Folders (Let me just say it again.)

ID3 tags are part and parcel of the MP3 standard.  If you have an MP3 file, add the tag.  If you purchase, download from a vendor, rip from your CD collection, or a subscription service, those files will have the requisite metadata in the form of tags.  The only exception here is the Compact Disc, as an Internet connection is needed to pull the tag data from one of the available music databases.

 

MP3Tag does the trick for most users here, and it’s a free application.  Windows Media Player 11 has a tag editor, and there are many others.

 

 

ID3 tags allow the Sansa to automatically sort your music, making searches relatively trouble-free, and that is the ultimate goal.

 

I think I have to add something from my experience. I have the entire CD collection of The Beatles: the original LPs, not the compilations. But I don’t have them all in the Clip all the time (well actually I do, but suppose I don’t for the sake of my example). Now, if I want to listen to a compilation (such as the ‘Red Album’, the ‘Blue Album’ or my own compilation), I just make a playlist with the indicated songs, tell WMP to transfer the playlist and voila!!: WMP will check which of the songs in the playlists are already in the clip, and will transfer only the ones that are not. No song will be duplicated.

How do you do that with folders? You can’t. The only way to do it is duplicating the songs.

The other way around: somebody has a bunch of songs within a folder that do not belong to the same artist or album in a folder. How can the folder be played in the Clip? easy: with playlists!! And before eliasf’s script, that could be done easily (though not automatically) with a number of programs (WMP, Winamp, MP3tag…).

Conclusion: There are things that can be done with playlists but not with folders. However, I can’t think of something that can be done with folders but not with playlists.

The only thing I miss in the tag-based sorting is a better handling of compilation albums (i’ve written a lot about it). I want support for the Album Artist tag!!!

Regards

When you consider the fact that there are many many mp3 players that don’t use folders, or don’t allow you to browse by folder, I don’t really understand why - if folders are the be all and end all for someone - people don’t check to see if it is supported.  I mean, if I want a radio, I look to see which have one.  If I want playlists (and I really do), I look to make sure they’re supported. 

In addition, if I happen to buy something that fundamentally does not work the way I expected it to work, I would return it.  I wouldn’t sit waiting for someone to implement something that was never promised and is not something you can expect on every mp3 player ever made.  They are under no obligation to fulfil this particular wish. 

Why repeatedly flood a board with the word “folders”.  It’s frustrating me… some of you really need to chill.  A few minutes with playlists and you would have it working the way you want.  In fact, a few less pointless posts and you would’ve had time to make about 5 times as many playlists as you would ever require.

"I know. I’m going for the “squeaky wheel” approach. “Fol-DERS! Fol-DERS!” Come on, everybody! “Fol-DERS!”


“I’m beating the dead horse because, as I said, I’m hoping the squeaky wheel will get a little grease on an upcoming firmware release.”


_ "FOLDERS PLEASE!!!  _"


“It’s not “odd”, it the NORMAL way of the computer world. We’ve been using FOLDERS for over 30 YEARS! What’s wrong with doing things the RIGHT way?”


"Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders Folders

FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs FoLdErs

foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldERS foldER

At least give me the choice! I mean, it is MY toy! Let my do it MY way! Fix the **bleep** PROGRAM!"


"I want folders!    I want folders!    I want folders!    I want folders!

Sansa, give us folder support. If you can’t do it, hire some capable programmers to do it for you."


I think there are several here who need a ‘time-out’!

I copied & pasted these quotes from this ‘never-ending’ thread to demonstrate how silly & childish some of you really sound! Expressing your opinions and wishes is one thing, but constantly harping on this issue in this juvenile way is not only counter-productive but most assuredly is not going to convince SanDisk to change their minds on the subject.

SanDisk has moved on . . . maybe it’s time you did to?

Message Edited by Tapeworm on 10-28-2008 02:40 PM

Tapeworm, I definitely agree with everything you just posted.  Unfortunately, Sandisk is partly to blame for this whining by recently adding the following to their home page:

 

(Note, not just “for discussions”, but “for questions”.  Sigh.)

Clicking on the link leads the clicker to these forums.  I think this has brought us a whole new set of forum participants who believe that this is some officially sanctioned medium for getting requests submitted to Sandisk.

Message Edited by PromisedPlanet on 10-28-2008 02:05 PM

I’m all for encouraging new Sansa owners to visit and/or join the forum, but the picture and included link do not say (or even imply) that any questions or discussions are directed to, or involved with any ‘official’ voice representing SanDisk.

And expressing one’s opinion and/or point of view is not a bad thing in itself; in fact the 1st Amendment guarantess all of us as citizens in this country this right,  but. . . the incessant p!ssing & moaning by the same few people in multiple threads over 1 subject that has already been said by a representative of SanDisk “probably isn’t going to happen” is definitely not ‘contibuting positively to the community’!

Actually the quote was, “Unfortunately,  implementation on the Clip is not easy due to its very limited memory space.” I read that as, “Sure, anything’s possible; someday pigs might fly too, but don’t hold your breath.”

There are some members here that have over 100 posts under their belts and their latest posts still echo of their 1st. Almost every ‘contribution’ they make, whether it is on subject or not, whether it is asked for or not; includes a re-hash of their wants & desires, and why can’t it be done; it would be so much better; others do it; it should be simple. All this negativity and wasted time, both for them in typing all this up and for all of the rest of us who have to wade through all this muck just to maybe find out something new or perhaps help someone who is having problems. Or just maybe to have an intelligent conversation and/or discussion about something positive or something that has a ‘snowball’s chance in He||’ of happening!

OK . . . We’ve heard you! . . . You’ve made you point! . . . May we please discuss something else now?

Whew . . . I feel so much better now. :smiley:

Message Edited by Tapeworm on 10-28-2008 03:08 PM

@tapeworm wrote:

I’m all for encouraging new Sansa owners to visit and/or join the forum, but the picture and included link do not say (or even imply) that any questions or discussions are directed to, or involved with any ‘official’ voice representing SanDisk.

 

And expressing one’s opinion and/or point of view is not a bad thing in itself; in fact the 1st Amendment guarantess all of us as citizens in this country this right,  but. . . the incessant p!ssing & moaning by the same few people in multiple threads over 1 subject that has already been said by a representative of SanDisk “isn’t going to happen” is definitely not ‘contibuting positively to the community’!

 

There are some members here that have over 100 posts under their belts and their latest posts still echo of their 1st. Almost every ‘contribution’ they make, whether it is on subject or not, whether it is asked for or not; includes a re-hash of their wants & desires, and why can’t it be done; it would be so much better; others do it; it should be simple. All this negativity and wasted time, both for them in typing all this up and for all of the rest of us who have to wade through all this muck just to maybe find out something new or perhaps help someone who is having problems. Or just maybe to have an intelligent conversation and/or discussion about something positive or something that has a ‘snowball’s chance in He||’ of happening!

 

OK . . . We’ve heard you! . . . You’ve made you point! . . . May we please discuss something else now?

 

Whew . . . I feel so much better now. :smiley:

Amen

I think the board administrators should add a sticky wishlist thread to each device-specific board.  Then if some clueless folks insist on demanding the same feature over and over again, at least we can direct them to that thread.

Hey folks, don’t you have something better to do than hang on this forum every day all day long. Go out, have some beer with your friends; find some chicks to have fun with or go to the gym, hit play on the Clip and lift some weights

@giltic wrote:

Hey folks, don’t you have something better to do than hang on this forum every day all day long. Go out, have some beer with your friends; find some chicks to have fun with or go to the gym, hit play on the Clip and lift some weights

Why? Did this strike a nerve?

No, not at all Tapeworm. I’m just having fun browsing this forum and share my ‘Clip joy’ with others.

I got the Clip because it has very good sound and it’s so small and I couldn’t find a store to stock Cowon arround here and

because I’m not really a Sony guy.

So I guess I’ll stay with the Clip - I am waiting for 4G Black version to appear in our stores.

By the way; I live in the EU and I’m tempted to order it from the USA. Do you know any good stores?

Got a problem with the lack of folder support? Save some cash and buy a Cowon D2, or even a T60 :wink: Heard that rockbox may be coming for the clip. That might just solve the problem. Tags ■■■■ monkey b***z, to say the least.

@actionboy wrote:

Tags ■■■■ monkey b***z, to say the least.

Nah, it just depends on how you use your player, where you acquire your audio, etc.

 

I get my music from ripped CDs, amazon.com, and the iTunes Store.  I’ve synced both my Sansa Clip and Sansa Connect with various music manager programs … WMP, MediaMonkey, Rhapsody etc.  I listen exclusively to music (no audio books etc.), and have no need to access a song by any other means than thru Artist, Album or Song Title.  I have no problems with tags, and no problems with a lack of folder support.

 

Different strokes, for different folks, and so on and so on and doobie doobie doobie.

‘‘Nah, it just depends on how you use your player, where you acquire your audio, etc.’’

________________________________________________________________________

Then give us an option !

If you want to use tags then use them - lucky you, Sansa gives this option.

I want to use folders - bad luck for me - no go with Sandisk players.

**bleep**; Clip is such a nice player; but with no folder option - Sandisk programmers ■■■■ big time - they just don’t know how to

incorporate folders it the firmware.

What other reason could it be? :wink:

@giltic wrote:

‘‘Nah, it just depends on how you use your player, where you acquire your audio, etc.’’

________________________________________________________________________

 

Then give us an option !

If you want to use tags then use them - lucky you, Sansa gives this option.

I want to use folders - bad luck for me - no go with Sandisk players.

**bleep**; Clip is such a nice player; but with no folder option - Sandisk programmers ■■■■ big time - they just don’t know how to

incorporate folders it the firmware.

What other reason could it be? :wink:

 

As Neutron_Bob so elegantly pointed out :wink: … giving users more functionality means more support calls, which means more $ spent by SanDisk.  It’s a trade-off, and my guess is that SanDisk weighed the cost of the additional support calls versus the potential increased sales from adding folder support.

Whereas SanDisk felt that adding MSC mode, for example, would be worth the additional support calls.  Yet take a gander at all the posts to this forum that are a result of the existence of MSC mode, and imagine how many of them would not have been posted if MSC mode hadn’t existed at all.

Whether SanDisk made the right decision about folder support (if that’s what they actually did), well, who knows.  But coming to the conclusion that “Sandisk programmers ■■■■ big time” seems kind of bizarre.  Especially given how amazingly responsive they are to users’ requests in this forum, and how solid the firmware releases have been to date. 

PromisedPlanet; I must agree with you. There is nothing wrong with Sandisk programmers.

I doubt that folder support would increase sales. This is just a side function.

What counts for most people is sound quality and design.

When I ripp my own CD-s I usually don’t bother with tags; I just put songs in folders named by artist and album.

As we said, Clip doesn’t support folders - so what I do…

I open Tag&Rename and change tags like this:

Title: Telegraph Road

Album: Dire Straits - Alchemy

Artist: Dire Straits - Alchemy

If I brouse the music by Album or by Artist I always get the same name (in our case Dire Straits - Alchemy). Thats my way to have folders.

In the case of compilations my tags looks like this:

Title: Dire Straits - Telegraph Road

Album: Compilation 1

Artist: Compilation 1

@giltic wrote:

 

When I ripp my own CD-s I usually don’t bother with tags; I just put songs in folders named by artist and album.

OK on the folders, but … your CD ripper doesn’t tag?

OK on the folders, but … your CD ripper doesn’t tag?

____________________________________________

No.

As far as I know, there are no tags on audio CD-s. I usually use CDex 1.51 CD ripper and converter with Lame MP3 encoder engine 3.98MMX.

First I extract CD tracks to WAV files on the harddisk, then I convert to MP3 - the songs are without tags and with simple names like 01-AudioTrack 01.

I never convert to MP3 directly from CD. For more demanding stuff I use Exact Audio Copy with same procedure - first extract to wav and then convert to MP3.

The next step is Tag&Rename - I can write tags on hand or get tags from Freedb.

When I get tags from Freedb I usually delete all entries except song titles, then manualy rewrite Album and Artist (in my example - Album: Dire Straits - Alchemy ; Artist: Dire Straits - Alchemy).

When I get music from Torrents (usually comes in MP3 format with tags) I also delete all entries except song titles and rewrite album and artist.

@giltic wrote:

OK on the folders, but … your CD ripper doesn’t tag?

____________________________________________

 

No.

As far as I know, there are no tags on audio CD-s. I usually use CDex 1.51 CD ripper and converter with Lame MP3 encoder engine 3.98MMX.

First I extract CD tracks to WAV files on the harddisk, then I convert to MP3 - the songs are without tags and with simple names like 01-AudioTrack 01.

I never convert to MP3 directly from CD. For more demanding stuff I use Exact Audio Copy with same procedure - first extract to wav and then convert to MP3.

The next step is Tag&Rename - I can write tags on hand or get tags from Freedb.

When I get tags from Freedb I usually delete all entries except song titles, then manualy rewrite Album and Artist (in my example - Album: Dire Straits - Alchemy ; Artist: Dire Straits - Alchemy).

When I get music from Torrents (usually comes in MP3 format with tags) I also delete all entries except song titles and rewrite album and artist.

 

Why not rip to FLAC instead of Wav.  Then you’ll have lossless + tags from your rip.  Then when you convert to MP3, the tags should carry over.  In fact, since you’re already using EAC, you should look into using the REACT automation tool.  Then you could use EAC to rip to both FLAC (or Wav) and MP3 in one shot.  EAC + REACT is a really powerful combo.  Takes a bit of effort to setup, but once you’ve done, it’s awesome.

Skinjob;

there are no tags on my music CD-s.

________________________________________________________________________

‘‘Why not rip to FLAC instead of Wav.  Then you’ll have lossless + tags from your rip.’’ 

________________________________________________________________________

I can agree with you on loosless format, but…

if there are no tags on the CD, is there a way Flac ripper/converter could show/write tags to my ripped songs without going to the internet and finding tags from some database?

@giltic wrote:

 

if there are no tags on the CD, is there a way Flac ripper/converter could show/write tags to my ripped songs without going to the internet and finding tags from some database?

 

EAC does it! For me it searches freedb automatically when inserting a new CD, but in case it doesn’t, I go to Database –> Get CD Information from –> remote freedb and done!