To all,
This should be so simple but it isn’t and I have spent countless hours searching this forum, the net and trying to do it on my software.
I have hundreds of albums recorded in various formats (.mp3, mostly .wav). For many of the albums the software I used did separate the songs into their separate tracks.
I know how to convert all the separate tracks to mp3 as well as figured out how to export the tracks and/or chain them.
I want to save the tracks for each album into a single folder. I want the tracks to play consecutively and the folder should simply display the albums name.
The saved albums will be moved to a USB stick for playing the albums on my truck stereo (HUD type).
I have no problem with MP3 albums that I download to my USB stick displaying correctly on my HUD, but I can’t seem to place (export?) the tracks into a folder that also displays like the ones I download online. All the music I have converted displays on my HUD (even if it is in a folder) as single tracks but every attempt I have made to put them in some type of folder that displays on the HUD has failed.
I have Audacity and MediaMonkey software but all I really want is the easiest method to do this in a step by step fashion. Audacity seems the simplest to use. Help please. I have gotten so frustrated trying to figure this out.
Of course, we don’t know how your car stereo works…
Are your songs [u]tagged[/u]? Generally, the song/artist/album/track number, etc. is stored in tags (metadata stored in the file).
(.mp3, mostly .wav).
WAV files might be a problem. Tags are not well-supported on WAV files. With compressed files, your player can probably read the tags for any format it supports (including any lossless-compressed formats it supports).
The physical location of files in folders usually doesn’t matter to the player… i.e. If you select all songs tagged with the album name “The Eagles Greatest Hits”, all of those songs should be selected and played. And, the information should be displayed, depending on the capabilities & options of your player/player-software.
If your files are not already tagged, Audacity can do it and I believe MediaMonkey can do it. (I use MP3tag.)
I want the tracks to play consecutively
Your player should be able to sort/play in track-number order (from the embedded track number), or it may have an option to play randomly, or in alphabetical order, etc.
All the music I have converted displays on my HUD (even if it is in a folder) as single tracks but every attempt I have made to put them in some type of folder
It might not display the folder name, it may only display the embedded album name.
Currently I converted the music files to MP3 and they show up separately on the HUD even when I have put them in a folder on the USB drive. They play without any issues although the folder does not show up at all in the HUD display. In my downloaded music I get a display on the HUD showing artist or albums (I can choose which) which in turn contain the music files. Those folders also show up when I open my USB stick on my computer although they don’t seem to contain any specific properties tying them with the music. So, how do I create/tag folders that will show up with my music in them?
When I suggested to look in Explorer compare the files that display correctly and incorrectly in HUD, you can also right-click the files and choose Properties to compare the metadata. Check the properties of the files not the folders for metadata, but also check differences between the subfolder structure for the correctly and incorrectly displayed files.
It could also be that HUD is creating virtual folders that don’t exist in reality. If so this will almost certainly be based on tag information, or some content in the files that lets it retrieve tag information itself (if it does that).
Of course you can also drag the files into Audacity then File > Edit Metadata Tags… to look at or add/change the metadata. But for MP3 files you are better to add or edit metadata in MP3Tag or similar than in Audacity, because rewriting an MP3 in Audacity will degrade the file.
It could even be that your HUD does not work correctly for Variable Bit Rate MP3 which is Audacity default, but you can change in Audacity to Constant Bit Rate and re-export if you accept the quality loss. The online files will probably be Constant Bit Rate. You can check details like this in MediaInfo (but don’t get the installer version because it could contain other unwanted applications).
Ultimately this isn’t an Audacity problem and we are just guessing. If you can’t figure out what is causing the difference, it would be best to contact the supplier of the player equipment or software.