Composers: how do you organize your music, project files, and different versions of your compositions?

[u/Opus-Pocus]

Hi everyone!

I'm a composer, primarily writing piano music, and I'm currently developing an application designed to help composers organize and keep track of their musical works.

Before going further with development, I'd like to understand how other composers actually organize their work.

One thing I've noticed is that every composer seems to have their own workflow.

Some use notation software such as MuseScore, Dorico, or Sibelius. Others primarily work in DAWs such as Cubase, Logic Pro, Reaper, or Ableton Live. Some combine several applications, while others still compose mainly on paper.

I imagine these differences have a significant impact on how we store our compositions, project files, exports, and previous versions.

I'd love to hear about your workflow, particularly regarding the following questions:

1. What software or tools do you use to compose?

Do you primarily use notation software, a DAW, handwritten scores, or a combination of different tools?

2. How do you organize your compositions on your computer?

Do you maintain a main composition library? Create one folder per piece? Organize your work by genre, year, album, opus number, or something else entirely?

3. How do you manage different versions of the same composition?

When you revise a piece, do you create a new project file every time? How do you know which version is the most recent or which one you should continue working on?

4. How do you manage the different files associated with a composition?

For example, project files, scores, audio exports, MIDI files, recordings, videos, reference material, and other related documents.

5. How do you find an older composition when you want to work on it again?

Do you usually remember where everything is stored, or do you sometimes find yourself searching through multiple folders to locate the right file?

6. What are the biggest problems with your current system?

This could include organization, backups, inconsistent file naming, multiple revisions, returning to unfinished projects, or anything else.

7. If you could improve just one thing about your current workflow, what would it be?

Just to clarify, I'm not here to promote or sell my application. I'm still trying to understand how composers work and what problems they actually encounter.

My goal is to avoid building a tool that forces everyone into a predefined organization system.

I'd rather understand existing workflows first and eventually design something flexible enough to accommodate different approaches to composition.

I'm interested in hearing from everyone, whether you're a professional composer, hobbyist, student, or someone just starting to write music.

You don't have to answer every question. Even a short explanation of your workflow, or an anonymized example of your folder structure, would be extremely helpful.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

[u/tronobro]

I'll answer a couple of your questions.

1. I use Sibelius & Musescore for notation and REAPER as my DAW. I'm really quick with Sibelius, but have been trying to get quicker at Musescore since it's free and also works on Linux (which I use on my 14 year old laptop because it's too old to run modern Windows).
2. I organise compositions by year. If there are projects that span multiple year the project is in the folder designated by the year I started working on it. Mixing and recording projects are kept in a completely separate folder structure from composition.
3. For different versions of a composition I'll label them with the date and what that version was for. E.g. $score Name - $Music Venue Performance - $date
4. I have subfolders under the project folder for different programs. E.g. REAPER, Sibelius, Musescore. Anything related to each program goes in those folders. I usually keep all video projects completely separate from my composing folder structure.
5. Since all my projects are organised in folder by year, I just need to remember the year I started working on that project and everything will be there. Even when I update a project the new files of project versions stay in the same folder.
6. I currently have everything sync with cloud storage. I don't like paying subscriptions if I can help it. Storing multi gigabyte WAVs and video files on cloud storage is expensive so I avoid doing it. I'll keep all my composing and arranging files on cloud storage since the file sizes aren't large. I keep all my recording sessions and video projects on my local drives. This can become confusing when I'm trying to find assets from both the composing, recording and video parts of a project.
7. I would rework my entire folder structure based on years for the most part. I don't think there is a perfect folder structure. The main flaw with mine would be that I do mixing, composing, arranging, recording, video project and so on. It's also nice to differentiate my own projects from other people's project that I work on and commissions. It's unwieldy to have all of these folder in every year, but it's also unwieldy to have folder for every year in each project type's folder. At some point you just have to decide what weaknesses you're willing to put up with for your folder organisation.

[u/Opus-Pocus → u/tronobro]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer all of this! <3

It's really interesting because I'm starting to notice how differently composers organize their work, even when they use similar software.

In my case, I mainly compose classical music, and I organize everything by musical genre, then by opus number. So it's quite different from your system. What I find particularly interesting in your case is the problem of having files from the same project spread across different folders and drives.

I'm currently working on a composition manager, and that's exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to understand. I don't think there is one perfect way to organize compositions either. Ideally, the program should adapt to the composer's habits rather than force them to change everything.

I'm curious though, when you need to find files from the composition, recording and video parts of the same project, how do you usually go about it?
I also have a much more general question, namely, what would you expect from a composition manager concretely apart from their ranking? What would help you concretely to find your way around without it becoming a gas plant in your mind?

Thanks again, your answers are really helpful!

[u/David_Maybar_703]

That's a lot of questions.  LoL I start my composing in a  variety of ways. If I use my iPad, I use Symphony Pro to record the parts and import them into Finale. If I sketch out a score free hand  I use Smart Score and import the result into Finale. If I hum out a phrase, I use Celemony Melodyne to ... you got it, import into Finale. I come up with a working title based on the mood of the piece then add other data. For example, Autumn_Bb-maj_95bpm_piano_concerto as a title tells me what I need to know. I have a folder called WIP for things that I'm actively working on. When the composition gets to the point that I am thinking about producing it as finished peace, I create a folder with the name of the composition. Then, within the folder, I have subfolders for things like score, music XML files, renders, Etc.

[u/Opus-Pocus → u/David_Maybar_703]

Haha, yes, sorry for all the questions!

Thank you for taking the time to explain how you work. :) It's really interesting, especially the way you use different programs before bringing everything into Finale. i also find your WIP folder system interesting. Keeping everything in one place while you're working on it, then creating a proper folder once the composition is more advanced, makes a lot of sense. i'm currently working on a composition manager, and I'm trying to understand how other composers organize their work. I have just one more question, if you don't mind! :D How do you manage different versions of the same composition? Do you keep them all in the same folder, or do you have another way of organizing them?

Thanks again for your help!

[u/StudyStrict2385]

1. i use musescore studio.

2. i organize my compositions based on categories (nature, animals, playtime, etc.)

3. i make a new project file and delete the older one, so that i can keep on coming up with new ideas to improve it. or i can keep the older file and re-use the ideas from that file.

4. i only use the management method for stems.

5. i just look at the score.

6. i have the composition audio in separate folders (organized by version) and the sheet music (organized by type). if i were to make one folder per composition, it would turn into a mess.

7. it's how i organize my music. (because it now seems to be a mess, especially with my arrangements.)

[u/Opus-Pocus → u/StudyStrict2385]

Thanks for your reply!

It's really interesting to see how differently composers organize their work. I'm starting to notice that it varies a lot from one person to another, and probably depending on the style of music they compose too. :) For example, in my case, I mainly compose classical music, and I organize my compositions first by musical genre, then by opus number. That's actually why I'm asking these questions. I'm working on a composition manager, and I'd like it to adapt to the way each composer works, rather than forcing everyone to use the same system.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain how you organize your compositions! :)

[u/StudyStrict2385 → u/Opus-Pocus]

you're welcome!

[u/goesonelouder]

Use what works best for you

Folder with Project name -> Folder ‘In Progress’, Folder ‘Completed’ ->

In Progress -> Folder ‘Piece 01’ containing project files saved as v1.1, v1.2 (saved after some progress is made), v1.3 etc. if it’s a complete redo in the same vein then v2.1, v2.2, or scrap it and begin another.

Keep all files for the same project in the same project folder, if there’s files for different DAWs then each DAW has its own folder within the ‘main’ project folder. Makes organisation simple as well as backing up.

[u/Specific_Hat3341]

1. I primarily use Dorico. I've also used Cubase sometimes. I don't handwrite scores; I only handwrite for sketches or working some things out.

2. I don't. Dorico does. Every project automatically gets a project folder and the files go in there. Backups are created automatically too.

3. If I want to keep an earlier version, or if I'm still processing things and want to try out different ideas, I'll just duplicate the flow, or create a new flow, and then toggle flows on and off while I compare them. I absolutely wouldn't create another whole project file. Once I've finally made a decision, I don't normally keep earlier versions of anything, so usually I clean things up by deleting the rejected flows.

4. The Dorico files all get stored automatically. Audio exports or PDFs sometimes get stored on my desktop while I'm still using them, and then stashed away into a compositions folder later. Sometimes I might even just delete them.

5. I just search in the Dorico hub.

6. I don't really see any problems with my workflow. Maybe it could get a little unwieldy if I liked to keep a lot of earlier versions of things, but I don't.

7. Again, I can't think of anything.

[u/ClarSco]

Don't do much composing, but do quite a bit of arranging/orchestration and editing/engraving work:

1. Dorico as my primary driver, Sibelius/Musescore if needed for collaboration purposes. DAWs are not an important part of my workflow.
2. "Live" project files in a monolithic folder, that follow the following naming convention: <ARRANGER_LAST_NAME> - <Project Title>.ext. Will prefix with ensemble's initials and the librarian's assigned catalogue number, if applicable. I also prefix my own works with a single underscore so that they're kept separate from my clients' files.
3. I frequently duplicate the project file, and export a musicXML file and PDFs of the scores and parts (and sometimes an audio mockup) from that duplicate. Append the export date in /r/ISO8601 format to all files then compress them into a .zip archive file. I periodically review these and delete versions that are of no use.
4. All exports match the base filename of the project file, with additional info (eg. part index+part name) tacked on the end in a consistent manner where necessary. Exports intended for delivery will be renamed if the Initial Project Title and Work Title have diverged, or the client wishes me to follow their preferred naming conventions.
5. Monolithic folder as mentioned in #2, but with an "archive" subdirectory (not compressed) holding any files not worked on in over a year to cut down on clutter (I used to further divide the archive by year, but found all that did was make it harder to find what I was looking for if I've forgotten the project title).
6. Most notation software does a poor job of handling file metadata, particularly on PDF and audio exports. As a result, it often gets clobbered by email programs or cloud services such that instead of the true creation/export date, you get the date it was last sent or downloaded.
7. I'm pretty happy with my current workflow. Most of the heavy lifting (batch renaming files, backups) is handled by existing free (and ideally open source) software. The only thing that would make it easier is if I had git-like version control at my disposal, but the applications/project files are the blocker on that due to them being binary blob-based rather than text-based (MusicXML is text based, but not a reliable enough source to be using for version control purposes, again due to the applications themselves).

[u/65TwinReverbRI]

You guys are organizing things?

[u/WalkingEars]

Did AI write this?

Assuming it’s a human post and not a marketing research or content farming thing, much of the time I just name pieces after the day I started writing them, and every 6-8 months I go back through recent compositions and assess them, picking out the good ones to release. I recently made a Google Drive to backup all audio files and musescore files by year. I think it all works pretty well for me. Naming pieces after dates makes it sometimes hard to remember which is which but I don’t like coming up with titles and am a hobbyist so who cares if the names are boring lol.