Organize tracks

[Noyd]

How do you organize your tracks when you have alot of them?
Do you have them by feel like -drama- and then into 30-60sec
edits? Bpm maybe? im just curious on how to do it effectively

[mazz]

I currently use iTunes. The "smart playlist" feature works really well.

For instance I can create a playlist that has the criteria: Artist=John Mazzei, Year=2010, Kind=WAV

Now I have a playlist of all the pieces I wrote in 2010 that I imported as WAV files into iTunes. Everytime I drop a new WAV of one of my pieces in and fill in the data, it automatically adds it to the playlist. You can have a ton of playlists referencing the same songs, the playlists are just your customized way to group them.

iTunes has sort fields that you could use for things like key, or to denote a 30 or 60 second version, etc. The grouping field works great for that. It already has a genre field and you can type your own genres in there as well. So if I added "Soundtrack" to my search, now I have all the Soundtrack pieces I wrote in 2010. I could go further than that and if I used the "grouping" filed to put "demo" or "30 edit" or whatever in there, I could have another playlist that sorts my 2010 WAV Soundtrack 30 second edit versions only. There is a dedicated BPM field.

Of course, you have to fill all this in when you put a piece into iTunes, but it doesn't take long to call up the "get info" screen and type your data in.

There really isn't a comprehensive solution for the composer to keep track of their pieces in greater detail, like when it was submitted, if it was forwarded, alternate titles if it's in a re-title library, links to the versions, links to the publisher contacts, etc. For now, iTunes is my choice, but I hope something comes out someday soon. I'd pay good money for a nice database geared to the prolific library composer. It's a small market but there's a gap there that needs to be filled.

iTunes is pretty powerful but it's not designed to handle alternate titles and link to contacts very easily, for instance.

Good luck! If you find something better, let us know!

Mazz

[guscave]

I set up a simple spreadsheet for myself that shows different information (ex: bpm, keywords, description, etc.). It also has a separate area which shows who I've licensed individual songs to, but like Mazz, I too would like to see something that's probably more automated and detailed.

[mazz]

I don't have the patience to set up a database myself! God knows I've tried in FileMaker, etc.!! I'd rather be writing music than database stuff! LOL!!

[Noyd]

I never thougt of using Itunes for that purpose! Sounds interesting.
How do you organize your tracks ones they hit the librarys??
Do you have a list of were they been used? earnings? etc etc?