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MMD > Archives > July 1997 > 1997.07.27 > 06Prev  Next


Database Software for Music Collections
By Bob Billings

As Meta Brown points out, almost any database program will do the job
-- it's just a matter of whether the existing templates will be
satisfactory.  Or how much work one can or is willing to do to set
it up the way he wants.

Some programs are quite easy to customize, such as one I ran into a
few years back called "ORGANIZE! Your Collection."  I think it was a
shareware program.  Another one is DataEase.  Both of these guide even
the neophyte quite well in setting up the database the way he wants.

Microsoft Access is easy to set up if one makes use of its "Wizard".
I don't like Wizards because I usually need to customize.  There are also
a number of SERIOUS database programs, such as FoxBase, but it takes a bit
of time to become skilled at using them.

One thing to think about is how one wants to retrieve and organize the
data.  Putting the data in is easy, but getting it out in a useful form
is not as easy as one thinks.  OYC was a disaster in this area, but
DataEase is fairly good.  Access is a little fussy to set up, but can be
good.

Years ago I set up our database in dBase III+.  It took a lot of
programming effort to make it do what we wanted, and it does it very
well.  Today's programs are a lot easier to work with, but our system
still does what we want and is rock-solid robust.  Our largest database
has over 10,000 entries.  Using search algorithms we can locate any
entry in that database in less than 5 seconds.

Over the years I have created a number of routines that can be called
with a few keystrokes.  (Gee, I kinda feel like I might be describing
how easy it was to build a log cabin using an axe, adze and saw!  It does
make me appreciate how technology has advanced.)

Bob Billings


(Message sent Sun 27 Jul 1997, 05:05:03 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Collections, Database, Music, Software

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