Tags certainly allow more flexibility than folder view. But folder view offers greater, no-thinking ease–no need to do anything to your collection. Having both available always seems the best option.
@cllipman wrote:
Tagging is hit or miss? LOL…ya just gotta learn to be creative with the various fields. For instance: I often use the “albumn” tag for other data that helps me organize the music in a customized fashion- since I never load or listen to full albumns. Just think of each info field as an opportunity to create a custom label to help arrange the music in various ways. Believe it or not…with a little creativity, it actually allows you more flexibility than a folder view.
It all sounds good in theory, but I can’t be arsed to edit every single file manually to achieve the desired result. Yes, I’ve tried all the software programs that do batch tagging, and they’re all hit or miss. Sometimes the tag ends up album name, song name, artist, and sometimes it’s song name, artist, album name, but they’re never consistent, so either I edit the tags one-by-one or I re-rip my collection and hope the tags populate consistently. And even when the tags “look” right, it doesn’t mean my Clip is going to display them properly. My music plays alphabetically, by song name, no matter what’s in the song name field, or what the Clip decides is in the song name field. Playlists are the only thing that seem to work consistently for me.
Just because you’ve had a certain experience with something does not mean that everyone will have your experience (or results). One of the reasons I don’t have an iPod is because I don’t want to be told how to listen to my music, so I’m certainly not going to tolerate the same from another audio device maker.
Given the DAP industry “default” to tags and even though I much prefer folder view, I’ve just gotten into the habit of editing/adding/checking tags whenever I get new music/book files.
Nicely, even though the Clip does not (yet?!?) allow folder view, it seemingly will be allowing for non-tagged books and podcasts with the next firmware release (any day now?), the area where it seems to me this is most needed, given the shorter lifespan of those types of files.
try id3-tagit.de its the best id3 tagger I have tried everything and spent years finding this program. the others are filled with clutter and doesnt offer the streamlined support and flexability this wonderful program brings to the table. seriously i have tried them all and have found that a mix of id3-tagit and mp3 tagrunner will get you organizing your massive collection in no time! sure the interface might not be user firendly at first but it’s very efficiant once you memorize shortcuts. I used to use lupas rename2000 for albums that needed their filenames cleaned up but the id3-tagit utility has this awsome feature which grabs the id3v2 or v1 if you prefer and names the file according to the id3 or vice versa.
@radiatedant wrote:
try id3-tagit.de its the best id3 tagger I have tried everything and spent years finding this program.
Thanks, I’ve not tried that one. I still have a version of Windows installed on one of my laptop drives, so I’ll copy a few songs over via my home network and give it a test run. What I wouldn’t give to finally get rid of the dreaded “Unknown” artist/album/track.
Message Edited by cydewaze on 04-16-2008 02:45 PM
Cydewaze: Had you tried MP3tag?
Believe me- at first, I too thought not having folder organization was going to be a pain…but I used MP3tag to batch convert almost 1300 files (in smaller groups)…and it literally took me less than 10 minutes- you can just alter the tags you want without effecting the others.
I think you’ll even see a post somewhere on here from me, back when I first got my Clip, hoping that they’d add folder view in a future update…but now I no longer care. (And yes, I have all of those nearly 1300 files on my Clip…about 1100 of them are low bit-rate Audiobible chapters. Believe me…if i can organize the entire Bible and about 200 songs with ID3…it’s gotta be easy!
Cllipman, if MP3tag has a way to just grab the filename and make it a metatag, then I’m sold. I have a lot of audiobooks and audiodrama that have no tag information at all. I mean like 14-15 thousand files (many are tagged but a lot don’t). All I need is something that will show the filename when the file plays and will play the correct files in the correct order.
But yeah, no matter what, if the device supports MSC mode it just seems to make logical sense to have a folder view.
The Godfather will do this. And the next firmware revision (coming soon) seemingly won’t require this (that is, tags) for audiobooks and podcasts.
Sweeet! “filename to tag” that is perfect, thanks for letting me know :smileyvery-happy:
Hello.
I read some reviews and I really like Sansa Clip 2Gb. I want to buy it but the only thing stops me is mp3tags insteard of folder browsing. I’ve got hundreds gigabytes of mp3 and it is impossible for me to deal with mp3tags. I like my folders and I don’t have time for adding tags to all my music collection.
Will you include “folder view” option in firmware in the nearest future?
Bite the bullet and get mp3tag (or some other mp3 tagging util), you can mass-tag (automatically) all your MP3s by using your existing folder name/file name conventions, you won’t have to type anything other than setting up the tagging options in mp3tag.
Then all your files will work wherever you use them. I hated tags at first myself but have come to appreciate the power of using them consistently and across the board on my library…
I think it’s highly unlikely that Sansa will add folder browsing to the Clip since it has been stated that the device is somewhat memory constrained and the available resources are being used to fix operational bugs (leaving little to none for a secondary, redundant file sorting method).
What Click says!
I was disappointed at first that the Clip didn’t support folder view, as I have quite an eclectic collection of mp3 files, and I didn’t want an audiobible file coming up on shuffle when I’m listening to '70’s rock or '40’s hit parade! -and I had never really bothered with ID3 tags before…whatever tag (if any) that a file had when it was ripped or downloaded…was all it would ever have)
As soon as I got the Clip, I realized I would have to make efficient use of the ID3 tags to organize my mp3 files…so I downloaded mp3Tag as othjers have recommended here…and I don’t think I’ve spent 10 minutes in the 5 months that I’ve owned my Clip, re-tagging over 1400 files. -and, as a result, I can get my Clip to do exactly what I want it to do, just as if it had folder view. So…I no longer consider lack of folder view a detriment. In fact, I actually PREFER it this way now!
Message Edited by Cllipman on 05-12-2008 09:33 AM
As I get new music, I simply add tagging to the download/ripping process. Simply a necessary part of MP3 life. And not too painful if done as you add music (as distinct from your current situation, playing catch-up!). But even there, as others have noted, you can mass tag using your file and folder structure–although that won’t fill in all your tag information, it could be enough for your present purposes.
Back in the day with my iRiver 512MP player, I was a firm believer of organzing according to the more traditional hierarchy (folder view) as I couldn’t stand the forced iRiver app; hence I opted for the mass storage fw… but after getting used to the no fuss shuffle and then later on dumping iTunes all together in favor of organizing my entire collection in WMP… song management has become a complete 180 for me… I no longer wish to spend a great deal of time organzing and creating folder; deciding what I want and don’t want on the device, and clicking through endless droves of folders on my computer while dragging over to the player in a similar (albeit organized) nest of folders, only to be repeated when I want new songs. Now it’s as simple as tagging songs in WMP with stars, creating a playlist of 4 and 5 star tracks, and syncing to my player. Anytime I want something other than what’s on the playlist I can search –> choose add to playlist –> sync device… or just create a new playlist in WMP which is a heck of a lot less painless than explorer (or even a 3rd party file explorer). I know there are a lot of media players that are more functional than WMP but I very much prefer it for the simple task of music, with CD Art Display of courses. Vid management and playback is a whole other ball park.
Just got my Sandisk Sansa Clip 2gb today. Plugged it in and checked the Music folder. Awesome i thought, they have folder view.
Uploaded some music to the clip, turned it on and …AWWWWWWW **bleep**. no folder view.
While some might argue tags are the future or whatever, there are still people who prefer not using tags.
I prefer keeping my computer as clean as possible to a minimum, and installing some tagging program that I have no use for on my normal desktop (only on the portable mp3 player) makes no sense to me.
Most of my reason is that I make a folders based on “playlist”
/Music/Favorites
/Music/Jpop
/Music/Anime
or just sorted like
/Music/Anime/Code Geass
Yes, i can tag it, but i prefer not to. It’s not because I’m lazy, but rather a preference. Who are to tell my preference is wrong?
I’m not saying switch over to folder view only, but merely saying it would be nice if you could choose in the options List View > Folder or Tag.
For those defending tags, it surely doesn’t hurt if they add it as an additional option? You can keep using tags.
Other than that, Sandisk Sansa Clip is close to perfect, one of the better players i’ve tried so far.
Just lending my voice to the folder view. If Sandisk decides to add it some day in a future (not next since they stated it will not be in next) firmware, I will order 1 more player, just to show appreciation of them listening to the customers. Does Sandisk care about 1 more sale? No. Do they care about customer satisfaction? One can only hope. Seeing that this seems to be a quite requested feature.
Message Edited by shuntensatsu on 05-14-2008 09:49 AM
Message Edited by shuntensatsu on 05-14-2008 09:55 AM
Message Edited by shuntensatsu on 05-14-2008 10:02 AM
Message Edited by shuntensatsu on 05-14-2008 10:08 AM
My thought is, since I can get the player to do what I want it to do with ID3 tags, it’s a non-issue. (The MP3Tag program does not take up alot of disc space, and does not contain any unnecessary garbage or bloatware, etc.). As long as it works for me…and isn’t a hassle, I really don’t care either way- tags or folder view. Who knows, maybe on future Clips with higher capacities, they’ll offer the option of both…but I think the OS memory area of the 2GB Clip is getting a little crowded already, so it probably will never be an option for the 2GB.
I can live with either system…so I won’t lose any sleep over it- and this coming from someone who has never used tags before…
thanks for the recommedation of mp3tag. I’ve been using ID3-TagIT for awhile now, on the rare occurences that tags don’t display at all in WMP in which case I must sometimes convert copy ID3v1 tag to v2, or generate tags from filenames. Most times, everything is tagged correctly from the get-go whether you rip your own CD and choose to do as such or via digital downloads. Even WMP has a ID3 tag editor which may lack expert features (e.g. converting etc.) but works realy well for basic use.
I like MP3Tag, because I do not use a media pl;ayer or anything…I just drag and drop my files directly to the Clip- and so the little MP3Tag is all I need.
@miikerman wrote:
Tags certainly allow more flexibility than folder view. But folder view offers greater, no-thinking ease–no need to do anything to your collection. Having both available always seems the best option.
I concur. My collection’s already burnt on DVDs; I don’t feel like putting everything back onto my computer, adding tags and then burning everything again. So you can add me to the list of people who’ll keep waiting for a folder view.
I do like tags, I do. I use them when I record mp3 files for my students. But in some cases, nothing beats the brainless ease of use of folders.
