How do I get songs to play in the proper sequence?

I don't have separate playlists for each album in my player, but when I search for and play the results from particular source, I would like it to play the tracks in order. Even with the shuffle mode off it doesn't play the tracks in the album order. AFAIK the tracks all have track numbers in their tags. Is there a way to get the tracks to play in the same order as they are on the album without dividing my playlists by album?

Also, when I search for and begin playing a particular song while the player is playing a track in the playlist, can I get the player to resume where it left off after it has finished playing the some I searched for? I would like to return to the same sequence of tracks that was playing so that I don't hear the same song twice.

I hope these issues aren't covered in the FAQ, as I have searched for them for some time, but haven't found the answers.

Thanks,

Stu

What terms did you search on?

A search on "Correct Order" reveals this item.

I can't remember exactly what I searched under, but I ended up in the section about the best way to organize playlists. I don't remember seeing this before. I noticed it says "updated on February 27th, 2002" perhaps the last time I read the FAQ (beginning of January 2002), it wasn't there at all? Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

How do I resume playback of a playlist from the same position it left off after searching and subsequently playing a single song or a multiple of songs?

Stu

perhaps the last time I read the FAQ (beginning of January 2002), it wasn't there at all?

It's been there all along (since before the FAQ was moved to riocar.org), the date code was just indicating an update or a wording change. But no matter, all is well.

How do I resume playback of a playlist from the same position it left off after searching and subsequently playing a single song or a multiple of songs?

If you remember to set a bookmark before selecting the single/multiple songs, you can go back to that bookmark.

Alternatively, you can use "insert" mode to play the single/multiple songs and not even have to do the bookmark.

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Alternatively, you can use "insert" mode to play the single/multiple songs and not even have to do the bookmark.

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If I used the insert mode, will I forever have multiple instances of the inserted song if they are already present in the currently playing playlist? Thanks!

Stu

Nothing you do from the player's front panel is permanent. It only changes the current running order of songs in the player's temporary storage (RAM & scratchdisk).

The only way to permanently alter a playlist is to use emplode.

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What terms did you search on?

A search on "Correct Order" reveals this item.

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I followed the procedure in this entry and still can't get the songs to play in the "correct" order. I have the playlist in "view details" mode with the position column highlighted. After arranging the songs in the album order,syncing, making sure the player is in unshuffled mode, and searching by source for the album I want, the player plays the songs in a totally different order from what the position column indicates.

The same thing happens when I try to play the whole playlist without searching. Any ideas?

Stu

Does it play in a different order every time? If so, you might have a shuffle mode on, or you might have accidentally marked the playlist to always randomize. Pull up the properties (I think that's the term they use -- anyway, right-click) on the playlist and see if that checkbox has been checked.

It doesn't seem to be random. It plays in the same wrong order every time- a very different order from the one indicated in Emplode in the position column. This has bugged me since I got this thing.

Anyway, I will check the randomize thing though.

Thanks,

Stu

Remember that the position column is only in effect if you play that playlist. If you do a search on the tracks, they'll play in some other order (alphabetical, I think, or FID order).

Perhaps a screen shot of Emplode with that playlist up on the screen, accompanied by a list of what order the songs are REALLY playing in, would help?

I had the same problem once with my pink floyd albums, I fixed it by nameing the file name on the songs and making shure the tags were correct and then deleting the ones from the empeg and then relaoding the with the proper file names. You cant just rename them in emplode because that doesnt change the file name. Be shure your files are named like this:
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason - 01 - Signs Of Life
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason - 02 - Learning To Fly
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason - 03 - The Dogs Of War
It will work if done like the faq says.

Thanks everyone, but renaming thousands of files, just isn't an option. I removed the sub playlists and now the songs do seem to play in the same order as indicated in Emplode, as long as I don't search for a particular source and try to get that same order. As Tony suggested, it doesn't work when you do that. So I still have the same problem. All I want to do is hear any particular album in its intended order while in the middle of a playlist by searching for it and inserting it into that point in the playlist.

I don't know why the player has to be so difficult and ignore the track number info in the tags. With iTunes, if you search for an album, it plays all matches according to the track number in the ID3 tags. Not so with the Empeg. Instead you have to jump through hoops creating separate playlists for each album or renaming files, either of which would take me several days to complete.

Any plans for a halfway usable solution? If I were starting from nothing, your solutions would be fine, but I had amassed quite a collection of MP3s well before I got the Empeg and they do not follow the Empeg's naming conventions. Why can't the software just use the tag info? Seems most logical to me. Right now I am feeling very happy to have spent $400 on this and not $1200+.

Stu

All I want to do is hear any particular album in its intended order while in the middle of a playlist by searching for it and inserting it into that point in the playlist.

I just scroll to the album playlist and insert that from the menu. Then I get the album in order (as long as shuffle is off).

Question: Can you do a search-by-playlist and have it insert that playlist's contents in order? That would be very similar to doing a search-by-album.

It's not the filename -- it's the FID. If you select something from the search menus, you'll get the results in FID order. Now, if you've got your filenames sorted on the PC, then the files will be imported in order, and will have FIDs assigned in ascending order. Thus, FIDs are assigned in the same order as the filenames.

This leads to this small confusion. The player doesn't store the filenames. Ever.

Thanks everyone, but renaming thousands of files, just isn't an option

If you ever did want to do this it is a piece of cake. Several MP3 utilities will rename thousands of files, in your format very easily. Musicmatchjukebox and Tag&Rename come to mind. I just had to rename thousands of files to the format I wanted and both of these programs will create file names on the fly using ID3 information.

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Question: Can you do a search-by-playlist and have it insert that playlist's contents in order? That would be very similar to doing a search-by-album.

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I could if I had playlists for each album. I don't though. Should this work if I create new playlist for each album within an existing playlist? I added a few playlists for albums, but they didn't play in the right order, so I deleted them.

Creating a separate playlist for each album when I have hundreds to go through seems kind of idiotic anyway. For something so simple, the solution would take forever. As I've mentioned, all the software would have to do is look at the ID tag track numbers in the source search results and play them in ascending order.

Stu

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both of these programs will create file names on the fly using ID3 information.

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Thanks, I'll have to try them. I have used renaming utilities, but wasn't aware that there were any that looked at ID3 tags.

Stu

Hmm.. now that does confuse me, so is it the tags then? or just the order in which the files are loaded from the pc? and if so when im putting files on my pc in the way I showed its just telling the empeg to load them in the same order?

What happens when tracks are deleted? Do those missing FIDs get backfilled? Edit: I guess they'd still be uploaded in PC order, even if they weren't contiguous.

It does seem that it would be nice to have the player sort searches in a more programmatic manner, though. Edit: As a possibly temporary stopgap, how about making emplode upload them in the order in which they're sorted when the tracks are initially uploaded?

There is another thread over in General where Rob mentions that this function you are looking for will be in the next emplode. It also could be done in Jemplode too I would think. All that would be required is for the software to send the files to the empeg in the 'correct' track order. I am sure that if you had enough scripting experience, you could even write a little script which would move all the fids around so that they were ordered by track for each source.
But yes, it would make more sense IMO for the player to do this dynamically based on track number rather than fid.

1. That was me.
2. This doesn't solve the problem -- the search results are still played in FID order, regardless of the ordering of the playlists.

It's just the order that the files are loaded from the PC. Each batch of files is sorted by filename. If you have a sane (i.e. the filenames include the track number) naming scheme, then this will necessarily be ordered by track number.

Yes, they're back-filled. And yes, they'd still be in PC order, even if not contiguous.

As for the temporary stopgap, no. The FID is already assigned when the files are imported. Changing the ordering in the playlist doesn't (and cannot easily) change the FID.

Oh.. ok that clears it up for me a little.

Thanks

You mean that the FID is assigned the first time that emplode looks at it?

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I just scroll to the album playlist and insert that from the menu. Then I get the album in order (as long as shuffle is off).

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Hmm, shuffle... What if one created a custom shuffle based on "tracknr" (with no randomness)? Then you could sort any album correctly, even if it's from a search result. I haven't tried this, and I don't know if tracknr is supported by custom shuffles. Has anyone tried this?

Yes.

What if one created a custom shuffle based on "tracknr" (with no randomness)?

Hey, not a bad idea. Anyone try this?

Should this work if I create new playlist for each album within an existing playlist?

Dunno, give it a shot and let us know?

I added a few playlists for albums, but they didn't play in the right order, so I deleted them.

This doesn't make sense to me. They should have played in the right order as long as:

1) They weren't tagged as "always randomize" or "play X tracks at random".

2) Shuffle was off.

3) You selected and played that exact playlist.

Are you sure those conditions were met?

I created a playlist for an album inside another playlist. Just as before, only this time it plays in the album order like I want it to.

So if I want my other albums to do the same, nothing short of creating separate playlists for each album, renaming and reloading my files, or possibly a custom shuffle is going to make it happen?

How does one go about making custom shuffles? Sounds interesting.

Stu

A search for "custom shuffle modes" might turn up something useful, perhaps?

So if I want my other albums to do the same, nothing short of creating separate playlists for each album, renaming and reloading my files, or possibly a custom shuffle is going to make it happen?

Correct.

Everyone who organizes their music "by album" on the car player creates a separate playlist for each album. So that's what you should do, too.

Dunno if the custom shuffle thing will work, but the details of how to do it are documented in the Developer Info section of the riocar site.

Thanks, I'll get to work making hundreds of playlists . I still think this approach is an inane way to do setup the software. It would really help too if Emplode didn't crash in the middle of the process. It's happened once already.

Stu

i think jemplode is close to getting the soups into the RIO. so that should solve the problem, since one of the soups is "by album". correct?

-ted

In particular, the instructions are at the end of the section on config.ini. It took me a while to find, so this link may save somebody some time. BTW, does whoever wrote that know that fragment identifiers are SGML NAME tokens, and so must not begin with a digit?

I have hundreds of playlists.

Calvin