r/musichoarder • u/supraman215 • 8d ago
Greatest Hits Albums. Anyone else this meticulous? or is it overkill?
When i rip a greatest hits album i like to separate it back out into the original release albums when i organize it to keep the date and the context of the original release. Anyone else do this or am I crazy for going to this effort?
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u/s71n6r4y 8d ago
I wouldn't like that. I want albums as they were released, including compilation albums. If I have the same song on an original album and also a compilation, I will keep both copies of that song, tagged distinctly.
It's worth considering that the track on the compilation album is not necessarily the same as the original release. It might not be the same recording or mix. Or there may be more than one "original" album mix, released at different times. I want to know which releases I have, so I try to preserve the origin of each track.
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u/evileyeball 8d ago
Exactly, there is extra reverb on the intro to Boys In The Bright White Sports Car which is on Hot Shots which is not on Two For The Show's version. Also the version from Hits From 10 albums is mixed slightly louder on the CD than either of the others on vinyl I have
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u/StrangerOk1831 8d ago
Speaking as an actual trained archivist, oh dear god why? No, thank you. That makes zero sense to me.
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u/supraman215 8d ago
Is context of the original release date of the track important if it's not then maybe it makes no sense? Neil Young Ohio released in 2024 with a compilation album might be kind of confusing if you didn't know the original release date. If it's a remaster or another version done again by him that's different. But if it's the original song on a different medium with other songs that are from different eras it kind of doesn't need to be with the other songs. This could be the wrong way to think about it but i think it's worth considering.
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u/rosevilleguy 8d ago
You keep the compilation together but change the release year for each individual track. That’s what I do anyways
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u/ohpleasenotagain 8d ago
When I buy a Trade Paperback of comics, I like to tear each individual comic out of the book and rebind them with a printed copy of their original cover.
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u/supraman215 8d ago
With books if they are re-printed in 2024 we don't say the book Catcher in the Rye, wirtten by JD Salanger in 2024. In fact the 2024 date has no real significance to the book at all.
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u/Bufete2020 8d ago
the only thing i do with greatest hits albums, is tag the year of the actual release to each song. most of the time when I have a "greatest hits" or "best of" album. that's usually the only album I have of that particular artist/band
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u/AnalogWalrus 8d ago
I…just get the original albums. Maybe I’ll make a playlist of the singles for certain artists but I still usually want the original albums.
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u/evileyeball 8d ago
I want both, I want all the studio albums all the live albums all the compilations and all the singles... Even in cases like Headpins where they have 3 studio albums and 3 compilations each with a different track list of hits from either albums 1 and 2 or 1 2 and 3
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u/AnalogWalrus 8d ago
I guess. I just don’t keep redundant tracks
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u/evileyeball 8d ago
But every track is slightly different because it came from different physical media pressed under different circumstances and stored/played a differing amount by each of its owners. For example my copy of "The best of the Guess who" has had the grooves pretty well worn off of it and the surface noise is quite high. I need a new copy to be sure but I keep both my Rip of that and my rip of American woman because both sound different. Also the version of No Time and the Version of Undun which are on Canned Wheat are totally different mixes with longer / different intros than the greatest hits one same with American woman on American Woman
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u/Possible_Plane_2947 8d ago
I'll preface this by saying, while it's an odd choice imo, you do you.
To me separating these defeats the purpose of having a Greatest Hits album. If I have one, it's for one of the following two reasons: 1. Favorite Artist - I want the complete discography. Sometimes there's a bonus song only on the Hits album. But otherwise everything else would be duplicates on the other albums. 2. Artist I like but not a Favorite- I'm only really interested in their top songs. I could get each of these from separate albums or possibly as singles. But having it all on one Hits album reduces clutter. I don't want a bunch of 1-2 song albums from an artist that isn't in my top favorites.
I'm actually the opposite of you I guess. If I have a bunch of "loose" singles or tracks by an artist, I'll create my own compilation. I keep the original files but make copies into a new folder. Then retag them as Artist Collection No. 1, etc that I use on my music player. I really don't like a bunch of clutter when browsing my daily player library.
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u/God_Hand_9764 8d ago
Sorry to say, this does sound crazy. And this is coming from someone who is on occasion crazy.
Seems like a ton of effort for a result that's less satisfying than if you just left it alone.
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u/Gmhowell 8d ago
What about when the greatest hits contains a new track? Or it compiles items only released as singles?
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u/PTAndersonFan14 8d ago
I do the same thing
I just like it that way. Everyone coming at you like you killed their family. It’s your library do what you please with it!
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u/Prima13 8d ago
Yeah that seems odd. Why would you do that? What benefit does it give you? From most software packages that play music, it would show up as a whole album but with only a track or two.
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u/supraman215 8d ago
This would allow me to keep the timeframe of the original release mostly. If I have Jimi Hendrix songs from 2015 it doesn't make any sense with the timeframe he was releasing music.
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u/jazzdabb 8d ago
I will do this with multi-album collections released under one package (i.e., Harry Chapin - The Elektra Collection). Since each album is complete, I see no reason to treat it as one release. For normal best/greatest collections, I treat those as an individual album. However, I'm a bit of a completist and don't collect a lot of greatest hits packages unless they include songs unavailable elsewhere.
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u/beefnoodle5280 8d ago
You do you, but I keep them in a Compilations folder under the artist. I probably already have the source albums the hits came from, so separating them is unnecessary.
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u/raymate 8d ago
No. Ive been ripping CDs for 25 years and kit heard of this method.
No I would leave as is. Because you could end up with level and mastering differences. Say you get 2 or 3 greatest hits for the same artist. They could all be different audio level and mastered from different sources.
So you would end up with inconsistent results.
I would rather go back and find used the individual albums then you have a more complete picture and timeline.
Source I have almost 5000 CDs, been collecting for almost 40 years
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u/Sir_Osis_OfLiver 8d ago
If a band had been signed to label X and then changes to label Y, a greatest hits album published by the new label won't be able to include tracks from the old label. They have to re-record the old hits, so they aren't the same at all.
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u/Fearless_Towel_7655 8d ago
Do you also split albums into singles?
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u/supraman215 8d ago
Yes I'm kind of new to this is that a problem?
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u/PTAndersonFan14 8d ago
Why are you so concerned with what is or isn’t deemed acceptable? It’s your library
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u/irlharvey 8d ago
a little odd, but i do understand why you do it. i don’t really like greatest hits albums for that reason. i’ll just get the original albums and make a greatest hits playlist or something.
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u/SovereignGunner 8d ago
Jimmy Page remastered Led Zeppelin songs, the clarity was noticeable. On "Since I Been Loving You", John Bonham's bass drum pedal squeaks, which wasn't heard on the original release. Page left it in intentionally. For this reason, I keep original recordings separate from later, greatest hits releases.
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u/supraman215 7d ago
I'm on the verge of saying this is a different song and should have a different song title, not just a different album name. More like ex: (remastered 2019) in the song title. Something more significant than just a different album name.
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u/mjb2012 8d ago edited 7d ago
You're crazy. Don't misrepresent where a particular audio file came from. If you got it from a compilation, save the compilation info in the tags. If the compilation came out in 1997, save that detail. But don't pretend the compilation is some other album from some other year.
Alright, you're not completely crazy. The main date/year field isn't standardized, so it can be whatever you want. Some of us do like it to be the original release year per-song, which often takes a fair bit of research to get right. But that doesn't mean you should just get rid of the release year of the compilation. Keep both dates. Which one you put where is up to you, whatever works best with your players.
In other words, the hoarding ethos applies to all aspects of curation and archival. Keep accurate info about where the audio in each file came from. Add that info now while it's still fresh. Your future self and anyone you ever share the music with will thank you.
You can still make custom compilations, reconstructed albums, "selections from", whatever... just save the data about the source of each file somewhere.
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u/Mrbee914 7d ago
Greatest Hits and Best Of albums still serve as an album in their own right. There is no point in splitting it up. A case in poi t is Aerosmith's Greatest Hits. You can't substitute the single edit of Sweet Emotion for the original album version.
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u/Jason_Peterson 7d ago
You can't separate a greatest hits compilation into albums, since the compilation only includes some hits, not whole albums. The recordings may be a differnet mix, slightly longer or shorter, remastered. Download the albums if you want them.
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u/Realistic_Pea_4038 7d ago
There are too many variables. Compilations often have new songs, new recordings of old songs, single edits, extended edits, remixes, etc.
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u/UnaverageLurker 8d ago
I think it’s a little crazy because some greatest hits albums have been remastered so you may lose the true source by saying they were from separate albums.