Good question, hopefully will generate a lot of different answers for you to pick what works for you. For me, I use Microsoft Excel with 1 tab designated for each artist I seriously collect (Zep, P/P, Zep members, Elvis, etc.) and then a miscellaneous tab for artists of whom I only collect a small amount. For the artists whom I collect a lot, I first built a database of their performances and if/what media types circulated (A/AUD - audience recording, S/SBD - soundboard or multi-track recording, and v - amateur or pro video) and then filled in what I had collected. For the miscellaneous tab, I just filled in what I had as I received it. In the old days I would just download every version, source, etc. of a particular show because I used to share a lot and it didn't matter what it was; someone else always wanted it. Now, I am a little less compulsive. As many sources/tapers as I can easily acquire with one or two versions that are complete, reworked to sound better, etc.

So, here is an example of info from my Zep tab (Note - REM=remastered, REV=revised, SPC=speed corrected):

Here is an example of my Elvis tab, which is a little different:

And finally, a sample of my misc. tab:

There may be better ways, but this works for me.

 

Thanks for sharing your process. That looks like a great way to keep track of everything I mentioned in my post, but the initial data collecting seems daunting!

I typically rename live shows in this format: Year - Bootleg Title - Venue - City, State/Country

Thinking out loud here, I keep the text/doc file intact but would need a way to scan the contents of the file to get the level of detail you have in your spreadsheet. Lots of ideas are swimming around my monkey brain now!

 

Dont know if this helps but I just name my concerts Artist_City/Country_Year_Rating. I dont use excel etc as I dont really need it. As far as multiple versions of the same show, usually I pick the best one and let the others go but if the others have significant meaning (The Rolling Stones 4 nights in Atlanta 89) I try to call out the difference in the folder name like 2nd source etc. I use mp3 tag to fill in the file metadata, the program is free, does have flac support and can attach art to the files, not to mention it can name files from current tags. To avoid the countless hours of manually renaming files I use the betterfilerenamer. The program is awesome and can do amazing things when naming files like mass replace characters, add spaces, amend the file names at the end or beginning. What sucks about my way is its hard to share my collection with others because its not in Excel (just an FYI - this is a PC thing if you have a MAC you can just copy and paste the file directory into excel). I have 1000's of shows and a few years I made the call to organize and name them consistently, I spent alot of Saturday nights with a cocktail and just went to town. I should also note I only keep shows that are good quality (8.5 and above) so I did purge a few shows but the collection is great and dont want to keep subpar shows (unless they have significance) I will never listen too as I have better versions of the same songs recorded. But I did have alot of fun tracking down art and organizing it. If its a hobby you'll enjoy it if its not you wont LOL.

 

OMG..... I could never fathom spending months to make a catalogue for the 7 TB's of shows I have ... My system is more primitive...

Folder name = artist - year/month/date - city - then if it is not FM, sbd I leave it blank (tells me its aud) and will place fm or sbd last. if more than 1 version, V1-V2-V3 etc ....

that is it....

cheers all

 

My laptop is old and keeps freezing up so I haven't been able to properly tag the shows I have. Editing the folders and info files for each show is a pain on my phone, but it's all I have currently.

I sometimes enjoy tagging shows and will tackle an artist or two at a time, as I have both live and studio tracks archived on my external drive, but the majority of the time I'd rather not . Also, there are times where I wonder why I bother archiving so many shows since I likely will only listen to them a couple times at most...

 

Excel spreadsheet with about 8-10 columns tracking the usual show info. I used to have my entire collection (~3000 shows) loaded into TapeTrader.com, complete with full details on lineage, setlists, etc.....when that site vanished I lost all those details, along with a bit of the impulse to be that organized. Luckily I had created an export of the basic fields just prior to the site going extinct, which I then pulled into Excel.

 

I don't believe any 1 show or any 1 artist will justify having 52 versions of,
however:
(numbering system is not representative of order of release, rather in this case the order it was obtained)
I do miss SBD in some cases as well.

Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.1 - Live In Japan 1971 - EVSD 547,548,549
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.2 - Live In Japan 1971 - LSD Box Set Pt.5
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.3 - SBD - Stage Recording
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.4 - Geisha, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Tarantura
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.5 - Live In Japan 1971 - Cobra
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.6 - The Complete Geisha Tape - Tarantura
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.7 - Live In Osaka - Night Hawk
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.8 - Fatally Wanderer Definitive Ver. - Wendy
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.9 - Kurofune - Tarantura2000
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.10 - Regalia 929 - Wendy
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.11 - Spirited Away - Vinyl - A GPP
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.12 - Otoko Doahou 929 - EVSD
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.13 - Live In Japan 1971 - OG Vinyl - Pitch & Spc
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.14 - Live In Japan 1971 - OG Vinyl - 24bit
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.15 - Live in Japan 1971 929 - Wendy 2016
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.16 - SBD - Datfly-weedwacker
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.17 - How The East Was Won - EVSD 1056,1057
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.18 - Live In The Fairy Tale - Tarantura
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.19 - Arigatou Osaka - Winston
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.20 - 929 Alternates
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.21 - A Cellarful Of Noise - Vinyl
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.22 - Air Raid - Discurios DIS 129
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.23 - Common Complaint In Osaka - Rice In Hair!
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.24 - Fatally Wanderer - Wendy
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.25 - Geisha, SmokeGetsInYourEyes 40th Anni.-Tarantura
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.26 - Master-DAT-CD-R - Source 3 - dadgad
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.27 - Professor Wallofski & FriendsLiveinJapan - Gusto
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.28 - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Mad Dogs
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.29 - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Scorpio
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.30 - 2nd Gen-DAT3-CD-Rx3 - Source 1
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.31 - 2nd Gen-DAT3 - Source 1 - dadgad
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.32 - Unknown Gen - Source 1 - Datfly-weedwacker
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.33 - The Lost Geisha Tape - Tarantura
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.34 - 929 Snapshots - JRK Remaster
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.35 - 929 - TDOLZ
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.36 - How The East Was Won - Eelgrass
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.37 - Live in Japan 1971 - Cobla
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.39 - Festival Hall, Osaka - Cellarful Of Noise - Vinyl
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.40 - 929 - H-Bomb
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.41 - Mayaku K-Satsu Mr.T-Tack Master - EVSD 1128,1129,1130
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.42 - Mayaku K-Satsu BS Master - EVSD 1131,1132,1133
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.43 - Mayaku K-Satsu Sanda You Edit - EVSD 1137,1138,1139
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.44 - SBD - Immigrant Song Only
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.45 - Live In Japan 929 Osaka - EVSD
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.46 - SBD - Osaka - Vinyl - Compilation
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.47 - SBD + Winston Merge - Ledsox
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.48 - You Were There In Spirit - EVSD 291,292,293
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.49 - Kutabare Moonchild - Winston '18
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.50 - How The East Was Won - EVSD 1056,1057 - jameskg'18
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.51 - It's Been A Long Time - Mud Dogs Records
Zep - 1971-09-29 - Osaka, JP No.52 - chi66 Remaster

 

Holy shit, 52 versions!