Playlists, Winamp and ml_iPod?
 

If I have a playlist set up in Winamp, will I be able to drag that playlist to the iPod and have it still be the same playlist and work as such on the iPod?

Probably - If you have the same files on the iPod

I see. I was not thinking right on this. I guess the playlists in Winamp just point to the files on the hard drive. If I copy a playlist from Winamp to the iPod, it probably won't copy the actual files. I'll have to try it.

If not, then I guess the thing to do is copy all my 14G of music to the iPod and then try copying a playlist and see if it sets up the same list on the iPod.

If that does not work, then I have gen_yar in Winamp. That program will actually put a copy of a every file in a play list into a folder. Maybe that will copy the actual playlist files from Winamp to the iPod.

I just opened 2 types of winamp playlists with text editor and they look like that:

.PLS

[playlist]
File1=L:\Audio\Mp3\Oldies\10 CC\10 CC - I'm Not In Love.MP3
File2=L:\Audio\Mp3\Other\TOPs\100 Golden Love Songs\10cc - I'm Not In Love.mp3
File3=L:\Audio\Mp3\Hip Hop & Rap\2Pac\2Pac - California Love.mp3
File4=L:\Audio\Mp3\Hip Hop & Rap\2Pac\2Pac - Changes.mp3
File5=L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\2Unlimited\2Unlimited - Here I Go.mp3
File6=L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\2Unlimited\2Unlimited - No Limit.mp3

.M3U:

#EXTM3U
L:\Audio\Mp3\Oldies\10 CC\10 CC - I'm Not In Love.MP3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Other\TOPs\100 Golden Love Songs\10cc - I'm Not In Love.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Hip Hop & Rap\2Pac\2Pac - California Love.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Hip Hop & Rap\2Pac\2Pac - Changes.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\2Unlimited\2Unlimited - Here I Go.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\2Unlimited\2Unlimited - No Limit.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\4 Strings\4 Strings - Diving.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Fresh Dance\4 Strings\4 Strings - Take Me Away.mp3
L:\Audio\Mp3\Hip Hop & Rap\50 Cent\50 Cent - Candy Shop.mp3

Both points to where my music really is - on the hard drive, which means that probably they won't work If you copy them on the iPod.

Why not use Smart Playlist - I haven't tried if the problem is solved (they weren't acting properly in the previous version of the plugin)

I really need to learn more about Winamp playlists, smart or otherwise. I have only been using Winamp for a few months and all my playlists are limited to the number of MP3's that will fit on a CD. I simply export a group of 100 to 120 songs from Winamp using gen_var and then use Nero to burn them to a CD. I have not had an iPod until yesterday. Now I have to get serious about playlists and don't know where to begin!

So let me explain you what's a playlist
It's just a file, containing the paths of exact number of songs.

When you open that file in winamp (other programs support these playlists as well) the program reads the file and open the actual songs, that the playlist points to.

If you want to use playlists in iPod the best way to do it is to organize them in the Media Library in the iPod under devices. I would recommend you to put in order the ID3 tags of your mp3 files - then it will be a lot more easier to create Smart Playslist. And if don't have many songs it will be even easier.

I am trying to use ID3TagIt to organize my music files before I do any more with playlists. I may have to try another program as I wanted to use the comment descriptor field in addition to the comments field. Using ID3TagIt, I can't seem to edit my files in the version 2 of tagging, which it is needed to use the descriptors. It's strange because the drop down menus indicate you can use ver. 2.

Use TagScanner - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/TagScanner.htm

Just awesome piece of software.

I saw someone recommend TagScanner, but with the caution that it has a steep learning curve and no tutorial or help functions. I don't know how I would do with a program that does not at least have a simple help function.

It has very good help file.
Open the program, then press question (?) in the upper right corner and there the first line says "Help in English" - Press It

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/2936/shot0018gj.jpg

Thank you. I'll try it out. Goes to show you can't believe everything you read on the internet! :rolleyes:

Thanks for your tip on the help file. I could not see it at first because the "help in english" just looks like it's asking if you want to view in english. Since you are already looking at an english page, there is no obvious reason to click it. However, as noted two posts above, if you do click on it, you get a very good help file. Thanks.

Svetoslav - I have tried for about an hour to figure out TagScanner. It makes no sense to me with all the %2 %F etc. The help file is actually very little help once you really try to use it.

My files in WinAmp seem to be tagged and display fine. What I really want to do first is add information in the comments field to help in making playlists. I can't even get TagScanner to generate tags and a list that include a song name even though the song name is part of the file name. Oh well. I'll just keep looking to try and find a tagger that a non tech person can easily use.

Let's understand first what is TAG - It's 128 bytes of information such as the title, artist,

album, track number, etc added to the end of the file, beginning with the string "TAG" so

that a tag could be easily spotted by media players.

If you have a filename like - Artist86 - Song75.mp3 you can still understand who is the

artist and the song title by the tags (if it has).

Let me help you understand TagScanner:
There are 4 tabs on top - Music Ranamer, Tag Editor, Tag Processor and List Maker (the

last one it's not so important)

So in brief some info about each one:

Music Renamer - by using the tags embedded in the files you can rename these files.
For example the file: unknown_artist - some_song.mp3 can be renamed to Nana -

Fly.mp3 if there are present tags using format:
%1 - %2

Tag Editor: Here you manually edit tags ot by selecting multiple items you can edit many

files at a one time. For example if have 12 songs of DMX you can select them all and

apply artist DMX.

Tag Procesdor - the opposite of Music Renamer - input tags into the files by using the

already existing filename.
Example:
Filename - DJ Tiesto - Just Be.mp3
DJ Tiesto - that's the artist
"-" - thet's the delimiter
Just Be - Song Title

You input for title %2 - second block after the delimiter
You input for artist - %1 - first block after the delimiter

%E - willl leave the field empty - convenient for deleting existing tags like "Ripped by

some idiot"

%F - will input the folder name of the song

Another Example:

You open 12 songs of Eminem with correct filenames from his latest album Encore - year

2004 . Go to Tag Processor:
For Title enter %2
For Artist enter %1
For Album enter just Encore
For year enter 2004
For genre enter Rap
For Comment enter anything you want
Then press Generate and all of the 12 files wil get the new tags.

There is one dropdown menu for Existing tag:
Update means that when one field is left empty it will stay unchanged after pressing

Generate.
Overwrite - If one field is left empty when pressing Generate it will delete if there is any

tag
Leave - If there is existing tag in the filename it will not change it.


After you understand the programs you will love it - it's very powerful one.


And another great program - Mp3 Sort

It sorts your songs using the tags. Creates folder using the Artist Tag and put inside the songs from this artist, deleting the artist from the filename.
Example: You have 3 songs from Eminem in one folder. Mp3 sort will put them in folder named Eminem and will rename them into song1.mp3, song2.mp3, song3.mp3