What the hell with MP3 playlists (folders)?

Matthew

Member
Contributor
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CX9, CX5, i8
Ok, what program do you all use to burn your mp3 cds? i have Nero 6 ultra and Easy CD/DVD Creator 6...here is(are) my problem(s):

1) both programs piss me off because they wont allow me to drag and drop where i want each track. this highly pisses me off because i may want a more favored song towards the beg of the cd.
2) i make folders with the songs in them (duh). but when i burn the goddamn CD and play it in my car the damn thing you would think was on random. the songs are in the correct folders, but all mixed up order wise.

:wtf: this s*** is pissing me off.
 
Uh, I use Roxio 6 and it lets me arrange them any way I want when its audio. When you make a mp3 cd, its burned as a data cd, so files are arranged alphabetically. You need to rename the files with numbers in front of the name.
 
JonKlsn said:
Uh, I use Roxio 6 and it lets me arrange them any way I want when its audio. When you make a mp3 cd, its burned as a data cd, so files are arranged alphabetically. You need to rename the files with numbers in front of the name.
well that makes sense. i guess that solves both of my problems.
 
I always just copy and paste the songs in a new folder like on the desktop. then when I open nero I just say I want to make a data cd. then the folder is already made which has all the folders and songs in it. and for my mp3 player I have to call the folders liek 01 rock. like that. but I have done them for other people that odnt need to do that. you have to read your book that came with teh cd player.. it will say how it reads the files and folders.
 
Matthew said:
evidently by alphabetical. gay.
if you do it the way I suggested you dont have to put them in alph. order. you can sort however you want. just right click and say how you want to sort the folder.. I think that is correct.
 
I don't think you can change it. Windows arranges everything alphabetically by default. You need to put numbers in front of the track to arrange them in the order you want. You could try using the integrated software in windows to burn your files. When you drop the files within the folder, change your view settings on that folder to align to grid and arrange your icons accordingly. However, that maybe hit and miss. Your best bet is to number your files though.
 
I just bought an MP3 cd HU so post up if anyone figures this one out
 
matt. i use nero. but all my songs are just labeled by track number. so tehy are always in order.
 
I think it all comes down to data management. Once in your computer, you comp's got no means of knowing what order to put things in. Possibly you could go by date created as a ripping program generally will do a disc in order. I've been playign with mp3's since kenwood first cameout with an mp3 playing deck about 4years ago. I don't download anything, and just rip everything using CDEX, and my settings are curently the defaults on it. They automatically put tracks in 01-title.mp3 format. Always sucks if you have to go back through all of your previous files and re-name them. I found a cool little management program called mediatagger that'll likely hep if you've got music organised by artist folders at least.

I've really honestly never had any complaint about laying out my files in folders like this: artist/album/file.mp3 Make sure you've got your id3 tagging ironed out as well, and then try to mess with settings as little as possible once you've got everything setup.
If you're a big fan of playlists, this might all get really tricky then, in this case, You're gonna have to just burn the files onto a disc seperately. I'd change the filenames upon burning by number of order you want them to play, in the 01-file.mp3, 02-file.mp3 style, then put each playlist in a seperate folder. I mentioned before, that some decks supposedly will allow the creation of their own playlists (as mine claims) but I've never really played with it, and that seems to be bordering on toomuch messing with stuff for my likes.

Oh, yea and I use Nero for burning, Just seems to be less obnoxiousness to it.
 
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this is how i have my s*** setup:

Twista - Kamikaze - 01 - Get Me.mp3
Twista - Kamikaze - 02 - Kill Us All.mp3

etc etc etc.

why is it still mixing s*** up?
 
some of the names might be too long.. nero should tell u before you burn.. if u dont fix that it will cause play errors.. also.. with the jvc decks u have to put everything into a root folder first.. have you tried that?
 
Matthew said:
this is how i have my s*** setup:

Twista - Kamikaze - 01 - Get Me.mp3
Twista - Kamikaze - 02 - Kill Us All.mp3

etc etc etc.

why is it still mixing s*** up?

Okay, so are you putting these in folders or is that the full length name of the files? THe filename itself should start out with the number, then name. I do seperate folders for artist and albums. Here's directly how I've got some listed in my comp...

C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\mp3128\Gravediggaz\6 feet deep\01-Just When You Thought It Was Over.mp3

The other tracks in teh album would follow numerically then title, so

C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\mp3128\Gravediggaz\6 feet deep\02-COnstant Elevation.mp3

Same folder, the tracks continue as *03-Nowhere to Run.mp3, *04-Defective Trip (Trippin').mp3 etc...

Then a different disc, same artist is like this...
C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Desktop\mp3128\Gravediggaz\The Pick, The Sickle & The Shovel\01-intro.mp3

My take on what you should have would be this, tell me if it's different.

Twista\Kamikaze\01-Get Me.mp3

Twista\Kamikaze\02-Kill Us All.mp3 and so on...
The Folder-artists and titles arne't really always necessary as Generally most MP3's should have ID3 tags embedded in them that'll have all of the album artist title info in them as well. If your ripping program doesn't do this, get a new one, or turn it on or whatever, but it's nice to be able to scroll it all on your deck. Anyways, I find it makes things WAY easier to keep track of things with this form of foldering. You may be doing this already, and I'm likely retarded for saying it, but At least I feel like I've expressed myself. I just know that I really struggled with MP3's at first. Once I got everything smoothed out, though it's been fairly easy, and I'm now like the local hub of jacked music. I highly reccomend getting an organization system figured out and sticking to it.
 
matt.. when u burn. try something like this on nero
d:/ (cd drive)
/root (folder)
/twista kamikaze(folder)
//(twista files
/twista Adrenaline Rush
//(twista files
/Project Pat Ghetty Green
// Project pat files

also make sure you dont leave the session open.. in my jvc deck the session has to be closed. -=P
 
everything should be in the root folder.. so it will be like..
d:/root/twista kamikaze
d:/root/twista adrenaline rush
d:/root/project pat/ghetty green

then the files should be like
d:/root/project pat/ghetty green/09 ghetty green.mp3

good luck
 
the twista cd is good, and i dont listen to much rap music. i gotsta represent fo tha chicago rappas, (werd)
 
Check this program out:

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html

It lets you create ID3 tags from filenames, filenames from tags, do batch replaces, etc. Very handy.

Anyway, there is NO way to sort an MP3 folder any other way than alphabetic by filename. It is essentially a data cd, and the default (and only) sort on MP3 players is alphabetic (unless your player supports playlisting).

Thus, if you want to impact sort order, you must change the filename. 01, 02, 03 at the start will work (it must be "01" and not "1" or it won't work as 10 comes before 2 in an alphabetic sort).

The number part does not have to be at the start however, it can be in the middle, providing the stuff before the number is identical. i.e:

Artist - Album - 01 - Song1.mp3
Artist - Album - 02 - Song1.mp3
Artist - Album - 03 - Song1.mp3

Case and/or spacing will matter, so make sure they are all identical. This is how I do my MP3s, as I want to see artist and album first since I am going from broadest info (artist name), through to specific (song name). I am anal though.

The only other option is to do the folder thing as others have suggested where its one album per folder with number at start.

Lastly, there seems to be a max file length my Alpine will use, so this may be an issue, such that

Reeeeeally long Artist - Really Long Album Name - 01 - Song.mp3
Reeeeeally long Artist - Really Long Album Name - 02 - Song.mp3
Reeeeeally long Artist - Really Long Album Name - 03 - Song.mp3

may not follow these rules if the cut off for the alpha sort is before it reaches the number part. Then it would be random.

Hope this helps
 
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