Anyone know any technical details of MP3 files?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Armistice
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Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
Here's my problem...

My car stereo plays MP3 files from a USB stick. No other format, just MP3 - it's a Microsoft system apparently.

So after recreating every single CD I had whipped through iTunes as an MP3 instead of the default iTunes format, I stuck them on a USB stick and put them in the car.

Problem is the car won't play them in album order - just alphabetical order. Damned annoying.

Now, at the same time, I've been using my studio to retrieve music off old LPs - recording them, transferring them into Audacity, chopping into individual tracks and converting to MP3s.

When I put THESE tracks on my USB stick and play them in the car, they DO play in album order, so it must be possible.

As far as I can tell, all details in terms of file name format and anything obvious looking at the files through either Windows Explorer or iTunes Get Info have them as identical, but clearly there is a difference somewhere.

Any clues? Some paramater I can adjust / delete somewhere? It's really annoying not having tracks play in the correct order!

Thanks
 
well not knowing anything about your car stereo...
what happens when you burn a few of these albums from the usb stick to cd and put them in the cd player? I'm sure the same thing happens but you never know.

can you post/paste any of the info of these mp3s? you've verified the track # section is correct in itunes?
 
Could be that you recorded the album as one track.
If not, then it's been saved as a play-list. You should be able to save your other music as play-lists too which roll out in the order you want.
Other than that, you don't really want to be scrolling through for individual tracks, regardless of who's driving.
 
Armistice said:
Here's my problem...

My car stereo plays MP3 files from a USB stick. No other format, just MP3 - it's a Microsoft system apparently.

So after recreating every single CD I had whipped through iTunes as an MP3 instead of the default iTunes format, I stuck them on a USB stick and put them in the car.

Problem is the car won't play them in album order - just alphabetical order. Damned annoying.

Now, at the same time, I've been using my studio to retrieve music off old LPs - recording them, transferring them into Audacity, chopping into individual tracks and converting to MP3s.

When I put THESE tracks on my USB stick and play them in the car, they DO play in album order, so it must be possible.

As far as I can tell, all details in terms of file name format and anything obvious looking at the files through either Windows Explorer or iTunes Get Info have them as identical, but clearly there is a difference somewhere.

Any clues? Some paramater I can adjust / delete somewhere? It's really annoying not having tracks play in the correct order!

Thanks
Click to expand...

how many songs are we talking about? and does your car stereo open folders? sounds odd, but mine does. before i got my ipod, i burned a disc with about 9 folders that had one cd in each. i could scroll through the folders, then open the one i wanted. can you do that with the usb stick?
 
It's a 16GB stick and has a couple of hundred albums on it. Lots!

When I create the ones from LPs I cut them up into individual tracks in Audacity - they're not just one big file playing continuously.

It can play from folders but does the same thing.

The system allows you to play by artist or album or folder or "randomly" which isn't particularly random at all. All I'm trying to do is play an album in the order it's meant to be in.

So the file names follow the same protocol for both types:

01 Song Name.mp3

The track listing parameter in both Windows Explorer and iTunes (I dump songs onto the stick from the iTunes library on my PC) is identical. There is a difference in bit rate but I'm assuming that shouldn't make a difference.

I have just spotted a difference however in iTunes Get Info / Summary.

The ones I've done through iTunes have the ID3 Tag parameter set at v2.2 and the ones through Audacity have it set at v2.3.

So I've just found how you convert this via iTunes (right click on song / convert ID3 tags...), and have set it for a particular album at v2.3. I'll re-dump that on the stick and see if it makes a difference.

Soooooo annoying... most albums just don't work out of sequence.
 
I had a Kenwood deck with the iPod plug and it would "control" my iPod. All it did was read all 20 gigs of music is some unknown order. I would assume your USB is the same way...its the decks fault. I said screw it and now I just plug in the AUX in and use the iPod...loaded with RockBox as Apple can kiss my ass. I don't need FLAC on the road but its about bucking the system more than anything.
 
It's probably not the version of the ID3 tags, but rather the specific tags. Try using an ID3 dumper to see which tags are included. For example, the ID3 tags can specify the track number of a song on the CD, but it might not be there in the ID3 tags.

You might have already checked this, but if memory serves, iTunes may just write the info in its database without modifying the MP3 files, in which case those bits may not even be in the file at all. Dunno.
 
Hmmm.. well converting to ID3 tags v2.3 via iTunes has definitely made a difference...

Now it's playing it in album order, but starting at track 2! Aye Carumba!

Who should I blame? Bill Gates as it's a Windows system, or Steve Jobs for the iTunes element? Or is it my fault for buying an Alfa Romeo and thus subjecting myself to the whims of those crazy Italians who are good at making things look good but not at making them work correctly...

Back to the drawing board. I'll see what else I can find to tinker with...
 
What's an ID3 dumper?

I'll go googling and see if that brings anything up...
 
dgatwood said:
It's probably not the version of the ID3 tags, but rather the specific tags. Try using an ID3 dumper to see which tags are included. For example, the ID3 tags can specify the track number of a song on the CD, but it might not be there in the ID3 tags.

You might have already checked this, but if memory serves, iTunes may just write the info in its database without modifying the MP3 files, in which case those bits may not even be in the file at all. Dunno.
Click to expand...

Yeah, every time I remove and load tracks onto my iPod, I have to re-tag all over again. It would be nice if there was a setting that would allow you to make the changes permanent to the mp3.

I have a good friend that has a TON of music that he plays in his car the same way. It all plays in order and knowing him, I'm certain that he didn't take the time to sit down and do a bunch of editing. Maybe its the stereo itself and the way it reads them.

I have a stereo that has a USB port - if I have multiple albums on a drive, it will play all the Track 1's, all the Track 2's, ect. I haven't figured out a way around this either.
 
dgatwood said:
It's probably not the version of the ID3 tags, but rather the specific tags. Try using an ID3 dumper to see which tags are included. For example, the ID3 tags can specify the track number of a song on the CD, but it might not be there in the ID3 tags.

You might have already checked this, but if memory serves, iTunes may just write the info in its database without modifying the MP3 files, in which case those bits may not even be in the file at all. Dunno.
Click to expand...

THIS

my alpine is pretty finicky about the tags. Check out http://musicbrainz.org/doc/PicardTagger, thats how I fixed my issues with MP3 tags
 
In the end I found a program called "Stamp" that I used to "stamp" each of the 200 or so albums on the stick... painful process... what it actually does I have no real idea - didn't seem to change anything, and I just clicked this butoon, but..

Just went down this morning to the car to see if it worked, and now they're all playing the correct order (yay) however the artist / album names now aren't displaying correctly on the dashboard - they're truncated often and some artists for whom I have multiple albums have been split up into separate artists..

So I guess I'll go see if that can be fixed via this same program.. if not I'll try that Picard Tagger link. Thanks for that.

Computers... how did we live without them!
 
Soooooo annoying... most albums just don't work out of sequence.
Click to expand...
You think?
I laid out my last two albums by keeping the songs in alphabetical order, just the way I found them in my folders.
Didn't suck any more than my other stuff did. :D
 
Thanks all...

I downloaded the Picard program in the end and painstakingly reassembled the collection... took a couple of hours, but at least it works..

Cheers
 
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