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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 5,086
Veteran
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OP
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 5,086 |
How do you keep all your files that pile up organized? There's so much to keep up with for the songs you write, mix and produce yourself. I need to do better and would like to know how y'all handle it. I'm hoping I can pick up some tips from you that I can use to have a better system that can make my life a little easier. Anyway thanks in advance to every one who shares. 
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 110
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 110 |
I create a folder for each song. In that folder will be the BIAB version, the exported WAV files for each track, the Studio One DAW file and any lyrics/chord files I reference. If I need to make any changes, everything I need will be in that folder.
Rich
Windows 10, 64 bit | BIAB 2019 PlusPak | Studio One 2 Artist
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 6,033
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 6,033 |
I have a main folder called "music-files". Under that folder I have folders: "Projects", "Mixdowns" and "Masters". Under "Projects" I have folders for each year going back to 2009, and under each year folder I have a separate folder for each song I did that year. Each song folder has all the individual WAV files produced from BIAB, my guitar tracks, the vocal tracks, and sometimes the notebook file with the lyrics. Before I started using the year folders I dumped each song folder directly under "projects", amazing how quick that got to the point where it was hard to find stuff. The "Mixdown" folder gets the un-mastered mixes that I produce with reaper (I like to keep the mix process and the master process as two separate things although I could do it all in one shot with reaper, works best for me). The "Masters" folder has a sub folder, "MP3". When I master a track, the input file comes from the Mixdown directory, and the mastered WAV file goes to the Masters directory. I also produce an MP3 (for uploading to sites that require MP3) that goes to the MP3 sub folder. Likewise for the main \bb directory I have the BIAB songs organized under sub folders by year. When I render out the individual WAV files from a BIAB project, the WAV files go to one of the song file folders described above. Works for me anyway
Last edited by BlueAttitude; 07/21/18 01:29 AM. Reason: more info
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 16,069
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 16,069 |
All lyrics are in Apple Pages.
All SGUs are in an iMac folder.
The specific DAW file and all associated tracks are encapsulated by Logic Pro X into one file in our iMac Logic folder.
All photos for SC and iMovie video production files are in their respective folders under a primary iMac media folder.
All of the above is backed up to iCloud and a local hard drive several times a day via Apple’s Time Machine. The local hard drive is swapped out monthly and kept in our safety deposit box.
Might seem convoluted but works for us.
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: May 2017
Posts: 1,685
Expert
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Expert
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 1,685 |
Same as Takamine one folder one song.
Biab copy midi etc, separate wave tracks and lyric sheet, chord sheet.
Name the folder same as the song, I even put junk lyrics of the song in the folder everything relating to the song.
win 10 64 bit 16gb,i7 chip, ssd 500gb, m-audio air, ,Roland BK-7M, 1000,shure sm7b,sonar,acid,mixcraft, variety of plugins.Sample tank 3,Kontakt. TC Helicon Voicelive 3 2 . https://beatmaster1.bandcamp.com/releases
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: May 2012
Posts: 2,935
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 2,935 |
I have one folder per song and everything goes in there. I have only one wav file and one mp3 of the final song so I always know that is what can be distributed if needed.
If I am busy on an album I will have another folder building up with the final masters of the songs.
Everything thing gets automatically backed up several times a day to amazon drive (very good value at $60 per year for 1 terabyte).
As soon as in am done with a song or album I delete it from my hard drive.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,414
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,414 |
Folders upon folders upon folders. I used to have a really bad habit of poorly naming and organizing my files. I've gotten much better thankfully. I just clearly and concisely name everything. I have folders for my stems, folders for completed projects, folders for miscellaneous work, etc.
Cheers,
Deryk
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 547
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 547 |
I haven't always been the best at organizing my music files. I'm still working on it actually, but I try to make a master file for each year and then folders inside that for genres or songwriting projects and then each song has a file. Right now everything I am doing is for the 50/90 songwriting challenge so it all goes a bit like this "Recording Files - Cubase Projects - 2018 - 5090 - (song name)." Then all my finished recordings follow a similar format in my music library but without separate folders for each song (Although I probably should use separate folders.)
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 8,987
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 8,987 |
While working on a song or project (learning the hard way), I have a folder named Work In Progress where all related files are temporarily stored.
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