transferring mp3 filenames/directories/folders...

Have you heard of "tags"? They are bits of information stored within mp3 files that contain information about the file itself. The most common is called "ID3" and there are two major versions ID3v1 and ID3v2. The iPod uses the v2 tag.

The tag itself contains information like the name of the song (which is independent of the song's filename), the artist name, album name, and track no. It's that track no that you are interested in. If you tag the files correctly with the proper track numbers, the albums will play in order (unless you've got shuffle mode on).

How do you tag files? The best program to use, if your files aren't tagged yet, is MusicMatch. It can find the tags for your files from a public database of mp3 file tags by using some information you give it. For example, you give it the artist and track name, it will look up the album name, track number and even a picture of the album cover itself for you. Once you've got the basic tag information in there, you can use a more powerful tagger like ID3TagIt to do mass tag updates and customize your tags. iTunes will also do tagging, but it's not as powerful as the other programs.

Many CD ripping programs, like MusicMatch, iTunes, and CDex will also automatically look up tags for the ripped mp3 files.

Unless MMJB has been fixxed than it is the worst tagger on the internet. I was one of the first users of MMJB and pretty much used it until I bought my iPod, at which point I discovered that Musicmatch had a bug that would remove the last character of some atributes. So, to fix it Musicmatch went and added a space at the end of them, which then introduced another problem. I had bands like The Beatle, and The Beatles, and The Beatles_ and The Beatles__. Not good when you are trying to play the White album and it is listed under three or four different groups.

I think that most, if not all of the problems people have with multiple listings of groups or albums can be directly linked to MMJB.

Bill McNair

What does the ipod care about then with the tags?

How does it organize the files?
By Artist? By Album?

I need to tag close to 3000 files and I want to them right(or atleast however the Ipod wants it).

How do the ipod deal with files that dont necessarily have all the tag info? missing artist or album or track no etc?

K

Dudes, I wasn't saying that MM was the best tagger PERIOD. I said The best program to use, if your files aren't tagged yet, is MusicMatch.In my opinion, it has an excellent tag lookup feature.

I go on to add Once you've got the basic tag information in there, you can use a more powerful tagger like ID3TagIt to do mass tag updates and customize your tags.I let MM do some of the ground work, then use a better tagger to fix all those problems that I'd heard MusicMatch introduces (though I haven't really seen them myself).

My intended audience was a beginner when it came to tagging, so I didn't get into all the nuances. I agree with your observations that MM is definitely NOT the best tagger. I only meant to suggest that it should be used when the files themselves don't have any tag information yet.

kktk:

Did you not read the reply? I told you what tags to populate.

There is not "order" to tags. They are just fields you populate.

Do this. Download iTunes. Import your songs into it. You'll see it list songs. That information is the tags. Where it's blank, put in the information.

Adam

Actually let's clarify some things:

iTunes will only be able to enter the track number tags if it finds the cd in the Gracenote CDDB.

And the poster said he's already ripped his tunes--they just aren't tagged. Or he doesn't know if they are tagged.

And regarding uppercase and lowercase, that doesn't make a difference.

Adam