Built in CD MP3 CD's in Album not Alphabetical order? Help.

[Roger Harris]

Hi Folks,

Does anyone know how to burn MP3 Cd's so the songs come up on the Civic in
Album order? All mine get listed alphabetically, which can be a bit irritating on
most if not all albums. (Try listening to 'The Wall' out of sequence)

For info, My music database is iTunes, I'm using Toast to burn the discs and I'm on
a Mac, not a PC.

Any help much appreciated.

Sorry if this post is off-topic

[Roger Harris]

OK, never mind, I've sussed it.

Just in case anyone wants to know: You need to set the preferences in iTunes to 'create track names with number'
that way, all the song titles get numbered, assuming their tags are correct. If not, you have to do it manually.

bye.

[Honda100]

I am struggling with the same problem using musicmatch. (iTunes has all my AAC files in it so can't really use that)

The problem is that whatever settings I use to burn the cd with MP3s, the cd player in the civic insists on reading them in alphabetical order and not the order that they should be played in.

I must have gone through half a dozen discs with different combinations of settings but to no avail and am just about ready to tear my hair out, especially as I can't link my iPod to the head unit!

Any suggestions?
Thanks

[Pottsy]

All my MP3's have filenames like:

01 - Track name - Artist
02 - Track name - Artist
03 - Track name - Artist
04 - Track name - Artist

so no problems.

I don't use any of these odd special bits of software that are meant to help you (iTunes and so on), just EAC to rip and Tagscanner to rename the files and fill in any missing tags.

[CivPilot]

I use "EZ CD DA Creator version 7" (I think its version 7?). Very good program lets you choose from a huge number of extraction file name criteria, or lets you decide your own.

[Honda100]

Thanks for both the responses. I will find the programmes and give them a try.
Music match is not my favourite programme I have to say and it is proving to be a pain for this purpose.

[Kpow99]

I just use WMP10, does the job for me

[Honda100]

With all your tips I have worked out how to sort this, albeit many ruined disks later!

My mp3 files in MusicMatch did not have the track number preceding the name of the track. So it is now automatically renaming all tracks as 'number'-'track name' which now allows the car player to play the tracks in the correct order.

Thanks again for all the advice.

[Parky]

Originally Posted by Roger Harris

Hi Folks,

Does anyone know how to burn MP3 Cd's so the songs come up on the Civic in
Album order? All mine get listed alphabetically, which can be a bit irritating on
most if not all albums. (Try listening to 'The Wall' out of sequence)

For info, My music database is iTunes, I'm using Toast to burn the discs and I'm on
a Mac, not a PC.

Any help much appreciated.

Sorry if this post is off-topic

Why use Toast when iTunes can make MP3 CD's?

Ian

[karlak]

Originally Posted by Parky

Why use Toast when iTunes can make MP3 CD's?

Ian

Just done this for my Dad tonight. He had all his tunes in AAC - so the first thing we did was to 'convert selection to MP3' (not sure if you need to do that or not??

Then go to

EDIT : PREFERENCES : ADVANCED : BURNING,

and then select DISC FORMAT as MP3 CD.


you can then burn directly form iTunes.

Job Done

[kan2]

can you add folders in itunes?

[Honda100]

Great information, and would mean that I only need to keep one lot of files, AAC.
Any idea what bit rate they convert at?
Thanks
Simon

[Parky]

Originally Posted by kan2

can you add folders in itunes?

You don't use 'Folders' as such in iTunes as it automatically manages your CD / Tracks for you by Artist / Title / Track, etc.

Ian

[karlak]

Originally Posted by Honda100

Great information, and would mean that I only need to keep one lot of files, AAC.
Any idea what bit rate they convert at?
Thanks
Simon

They will convert at the rate at which you set the import to.

Obviously it would not convert a 128 AAC to a 196 MP3 - I guess in this case it would stick to 128.


As I say I have not got a CIVIC yet, so just spent 10 minutes round at my Dads trying to get his iTunes and Mp3's sorted.

[Parky]

Originally Posted by Honda100

Great information, and would mean that I only need to keep one lot of files, AAC.
Any idea what bit rate they convert at?
Thanks
Simon

You will loose quality if you convert from AAC to MP3.

As you convert from a CD to AAC you loose quality as this is a lossy conversion, then if you convert to MP3 you loose even more quality.

In iTunes you can define the quality you use for each conversion. The usual rate for AAC is 128 and the MP3 rate is 160, but you can select any you like.

Even if you do convert AAC files to MP3 files in iTunes you will have two copies, it does not delete the original AAC files.

The best thing to do if you have the original CD's is to import the CD's again with the setting to MP3 160 (good quality), burn your MP3 CD and then delete the MP3 files from iTunes. If you need them back to burn a different mix you can always pull the MP3 files off the CD's you have burned.

Remember you will not be able to convert tracks bought from the iTunes Music Store into MP3's as they are protected AAC files.
The only way to make MP3's of these files is to burn a CD music of the purchased music (which is then unprotected) and then import the CD as MP3's.

If anyone wants anymore iTunes advice, please just ask, I will do my best to help.

Ian

[Parky]

Originally Posted by karlak

They will convert at the rate at which you set the import to.

Obviously it would not convert a 128 AAC to a 196 MP3 - I guess in this case it would stick to 128.


As I say I have not got a CIVIC yet, so just spent 10 minutes round at my Dads trying to get his iTunes and Mp3's sorted.

Actually it will convert 128 AAC to 196 MP3, you just won't get the quality of a 196 MP3 that was ripped from the original CD.
You would get a better version of the AAC file if you used MP3 192 rather than MP3 128 (lees is thrown away in the conversion), but the files will be bigger and you won't get as many on a CD.

Ian

[karlak]

Originally Posted by Parky

You will loose quality if you convert from AAC to MP3.

As you convert from a CD to AAC you loose quality as this is a lossy conversion, then if you convert to MP3 you loose even more quality.

In iTunes you can define the quality you use for each conversion. The usual rate for AAC is 128 and the MP3 rate is 160, but you can select any you like.

Even if you do convert AAC files to MP3 files in iTunes you will have two copies, it does not delete the original AAC files.

The best thing to do if you have the original CD's is to import the CD's again with the setting to MP3 160 (good quality), burn your MP3 CD and then delete the fMP3 files from iTunes. If you need them back to burn a different mix you can always pull the MP3 files off the CD's you have burned.

Remember you will not be able to convert tracks bought from the iTunes Music Store into MP3's as they are protected AAC files.
The only way to make MP3's of these files is to burn a CD music of the purchased music (which is then unprotected) and then import the CD as MP3's.

If anyone wants anymore iTunes advice, please just ask, I will do my best to help.

Ian

Good Shout.

I would also recommend a re-import using the MP3 format - However a lengthy process for some. This conversion could be a tempory fix, and I must say that I found no difference between the AAC and Mp3 converted file (even though I know that theoretically there is). The real bottom line is that listening to an MP3 is a compromise anyway, but in a car environment then they sound very good indeed.

I personally use nothing less than 192kbs as a compression (some are 320kbs), but this is because I have a 'fairly' good stereo system at home which seems to pick out the difference in Bass when a lower compression is used. Anyway, as mentioned if you want the better quality then be prepared to spin the orignal Audio disc.

[basegreen]

Seconded - anything less than 192k sounds pretty poor on my setup in the Civic.

[Roger Harris]

HI Chaps

Regarding why I use toast and not itunes for burning:

As far as I'm aware, when you burn a playlist onto an MP3 cd in itunes there is no folder structure to the resultant
disk, so you just get a disk full of tracks not seperated into artist etc. Using Toast I can create (or just drag) the whole artist folder into
the window and get a disk I can view by artist/album on the civic screen. Much better.

Please correct me if I'm wrong as it would save me lots of time.

cheers
Roger

[karlak]

Originally Posted by Roger Harris

HI Chaps

Regarding why I use toast and not itunes for burning:

As far as I'm aware, when you burn a playlist onto an MP3 cd in itunes there is no folder structure to the resultant
disk, so you just get a disk full of tracks not seperated into artist etc. Using Toast I can create (or just drag) the whole artist folder into
the window and get a disk I can view by artist/album on the civic screen. Much better.

Please correct me if I'm wrong as it would save me lots of time.

cheers
Roger

All of the info for Artist,File,Song,Album were viewable on my Dads car. (By the way I am not a 15 year old sorting my dads car out. I am 39 with a Dad who likes his technology-ipods,civics,iTunes etc )