I've created a db model that represents a collection of one artist
albums/records/cd/ep/lp/dvd/.

The basics are as following:

1 record contains 1 or multiple discs (i.e: one record can contain 2
cd's + 1 dvd)

1 disc contains 1 or multiple tracks and 1 track could be in more then
1 disc

In the case of a CD or DVD, they contain one side with tracks. In the
case on an EP or LP, the disc contains 2 sides (usually side a, side
b) each side could contain tracks...

By default a cd and dvd always contain one side with tracks. An EP, LP
always contain 2 sides with tracks and sometimes one side can have no
tracks (i.e. a promotional EP with only one side having tracks)
----

the tables are as following:

table: album (albumid, name, ...)
table: disc (discid, albumid, disc_pos_in_album)
table: track (trackid, title, duration, ...)

table: disc_track (discid, trackid, track_number_in_disc)

The question is how to represent sides in a disc that contains side a
and/or side b?

Should the 'sides' info go in the table 'disc' or the table
'disc_track' or should i create another table that represents sides of
a disc?


Thanks
Marco

On 8/31/2010 10:25 PM, SM wrote:
I think "side" should go in disk_track. A song could be on Side A or
Side B of a particular disk, and Side A track 1 is different from Side B
track 1.

Also, there is no technical reason why a CD or DVD can't have 2 sides.
But they don't, just like music CD's generally don't have more than an
LP's worth of songs on it (although it could handle quite a bit more).

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On Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:48:57 -0400, Jerry Stuckle
<jstucklex (AT) attglobal (DOT) net> wrote:

As long as there isn't going to be another kind of descriptor in the
future. You could perhaps a envisage a CD with layers. Another table
may be required.

I think there is a bit more work to do on this. It's not so common
these days but albums were once released in many formats, cassette,
vinyl, 8 track, CD, DVD. In future they may be released on SD card ,
download only or some other medium.

So you may need a table called format

table: format (format_id, description, ...

format_id would be a foreign key in disc

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My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
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On 9/2/2010 7:38 AM, Geoff Berrow wrote:
Which really still doesn't address the problem, Geoff. Just specifying
a format id doesn't indicate whether a particular track is on Side A or
Side B.

Also, if there are additional layers, it will depend on how the industry
defines the layers. Maybe that will require a "layer" column.

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On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:36:54 -0400, Jerry Stuckle
<jstucklex (AT) attglobal (DOT) net> wrote:

I wasn't making myself clear. The format table is in addition to the
problem. Albums can come in many formats.

I agree that 'side' should go in disc_track, but to future proof that
it may need to be a foreign key to another table, say, location.

Loc_id description
1 A side
2 B side
3 Layer 1
4 Layer 2
5 Layer 3

I have other problems with the word 'track'. Track isn't really a very
good word because it is derived from the continuous track on a vinyl
record. My first thought was that this should really be 'recording', a
discrete entity, usually a song. But then I remembered that some
recordings are continuous even though they may be split into many
tracks... Not simple, is it?


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Geoff Berrow (Put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs www.4theweb.co.uk/rfdmaker

Thanks guys for your feedback and tips.

First, let me say that i do have a table call media_format that
contains the different format of a disc (cd, dvd, ep, lp, 8 inch,
etc...). I did not mentionned this because i though it wasn't
important. I'm glad that you did, it confirms that i'm on the right
path. Thansk for that.

As per the side a/b issue. I couldn't agree more with you guys.

I like the idea of having a "location" table and adding a foreing key
to the "disc_track" table. I've noticed that sometimes an EP or LP
with two sides have a different way of labelling the side.

ie. SIDE A SIDE B ... SIDE 1 SIDE 2 .. i even noticed one 78 rpm
that said VOLUME A VOLUME B for sides. Having the table location and
adding a 'label' column fixes that problem...

Thanks again for all your help
Marco

On Sep 3, 12:37*am, SM <servandomont... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Getting back to this issue, i've started making some entries and
notice that sometimes 1 track could appear on both side a and side
b... Also, how do i output side a before side b? should i add a
column , say, 'display_position' in the location table?

my location table looks like this:


location_id, label, display_position
------------------------------------------------
1, SIDE A, 1
2, SIDE B, 2
3, SIDE ONE, 1
4, SIDE TWO, 1
5, A, 1
6, B, 2


my disc table looks like this:

disc_id, track_id, location_id, tracknumber
-------------------------------------------

On 9/28/2010 12:05 PM, SM wrote:
That's one way of doing it. Just as long as you don't have some tracks
on "SIDE A" and others on "SIDE 1", for instance.

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On 28 Sep, 17:05, SM <servandomont... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
I don't think a "track" can appear on 2 sides. Physically a track is
either one side or the other. A track's contents may be the same as
that of another track on the album, but physically it is a separate
track.