I have software v1.03

1. The track order is determined by the file name and not the ID3 tag's track info? Why? If not then how can I get Emplode to organize my tracks according to the track numbers in the ID3 tag automatically?

2. On the Empeg, can I ever view the genre info along with the other track info at the same time?

3. Can I "forever link" 2 tracks together so that they will always be played in succession, even in shuffle mode? I have several tracks that "flow" into another track without a pause (without missing a beat).

edit: Hehe looks like Seang beat me to it :-)

4. If there is some "noise" (random figures) showing up before the first letter of a scrolling InfoTex, then I have to re-tag the file (like literally retype the title)?

Thanks much in advance,

Curly

1. Because extraction of track numbers from ID3 tags is a recent addition. Before that, track names were sorted alphabetically. They still are. I might add an option to sort the items by track number after an import. In the interim, just put the track numbers in the filenames. It'll make life easier when you use them with other programs, anyway.

2. If you hold down the info button on the Rio remote, you get the track details screen. It should all be in here. You might need v2.0 for this, I don't recall.

3. No. We did have a feature pencilled in (called virtual tunes) to support this, but it never got implemented properly, so we ripped the code out.

4. You might need to upgrade to v2.0 to fix this issue -- the InfoTex visual suffered from this problem in v1.0; I'm not sure if v1.03 fixed it.

However, v2.0 is still in beta. This means that it suffers from stability and other problems. If you're not willing to take that risk, stick with v1.03 until we've worked through the beta program.

Thanks Roger

Maybe sometime in the future "virtual tunes" will be implemented. It would be great for live recordings and DJ mixes.

Curly

Funny, I just asked in another thread about this. Wasn't there supposed to be a playlist flag that would essentially treat its contents as a single tune (at least for shuffling, repeating etc. purposes)? Is the feature ripped out for good?

Can I "forever link" 2 tracks together so that they will always be played in succession, even in shuffle mode?

Not exactly... but with a little work you can achieve the effect you want.

Assume the two songs you wish to "forever link" are named SongA and SongB. (To make this uncomplicated, you will want to name them something that is compatible with 8.3 DOS file naming conventions.)

Using MP3TagStudio or something similar, delete the tag information from the two songs. (It must be deleted not just blanked)

At a DOS prompt (in the appropriate directory, of course) key in: Copy /B SongA + SongB SongC [return]
This will give you the two original songs combined together in a single file.

Exit the DOS window, and use MP3TagStudio to edit SongC. You will need to use the Tools to repair the now-invalid header; you can put whatever tag information you want on it, and you can even rename the file with it but that part would be easier using WIndows Explorer.

Drag the combined file into emplode and re-synch, and your two songs (now just one song) will always play together.

Probably more work than you want to put up with, but it will work.

tanstaafl.

Heh, that's cool....a lot easier than joining them together in an audio editor.

Curly

You don't even need to fix up the mp3 tag headers etc as the empeg plays them anyway.

If you copy/B multiple mp3 files together [as few as two or as many as you want], then drag/drop the combined file emplode then edit the file information in Emplode then resync you can achieve the same thing for somewhat less work.

The invalid/extraneous mp3 headers in the 2nd and subsequent mp3 files in the combined file will be ignored.

This is the same as playing a 'tar' file containg multiple songs, the empeg ignores the tar file headers and plays the mp3 files in the archive.

Not sure if the id3 tag info will be displayed for each song as it plays the combined file [I don't think so] or if the information in emplode takes precedence over any id3 tags in the file [more likely]

Either way you can get a 'always play in sequence' set of tracks this way.

Except that if it's a VBR file, you need to recreate the VBR header, otherwise the length and duration will be wrong. This will possibly lead the empeg to stop early. It'll certainly do odd things for fast-forwarding/etc.

tanstaafl's tip is resistant to this problem.

Good point, I mostly use CBR files so wouldn't see that problem.

Doug actually had a "spliced" VBR MP3 which didn't have the V1 tag removed from the first file. So none of the "VBR Header Repair" tools worked on it. The tag embedded in the middle of the file looked like a bad frame, so the VBR header repair tools choked upon it.

This file actually locked up the 2.0b7 player (heh).

But if you splice the file properly (strip the tags first and repair the VBR headers), then it will work quite well as a single file.