Actually, I use Windows Media Player to rip the music and you can set which drive/folder the library will live in. I used to use the WMA file format, but now I'm only using MP3 since it's more widely accepted.

You can use Windows Media Player as a player and it's fine.
You can use VLC. I actually have never used VLC to rip (I misspoke).
You can use WinAmp to rip and play if you can find WinAmp.

Maybe I'll post my C# code on Git if I can figure it out.


>First, thank you for your message.
>
>Do I understand correctly that you suggest to use the VLC to rip the CDs? And then, the VLC will "know" where each MP3 is?
>
>>Why reinvent the wheel?
>>
>>Either use the built-in Windows Media Player or VLC (https://www.videolan.org/index.html) or whatever?
>>
>>You can pick a drive and folder that these apps will use when they rip the CDs and you use these apps to play the music. I would not bother using VFP to play the music.
>>
>>Also, from my own experience when using VFP to grab the meta data from each MP3 file, it fails. I did poMediaPlayer = CreateObject("Mediaplayer.Mediaplayer")
>>and I had success when in debug mode going line by line and parsing each file (WMA, MP3, or FLAC), but when I just let the PRG just run it did not work.
>>
>>I ended up writing a program in C# and it had no problems parsing each media file. These media files have a lot of properties, but I just wanted something simple which was the song duration.
>>
>>
>>>You wrote:
>>>>even if you plan on having dedicated disk, I am uncertain if ordering into folders is best: it is simple adds only >minimal "brittle", but inserting PK into file name allows you reordering later / finding specific title somewhere >if copied or moved. Also easier for unordered/differently structured sources coming later like downloads, >files etc to integrate.
>>>
>>>When you RIP a CD in a PC all files have the same name. E.g. 09 Track 9, 10 Track 10, and so on. The only way to store them all in one folder would be renaming each track. Would take years :). This is why I need to store each CD in a separate folder.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>pk, year, fk_song, fk_type, fk_sourcetype
>>>>1..N pk, Song
>>>>1..N type
>>>>1..N sourcetype[CD, movietrack,DL...,]
>>>>
>>>>plus additional relations to filter
>>>>0..N pk, groups (most 0..1],
>>>>0..N pk, sourcetitel [most 1, perhaps several "group" sourcetitels to get rid of 0)
>>>>0..N pk, artists (if there is an Orchestra without named artists)
>>>>
>>>>keep table structure as loosely as possible to allow things like
>>>>
>>>>

• an Orchestra without named artists,
  >>>>
• single artists
  >>>>
• groups with special guest artist not on every titel of CD
  >>>>
• groups with changing members
  >>>>
• live performances by 2 or more groups
  >>>>

>>>>
>>>>even if you plan on having dedicated disk, I am uncertain if ordering into folders is best: it is simple adds only minimal "brittle", but inserting PK into file name allows you reordering later / finding specific title somewhere if copied or moved. Also easier for unordered/differently structured sources coming later like downloads, files etc to integrate.
>>>>
>>>>Done this way you can filter much better, for instance artists appearing in multiple groups.
>>>>Also possible to fill in artists names later, as 0..N gives you freedom
>>>>
>>>> You also could include metadata from sound file to be read out automatically for faster/easier selections
>>>>
>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>>I am beginning of a project of ripping all my CDs into MP3 files (I talked about it here some time ago but never did anything).
>>>>>I want to store the MP3 files in such fashion that I can find a song or an artist "easier". The folder structure will be as follows::
>>>>>Artist/group - Name of the CD/Album
>>>>>Artist/group - Name of the CD/Album
>>>>>
>>>>>Then, say I want to see all songs of a specific Artist/group. I would just start typing the name (e.g. Spyro for Spyro Gyra) and all songs of this artist/group would be shown.
>>>>>The front end (the UI) will be done in VFP 9 (I don't know other computer languages better).
>>>>>What type of structure would you recommend for the Main DBF file? The DBF that would store the Folder Names with Artist/Group, or maybe even the song (if I have the patience :))
>>>>>
>>>>>TIA