Ideas for vinyl organization?

[brooklyn909]

Just fishing for ways of how to organize a shit load of vinyl...so peeps how do you organize yours?
By label?
By artist?
Alphabetical?

[JustForDima]

I split into frequently played or not, new tracks, and then by genre/style. But I don't know if that's the best method.

[MuntedRaver]

Split into genre, then alpahbetically by artist for my liking

[youngman]

I split it by key. Great for long and sometimes unexpected mixes.

[ac1d3o3]

by genre then by intensity from left to right

[kieren]

my albums are alphabetical but all my singles are in two categories "retro & dance" in BPM order which is easy for me as i have been beat counting my records since i was 13yo, also as my records are in beat order in my crate i generally can remember what beat they are. a couple of years ago i payed someone to catalog all my records into a spreed sheet but my room mate has currently misplaced the hard drive with the spread sheet on it! i don't think i could find records if i didn't have them organized as a couple of years ago there was close to 14,000 though i have since sold 4000 - 5000 but still it is a lot to search if you want a tune!

Kieren.

[Geoffo]

alphabetical by record label, then by cat #

[brooklyn909]

I do key most of my records.
I am thinking by label alphabetically!
This will sort of get them mostly organized by genre.

[v904]

It'd depend on your playing style and how often you get new records.

Also if you like getting that suprise of finding an awesome track unexpectedly, or if you know your tracks 3 tunes before you play em.

If you play out or just in the bedroom

There is no best way. Only YOUR way. [/Jerry's final word] *smokes pipe and puts feet up*

I'm a CD player, so not as tricky for me :D I got soundtype to mood, tricky to start, moderate to maintain, easy to play with

EDIT: by genre then by intensity from left to right
Awesome system imo

[kieren]

if you know you labels, sorting by label will work fine!
i can't even remember the artists on half of my tracks, but i am an alcoholic!

Kieren.

[TheReturn]

Alphabet is too hard to maintain unless you are a collectuer.

I split my collection into LPs, Comps and Singles

Then

Genre into Era/Sub-genre/style

I will eventually do it by BPM though, when i find the time.

[kieren]

Alphabet is too hard to maintain unless you are a collectuer.



i agree completely with this my albums are alphabetical but if i feel like listening to Freddie King i go to "F" but if I'm looking for singles most of the time i am looking for a song I've played before and all i need is a rough idea of how fast it is and I'll find it in a couple of minutes, even better if you can remember the color of the cover! But remembering the artist name is a bit harder as i found in my record shop looking for secondhand stock in alphabetical order!

Kieren.

[downtempo]

I go like 50 records together that would go well in a set so 50, 50,50, 50 etc on the shelf

[TheReturn]

my albums are alphabetical but if i feel like listening to Freddie King i go to "F" .

This would make sense with a collection of your size. I'm pushing about 8-900 at the moment so I don't have enough to justify whole crates to a certain letter.

But i do keep all my big names LPs together, for example for disco/soul/funk

Stevie, Roy Ayers, Minnie, Isaac, EWF etc

Otherwise its just 65-75, 76-79, 80-90,

[kieren]

This would make sense with a collection of your size. I'm pushing about 8-900 at the moment so I don't have enough to justify whole crates to a certain letter.

But i do keep all my big names LPs together, for example for disco/soul/funk

Stevie, Roy Ayers, Minnie, Isaac, EWF etc

Otherwise its just 65-75, 76-79, 80-90,
thats just my albums, all my singles are in BPM order!

[pEAkeR_hAT]

ONly a NOOB fail DJ would split into BPM , i mean honestly ? wtf? isn't your genre all around the same speed anyway?


anyway.


I find alphabetically by ARTIST is the best

[kieren]

ONly a NOOB fail DJ would split into BPM , i mean honestly ? wtf? isn't your genre all around the same speed anyway?


anyway.


I find alphabetically by ARTIST is the best

sorry kid I don't have a genre. My singles range from 68 to 180bpm, there is probably 400odd around 124bpm and 200odd around 128bpm but it is still the easiest way to sort and find tunes

Kieren.

[Funkedub]

sif sort alphabetically ... that's absolutely useless when it comes to working with a vibe.

I go for a genre system. This gets further broken down. If i have several of the one artist they obviously go together .. compilations and albums go together as do releases on certain labels ... and there's also a loose BPM progressions.


This system is in a constant state of flux

[johnjay]

yeh alphabetical would suck

mine would be like martin eyer and marvin gaye so not very useful, and considering you have 14k records do you even remember the names if you trying to find something? I remember all mine by the covers

[quantum8]

i split into genres, then it's usually newest first...i dont have a boatload to sort through in each section so it's usually fairly easy to find what i'm looking for quickly

[plan-b]

alphabetical by record label, then by cat #

Ditto...

if you know you labels, sorting by label will work fine!
i can't even remember the artists on half of my tracks, but i am an alcoholic!

Kieren.

This isn't a dig or anything against you but people like you fascinate me.. I love learning about artist and label history, picking up on a new direction the label might be taking and things that might be influencing the artist to write ch00n at the time.. If I'm picking up tunes by an artist/label i haven't heard of before, the first thing I'll often do is google it and learn as much as I can about what makes that producer/label A&R tick..

I don't know EVERY single record in my collection by artist name, but I'd say I'm a pretty good trainspotter/chin stroker when it comes to trance labels and artists..

sif sort alphabetically ... that's absolutely useless when it comes to working with a vibe.

Like hell it is, it doesn't matter how you sort them, the idea is to have a sorting system that works for you so that you can find the records you're looking for within a couple of minutes... It works great for me as well, Discogs sorts them by label then cat #, if I don't know where something is straight off the top of my head, I can jump straight online and look it up within a couple of minutes..

[bussyboy]

...even better if you can remember the color of the cover!

...I remember all mine by the covers

I was going to say by album colour - so it looks like a rainbow of music...

[generalninja]

^^ LOL

ONly a NOOB fail DJ would split into BPM , i mean honestly ? wtf? isn't your genre all around the same speed anyway?


anyway.


I find alphabetically by ARTIST is the best

this 'n00b' had 14 000 records at one stage... maybe one day, i can also become a 'n00b'. hehe

[kieren]

what is this "NOOB" thing anyway, i might be it????

There is two problems with my records and the reason sorting them is complicated and i might be alone but though the bulk of my records are House of some sort I have thousands of Old Rock, Blues, Soul, Jazz, pop, other things i found amusing & even some Classical records. the other reason is i really can't remember names of artists but i have no problems with track names or BPM "i don't get it", so i have to sort them the way they are but what works for me will not work for everyone!

Music is my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kieren.

[Funkedub]

Like hell it is, it doesn't matter how you sort them, the idea is to have a sorting system that works for you so that you can find the records you're looking for within a couple of minutes...


well of course ... but it doesn't gel with my brain if im flipping through some records and in the space of 3 records it goes from rowdy dubstep to smooth deep techno to roots reggae

[havik]

Label, the genres will generally take care of themselves then.

If there's some hiphop/down/midtempo shit on a label that isnt used to pressin that shit, then give 'em spesh attention.

[brooklyn909]

Thank you all for your input. I am going to sort them by label!

[kasper_flip]

sorted how discogs does it which is alphabetically by label then cat number. i often look through my discogs so i know where everything is just from looking at that.. then again i only have like 200 records. also i only really play 1 main genre and 2 others less so, and they go together pretty well so i dont have to worry about mixing them.

[BBC]

I say three cheers for Discogs!

Seriously, how fucking good is it!?! So simple yet so essential.

I would go as far to say that Discogs is definitely a large contribution to keeping vinyl alive.

[plan-b]

^^ Definately, remember that joy you get when you first open your account and started building up your database??

[quantum8]

not to mention finding those rarer tracks for sale on there!

[kasper_flip]

not to mention finding those rarer tracks for sale on there!

i only wish there was a location filter in the marketplace so you can just see whats for sale in australia. sick of paying like $25 for shipping from europe.

[truba]

me i got 2 sides of my room, one side is house, the other is techno, experimental and what not, both sides are split by labels but then i have a part on each side where its only one record on that label, that goes into a mix crate with the rest of the records that are only one of that label. and that crate isnt really organized at all, i just fill up as i get thats it.