how to fix order of MP3s when burning to CD?

[Christine]

Recently I got a Discman equivalent that, in addition to playing regular CDs, also plays MP3s.

I don't have very many MP3s burned to disc, so I decided to burn a bunch of my radio show MP3s from my hard drive to a CD.

However, when I listen to the CD on the Discman equivalent, the MP3s are in a different order than the order in which I burned them. This happened both when I burned the CD as a Data CD, and then again when I burned it as an MP3 Player CD (under "Music"). I was using Easy CD Creator (ver. 6, I think) both times.

I had already given them filenames that placed them in order by name (e.g., "2004-02-26-6-7pm.mp3," "2004-02-26-7-8pm.mp3," etc), but that doesn't seem to have had any effect. Some of the files have different modified-on dates than the others, but the CD doesn't seem to be playing in the order of modified-on date either.

How do I get the MP3s to burn/play in a specific order? Since the radio shows come in groups of MP3s (usually a total of three), I wanted to be able to listen to each part of a show in the proper order, and also to have the shows sequenced chronologically across the CD.

Thanks in advance!

[uberclkgtr]

It has nothing to do with how they are burned to CD, rather it has to do with how your CD player is reading them and figuring out how to play them. Look in the CD player's manual for any info on this.

[Mitaic]

aiight... this is no way meant as an insult to your intelligence but just a thought that maybe you missed something like...

maybe the shuffling function on the discman was turned on?

[Christine]

aiight... this is no way meant as an insult to your intelligence but just a thought that maybe you missed something like...

maybe the shuffling function on the discman was turned on?

Nah, it was showing up in the same (wrong) order when I played it on a sound player (I think the default one that's part of Easy CD Creator) when I played it on my computer.

I was looking in the Help section today and yesterday, and I still don't get it. It says, "The order you add MP3 files to your project is the order the files are displayed in the MP3 playlist file."

[uberclkgtr]

ah, it creates a playlist? then just create your own playlist in the order you want, and burn that instead.

[Christine]

But I added the files in the order that I wanted them to appear on the disc. So that's why I'm confused.

[Christine]

Any additional thoughts on this one?

[The Logic Theorist]

I have a 128mb mp3 player that does a similar thing. No matter what the order is when I view it as a removeable drive on my system, it seems to play in some mystical order on the mp3 player itself. For instance, I deleted a few tracks this morning and added 6 new tracks. You would think it would tack them on to the end right? Nope. It filled in the "spaces" created by the tracks I deleted. Also, when it puts the new track in, it starts with whatever track I right clicked on to choose copy, which in this case was the track at the -end- of the list.

Suggestions:

Edit your show mp3s so they are all one mp3 file. Pain in the ass but it will insure the shows stay linked together.
Add the files one by one rather than dragging a large group of them into the cd burning software. Not certain this will fix it but it may.

[Christine]

Suggestions:

Edit your show mp3s so they are all one mp3 file. Pain in the ass but it will insure the shows stay linked together.
Add the files one by one rather than dragging a large group of them into the cd burning software. Not certain this will fix it but it may.

Cool; thanks for the ideas. I _think_ I had added the files one by one the first time around (although not the second), but I'll experiment some more with that.

Another thing I realized I could try doing is to burn just one track at a time, choosing the "Keep Session Open" option. Time-consuming, but maybe that would ensure that the MP3s get on the disc in the correct order.

Somehow it just doesn't seem like it this should be so difficult. I mean, when I copy audio files, it's completely straightforward and shows "Track 1," "Track 2," etc. on the Easy CD Creator display. Maybe as MP3-enabled CD players grow in popularity, the software will catch up...

[Midnight_Junglest]

download..nero...never had any problems with them

[Wickity]

I doubt it's a problem with your burning software. It's probably your player that's the problem. :sadblue:

[Christine]

A new friend clued me in to the magic solution on this one:

For whatever reason, Windows Media Player and the like can't put filenames in order the same way that a computer directory can--even when the filenames begin with numbers the way the files I was burning did (e.g., 2005-01-03-blahblahblah, 2005-01-10-blahblahblah,etc.)

The magic solution is to name each file 01, 02, etc. according to where you want it in the track sequence. E.g.:

01-2005-01-03-Variety_Is_the_Spice_of_Life-6-7pm.mp3
02-2005-01-03-Variety_Is_the_Spice_of_Life-7-8pm.mp3
03-2005-01-03-Variety_Is_the_Spice_of_Life-8-9pm.mp3

I haven't yet tried this on my Discman. However, my first test disc now plays in the correct sequence on Windows Media Player, so I'm assuming the Discman will follow suit.

[jibboo]

For whatever reason, Windows Media Player and the like can't put filenames in order the same way that a computer directory can--even when the filenames begin with numbers the way the files I was burning did (e.g., 2005-01-03-blahblahblah, 2005-01-10-blahblahblah,etc.)

The magic solution is to name each file 01, 02, etc. according to where you want it in the track sequence.

this is what microsoft calls an "undocumented feature" glad you figured out a workaround.

[BgBlkGuy]

The magic solution is to name each file 01, 02, etc. according to where you want it in the track sequence. E.g.:

That's exactly what you need to do. The Roxio program does the same thing. It sorts thing alphabetically rather then the order you drop them. That will fix the problem that you are having

[Sheisty McFuckerton]

didn't read most of this thread, but you'll prolly solve your problems if you number you mp3's with the track number.

I keep most of mine with filenames as such: (using Perfect Circle's Emotive as reference)

01 - Annihilation.mp3
02 - Imagine.mp3
03 - Peace Love And Understanding.mp3
04 - What's Going On.mp3
05 - Passive.mp3
06 - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie.mp3
07 - People Are People.mp3
08 - Freedom Of Choice.mp3
09 - Let's Have A War.mp3
10 - Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums.mp3
11 - When The Levee Breaks.mp3
12 - Fiddle And The Drum.mp3

whatever program you use to rip your CD's can usually be set to include certain characteristics into the filename automatically when ripping, such as artist, song name, track number, album name, etc.

When you burn a CD of track that don't have track numbers, it often burns them alphabetically. And if you use single digit numbers (i.e. "1" instead of "01" then it will burn in this order: 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, etc., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.)