Your Ripping Workflow #4 - multiple recording versions

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Dillydipper, Nov 4, 2019.

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  1. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite Thread Starter

    Location:
    Central PA
    It’s my hope by asking questions 10 different ways to Sunday, I’ll gain both knowledge and wisdom to help me in my ripping project, and maybe give you ideas as well. For those of you with more versions of "Caroline, No" than beans in your chili, here's a place to share with the class.

    Do you really need access to the Alan White version AND the Ringo version for the same barbeque? For that matter, how many live versions of the “Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque” are you gonna require (don’t get me started on “City Of Tiny Lites”...!)?

    When you’ve got the stereo mix, the mono mix, the album version, the Video edit and three different remixes of the same hit single, how much is too much? Which versions of Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells” are too many for your Sunday School group’s Christmas party? After hearing Elton weeping all over Marilyn Monroe, is anybody really gonna be in the mood to hear him do it all over again for Princess Di?

    As discussed in thread #1 about organizing your file system on the hard drive, some people have valid reasons for saving more than one version of something, but might not put them all in one place. My intent, for instance, is to reserve one folder for the "ones" I always go to when I want that song; then there's a much more massive "General Population" folder for everything else that belongs in the collection, but isn't, say, "Penny Lane" with the trumpet. And, a third folder for all the other stuff I don't expect to be shuffling anytime soon (in The Beatles case, it would be several of the other "Penny Lane" masters, and those of other songs I have too many of, maybe some interview recordings, and irrelevant outtakes. This is why I divide my collections into three "main-ish" folders for every collection).

    Aside from my CD collection at large, I also have separate folders for Zappa, The Beatles and The Guess Who - and all the duplicate titles that entails (did you know, there are at least six comps on The Guess Who that feature the SAME FIRST FIVE TRACKS FROM THE SAME VAULT MASTERS, IN THE SAME ORDER?! I’m sorry, I just ain’t got, got, got No Time...)!

    But it's that second, "GenPop" folder where I keep everything else I might have but don't like as much as my "favorites" folder, where I see the need to differentiate, from a single mix bonus track from a re-release, or the single mix from their greatest hits album, or the album version, or the earlier version from the other album, etc. etc. And that's where you may have already solved that issue for yourself, and could share it here.

    How do you choose from collections you have scoured the Earth for the right sources for, whether you need ALL these dupes, SOME of these dupes, or dump the dupes and just go with one copy...? Then, what if some poindexter comes up to you at your New Years’ bash and sniffs because you don’t have the right “party mix” for MC Hammers 4th single...and you can’t go right to it to shut him up, because it’s down in the cellar under your Rhino Kids Bob CD’s...!

    How many is too many, when one of the reasons you got the server in the first place, was “to have all of it at your fingertips” anyway?
     
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  2. sjsanford

    sjsanford Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Don’t playlists pretty much solve this problem?!
     
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  3. Dr. Bogenbroom

    Dr. Bogenbroom I'm not a Dr. but I play one on SteveHoffman.TV

    Location:
    Anchor Point
    No more than 2 versions for me. I pick my favorites and when in want of something else, I pull out the album.
    I don't use playlists. Seems a chore after all the ripping/tagging, and I don't see the point as a 90% of the time album listener.
     
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  4. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite Thread Starter

    Location:
    Central PA
    Don't playlists have a limit to how many tracks and folders they can accommodate? So far, we only have Elon Musk's word on which cars are best in orbit...but I don't wanna try that with a Gremlin...;)
     
  5. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I only rip entire albums, including artist and VA comps, so dupes are unavoidable, but not a bother to me.

    Upside is, there are usually differences, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so; some songs I have five or six "versions" on the HD.

    For entertaining, I use one-off playlists, i.e., shift + enter to get them into the playlist window, delete when I'm done. I don't keep any permanent playlists.
     
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  6. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Amen.
     
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  7. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    These days space really isn't an issue, so unlike making personal cassette compilations, I always rip CDs complete. Some songs could have dozens of duplicates - so what: it's not too often that you choose a compilation for the best sounding version. The idea of an incomplete album seems, alien to me.

    I guess that if I would want specific masterings / edits of several songs in one session, I would create a playlist., but unless time dictates, I usually play complete albums, though tend to skip tracks more often in the car with the steering wheel button. Too convenient??
     
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  8. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I need:

    The mono mix if one exists
    The stereo version if one exists
    Sometimes I like the 12" version
    I need the single and album edits
    Sometimes I like alternate versions

    I do not need every single version, for instance, I don't need the U.K. mix, all radio edits, the Martian with the Comet Boys 2019 remix.
     
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  9. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    When I began ripping my collection years ago, I began with the CDs and used a Nimbie+dbPowerAmp to run batches of 100 CDs through at a time and it was easier to do it by rote rather than decide whether any individual disc was worthy (or not) of being so preserved.

    After that, I started ripping my SACDs and that, as it is today, is a one-at-a-time operation which gave me time to think about each one. Ultimately, I decided that any choice would be based on frame of mind that that particular moment but that there was a good possibility that I might make a different decision at some other time. After all, I did buy that disc and that suggests there is some inherent interest in it. So, my current policy is to rip everything (unless it is truly abhorrent) because...........................I might want it next year. ;)

    P.S.: I will never finish.
     
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