First, I’d like to thank Sandisk for a good product and timely firmware updates - very nice to have a company so responsive.
Second, I know this has been discussed, but I just wanted to re-iterate it in hopes that Sandisk is listening: I would like to be able to browse the file system on the Clip for my music.
I’m pretty good about keeping up with my tagging, but I find it inefficient for finding my music, especially considering that I already have all my music organized by folders. That’s the biggest reason I don’t like the iPod - I don’t want another piece of software (iTunes) to “organize” things for me - I already have it organized the way I want it.
Sandisk went half-way and allows me to mount my Clip as MSC (which is great) - if they could just provide folders, then I could drag and drop the music I want to listen to that day onto my clip and find it quickly and easily.
At the very least, change the way tag searching is implemented on the Clip. For example as it is now, if I search via Genre, as was suggested in a previous post, I’m taken to the Artists listed in the genre I chose, not the Album. So if I look for Rock music, I’m presented with every artist on a compilation, even if they only have one song. I’d much rather be taken to Genre-Album.
I love the size and sound of the clip, and the fact that it mounts as a drive, and so will suffer through having to use tags for the time being until they change it or I find a better mix of features for me. But it would make the Clip almost perfect to add folder browsing support (I say “almost” because I would also like to see a microSD slot…).
Yes, the Clip is a very good player. The one thing that I would really like to see is support for folders–either by allowing browsing by folders or just reading the disc number tag.
How could you possibly organize your folders other than by artist or album or genre? It makes no sense to organize by year, as you can’t fit enough music on the clip for that to make sense.
I’m just curious to know what kind of odd way you organize your music that you can’t do it with tags.
I suppose I could understand just wanting to listen to a few tracks, throwing them in one folder, and not having to create some playlist for them just to do that.
I’m just curious to know what kind of odd way you organize your music that you can’t do it with tags.
It’s not an odd way… it’s just Artist–>Album.
But what happens when you have a compilation album? or a ‘duets’ album (where all the songs are by ‘the Artist with someone’)? The only way of selecting it is by going to the Album list, because all artists will be different. And if you have a 4Gb Clip (I do) you can have a huge list of albums (besides, with a few of compilations you can easily have 50+ artists… maybe 100+).
Want to do it by genre? the Genres will take you again to an artist list, not an album list.
So the only option is a playlist, and that makes me feel like the Artist–>Album scheme is rendered useless. Or unusable, to be more precise.
I’m just curious to know what kind of odd way you organize your music that you can’t do it with tags.
It’s not an odd way… it’s just Artist–>Album.
But what happens when you have a compilation album? or a ‘duets’ album (where all the songs are by ‘the Artist with someone’)?
Exactly. If I browse by genre tag, where the genre is “Compilation,” then I’m presented with thousands of artists to choose from, which isn’t what I want. I want the mix album I have made of songs I stored in one folder. Similarly, if I browse by the genre “Rock,” then I’m presented again by all the artists, even if they only have one song on a compilation album. Conversely, if I browse by Album, then I only have one level to my hierarchy - I have to look through all the albums I have regardless of what genre.
I realize I could manage some of this by playlists, but with the equivalent of 800-some CDs, that’s a lot of playlists to make, and just one more thing to maintain.
The open-source Rockbox handles both database (tags) and folder browsing well on other Sandisk models, and my old Samsung does it too, so I know that it is feasible. I’d like to see it on the clip so that both the tag and the folders fans could be happy with the same product.
Here’s a good example: a friend of mine just gave me a 4 -disk set of unique music by one local artist that he’d pulled together from a variety of different sources - 7-inch vinyl, live performances, local TV appearances, etc. I’ve tagged all the songs as being by the same artist and the same genre, but I’ve made the album tag be the source of the song (the original 7-inch vinyl, the particular TV show, whatever), because I want to know where it originally came from. But that leaves about 40 different albums when I search by Album, or even by Artist then album, for that matter. I can’t just listen to the first disk of the 4 disk set unless I create a playlist, but I don’t want to have to do that for all my 800 CDs that I already have organized by folders.
I could put the original performance info in the comment tag, but then I wouldn’t be able to see it on the Click’s screen when it is playing (which is typically when I would want to reference that info.)
Again, I think we all understand this. 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.
Being squeaky can be great. But I think It’s also important to note that in adding this feature, the Clip becomes inherently more attractive to many, and undoubtedly will enhance sales. There are still many people out there who only will buy a player that has folder view. It also builds further goodwill, and enhances sales potential, with the current customer base.
I listen to downloaded radio talk shows. I have enjoyed my RCA mp3 player, till I lost it.
I just got the clip and discovered it couldn’t do Folders, even thought the salesperson said it could because it has audiobooks.
Folders are great because you can organize the shows by dates and in the order you want to hear them.
I am able to listen to them with the clip, having to select each show when the other one is over. I would rather it be in my pocket all day and playing the shows automatically.
If RCA can do folders, surely Sandisk can figure out how.
Soooooooooooooooooo any movement on this whole folder biz? Is it really that big of a deal to include such a feature. Because it’s pretty odd to have an MSC mode and NOT have folders. Why cripple the usablility of this device???
Hi. (I think I posted this in the wrong place before, so my apoligies if someone reads this twice). I just got a new clip. I am using a Mac and I don’t use playlists at all–but I would like to use folders. At first it seems you can’t with a clip, but then I realized the clip has a whole bunch of folders–audiobooks, podcasts, audible–already set up. I put some mp3 files in them and they work. Anyone know if I am using a nifty way to grab a few folders to organize my stuff–or am I setting myself up for crash disaster? Thanks.
You can use folders on the Clip for file storage. However, the Clip does not have a file view feature to view your files and select them–that’s what many would like.
You can use folders on the Clip for file storage. However, the Clip does not have a file view feature to view your files and select them for playing–that’s what many would like.
Well, “audible” and “voice recordings” don’t work–but the folders “audiobooks” and “podcasts” do let you let you drag mp3 files into them and then see them on the clip. If you try to rename the folders, though, the clip won’t recognize them.
This may be really obvious and clunky and not that big a deal to folks who are trying to work with albums (and useless to folks who are actually using these folders), but the ability to have two real extra folders (for different kinds of tracks) that do show up on the clip makes a world of difference to me–as long as doing this doesn’t cause it to crash. Seems to be fine so far though.
Those 2 folders are the 2 exceptions–no tags needed for the files placed there, and the Clip separately files/lists them as audiobooks or podcasts. An advance in the last firmware revision.
“If RCA can do folders, surely Sandisk can figure out how.”
The workaround is to use a program like mp3Tag to give a folder full of podcasts on your pc the same album name,
and to autonumber the tracks, so they stay together as a unit. Then if you give them the genre Audio or Podcast then they will appear in the audiobook or podcast section of the player, and they will play in sequence of track number for audiobooks, or reverse sequence for podcasts(so I have my podcasts listed as audiobooks so they play in the correct order). This is an annoying workaround, but at least it works. I should be in charge of my player though, and not have my player in charge of me.
I’m getting by w/o them but yeah, I’ve been a folder man for a long time and my car audio all uses folders. Here’s a tip for the Sansa team for what I believe to be the best design in the industry if it were implemented.
Folders would be an option right next to albums, artists, etc.
In any of these categories, instead of choosing one, the list should have check marks for on or off with a clear all/select all option. So you can run down your list and “include” albums or folders or artists in the current playlist. Then you need a feature to clear the current playlist.
This would greatly please any old school WinAmp junkies like myself. As it is I just randomize the 4G of tunes and skip things I’m not in the mood for. But if I could select all, then deselect a few albums, I’d be in heaven. Or maybe dump in a couple genre’s, then remove one artist. Simple to code up, but I’m sure very hard to fit on this little product since that running list could get pretty huge. But that’s the dream anyway and I’d gladly give up some space for the running playlist on the filesystem.
