database redesign part 1: the track table

[thijs]

well... i am going to redo the database structure. and would like some feedback of the ideas i have. for now i was thinking of the next list of elements for the tracks table, which will contain information which is unique for that single track.

 

id (unique key for linking to releases, internal)

producer_1

producer_2

producer_3

producer_4

vocal_1 (aka featuring)

vocal_2

track_name

sub_title

remix_name

remixer_1

remixer_2

remixer_3

year

real_media

engineer

time

genre

 

remember that this 'update' is way more extended than needed. but to covers all those exceptions it is nice to have things ready :wink:

 

bit of explaining:

never mind the id, that is pure database stuff

the producer fields, there are 2 in the database which is used now, plus one featuring. but i have noticed several occasions which this is not enough. i took the worst case which to my knowledge is bios-fear, stakka, skynet, rob data and kemal (forced to put konflict in the database because of the lack of fields). therefore four producer fields is my next option.

 

since the mc's are being used more often a second field for vocals is definitely needed as well.

 

track_name is obvious, but the sub_title might not be. what i mean with it is: 'Manix - Oblivion (Head In The Clouds)', the head in the clouds part. which for instance could also be used for things like '31 seconds' to be added to 'valley of the shadows'.

 

remix_name... the name of the remix. most of the time a remix is just called [artist name] remix, but more creative people actually give it a name of their own. like twisted individual's 'smelly finger mix' of sticky fingers. this brings me to another question, but i'll make a seperate thread for that.

 

remixers, well the artist names of the remixers. used to be two, but had several occasions in which three were needed.

 

year. the year a track was released (retail). for now the scripts does a bit of a trick at this. (all tracks already have a year attached to them, was done for a script for tagging real media files...). right now the oldest year is used of the release on which the track is on.

 

engineer.. we already talked about this. just want to know whether one is enough or a second should be added.

 

time. playing time of the track.. bit in doubt whether this will work, but want to be open for all ideas.

 

genre. at first releases will have genres added to them. and the tracks on the release can inherit from the release.

 

if you think a field is missing or think a field should be removed.. lemme know

 

 

[mi:t]

very thorough.

some comments: don't see much point in the 'time' element. but very much support the 'engineer'. it's sometimes very essential understanding something (d product for full cycle etc.) i miss the most of searching by release names (albums, ep names).

[thijs]

i miss the most of searching by release names (albums, ep names)

 

don't worry.. that'll be taken care of.. there will be a complete new way of searching for track-, ep, lp and cd names.. should be muchos faster :mrgreen:

[Guest Guest]

Im guessing you already have a table of artists with correlating ID's... sooooo to save on overhead: use a character seperated string of artist ID's in one column (producer and remixer) rather that have 4 columns dedicated to a repeating artist name

[Guest Guest]

or perhaps something like this (sorry, im a bit of a nerd) :

 

 

table for storing track id's against remixer/producer id's (could hold multiple identical rows for ID ((SELECT DISTINCT) etc)..

 

ID Producer Remixer

1 59 60

 

then subsequently a table for artist names:

 

ID 1st_name surname etc

59 Rupert Parkes

60 etc etc

 

perhaps to save on indexing you could have all other track info in a seperate table.

[root]

^ sry i forget to sign in

[thijs]

root: drop me an email with yer IM contacts plz 8)

[haste]

you'll need multiple genres for some releases. there are loads more things that need including in the db structure but i'm not sure how they fit in with this table.

 

root is right though, there's no need for separate fields for remixers etc. it's all about link tables & all that, will make it all much easier...i though it was done like this already, but obviously not!

[Phokus]

Will we be able to search by producers' real names?

[thijs]

Will we be able to search by producers' real names?

 

technically that is a piece of cake. however i can imagine people finding that intrusive. one possible solution is to give moderators the right to do so, when people ask for a certain person on the forum, they can help out. not sure about this yet though.

[Phokus]

Fair enough! Just wanted to do it sometimes when I can't remember someone's alias(es) but know their real name!

[thijs]

just pm me and i'll sort you out for now :wink:

[Phokus]

Hehe - nah, it's cool, it was a while ago, and I've found out subsequently. Just thought at the time it'd be a useful feature, but I can understand why it may be undesirable.

[Frodo]

Maybe a bit off-topic, but what the heck..

 

Would be cool if you were looking at label info, and you could somehow press the artist's name and see his releases just on that label..

 

Hope I'm making myself clear :oops:

[root]

Maybe a bit off-topic, but what the heck..

 

Would be cool if you were looking at label info, and you could somehow press the artist's name and see his releases just on that label..

 

Hope I'm making myself clear  :oops:

 

How about when you click an artist it shows at top what labels they have resleased on and clicking on would bring up the list of tunes for that artist + label

[Frodo]

How about when you click an artist it shows at top what labels they have resleased on and clicking on would bring up the list of tunes for that artist + label

 

Even better 8)