Burning Mp3 disc

[hingyfan]

This problem may be of limited interest but it's bugging me.
My wife bought a new car that can play mp3 discs. These are simply CDRs you load up with mp3s and burn much as data discs. There's the dilemma.
Say you make a nice iTunes playlist, start with some Beatles, add Rolling Stones, back to Beatles, add Beach Boys, the Byrds, back to Stones, etc. You could create nice disc that will play for six hours, perfect for a long car ride. and you don't have to mess up your original Cds.
However, try to burn that list to cd, it automatically reverts to a format grouping all songs by album. So you listen to all of Revolver before you go on to the Stones' Aftermath and so on. It's boring. If i try to bypass iTunes and right to Toast, the same thing happens.
I figured out that what you've created is a data disc, much like a file on the computer. And just like files, the items must be in some kind of order.
So, short of renumbering each of 100 tracks by hand, is there a way around this?
I tried using the itunes Genius function. It makes nice lists but if i attempt to burn them, they revert to same order.
Thanks.

[kbeartx]

If you can, sort the tracks by file name/song title, it's likely they will be mostly 'randomized' and definitely not in 'album' order [although there might an occasional exception].

Kb

[Paddy]

Here you go:

Smart Playlist: http://isaachawley.blogspot.com/2007/03/it...ized-cd-of.html

OR (probably predates the Smart Playlist - don't know if it's any easier to do)

Applescript: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=randomcd

Her new car audio system doesn't happen to have an iPod connector does it? A lot of new cars have this. That would also solve the playlist problem, though I wouldn't leave it in the car!

http://www.apple.com/ipod/car-integration/

[Xairbusdriver]

I no nothing about "smart" playlists/folders/mailboxes, well, OK, maybe a little...

Still, you can always just create a new playlist and put anything you want in it. And you can rearrange the order simply by drag n drop. Even if you drag a whole album into the new playlist, you can still drag the individual songs around. You can even decide not to burn a song to disk by unchecking the little box next to each one. Does that not work for you?

BTW, by "CDR" do you mean regular, burn once CDs or the re-recordable type, I can't even remember the terminology for them! Only reason I ask is that some CD players don't like/won't play the re-recordable type. Maybe by now, they all do/will. I assume you mean the regular, cheaper, widely available CD-R type...

[krissel]

That applescript probably won't work.

QUOTE

Designated as a Retro Script because it fails to work correctly with modern iTunes.

Here's a somewhat more complicated way;

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...080424194133862

But as Kenny said, sorting by "Song" should do the trick:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2455

[tacit]

The order of songs in the playlist won't have anything to do with the order of the songs on the MP3 disc.

Different MP3 players order the songs in different ways. Some do it by the file name on the disc, playing the songs in alphabetical order. Some players do it by MP3 tags, playing the songs in track/song order as read from the MP3 tags.

I'd try an experiment. Change the names of the files in a simple way---put 01 in front of the filename for the song you want to play first, 02 for the second, and so on. See if that causes the player to play them in the order you like.

If it doesn't, then you will have to change or remove the MP3 tags to get them to play in the order you want, which is a messier process.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

The order of songs in the playlist won't have anything to do with the order of the songs on the MP3 disc.

Without asserting any lack of respect for your vast and usually expert knowledge, who in the world decided to create that model? Wouldn't be the "Industry" by any chance?

Obviously, I have a total of zero experience burning/playing an MP3 CD! But, the described playback model seems ludicrous, at best and down right EVIL at worst!! :evil: I'll try to remember this the next time I buy a vehicle that touts an MP3 playback device.

[krissel]

According the the Apple link provided above:

QUOTE

Most CD players that can play MP3 CDs play songs in alphabetical order. This means that the play order is according to song title, and not according to the track order on an Audio CD, or the song order in your iTunes playlists. iTunes, however, lets you burn MP3 CDs that maintain your playlist order--in three variations.

How to burn by playlist order

Create your playlist.
Click "Song" to sort the playlist by song.
Make sure the songs are in the order you want to hear them on the CD.
Click Burn CD.
Insert a blank CD and burn the disc.


iTunes adds the song's playlist number to the beginning of each title. That way, the MP3 player plays the songs in alphabetical, and numerical order. Example: <track number>.<song title>.mp3.

Figure 1 illustrates how a CD burned by playlist order appears in the Finder.

[attachment=1800:60931_1.jpg]

[tacit]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Mar 6 2010, 03:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE

The order of songs in the playlist won't have anything to do with the order of the songs on the MP3 disc.

Without asserting any lack of respect for your vast and usually expert knowledge, who in the world decided to create that model? Wouldn't be the "Industry" by any chance?

Obviously, I have a total of zero experience burning/playing an MP3 CD! But, the described playback model seems ludicrous, at best and down right EVIL at worst!! :evil: I'll try to remember this the next time I buy a vehicle that touts an MP3 playback device.

It's a shortcoming of the format of a CD. The order in which the files of a CD are laid down on the disc is not necessarily the same as the order in which they appear in the CD's directory. The MP3 player can read the files in alphabetical order or in order by MP3 tag, but not in the order they were laid down on the disc.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

It's a shortcoming of the format of a CD.

I'll take your word on it. But it sounds more like a shortcoming of the MP3 player companies to decide on a compatible format. CDs don't seem to have a problem creating a directory for aif files, even throwing in some text for titles and such. Fact is, putting MP3s onto anything in alphabetical (ANSCII?) order requires some work, somewhere, to et them arranged before writing them to the disk. OR there actually is a directory on there but it is simply arranged in that order and the players aren't designed to pick a single title or randomize them?

Sorry, it's not really important to me as I don't own a MP3 CD player. But this setup sounds like a committee designing an elephant from pictures of a giraffe while locked in separate rooms with no compatible means of communications between more than two people at a time!

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be a brain surgeon!"

WAIT, wait...did Microsoft develop the first MP3 CD format?

No wonder portable, RAM/disk-based MP3 players became so popular!

[krissel]

Have I just been lucky?  All the CDs I've made run exactly as I have ordered the songs when they are played in my car as well as at least three different "boom box" style players.

hingyfan, did you select Audio, not Data, for the disk when you used Toast?

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

Have I just been lucky? All the CDs I've made run exactly as I have ordered the songs

But, were those MP3s or AIF(F)s? I don't have a player that can play MP3 CDs, that I know of, anyway.

[krissel]

All mp3s.

[Xairbusdriver]

You're just lucky, then!!! Do they have lotteries in NJ?