Compilations/Soundtracks + SonicStage's 'My Library' => I have a tip!

[superkpt]

So after reading through the forums for hours and hours (thanks to everyone, this is truly an awesome group of people), I've found a workaround for the infamous importing of a compilation album or soundtrack album into SonicStage (you know, how it creates an individual album for each artist in your compilation album and fails to create a 'Various Artists' or 'Compilation' album).

I'm a nut. I like my ID3 tags to have the real artist listed as the artist and not 'Various Artists' or anything like that. Somehow, my logic isn't that bad. Other 'music managers' can handle a directory with different files in it and treat it as a compilation (Can anyone say Winamp? iTunes? Sonique? Need I say more?)

Thanks to a thread or two I saw earlier, I've realized the way to make SonicStage realize that you've got a compilation or a soundtrack album is to:

1: Change the View to 'All Tracks.'

2: Highlight the tracks desired to be in a compilation.

3: Right click.

4: Click Properties (yes, you can click it when you're viewing all tracks).

5: Hit the box that says 'Tracks in the compilation albums.'

You'll get some random warning about assigning the same artist to all files. Ignore.

Now your compilation album will actually be listed as a compilation album. Tears of joy.

So that's not new information. Here's my tip:

1: METICULOUSLY organize your files and tag them correctly with whatever program you prefer (I use MP3-Library).

2: Put ALL your compilation CD's (even that stuff from one artist mixing a bunch of others) into a single folder.

3: Empty your library in SonicStage (the fastest way is to find the access files in Documents&Settings and kill it).

4: Import just that folder that you created above.

5: Do the process detailed above, but select ALL THE TRACKS.

6: Wait about a year or two as SonicStage sorts out which songs belong in which 'compilation album.'

7: Go to the Albums view and be full of joy as you notice that all your compilations are in single albums, from SonicStage's perspective.

I was so very close to getting an iPod and dropping my wonderful NH900 into the trash bin because of the ineptitude we call SonicStage . This workaround might just keep me going until Sony develops a simpler, smarter music manager.

I'm not asking for drag/drop (that would make me cry). I'm not asking for disavowing all DRM (that too would make me cry). All I ask for is a decent SonicStage. I want to brag to my friends about how much better my entire portable music experience (from hardware to software) compared to theirs. Sigh. I can barely brag about the hardware these days.

MD for life. Maybe

[timonoj]

The way I do: You create a playlist file. With winamp for example. Then you drop the playlist standalone into sonicstage. Yeah, all the songs will show separately, on their artist letter. But you'll have a pink playlist (usually close to the bottom) with the songs exactly in the order u had chosen.

[dex Otaku]

I've written the same instructions as above more than once for others myself. Kudos for starting a thread for it.

My own advice? Partial echo of yours:

* Tag things properly; this includes the "various artists" flag which not all software respect or use, proper capitalisation [the rules CDDB give you are crap - don't capitalise every damned word! LEARN SOME F*ING GRAMMAR RULES, people], correct spelling, &c.

* DO NOT TRUST CDDB OR FREEDB! A fair majority of entries in their database are simply junk.

* USE the date-released tag

* Check that what you've ripped or imported is correct in the libarary BEFORE downloading it and then coming here to complain about how SS never imports things in the correct order - chances are, it was either your fault or the fault of the software your ripped with; either way, if you don't verify that things are correct, the problem is *your* fault, not Sony's!

* USE your BRAIN!

There's my happy morning message for all of you.

[superkpt]

My apologies for not crediting anyone who has previously mentioned something to the effect that I have. I've seen it in various threads so I decided to rehash it and create a thread that you could find in a quick search.

As always, kudos to each and every one of the contributing members of these forums. My personal MD experience would be, frankly, defunct without the resource of all the members.

Sad to say, however, that my NH900 broke and I'm now in with the dark side (30 GB iPod). If I get some extra dough, I'm going to buy a new HI-MD player. I just want SonicStage to be 'industry standard.'

Thanks all!

MD for life. Well maybe.

[HolaShite]

Hi!

Got my nw-e405 about two weeks ago. Thanks for the great tips, too bad I had to come to the same conclusions myself, before reading this post. It would have saved me some time .

I quickly realised that the library function is quite useless, although it thrives to be all but that. It's best not to use it as a library, but as a temporary holder of albums you want to transfer. If some songs manage to escape an album, just use the tips in red from the first post .

Once you have your tracks on your MD, just remove all the entries from the 'library', and you're ready for a new session.

I keep my fingers crossed as I download the 4.0 upgrade.

[Sparky191]

I do as Hola. Only use it for transfer not as a library. Its simply too slow for a large library.