Chris Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Considering all my records are in boxes at the moment I may as well sort them before they go back into shelving and storage. I intend to categorise the records into hip hop & (90s onward) soul and r&b,electronic,funk & soul & jazz,covers, compilations, and spoken word,and misc. I think those categorisations will give me the most relevant sorting for what I have, I've got a bunch of rock from my dad and an ungodly amount of shite from charity shops, and what I'm planning on is going through it and sorting it into stuff that's either my dad's or good/interesting and stuff that's just shit that will go off to a charity shop. What I'm not sure on, though, is how to alphabetise them. Do you guys sort by first letter always, or do you use surname for artists? What about when the artist name is a pseudonym but still follows a conventional fore/surname structure? I'd use S for Stevie Wonder, S for Diana Ross and the Supremes and The Supremes but R for Diana Ross, U for Uriah Heep... it's all very confusing. Is Pete Rock and CL Smooth P or R? I'm thinking about just using first letter for everything including artists beginning with The, because otherwise I'll have a breakdown every time something comes up I'm not sure about. Ugh. Help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Good topick. I like the split by genre (macro-genre) then alphbetically. If it's something I'm going to mix with I prefer to arrange by BPM and I've actually BPM stickered most of my hip hop with a big chunk at the end for crap I'm yet to sticker. For compilations and albums I just bung in roughly the right place so if the compilation goes from 98-106 I'll pop it in about 100 or something. For the rock and pop I file it alphabetically by surname of artist or by name of band. I ignore things like "A", "The" or "DJ" in peoples names as well. For things like "Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince" I'd file it under "J" becasue it's the first letter of the act. For "Diana Ross and the Supremes I'd file it under "S" because they're the main act. I guess if you just follow your own mental classification system it would work. When you think of the record, think to yourself "who would I consider is the main artist on this?" For example, when I did my hip hop alphabetically I filed "Ego Trip's bla bla bla" under "E" rather than whatever bla bla bla is because when I think of the record I think "Oh, that Ego Trip" record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wax On Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I've got: Hip Hop & electronic/dance - start of artist name alphabetical - common, De La Soul, DJ Day, Mr Complex would be in that order battle tools unsortedAll soul, funk, rock (excluding boogie/disco which i would play out), etc is together and in alphabetical from first name, discounting "the". Apart from that Barry White is in the Love Unlimited sectionBoogie/disco 12s & comps unsortedFunk & soul comps (UBB, Funk Drops etc) unsortedJazz comps, Library, exotica & soundtrack unsorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 My macro genres: Hip hop (split into "chill" and "hard" arranged by BPM)Funk, soul and rock (alphabetical)Other unsorted crap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 Hip hop is my biggest stack, I think, followed by misc and then soundtrack/covers... I think. I must only have 50 electronic vinyl. I don't really know how much soul/funk/jazz I have, probably only 100 tops not counting shitty compilation records. I'm sure I can comfortably shed 200 records from my collection if not more. I also have hundreds of 45s, I bet I only have 100-150 that are in any way decent though. Most can go. I'll probably go through the 'misc' before I sort it and put into worth keeping/charity shop piles before I sort them. I swear I've done this a million times before but only gotten 20% into it before I give up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Chris, if you're thinking of shipping a load out could you let me know? I'll pay for postage or whatever...even if it's shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 Yeah of course, I'll let you know. Alternatively you could come for a cup of tea and pop em in the boot, if you drive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I don't drive sadly but let me know. If you can't be arsed writing them all down (I can't imagine you can) just give me the gist or we can talk...whatever's easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I don't drive sadly you do drive, drive me crazy that is!ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I have mine split by genre mostly and then subdivided by bpm (if I've bpm'd em that is). I've never sorted by alphabetical and would have a hard time I imagine if I did. I'm actually going thru my collection to get rid of an estimated 300-400 so I can fit them all on my shelving. I might be able to get rid of less if I come up with a way to better setup my shelves. My basic labels/sections are: "hiphop" which is rarely labeled as hiphop but usually "fresh" or "beats" and almost all of this is singles I bought for the instrumental since I don't usually play anything but when doing hiphop and have a live MC freestyle. This is my biggest section and the hardest to prune I've found. "spoken word" I have a lot of this and have been toying with the idea of getting rid of almost all of it... or at least the comedy stuff. It takes up too much space for the limited use it gets. "battle records" I have a surprising number of battle records I've discovered. And I only use about 5 of them. "doubles" When I first started DJing all I cared to do was juggle. I liked scratching OK too, but loved juggling. This is all my stickered doubles. "Funk/soul/disco" "Rock" "Electronic" "D&B" "LPs" These are what I think of as listening records--stuff for me to listen to but don't really want to DJ with. It's very random. World, dub, rock, compilations, big band, some hiphop, etc. I think that's about it... Oh, I have a 78 section but it's just around because they were my grandpa's records. I also have a lot fo polka records on 45 that were his. Rarely used but can't bring myself to get rid of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jopa. Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 i dont want to think about sorting records... its nauseating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Mine are not sorted at all, apart from keeping battle records separate. I used to sort them, but after I stopped playing gigs (which is years ago now) they just got all mixed up and I've never bothered trying to sort them out. I tend to use Serato when I make mixes now and I don't dig out a record just to listen to it, so for the most part they're collecting dust, but I still love collecting them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d00ban Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I don't drive sadly you do drive, drive me crazy that is!ha! Get a room, seriously, or at least take this outrageous flirting to the shitbox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchecka Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 This is hard to answer since everyone will answer differently. I think it all boils down to the individual collection and what's easy to remember. Collectors that only have 12 Blues records might want to alphabetize them in with their jazz records until they have enough of both to make the effort worthwhile. When it comes to top level genres like Hip Hop, you definitely gotta break it down into sub genres that make sense to you. For me I break Hip Hop into 2 categories... Everything 1990 and earlier in one section and 1990 till present time in the other section. 1990 is an easy number to remember and as long as I keep my ABCs straight I can find my records quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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