Music Sort Order Alphabetical, Not By Track Number

22548 Views 38 Replies 12 Participants Last post by silyman1, Mar 6, 2011

silyman1

Discussion Starter · Dec 18, 2010

Ok so I hope someone out there has a work around that doesn't involve re-labelling 30 GB worth of music manually. The music player in the HDD rips songs from thumb drive, cd, etc. It's an awesome thing. It even pulls the album information from the ether when ripping a cd. BUT... All the songs I imported are now sorted in alphabetical order. Sure, you can categorize by artist, genre, or album... but inside that categorization, we have an alphabetical-based sort order, and not a track-based one. I hope hope hope I'm just looking at some default setting easily fixed with a few tweaks, but I was digging around in there for a while and there doesn't seem to many options for on-board categorization/relabeling.

Ideas?

21 - 39 of 39 Posts

volt11

· #21 · Dec 22, 2010

silyman1 said:
There are a few bulk ID3 editors out there. I may have to spend money. on the other side, one could highlight all the music you want to copy, while inside itunes, edit info, and then delete all the titles. Itunes won't work properly then, so you'll have to make a copy of your music, change your music library to that copy, do the work, and then change your library back. Pain in the ass, but doable, and not one-by-one. I'll try it soon and keep everyone posted on how it goes.

It's a reasonable idea, but I am NOT going to edit every song title in ID3 from the thousands of songs I've ripped. Unless there's a bulk editor that will work (like I use a bulk conversion tool called "Switch" from NCH software, but it doesn't let you modify the ID3 fields during conversion), this approach is a non-starter for me. What I think is really in order here is a mass-appeal from the community to get GM to fix the software so we can set a preference for "Track Order" in the configuration menu.

I have something of a line where I can MAYBE reach the Volt brand quality manager inside GM with this request. If I do, I will let you all know what I find out, but it could be a while.

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #22 · Dec 22, 2010

volt11 said:
It's a reasonable idea, but I am NOT going to edit every song title in ID3 from the thousands of songs I've ripped. Unless there's a bulk editor that will work (like I use a bulk conversion tool called "Switch" from NCH software, but it doesn't let you modify the ID3 fields during conversion), this approach is a non-starter for me. What I think is really in order here is a mass-appeal from the community to get GM to fix the software so we can set a preference for "Track Order" in the configuration menu.

I have something of a line where I can MAYBE reach the Volt brand quality manager inside GM with this request. If I do, I will let you all know what I find out, but it could be a while.

It's not a matter of being able to set a preference for track order. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, wants their album view to be listed in alphabetical order. I told my volt adviser this, and pleaded with him to move this up the chain. I wanted to make sure that I knew he was on my side here, and he is. These volt advisers aren't the issue as you point out. GM Needs to simply change the way their system organizes its tracks. We don't need the option, we just need it changed to the way every. single. other. music playback device in the world does it.

Also yes as far as i could tell in my research, there are bulk rename utilities that also will allow you to change the title to include album-artist-track#-title in the title field. so it is doable. But it costs money. I think GM, at the very least, should provide us with that software package.

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Stilgar99

· #23 · Dec 22, 2010

This needs to be fixed.
Whats the best way (nicely) to provide this input to GM? They need to hear that this is NOT acceptable to their customers.

Stilgar

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #24 · Dec 23, 2010

Agreed. I talked to my volt advisor. I suggest you do the same. Confirm the call is being recorded. Ask them to talk to a higher up about it. Heck, perhaps done of our CAB folks might be able to take the torch here.

volt11

· #25 · Dec 23, 2010

Stilgar99 said:
This needs to be fixed.
Whats the best way (nicely) to provide this input to GM? They need to hear that this is NOT acceptable to their customers.

Stilgar

What makes me less than optimistic is that there seems to be the same problem across the GM lineup, so I doubt we'd be the first people complaining about it.

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #26 · Dec 23, 2010

volt11 said:
What makes me less than optimistic is that there seems to be the same problem across the GM lineup, so I doubt we'd be the first people complaining about it.

True, but if we don't stop, perhaps we can be the last. I'm trying to use various ID3 tag editors and am having not-so-great luck. I'm messing around with a program called TriTag. Not having any luck so far bulk-shifting my file name to the id3 title, which would include track number in front of it then. The saga continues.

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #27 · Dec 23, 2010

Ok I figured out how to bulk edit individual albums through TriTag, a free program for mac. I have some screen shots for anyone interested.

http://flic.kr/p/947ry3

This is the main interface. Be sure the that the mode to the top left shows filename -> id3 tag.

http://flic.kr/p/947ryE

Drag and drop the folder for the album you want to change. Sadly, TriTag will only work with MP3 and not M4A files.
Fill out the Artist, Album, Year, and Genre sections and force their use. In the top file name pattern, enter "%s" to indicate you want the contents of the file name to be moved to the Title field on the ID3 tag.

http://flic.kr/p/944o8a

Click preview to see what your song metadata will change to. The volt will read the Artist and album info as well as the title, so make sure all those fields are properly sorted. When happy, click apply, and your songs will change.

I recommend copying the tracks away from iTunes or whatever music player you have, as they will get confused by this new info, and who in their right mind wants to have a track number in front of the title of each song. I mean only an idiot would program a system to require that sort of - oh... right.

Hope this helps. I'll be continuing on my quest to find an easier method than album-by-album. But at least it's no longer song-by-song!

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yblaser

· #28 · Jan 3, 2011 (Edited)

Retagging App for Windows

Okay, for people looking for an easy way to retag their MP3s for better use on the GM infotainment system here is my experience. I used MP3 Tag Studio, which you can search for on Google. It is shareware so if you find it useful please donate, but it has full functionality as downloaded. I suggest making a backup of your media library before retagging the files.

Once the MP3 Tag Studio is installed, run the program. Choose the directory where the MP3 files are located under the working directory dialog located in the the top left area of the main interface. In the lower half of the interface choose the tab named "Direct tag manipulation." On the left bottom side check the "Advanced mode" check box.

In the bottom middle section there are fields to manipulate the tags. In the first box enter: "<Album>-<TrackNr>-<Title>". In the second field enter "<Title>". This setting should reset the track title tag to include the album name followed by the track number and then the original track title. Once the above is set, check "Include subdirs" for it to include all the sub-directories of your music directory and then click "Execute". Be aware that if you execute the retagging a second time it will prepend the album name and track number a second time to the track title so only perform the operation once (a good reason to create a backup of your music files).

That should be it. Good luck.

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Stilgar99

· #29 · Jan 3, 2011

Have you verified this works once copied to the Volt HD?

Stilgar

faz

· #30 · Jan 3, 2011

Does it work on a Mac?

yblaser

· #31 · Jan 4, 2011

Stilgar99 said:
Have you verified this works once copied to the Volt HD?

I have only used it with a USB stick, but I assume that it would work the same on the hard drive. The only issue I have noticed is that for albums with really long names it fills the whole screen and cuts off the actual track title. It still seems to be in the right order though. The only other issues have been related to the files not being correctly tagged in the first place.

faz said:
Does it work on a Mac?

The tagging tool is for Windows only as far as I am aware, but the post before mine suggested a Mac program.

volt11

· #32 · Jan 8, 2011

yblaser said:
Okay, for people looking for an easy way to retag their MP3s for better use on the GM infotainment system here is my experience. I used MP3 Tag Studio, which you can search for on Google. It is shareware so if you find it useful please donate, but it has full functionality as downloaded. I suggest making a backup of your media library before retagging the files.

Once the MP3 Tag Studio is installed, run the program. Choose the directory where the MP3 files are located under the working directory dialog located in the the top left area of the main interface. In the lower half of the interface choose the tab named "Direct tag manipulation." On the left bottom side check the "Advanced mode" check box.

In the bottom middle section there are fields to manipulate the tags. In the first box enter: "<Album>-<TrackNr>-<Title>". In the second field enter "<Title>". This setting should reset the track title tag to include the album name followed by the track number and then the original track title. Once the above is set, check "Include subdirs" for it to include all the sub-directories of your music directory and then click "Execute". Be aware that if you execute the retagging a second time it will prepend the album name and track number a second time to the track title so only perform the operation once (a good reason to create a backup of your music files).

That should be it. Good luck.

Thanks very much, yblaser. I haven't tried it on the Volt yet but it seems to do the tagging that should work!

Once suggestion, I don't think you need to include the Album name in the Track Title. So I'm doing "<TrackNr>-<Title>" mapped to "<Title>".

yblaser

· #33 · Jan 8, 2011 (Edited)

volt11 said:
Thanks very much, yblaser. I haven't tried it on the Volt yet but it seems to do the tagging that should work!

Once suggestion, I don't think you need to include the Album name in the Track Title. So I'm doing "<TrackNr>-<Title>" mapped to "<Title>".

Thanks volt11. Your suggestion is actually the first thing I tried. It works well if you want to pick your music by album name. If you pick by artist it does not give you an album submenu so the albums are interleaved by track number. I had a hard time remembering all the album names of the artist I was interested in when picking music, so I went with the naming convention I suggested. Not optimal in terms of track title length but it kinda works. The program seems really quite powerful in its tagging ability. I haven't full explored all the capability it offers so there might be a better way to tag.

Edit: One possible solution would be to edit the title as you have suggested then map <Artist>-<Album> to <Album> and to <Artist> so you would get the same list no matter if you sorted by album or by artist.

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volt11

· #34 · Jan 8, 2011

yblaser said:
Thanks volt11. Your suggestion is actually the first thing I tried. It works well if you want to pick your music by album name. If you pick by artist it does not give you an album submenu so the albums are interleved by track number. I had a hard time remembering all the album names of the artist I was interested in when picking music, so I went with the naming convention I suggested. Not optimal in terms of track title length but it kinda works. The program seems really quite powerful in its tagging ability. I haven't full explored all the cability it offers so there might be a better way to tag.

Hmm, I see your point. The bottom line is they really need to fix this interface. In the meantime, I'm going to going with your exact suggestion.

ericner

· #35 · Jan 29, 2011

Somewhat related question... Does the system retain where you are within the track after you switch to another song or function on the system? I'm planning on loading lengthy podcasts on the HDD, and I'd want to come back to where I was within the episode I was listening to.

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #36 · Mar 5, 2011

An apparent software update improved the system slightly but did not fix the problem for folks who buy their music through iTunes or Amazon or other online sources. My report to the forum is here: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...sic-System-Now-Almost-Usable...-But-not-quite.

Stilgar99

· #37 · Mar 5, 2011

silyman1 said:
An apparent software update improved the system slightly but did not fix the problem for folks who buy their music through iTunes or Amazon or other online sources. My report to the forum is here: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...sic-System-Now-Almost-Usable...-But-not-quite.

I dont think there was any update. Mine worked fine (from CDs) from day one....

Stilgar

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #38 · Mar 6, 2011

Stilgar99 said:
I dont think there was any update. Mine worked fine (from CDs) from day one....

Stilgar

i'm vin #182, it's possible there was an intermediate fix that i just got? but i'm willing to accept that I made a mistake. I seem to remember, though, ripping a cd and having it pop into the hdd alphabetically.

silyman1

Discussion Starter · #39 · Mar 6, 2011

ericner said:
Somewhat related question... Does the system retain where you are within the track after you switch to another song or function on the system? I'm planning on loading lengthy podcasts on the HDD, and I'd want to come back to where I was within the episode I was listening to.

Each playback system remembers where it was last. If i put my iphone back in, it starts playing where it left off. If i switch back to hdd, it's picks up where it left off and so on.

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