Yes, I cannot bear all the different naming conventions, even though it is up to each person how they want to do it.
Every time I get a new set, I spend hours/days/weeks changing all the naming so at least everything is as consistent as possible in *my* collection.
I just prefer "Elvis Presley" rather than Presley, Elvis etc.
I *do* still put 'THE' and 'A' at the end though. e.g. River, The.
I think this goes back to the days of printed karaoke books that were in alphabetical order by song title.
It would mean page after page of songs that began with "The"
Maybe I will change them back one day
Some naming schemes, including the ones you mention, are just bizarre!
The only way to get things close to 100% consistent is to work with the whole collection at the same time and change things in bulk, but the last time I did this, it nearly killed me! working with hundreds of thousands of files at a time is mind-melting!
Also, It sounds to me as if you are getting the punters to search for the songs they want to sing?
If so, and they search for a song called "The River" and it is recorded in your database as "River, The", would your search system not discover it?
Would they literally have to type "The River"?
If this is the case, how does it handle different variations such as this:
Fool Such As I, A
Now And Then There's A Fool Such As I
(Now & Then) There's A Fool Such As I
A Fool Such As I (Now & Then There's A)
Would all the above examples not be returned on any given search that includes the key-words "Now" "Then" Fool" Such" in any order?
What software is it that the punters are using?
**(I am genuinely interested here - I am not having a go in any way!)**
I am still using bits of paper, or people just telling me what they would like to sing.
In some instances, people ask for completely the wrong title, but, because of experience, I know what they probably mean, and can usually find it.
I use Virtual DJ, and as long as your tags are good (mine are) the search is really really good.
Lee.
