What is the best folder/filename structure for jRiver?

vc69

I am ripping an entirely new, all FLAC library for use with jRiver. My current topology is Artist Folder --->nested Album title folder---> tagged song number_artist_song title

Will jRiver work with this structure? Any recommendations?

OleBoot

GospelTruth wrote: »

In looking at jRiver, I would assume (like iTunes) that it reads in all your music on the hard drive (or locations you specify) and puts that information into a local "database" for the application. When reading in the files, it will use any tags associated with the song files to organize it by album, artist, and so on within the application. In jRiver, just by the screenshots I've seen, it looks like it's all organized by tag information, not by the actual file structure on where you store the music on your hard drive. You may have multiple views of the information as well, but all that data is stored in the applications database/repository.

That's why it's so important when ripping files using tools such as EAC or MediaMonkey to ensure that you add all the relevant album/song information when doing those rips as that information is stored in the tags on each song.

I use JRiver, and this is absolutely what it does. You can get files into a JRiver "library" by manual import of files or folder, or by getting it to monitor directories and picking them up automatically. Either way, it just pulls individual files and groups and sorts them by metadata.
So I guess you can structure the directories and name the files any which way you want.
And yes, you're right about paying attention to metadata when ripping - been there, done that and what a complete mess I made.

VC69 -I have ripped the majority of my files via JRiver, and it lets you apply rules to directory structures and file names to produce what you want - the one I chose is pretty much what you are considering. One thing to consider is cover art - if you are using FLAC files, the best way is to store it is in the tags, at the expense of a little extra storage.

GospelTruth

I don't use jRiver, but when I built out my library of ripped music, I used a similar structure with some additional information.

Artist Name (folder) > Album (Year-Album Title) (folder) > Song (Song Number-Artist-Album Title-Song Name

My biggest thing that I added was the Year with the Album Title. Call me odd, but I associate years when albums came out. I like to see my albums under an artist by year as it helps me know what albums are what. Just a suggestion.

I would think jRiver or any software will still use the tags in the song to sort, not the actual file structure. I only do what you are doing so that I have some semblance of music organization.

Good luck on the ripping!

Moose68Bash

GospelTruth wrote: »

I would think jRiver or any software will still use the tags in the song to sort, not the actual file structure. I only do what you are doing so that I have some semblance of music organization.

I may be out of my depth here, but I think the protocol for the "sort" depends on whether the underlying database is a flat-file or relational database. If it's flat-file, then I think it does rely on the file structure not the data in individual fields.

However, as I said, I may be out of my depth here.

GospelTruth

In looking at jRiver, I would assume (like iTunes) that it reads in all your music on the hard drive (or locations you specify) and puts that information into a local "database" for the application. When reading in the files, it will use any tags associated with the song files to organize it by album, artist, and so on within the application. In jRiver, just by the screenshots I've seen, it looks like it's all organized by tag information, not by the actual file structure on where you store the music on your hard drive. You may have multiple views of the information as well, but all that data is stored in the applications database/repository.

That's why it's so important when ripping files using tools such as EAC or MediaMonkey to ensure that you add all the relevant album/song information when doing those rips as that information is stored in the tags on each song.

vc69

So...
I need to tag the files with the album name as well, otherwise, I may have several instances of one song with no idea which album they were ripped from. Ok, thanks guys!

OleBoot

vc69 wrote: »

So...
I need to tag the files with the album name as well, otherwise, I may have several instances of one song with no idea which album they were ripped from. Ok, thanks guys!

Yes you do, sorry, I was thinking more about your directory structure question than what you said about tagging. Whet are you using to do the ripping? Some folks swear by different software to do ripping, but I think JRiver is pretty good in this respect, offering plenty of options and reports for rip errors. If you're going to use it to play your tunes, easiest way is to use it for ripping too. Gets rid of tagging anomalies when using something different.

vc69

I'm using EAC to rip/tag. It's my go-to for ripping.

OleBoot

vc69 wrote: »

I'm using EAC to rip/tag. It's my go-to for ripping.

OK, should work if you tag as you suggested. Like I said, people seem to have strong preferences for what software they use to do ripping. Don't know how much you've got to rip, but I found the process mind numbingly boring. I thought about digitizing my LPs, but I think I'll just keep using the turntable !