Filing Herb

[Harry]

With LPs it seemed easy. File Herb Alpert albums starting with THE LONELY BULL and then in chronological order up through MIDNIGHT SUN or NORTH ON SOUTH STREET, then all of the 12" singles. Foreign releases would fit in chronologically as well.

CDs present the problem. Until recently, I was trying for the chronological approach starting with all iterations of THE LONELY BULL. There's the old A&M CD, my own dub of the mono LP, the Shout CD, and then the HAP CD. Then on to VOLUME 2 and follow that pattern.

Today all of that somehow seemed messy, so I sorted out all of the original "jewel case" releases and put them first. Then the Shout CDs in order, and then the HAP CDs in order. Then all of the compilations come last. This has the effect of looking better as the Shout spines and the HAP spines all match up and look good next to each other. But I'm still not sure I won't go back to my old version one method.

 

[Rudy]

LPs can be just as frustrating when you have a few different labels pressing the products. I have a Music On Vinyl reissue of Brubeck's Time Out, followed by the Analogue Productions 2x45 pressing. If I had a couple of standard Columbia pressings from the 50s and 60s, well...I have no idea how I'd file those. Lately though, with limited space, I keep the best sounding copy and the others go back into storage or onto the "for sale" pile.

Thankfully I'm done with CDs, so filing isn't an issue. But at least using Roon Player, I can choose the best-sounding version as the primary version, so it will be the default version to play back if I'm randomly choosing tracks to play. But I still have all the remaining versions listed below, so I could theoretically pick a Shout Factory version if I want to compare it with others.

So yeah, each format presents unique issues in regards to filing them away, with a few choices that could make sense to us.