newbie burnign mp3 cd question

[lordmajax]

I'm wanting to burn a cd full of mp3s. I tried using Nero but for some reaosn I couldn't organize the songs how I wanted (by artist or genre) onto a cd-rw. Is there any other program that is not too complicated that would allow me to either mess with the tag id or/and burn the cd accordingly?

[Cornucopia]

Tag support is iffy on players (CD, DVD, RAM/Chip players), so I wouldn't go that way...

Simple thing you can do:

Change

MyfirstSong.mp3
The_Second_Clip.mp3
Yet Another MP3 hit.mp3

to

01_ARTISTSHORTNAME_SHORTTITLE.MP3
02_ARTISTSHORTNAME_SHORTTITLE.MP3
03_ARTISTSHORTNAME_SHORTTITLE.MP3

(***for some players, you may want to use a "-" instead of a "_", or maybe even delete it and have the number next to the artistname)

Try to stick to ALL CAPS, Short DOS 8.3 names until you've confirmed that your player can do better. And NO_SPACES can be important!

The only other thing that might affect order would be file creation/modification date or burning selection order. Short of using a "Touch" utility, not much you can do there.

HTH,
Scott

[yoda313]

I couldn't organize the songs how I wanted (by artist or genre) onto a cd-rw.

I'll take a stab at this.

Do you have them organized in folders already on your computer?

The way I do my mp3 cds is by simply taking them off the harddrive. I organize mine by artist then by album. So when I drag and drop say, Weird Al Yancovic, all of my albums will be in the order they were in on the harddrive (though they may get reorganized alphabetically depending on the burning app).

Just an fyi there - depends on how you lay out your mp3s before you burn them. If this isn't what your referring to maybe you could describe it a little more of what you want to do.

[lordmajax]

So changing the tag id is for mp3 players mostly? I want to have the songs play in the exact order as I would like them on a cd-rw so I guess organizing them in folders would be the best way...til I can afford an Ipod that is.

[Cornucopia]

First, like I said before there are many players (DVD and CD) that DON'T recognize mp3 tags. So, even if you have them, and they're ordered according to your whim, that's not what you should rely on.

Second, many players DON'T understand folders, or for those that do, what happens when your kids/pets lose the remote and you can't navigate the folders? You want a simple fallback way to recognize your files and have them be organized correctly no matter if you have folders or not.

That's why I advised the ##_ARTIST_TITLE.MP3 setup. Lowest common denominator. Will work correctly (in correct order) in every player.

Scott

[olyteddy]

Do you have WinAmp? I use a WinAmp plugin that can take a playlist and add PL001, PL002, ... PLxxx to the filename. It keeps them in the order of the playlist that way. It's called 'Playlist-Unpacker Plug In V 1.6'.