Sorting through the listings

[bombaycharlie1]

Hey All. I have a question for you. How do you sort through all of the listings and decide? I look at the online version, open a blank word document, and then copy and paste the listings I think I can submit to. Now I have a workable, manageable list that I print out and keep by my computer. If there's a listing of particular interest(more so than the others I've already selected) I'll copy to a new blank page, enlarge and print it out and stick it on my computer monitor so that I can keep my eye on the prize! Does anyone else do this or something similar? I'm just curious as to whether or not there's a more efficient way or not.Charlie

[davewalton]

Quote: Hey All. I have a question for you. How do you sort through all of the listings and decide? I look at the online version, open a blank word document, and then copy and paste the listings I think I can submit to. Now I have a workable, manageable list that I print out and keep by my computer. If there's a listing of particular interest(more so than the others I've already selected) I'll copy to a new blank page, enlarge and print it out and stick it on my computer monitor so that I can keep my eye on the prize! Does anyone else do this or something similar? I'm just curious as to whether or not there's a more efficient way or not.CharlieI do something similar but I recently started using Google Calendar and pasting the listings I want to submit to in there. I can then refer to the listings I've chosen in there, it gives a nice daily, weekly, or monthly view of when everything is due and I automatically get "reminder" emails a week prior to the deadline.Somehow I still miss listings but I guess I miss fewer than if I had nothing.

[aubreyz]

Well, a few months after I first joined there was a listing that I didn't have time to produce anything for--- and a few days after the listing closed I remembered a song that I had in the archives that would have worked. That kicked me in the rear that I needed to be more organized--- so I started building this mammoth Access database with all my songs by style, etc and a place for the submission history for everything--- but I never finished it. It was too complex for what I needed at the time.Now I have an Excel spreadsheet of my library. Each listing cycle, I go through and copy/paste potential opportunities into a word document for easy reference, and compare against my library. (Though I still try to read through the complete listings once a week or so to make sure I am not overlooking anything). For Dispatch listings, I just use the list on the Taxi hosting site. There are few enough there, and the deadlines are so tight, that has been good enough to keep up with.I think the most productive thing that I've started doing though is to set up a private forum like this. Now that I'm collaborating on a regular basis, Ponch and I use the private forum to communicate. We start a new thread for each listing and keep track of progress, bounce ideas, make notes, etc. It has worked so well, that I'm going to start doing that even for non-collaboration stuff.One of these days, I'll finish that database though--- and if and when I do, I'll make the structure available to anyone who would like to use it.Aub

[bombaycharlie1]

I was thinking of doing the calendar thing...IS Google calendar better than Outlook? Google is out in cyberspace somewhere...I just skimmed and article in PC World about how big Google is getting and the consequences...I'll have to re-read to see about privacy/ security although, I'm not sure what anyone would do with my schedule...I can barely follow it, let alone someone who doesn't even know me or my kids!Charlie

[gitarrero]

hi charly,currently I'm using the word-doc method as described by you.since I have lots of tracks in various styles (over 150 tracks) I'm planing to organize them in a songbase. I checked some programs for that use and I think iTunes is a good choice.in this way I'll be able to check quickly my whole catalogue (which will be organized in cathegories and subcathegories) to see if I have anything suitable. my goal is to keep it as simple and fast as possible - otherwise I'm quite sure it won't get finished because it's too complex. sometimes it's good to be not too detailed; less is more;)cheers,martin

[bombaycharlie1]

I also started an Excel database...list of songs down the side. categories across the top, and put an X or something in the right cell to...this way i can see how many different categories each song can fit into. I'm sure we all have songs that can be submited to several categories and this kind of works. ANyone else have a similar system? A different one?charlie

[gitarrero]

Quote:I also started an Excel database...list of songs down the side. categories across the top, and put an X or something in the right cell to...this way i can see how many different categories each song can fit into. I'm sure we all have songs that can be submited to several categories and this kind of works. ANyone else have a similar system? A different one?charlieexcell is ok, but you can't listen to the tracks. I have lots of instrumental tracks in my catalogue and don't recall the mood, sound etc of every single piece (..which got titles such as "jimis revanche"...). that's why I want to implement an easey way to listen to the tracks.

[Casey H]

iTunes is really great for just this. You can enter all sorts of identifier fields for each track (genre, mood, tempo, etc), sort by anything, make sub-groups as playlists, etc... It's like Excel and the ability to play the tracks all in one. It also makes customizing CDs to send out very easy. You move songs to a playlist, order them, and burn a CD in one click... And the software is free!Now if you really want to use Excel, as I used to, you can place hyperlinks to mp3's in a column so you can play tracks right off the spreadsheet. For example:Title......................Artist...............Genre..........Link Rainy Day...............John E Dean......Rock...........C:\MyMusic\rainyday.mp3(ignore the dots) Casey

[bombaycharlie1]

That is so cool! THat's a great way to organize youe music. I use a PC with Windows Media Player as my main media player. All of my cd library is ripped as .wma files. I know iTunes works on a PC right? I should be able to rip my .wav files to mp3s for iTunes. I'll check it out . thanks fot the tip. Charlie

[Casey H]

Another tip is when you get the listings, put them in a Word document. Then put an identifiable character string next to the ones you might be interested in such as your initials or "ZZZ"... Then you can just search the word document (by searching for "ZZZ" for example) for the ones of interest. If you rule one out, just change the character string... Even better: If your initials are CPH, put CPHYES or CPHMAYBE next to listings of interest. When you rule one out you can change it to CPHNO... That way can still find all the ones you marked regardless of status by searching for "CPH". Just make sure your search string is unique and doesn't generally appear in any other text.Hints from Hurowitz Casey