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The not lost but hard to find art of vinyl records

Hello fellow goners, 

I'm looking for some advice and guidance today. For the last six years or so I've rediscovered the joy of vinyl. Over that time i've added and upgraded an analog branch to my streaming only system. Currently it's based on an origin live deck and arm with a few different cartridges, my favorites are hanna sl and an AT-VM760xSL. 

Over this time, I've also managed to acquire a modest collection of records which now fill a few of those ikea shelving units. Now some of you might be thinking aww I remember when I got started. :-) I did say modest. However with just this collection, it's become difficult to account which records or even which pressing or  pressings are a part of the collection. Specially and fortunately, when you have friends and family who know about your passion and want to contribute with purchases for special occasions. Or come over and want to hear album X to which I usually respond with browse the shelves and pick out something you wan to hear. 

To help with this, I started using a spreadsheet of artist, titles and a few other pieces of information but quickly ran into issues with the native spellchecker and my own horrible spelling mistakes. Leading to some funny and not so funny things in the list. 

So I'm wondering for those of you out there with collections of your own, how do you manage it? Does it just reside on a shelf? In your memory (if this is true do you have room for mine too? :-)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and advice.

david  

dsv1
elliottbnewcombjr
7,696 posts
 

don't forget good lighting

o_holter
993 posts
 

Another outlier maybe...

Like the OP, I have rediscovered vinyl, over the last decades. I have developed a ritual when buying an LP: write in the artist, the title, year etc in a data base. It is a bit of work, but I like it. It forces me to take a closer look at the LP and think about it.

In order to do this, I designed my own database, using the program Commence, back when I had only a hundred LPs. I gradually filled in the records I bought, one by one. Today I have 1800.

Each record in the data base has a note log which I can fill in when listening to it, and fields for sound and content, so I can sort records by sound quality rating for example. I can also connect to relevant web pages like the Discogs info on my version of the LP.  It is easy to find price statistics,  although my base is built for non commercial purposes. 

My basic physical sorting of LPs is just by alphabet, by the artist’s last name, with letter dividers, in my shelves. All records are sorted together, no subdivision into music type etc. They are sorted chronogically from first to last record of each artist. Since the physical library of 1800 LPs is registered in the data base, it is easy to search by album title and other info in the base if I forget an artist’s name or the LP placement in the shelf, and easy to update my evaluation in the base when listening.

A convenient habit, when taking out a record for playing, is to lift the next record a bit out from the others in the shelf – this makes it easier to put it back in the shelf. Generous space in the shelf, since tight-bound Lps are a hassle to deal with, is also a good idea.  

audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,049 posts
 

My 3000 plus records are all over the place, some stored on shelves, some behind couch, on floor, under desk, you name it. I forget what I even own lol. Someday I will get organized and weed a few out. I am a border line holder. 

o_holter
993 posts
 

Don't be to hard on yourself. "All over the place" is OK. Music, when it engages us, goes beyond predefined categories.  

dsv1 OP
11 posts
 

@o_holter so true, so true. 

Thanks everyone this is a diverse and excellent set of suggestions. Keep them coming while I look into the various options from discogs, clz, etc. Even @o_holter built their own. awesome. 

thanks so much. very helpful.

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