I find that it is most useful to me to keep my recordings organized in
folders based on the location but name them based on the particular subject=
.
So I have a folder for each trip/location I record, but then the files are
named for the species present in that recording.
If I need to search for a recording of the frog Eleutherodactylus
cystignathoides, I can search for that species name and find all my
recordings of that species.
If I need to find my recordings from Atascosa County, Texas, I can search
for Atascosa and get those folders that way.
As an aside, there is an excellent free file renaming utility that I use
that is really absolutely free, works well on all Windows and doesn't nag
you to upgrade or get the paid version since there isn't one. There is a
new command line version for those of you still living the DOS life. There
is a portable version which you can run on a computer without having
administrator privileges. I actually have a copy of the program on a flash
drive which I can run from a hotel computer if I need to change file names
as I travel.
The program is called Bulk Rename Utility -
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php. I have no affiliation
with the program or people, I just like it.
CNET didn't like the interface
(http://download.cnet.com/Bulk-Rename-Utility/3000-2248_4-11434534.html),
but I found I could learn to use it very quickly within a few minutes.
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, TX, USA
From:
On Behalf Of Scott Fraser
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2012 10:40 AM
To:
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Re: Filing systems/software
For those of you who categorize according to subject, how do you define the
actual subject? Most of my recordings can fit into at least several easily
identifiable subject categories, i.e. birds, rain forest ambience, insects,
water, etc, simultaneously. Thus far my folders are arranged by location,
but that requires a lot of memory on my part. So if someone asks if I have
any train sounds I need to know to look in the Australia, Germany, France &
Massachusetts folders. I try to name WAV files with meaningful descriptive
titles, & I wonder if perhaps appending some additional relevant sorting
tags to the titles would be all that is needed for good OSX searches. So
instead of "Stream-Zakopane-Poland" it would be
"Stream-Zakopane-Poland-Alpine Forest Ambience-Birds BG" or some such.
Scott Fraser
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