Sort order for multi-CD audio books

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
1

Hi, everyone. I’ve read through past threads on sorting tracks and albums and haven’t been able to solve my problem. I have a 12-CD audio book; each CD has 99 tracks (ugh). All are ripped to my computer, and copied to an 8GB MicroSDHC card. Sorry for the long message; hoping to capture as much detail as possible. My OS is Win XP. This is a 4 GB Fuze, with the troublesome file stored on 8 GB MicroSDHC card. Fuze is set to MTP and I moved the files via Windows Explorer…dragged them from my hard drive to the SDHC card (I’ve done this twice; once while it was in the Fuze, and once while it was in the card reader).

I used MP3Tag as follows:

  • Filename AND Title are set to: Book Title Disc 01 Track 01, sequentially numbering up to Book Title Disc 01 Track 99. Then we begin with Book Title Disc 02 Track 01, etc. all the way to Book Title Disc 12 Track 99
  • In MP3Tag, I used the Auto numbering wizard to number the tracks, including leading zeros, as 0001/1188 (This change was made while the card was in the Fuze; the first pass at numbering, on the hard drive, added only a single leading zero, and I thought that might have been the problem, so I ran the auto-numbering wiz again while the card was in the Fuze).
  • The Artist, Contributing Artist, and Album Name are the SAME (no disc numbers included) for each of the 12 discs…used MP3Tag to accomplish this
  • Stripped out the YEAR and the DISCNUMBER using MP3Tag.
  • All tracks are tagged with Genre of AUDIOBOOK (again using MP3Tag). They show up in the correct order on my computer hard drive, and reading the SD through Windows Explorer, they appear in correct order. However, when I browse to Audiobooks on my Fuze, the sort order is out of whack. It consistently begins with Book Title Disc 11 Track 11, goes forward to Disc 12, Track 99, and then to Disc 01, Track 01. The rest appear to be in correct order.
  • Screen shots of the top of the MP3Tag window, the file (in order) that the Fuze “sees” as the first track (which is Track 1001 in the order, if that is significant) my my Options dialog can be seen here: 

Other audio books are tagged this way and appear in the correct order…but none of the others have more than 9 discs. Thanks for any ideas. This is making me crazy!! :stuck_out_tongue:

Message Edited by ilgal on 06-03-2009 08:23 AM

2

Here’s my thoughts on the subject (others may not agree)…

For what you appear to be trying to do I would try not using the slash stuff in the Track Number tag. Get rid of the 0001/1188 thru 1188/1188 stuff and just use 1 thru 1188. The leading zeroes should not be needed (leading zeroes are only needed in the filenames for correct folder/file view ordering).

Technically, Track numbers should never be larger than 99. As such, a  more correct way would be to use both the Track and Disc Number tags. The Track Numbers would then have to start over at Track 1 for each Disc. So, it would look somthing like this:

Track#  Disc#

   1         1

   2         1

   3         1

…

   1        2

   2        2

   3        2

…

   1       3

   2       3

   3       3

etc.

Also, make all changes to files on your computer first before putting them on the player because sometimes changing ID3 tags may or may not always show up correctly if the changes are made directly on the player (depending on what ID3 tags are changed). The best way would be to delete the files on the player, then turn it on so it refreshes (and cleans out) its database, then add the newly changed files back onto the player so that when it updates its database the next time it does not have any old leftovers.

See if one or the other of the above mentioned ideas works for  you and let everyone here know what results you get.

3

Hi, miltst. Thanks for your response. A couple of things before I go back through and renumber stuff.

The 0001/1188 came from MP3Tag. I checked the box in the wizard to “keep count of all tracks” (or whatever that dialog message is). 

If I separate these back into separate discs, but give them all the same album name, will they then run as one, uninterrupted flow when I choose the book under Audiobook? I don’t want to have twelve different titles in the Audiobook menu, one for each CD (does that make sense)?

This is kind of a related, follow-up question: do you know in what order the Fuze sorts? Like, first by album, then by track, then by artist, etc. (or whatever the order is). That might help with naming, also.

There are so many variables going on here, it’s almost hard to pick one thing to change (tag on computer vs SD card; how to number the tracks, to number or not number the disks, etc.) Appreciate your feedback, and certainly welcome that of others, as well.

4

Just an update…as per miltst’s suggestions, I made some changes on the core files (on my HD) and then copied over to the SD card. The only changes I made were to change the track numbering NOT to keep up with the total # of tracks; I still added leading zeros. Once I moved them onto the SD card, the sort order is correct. Hurray! Not sure what did it - changing on HD or changing the track numbering, but, either way, it’s working.

Thanks!

5

I don’t have my fuze with me so this is from memory

I have the same problem with audiobooks and when you get multiple CDs there’s just too many little files. After listening to a few, I can’t remember where I left off. For me the easiest way was to move a copy onto my SD card and merge each CD to one big file (so I end up with a few files under the author named CD1, CD2 … and as an Audiobook it keeps track of where you paused at and when I browse audiobooks by author and play all, it will start at CD1 and I delete CDs after I listen to them or keep them and go back

   

On my SD card, I keep a copy of MP3tag, mypodder and mergemp3 so I can use them on any computer when I plug my SD card in

here’s the merge mp3 from Shchuka (in case the link doesn’t work you can google it)

http://www.shchuka.com/software/mergemp3/ 

mergemp3 works really fast and it seems easier than renaming each file

“If I separate these back into separate discs, but give them all the same album name, will they then run as one, uninterrupted flow when I choose the book under Audiobook?”

It does play if you select “author” then “play all” 

This is kind of a related, follow-up question: do you know in what order the Fuze sorts? Like, first by album, then by track, then by artist, etc. (or whatever the order is). That might help with naming, also.

I’m thinking track so it’s like this

track 1 CD1

track 1 CD10 

track 1 CD12

track 1 CD2

track 1 CD3

track 1 CD4 

track 1 CD3 

track 11 CD1

track 11 CD2

track 11 CD3

track 12 CD1

track 13 CD2 … then 

track 2 CD1

track 2 CD2

track 2 CD3

track 20 CD1 . then

track 3

track 4

you would have to rename it first CD number and add zeros for the order, like this

CD01 track 01

CD01 track 02

CD01 track 03 … with the "0"s it will keep them in order

CD01 track 11 

CD02 track 01

CD02 track 02 …

CD02 track 11 

CD12 track 01

CD12 track 02 …

CD12 track 11 

the way I do it. merge CD1, CD2, CD3 and then you just have 12 files

CD01

CD02

CD03 …

CD12 

6

Hi Guys,

 

This is a great group but all this stuff is way over my head. I started out by buying a 8GB Fuze to listen to audio books while I walk around my block to help with my weight and health problems. That was my focus until I realized I had to become an expert in file conversions. My interest is in Michael Connelly’s books and bought many used ones on Ebay.  The first thing I realized was all the books were not produced in same exact format. One of them is like ilgal’s book, 10 CDs with anywhere from 93 to 99 files per CD.  I don’t know what file type they were because I ran them through FreeRip3 to make them mp3 files. I did this disk by disk by making 10 folders named Black Ice Disk01, etc.

 

Then I started reading this forum and learned that all these files have tags associated with them. Okay, how do I see them. I downloaded Mp3tag. This is a great program. It is so versatile, that in the hands of a lower than novice, is a virgin lower than novice?, I could really mess these files up good. I started off trying to give them names that would tell me something when I look at the screen when playing and I could know where I was in the 983 files in this audio book. I played with the names but have not yet come up with the right way to name them so they show on the player. I hope someone can help me with this. I named each file in the same manner, Black-Ice-Disk01-Track-001.mp3 thru Black-Ice-Disk10-Track-983.mp3 and saved them. I again loaded them all into Mp3tag again and ran the program to name them all audiobook and serialized the files, 001/983, etc.

 

Hang in, almost finished. Now my files will stay in order. I then loaded them into the Fuze. It took almost 3 hours to load these files, 485mb, into the Fuze. Is this right or should it go faster than 3 hours. The files run good and they play well and are in order.

However, on the audiobooks screen it says unknown, unknown, Track 78, 179/983. The Titles page shows Track 78, Track 79, etc. But in Mp3tag I do not see the original track numbers of each disk, 1 thru 99. These are the names of the original files. How did Fuze use the original numbers after I thought I change them all in Mp3tag?

 

Does anyone have a really smooth method of transferring audiobooks to the Fuze with out spending more time than it takes to read the hard cover book? I have yet to get it down to a cookbook method to bang out a book an hour. Is there a simple Mp3tag 101 course on the forum or do I go to Mp3tag.com for that type of forum?

 

I’d really like to hear other ideas about these conversions.

Thanks for listening. Bobde2

7

When you get the audiobooks, how do the filenames look? Under Convert on mp3tag, you can Convert Filename to Tag. It has options for some of the most common filename systems, and you can also make your own options. Usually you don’t have to type them all in yourself.

Also, don’t use the slashes in Track Number. Under the Auto-Track Numbering Wizard, choose the Leading Zeroes option. 

Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 06-18-2009 08:01 PM

8

I just posted something similar.  I bought a Fuze 8 gb for my dad.  I’ve long listened to audio book that I’ve either bought or checked out on CD.  I’ve had many books be 20+ CD’s.  I always tried to down load the track names with Itunes or WMP as typing in a thousand track names is too much for me.  But, sometime it works flawlessly and some times you end of with weird track names and folder (if you’re lucky, all the tracks end up in one folder in the natural play order).  Some times it puts track in folder based on the CD # or “unknown”

 

I’ve got an older Ipod and either way, I always just built a play list for order of all the tracks and discs of each book and that work great in the past.  Now I trying to export all my files via playlists to my dad’s player and I’ve been struggling for over a week.  Anybody use playlists any more?

9

I’ve been watching this and similar threads to see if I could find a different way to

get audiobooks on my fuze.This way works fine for me for now.

I don’t have any other software other than Windows Media Player (WMP). I use MTP mode

because I get books from the library.

I am typing this for those who don’t have any other software except windows media player

and want to get a cd on the fuze.

This is what I do.

For books on multi- cds:

put first cd in WMP to be ripped to computer

THIS NEXT STEP IS IMPORTANT: DECIDING WHAT YOU WANT IN ADVANCE:

Decide on Album name : usually the books name
Decide on Artist name: usually author
Change Genre:          audiobook
Decide on Year:        usually book release, or cd release
Decide on Origional album name: usually same as album name: name of book
Decide on title name: usually the indivual chapter names. Example: “chapter 1” or

“Genesis chapter 1” “chapter 2”, or the actual name of first chapter “the beginning”

etc.

once ripped change all fields. Please note the Origional album and title name fields

will be in the next step.

Then right click on each title and hit advance tag editor.

Under track information you will see a place for title, origional album and next to

original album a field called set.

NOW HERE ARE THE CHANGES:

In the title field put the name of the chapter in the format you decided at the

beginning.

In the Origional album put the name you decided at the beginning.

In the set field for the first cd put 01 (remember to use the 01 not 1)

Now put in the second cd to be ripped and follow the same steps making sure all the

fields are the same except the title field, which will be then next chapter name and the

set field which will be 02.

Now third cd, everything the same and… title: next chapter and set field to 03

Enter cd’s until you have finished your book.

THE KEY IS TO KEEP ALL THE FIELDS THE SAME FOR ALL THE CD’S IN THE BOOK, EXCEPT THE SET

FIELD AND THE TITLE FIELD

It goes pretty quickly as you can have the next cd ripping while you are editing the cd

you just finished ripping.

NOTE: DON’T PANIC IF YOU SEE IN WINDOWS MEDIA THE FILES LISTED 1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3

jUST SYC TO YOUR FUZE.

once on you fuze check under audiobook. The audiobook will be listed and all the

chapters listed in correct order.

For books from the library:

my library uses overdrive- the program from the library.

When you go to transfer it will ask you if this is the location you want to load to your

device.

I hit advance and browse. I find audiobook file from my fuze and hit enter. I then hit

finish.  

The book is now loading to my fuze in the audiobook section. Once the book

loaded to my fuze I am all done. Check your fuze under audiobook and it is there ready

to go.

If you want to save the book, load to WMP, change genre to audiobook and all the other fields to match, and then sync…

You can but it is the long way.

Hope this helps.

10

Hi…I tried this in wmp and I kept disc 1 as chapter 1  and set field as 01…I did this with all of disc 1…right?    then continued with disc 2 and chapter 2 and set field as 02.

it was all out of order in my fuze. I went back to wmp and the track numbers were done as 1 next 2 next 3 etc. I had not entered anything in the track number. How do I handle this???   I think that’s what got me out of order…  Also, the audiobook went in my fuze as music. how do I keep that from happening.  thanks    glo