Music Players

[Emissary Laito]

Looking into music is kind of a new thing for me. I've liked it before but only bits and pieces, and never bothered to do anything more than look at them on Youtube or something.

However, recently I've wanted to make playlists that don't cut out in the middle because my internet connection hiccupped, so I downloaded some things and tried to get it to run. Initially on Windows Media Player and then on iTunes.

Both have proven to be extremely tedious and have major problems in their functionality.

I just want a program that will let me make playlists with the files I have without storing them arbitrarily in albums or changing the names of my music. It is irritating as hell when I can't find things because the player I'm using is fucking with my files.

Is there a music player that just lets me use my own file names and ignores albums and the like?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I believe WinAmp is the program you may be looking for.

 

[thesilentman]

Looking into music is kind of a new thing for me. I've liked it before but only bits and pieces, and never bothered to do anything more than look at them on Youtube or something.

However, recently I've wanted to make playlists that don't cut out in the middle because my internet connection hiccupped, so I downloaded some things and tried to get it to run. Initially on Windows Media Player and then on iTunes.

Both have proven to be extremely tedious and have major problems in their functionality.

I just want a program that will let me make playlists with the files I have without storing them arbitrarily in albums or changing the names of my music. It is irritating as hell when I can't find things because the player I'm using is fucking with my files.

Is there a music player that just lets me use my own file names and ignores albums and the like?

Have you tried renaming the files in iTunes? It's a simple Right Click > Get Info, then editing the tags to your heart's content.

And I'm not sure what you want here. Do you want to make your own playlists, or do you want a different program?

 

[Tanis]

I use MediaMonkey.

It's a great program if you want to convert tags/final names and even convert from one format to another.

 

[SnowyGamester]

iTunes shouldn't do anything with your files unless the setting to automatically move and organize them is enabled...I thought it was disabled by default but I could be wrong (though I'd hardly call artist/album/song an arbitrary organization). Despite it's numerous issues it's still the best player for organizing your library (out of the ones I've tried, anyway). Honestly I love the fact that it organizes them that way, or I did back when my mp3 player didn't have a proper front end and I needed to navigate to things manually if I wanted to do anything other than shuffle...I think the idea now is more to not worry about where the actual files are since the player makes things so simple to find.

 

[Emissary Laito]

I believe WinAmp is the program you may be looking for.

Interesting, will try it tomorrow. Exhausted atm.

Have you tried renaming the files in iTunes? It's a simple Right Click > Get Info, then editing the tags to your heart's content.

And I'm not sure what you want here. Do you want to make your own playlists, or do you want a different program?

I can do that I guess, but I'd have a lot to rename and it's gonna get old fast if I have to do that for /every/ file I want to put on it.

Either or would do in terms of the latter two things.

I use MediaMonkey.

It's a great program if you want to convert tags/final names and even convert from one format to another.

Will try this too, thanks.

iTunes shouldn't do anything with your files unless the setting to automatically move and organize them is enabled...I thought it was disabled by default but I could be wrong (though I'd hardly call artist/album/song an arbitrary organization). Despite it's numerous issues it's still the best player for organizing your library (out of the ones I've tried, anyway). Honestly I love the fact that it organizes them that way, or I did back when my mp3 player didn't have a proper front end and I needed to navigate to things manually if I wanted to do anything other than shuffle...I think the idea now is more to not worry about where the actual files are since the player makes things so simple to find.

It is arbitrary if it only does it for half of them and the rest of the album is in a completely different place. It makes it tedious sorting through it for what I want. I've been through the program and have no idea how to turn off the reorganization and renaming thingy, and it's really annoying because I like my things named in a fairly specific way. I'm kinda scatterbrained about putting playlists and the like together and I'll miss stuff if they're all over the place.

Catpcha: Remain Calm. Hehehe, could have done with that when I typed the first post, I was rather mad at the time.

 

[SnowyGamester]

It is arbitrary if it only does it for half of them and the rest of the album is in a completely different place. It makes it tedious sorting through it for what I want. I've been through the program and have no idea how to turn off the reorganization and renaming thingy, and it's really annoying because I like my things named in a fairly specific way. I'm kinda scatterbrained about putting playlists and the like together and I'll miss stuff if they're all over the place.

Should be at edit->preferences->advanced->keep iTunes media folder organized. Untick that and untick copy files and it should just play music from wherever you already have it. If you change your mind and want it to organize everything that's already added go file->library->organize library and it should put everything in the same place with the same organization scheme. If you're getting a lot of stuff going into unknown artist folders you have to add the artist to the ID3 tags (you can do that by just adding the artist name to the artist column for each song in iTunes).

 

[Owlslayer]

I use WinAmp, it does the job quite nicely. Sometimes it can get a bit confusing, but I´m just not that bright regarding such stuff. But i like it, and recommend it.

 

[Emissary Laito]

This is ridiculous, how is it so rare to find a media player that doesn't rename things? Just tried WinAmp and it does the same thing, I'd have thought it was standard for it to just keep the damn file name.

Should be at edit->preferences->advanced->keep iTunes media folder organized. Untick that and untick copy files and it should just play music from wherever you already have it. If you change your mind and want it to organize everything that's already added go file->library->organize library and it should put everything in the same place with the same organization scheme. If you're getting a lot of stuff going into unknown artist folders you have to add the artist to the ID3 tags (you can do that by just adding the artist name to the artist column for each song in iTunes).

Just tried this, and though it kinda works in that it means the albums don't get in the way, it doesn't stop it renaming my music.

Thanks though, definitely an improvement.

 

[Emissary Laito]

I've never had any trouble using Windows Media Player to make playlists.

Just go up to 'create playlist' and name it whatever you want.

Then scroll through your library to the songs you want, and right click > Add To > and go down to the name of your playlist.

Thanks, but although I fixed the name issue for that program, the problem with Media Player is it divides things into albums automatically, and I find that tedious. It makes things are hard to find because I have issues remembering where everything is without my own sorting system in place.

Literally all I want is a media player that can make playlists, doesn't rename my files, and doesn't store them in any albums without me asking it to.

 

[Emissary Laito]

...I think you and I are using different versions of Windows Media Player, because my version doesn't do that.

To be fair, I've had this version of the player for a couple years.

Yeah probably the issue then, I think mine is the latest version.

 

[Jukedex]

I'd recommend Foobar2000. It's lightweight player that supports most music data types. It doesn't do anything you don't tell it to do, but still has quite a lot of features.

I have used it several years now, and it is pretty much perfect for me.

 

[Emissary Laito]

I'd recommend Foobar2000. It's lightweight player that supports most music data types. It doesn't do anything you don't tell it to do, but still has quite a lot of features.

I have used it several years now, and it is pretty much perfect for me.

This is fantastic, just what I needed. It still renames stuff, but not in a way that messes up the order or anything.

Thanks man, I'm using this!

 

[Jukedex]

I'd recommend Foobar2000. It's lightweight player that supports most music data types. It doesn't do anything you don't tell it to do, but still has quite a lot of features.

I have used it several years now, and it is pretty much perfect for me.

This is fantastic, just what I needed. It still renames stuff, but not in a way that messes up the order or anything.

Thanks man, I'm using this!

You're welcome I'm happy to be of help.