risk.

 

When I had a large physical LP collection that covered a wall, those LPs were sorted alphabetically by artist with no thought to genre and I sometimes wondered how some of those performers would have felt about being shelved adjacent to some very odd bed fellows.

 

Blessings on Blessings

 

Timothy

[semente]

BTW, is "Land of the Angles" any where near "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles ", cue up Randy Newman? Set the amp on "eleven".

 

Hi Timothy,

 

Land of the Angles = Ang-land, or nowadays England.

 

Cheers,

Ricardo

[audiventory]

Timothy,

 

I hope my English will progress further. In our schools English learned from 8-9 years old now. However a few people know the language enought for real using

Only practical communication allow do it.

 

I always come to simplicity of control. In modern world all interfaces must be intuitive. And without any precise searching terms.

 

Interface must assist select what you need. Care from mistakes.

 

I stumbled many times that super-universal management system is complicated in tuning and using. Now almost nobody have time learn and tune it.

 

Any system, even most flex, should provide Quick Start.

 

However fine tunings must be available for advanced users.

 

Best regards,

Yuri

[Timothy Wright]

Many of the best of my clan were once hug, jailed or otherwise executed by the British.

 

With sinn fein on my mother's Irish side;

 

Solidarity from my father's Polish side,

 

It is no wonder I can have an attitude problem. :-)

[Timothy Wright]

Yuri

 

> I hope my English will progress further. In our schools English learned from 8-9 years old now. However a few people know the language enough for real using Only practical communication allow do it.

 

I knew a couple well, they were both from China. He had a MBA from Wharton. She had a masters degree in organic chemistry. Because he owned a Chinese Buffet she waited tables for a living.

 

She had High School and College English, was very good but weak on American idioms.

 

Every day I'd teach her another American Idiom and she would howl with laughter.

 

When I share a secret: "Just between us Indians"

 

or "Shoot first and ask questions later".

 

Or when you walk in on a cheating spouse and they say "Don't believe your lying eyes."

 

Luke 2:14 Peace on Earth, to people of good will.

 

Timothy

[audiventory]

Timothy,

 

Yes. Idioms is very important for right understanding.

 

Sometime all words is known, but don't understand it

 

Me seems, for right understanding/speaking need well know most usable language templates and its sounding.

 

Me seems "Just between us Indians" has Russian analog "Между нами, девочками" (*under secret* between us *girls*)

 

Best regards,

Yuri

[semente]

Many of the best of my clan were once hug, jailed or otherwise executed by the British.

 

With sinn fein on my mother's Irish side;

 

Solidarity from my father's Polish side,

 

It is no wonder I can have an attitude problem. :-)

 

I don't think that any of my ancestors was ever mistreated by the English; our countries have been allies since the late 14th century...

[jabbr]

This begs a question, if a drive starts to get flaky (not fully dying) will the RAID device tell you about it?

 

Flaky: Losing files. The folder is there but it may be empty, or the files may be there with 0 MB file sizes, or other weird behavior.

 

In ZFS you can add spare drives to a pool and if a drive fails it will automatically replace/resilver with the spare.

 

You can check: zpool status and it will report checksum errors which are an early warning sign of drive failure (can be)

You should periodically: zpool scrub and it will heal checksum errors and if not, a sign of drive failure.