Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

[ghuber]

Hi,

I recently purchased dMC and am amazed by its speed and possibilities.

For my car stereo (which won't handle my ipod) I have been trying to create a CD manually:

I copy all the itunes aac-files I would like to convert to a folder structure, run batch convert to convert the files to mp3.

In this process I apply the dmc filters (remove album art, convert to id3v1.1, and rename the files to "artist name - track name".

While the conversion itself works flawlessly, I always have a problem with the correct order when burning the tracks to CD. In Itunes I create a playlist with the right sort order and Itunes applies the necessary numbers to the beginning of the file automatically.

My car will ignore directories, so I cannot put albums in a dir in order to have the songs sorted based on the album they are on. Neither do playlists work.

So my basic question is: how do I rename the converted Itunes files in order to preserve the sort order from Itunes?

Thank you all so much for your help!

Georg

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

Hi,

I recently purchased dMC and am amazed by its speed and possibilities.

For my car stereo (which won't handle my ipod) I have been trying to create a CD manually:

I copy all the itunes aac-files I would like to convert to a folder structure, run batch convert to convert the files to mp3.

In this process I apply the dmc filters (remove album art, convert to id3v1.1, and rename the files to "artist name - track name".

While the conversion itself works flawlessly, I always have a problem with the correct order when burning the tracks to CD. In Itunes I create a playlist with the right sort order and Itunes applies the necessary numbers to the beginning of the file automatically.

My car will ignore directories, so I cannot put albums in a dir in order to have the songs sorted based on the album they are on. Neither do playlists work.

So my basic question is: how do I rename the converted Itunes files in order to preserve the sort order from Itunes?

Thank you all so much for your help!

Georg

how about renaming the files to "track number - artist name - track name"

[eaglescout1998]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

If you're creating an audio CD, there shouldn't be any need to convert to MP3 first. Just use iTunes to burn your AAC files to disc. If you're creating a data disc (with several albums worth of MP3 files), then I would name your files like so:

"album artist - album - discnumber - tracknumber"

For example:

"Ron White - You Can't Fix Stuipd - 0103.mp3"

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

If you're creating an audio CD, there shouldn't be any need to convert to MP3 first. Just use iTunes to burn your AAC files to disc. If you're creating a data disc (with several albums worth of MP3 files), then I would name your files like so:

"album artist - album - discnumber - tracknumber"

For example:

"Ron White - You Can't Fix Stuipd - 0103.mp3"

you are correct unless he's trying to play mp3 files (and not create an "audio CD" (pcm files) to play). Some (many) car players can play mp3 but not AAC. Also, some car cd players that play mp3, can't deal with tags very well and use only file name info. so having tracknumber first in file name gives it a correct order listing.

[ghuber]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

you are correct unless he's trying to play mp3 files (and not create an "audio CD" (pcm files) to play). Some (many) car players can play mp3 but not AAC. Also, some car cd players that play mp3, can't deal with tags very well and use only file name info. so having tracknumber first in file name gives it a correct order listing.

Exactly, I want to make an mp3 disc because I get way more songs on one cd than on a regular audio cd.

The thing is, the file names must not be too long, since it is a pretty lame cd system (however built into the navi, so no way i'll change that) and i believe that the file names must not be longer than 31 (?) characters. if i have for instance "01 - Composer - Symphony XY [yeah sorry, mostly classical] - Allegro" that mostly won't fit in 31 chars.

also the sort order "within" itunes titles will get mixed up, because batch convert (to my recollection) will convert alphabetically and not in the sort order that i have arranged the songs/tracks.

Any good suggestions?

And thank you so much for your help.

Georg

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

Exactly, I want to make an mp3 disc because I get way more songs on one cd than on a regular audio cd.

The thing is, the file names must not be too long, since it is a pretty lame cd system (however built into the navi, so no way i'll change that) and i believe that the file names must not be longer than 31 (?) characters. if i have for instance "01 - Composer - Symphony XY [yeah sorry, mostly classical] - Allegro" that mostly won't fit in 31 chars.

also the sort order "within" itunes titles will get mixed up, because batch convert (to my recollection) will convert alphabetically and not in the sort order that i have arranged the songs/tracks.

Any good suggestions?

And thank you so much for your help.

Georg

just create mp3 files with ONLY ID3v1 tags (which have the space limits you mention). You'll just need to figure out a way to shorten your file names to make it work. (and in my personal opinion, this is all too much trouble and the best approach is buy a iTouch, iPHONE, iPod, or other portable music player, attach cord to AUX input of player, and forget about making CDs.

[ghuber]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

just create mp3 files with ONLY ID3v1 tags (which have the space limits you mention). You'll just need to figure out a way to shorten your file names to make it work. (and in my personal opinion, this is all too much trouble and the best approach is buy a iTouch, iPHONE, iPod, or other portable music player, attach cord to AUX input of player, and forget about making CDs.

told you, have a shitty car stereo :cry: the car was designed in 2002, when ipods etc. weren't all that popular (at least for the German designers ).

Anyway. Itunes does a pretty good job, the only thing is, I first have to convert from AAC to MP3 and thought (since I am really a huge fan of dbPoweramp) that dMC would easily do the same job only a lot more customizable and I am just too stupid to figure out a way

Anyway thanks for your help

Georg

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

dbpa can convert from AAC to mp3, and have only ID3v1 tags. Not sure what problem you're having with that. Just make sure you install the dbpa codecs for mp3 (lame) and AAC. Then set the options (dbpa configuration program, codecs tab, advanced, then scroll down to mp3 ID Tagging sectgion and choose for "Tax Creation" ID3v1. Then open the separate dbpa batch converter, point it at your AAC files, select, choose convert, then select mp3 (lame) as the output....

[ghuber]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

dbpa can convert from AAC to mp3, and have only ID3v1 tags. Not sure what problem you're having with that. Just make sure you install the dbpa codecs for mp3 (lame) and AAC. Then set the options (dbpa configuration program, codecs tab, advanced, then scroll down to mp3 ID Tagging sectgion and choose for "Tax Creation" ID3v1. Then open the separate dbpa batch converter, point it at your AAC files, select, choose convert, then select mp3 (lame) as the output....

sorry probably a misunderstanding: dbpa can totally do conversion and conversion to id3v1. i know that and it totally worked for me. my problem is not so much a dbpa problem, but a "sorting" problem: itunes stores files as \itunes\artist\album\[number] track. If I want to convert multiple files, I drag them out of the itunes folder into a new folder, lets call it "convert". within this ordinary folder, the files are sorted according to their itunes prefix [number], wheras dbpa "internally" sorts and displays according to the album tag. however once converted, the files will be burned according to their file names (eg 01 Dancing Queen.mp3, 01 Young Lust, 01 Three Days in a Row and then 02 Knowing Me, Knowing You, 02 F.I.N.E., 03 In this World).

So what I am looking for is a way to preserve the sorting order of the tracks according to the CDs they are on, the files itself could be called 001.mp3 and so on. I tried the numbering feature in dbpa, but it also proceeds according to the physical file name.

Georg

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

sorry probably a misunderstanding: dbpa can totally do conversion and conversion to id3v1. i know that and it totally worked for me. my problem is not so much a dbpa problem, but a "sorting" problem: itunes stores files as \itunes\artist\album\[number] track. If I want to convert multiple files, I drag them out of the itunes folder into a new folder, lets call it "convert". within this ordinary folder, the files are sorted according to their itunes prefix [number], wheras dbpa "internally" sorts and displays according to the album tag. however once converted, the files will be burned according to their file names (eg 01 Dancing Queen.mp3, 01 Young Lust, 01 Three Days in a Row and then 02 Knowing Me, Knowing You, 02 F.I.N.E., 03 In this World).

So what I am looking for is a way to preserve the sorting order of the tracks according to the CDs they are on, the files itself could be called 001.mp3 and so on. I tried the numbering feature in dbpa, but it also proceeds according to the physical file name.

Georg

hmmm, seems like you can do this with dynamic naming string used so that it puts the converted files in the directory or subdirectory you want using the file name convention you want. Have you figured out how to use dynamic naming.

[eaglescout1998]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

hmmm, seems like you can do this with dynamic naming string used so that it puts the converted files in the directory or subdirectory you want using the file name convention you want. Have you figured out how to use dynamic naming.

In the first post, the OP said the car stereo ignores folders, so dynamic naming wouldn't really work in this case.

[eaglescout1998]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

(eg 01 Dancing Queen.mp3, 01 Young Lust, 01 Three Days in a Row and then 02 Knowing Me, Knowing You, 02 F.I.N.E., 03 In this World).

This is the reason why I suggested renaming your files to "album artist - album - discnumber - tracknumber". This would insure that your files are burned to the CD preserving the proper sequence of each album. Having "track number" the first part of the file name would result in your files being sorted as you described above, with Track01s, followed by Track02s, then Track03s.

I don't know what your specific needs are. I have a 160 GB iPod classic, so I would need a car stereo that works with the iPod. Thankfully, my Charger does. I hope this isn't frowned upon by the administrators, but have you considered purchasing an after-market car stereo that *does* support iPod? Something like this...

[garym]

Re: Making a Car CD from Itunes Collection

In the first post, the OP said the car stereo ignores folders, so dynamic naming wouldn't really work in this case.

oops. Yep forgot. Your suggestion below for naming should work well. And if your stereo is old enough, it may have a cassette deck built in. Buy a $5 cassette converter (you plug in this cassette like device that has an Aux In cable you can plug into an ipod, etc. I have an old honda I drive to work where I use this sort of setup with my ipod. It's an 8 minute drive, otherwise I'd probably install a different unit....