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[Vocalpoint]

Every now and then - one of my Smartlists fires off a truly killer mix (from our master library) that I would love to be able to instantly convert to MP3 to load onto the iPod. What I really want to do is highlight all the tracks in the list - and run a Convert format on it - but I want the 12 converted songs to go into a singular folder and ideally tag the Album Artist field within each song as Various Artists - so when I pull it into my Mobile library - it appears as a singular entity.

Any ideas on how this might be accomplished in MC if at all?

Cheers,

VP

[Arindelle]

Sure you can its pretty easy (note step 2 and 3 are optional but create a "snapshot" of your smartlist -- depending on what the smartlist is doing

1) once your "killer" mix starts go to Playing now and press ctrl+A (to select all tracks)

2) right click on selected tracks ==>Send to==>Playlist==>New Playlist

3) go to "New Killer Playlist" rename if u want and select all the tracks (ctrl+A again)

4) right click on selected files ==> Library Tools ==> Convert Format

5) in action window convert to mP3 (WARNING : if this is your first time converting directly through JRiver, Make sure you check the Audio Conversion options choose to insure that you click and fill out the box "Convert to this directory" You don't want to inadvertantly convert your lossless files to lossy ones!) Here you have a choice .. if you want to re-tag your album artist field through MC choose "Leave Original file; add to library or not

6) optional retag -- go to the newly imported mp3 files now in jriver library and once again ctrl+a to select them all; right click choose ==>tag. In the action window find the tag Album Artist and replace with Various Artists (or whatever works for you). Note I am presuming you have set up your important library fields to write tags to the file. If not would recommend doing so or at least right click ==>Library tools==>Update Tags from Library -- I would think you would also have to change the Album name too to Killer Mix 1 or something btw.

7) import into your player

optional cleanup - delete from library only the mp3 files (or filter your views to no dupes), and if you don't want to keep your "snap shot" playlist you can delete or keep it for later plays in flac

Seems like a lot of steps but once you have set up your conversion options it takes seconds to do this -- you can even convert directly from the playing now screen (depending on how complicated your smartlist is) if you don't want to create (or keep) a playlist of the flac files.

I do this a lot BUT i don't like renaming the album artist field because it wrecks havoc with the cover art if you use itunes, and creating a "fake" album is wierd for me but I suppose you could upload new cover art to associate it so coverflow is'nt too screwy

What I do -  create a playlist from smartlist of the mp3's I just  converted then now in my mobile directory -- then I export this playlist from the file menu choosing the iTunes/iphone option and import that playlist in my iphone. You will then have all imported files handled normally and when you want to play your killer mix just click on the play list. No retaging ... if you play the individual songs you will have the original artwork displayed. The only disadvantage to this would be having a lot of "singles" as albums so your choice

Hope this helps  

Edit: OOps missed what you really wanted to do see below ... you probably know how to do the above already  
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[Arindelle]

but I want the 12 converted songs to go into a singular folder and ideally tag the Album Artist field within each song as Various Artists - so when I pull it into my Mobile library - it appears as a singular entity.

sorry now I get it ... didn't mean to sound patronizing

-- retag mP3s in MC first changing AlbumArtist to "Various Artists" AND Album to "KillerMix1"

-- go to Audio Conversion Options and set level of directory structure to 2 and set your "ipod" path -- might want to change cover art for the complete "new" album either in JRiver or external program later

-- convert and import to portable device

as above make sure your configs in Audio conversions won't over write original files --

either delete created mp3's from library or keep them to add/modify new album later (you can set up filters in views of course to not play duped track in mp3)

best

[Vocalpoint]

sorry now I get it ... didn't mean to sound patronizing

-- retag mP3s in MC first changing AlbumArtist to "Various Artists" AND Album to "KillerMix1"

-- go to Audio Conversion Options and set level of directory structure to 2 and set your "ipod" path -- might want to change cover art for the complete "new" album either in JRiver or external program later

-- convert and import to portable device

as above make sure your configs in Audio conversions won't over write original files --

either delete created mp3's from library or keep them to add/modify new album later (you can set up filters in views of course to not play duped track in mp3)

best

Thanks!

But these instructions are confusing - especially these last three steps...

-- Retag mP3s in MC first changing AlbumArtist to "Various Artists" AND Album to "KillerMix1"

Ok - I get this.. - and it clearly reads as creating MP3 here...

But then these two steps...

-- Go to Audio Conversion Options and set level of directory structure to 2 and set your "ipod" path -- might want to change cover art for the complete "new" album either in JRiver or external program later

-- convert and import to portable device

Imply ANOTHER conversion? And changing the directory structure to "2" will end up giving me 12 separate folders with a Artist\Album layout - instead of a single folder called "Killer Mix 1" with all 12 tracks inside...

Can you join these steps with your previous 6 or 7 to give me a better idea of what to do - when?

EDIT: I tried these steps - actually the first 5 or 6 and while I got some tracks out - I did get 12 separate folders which could be fixed by some creative tagging...but then the playlist is out of order as well...had to do that manually in another tool as MC seems to not allow me to "reorder" a selected block of songs and apply a new order to it...unless I am missing somethng there?

Cheers!

VP

[Arindelle]

But these instructions are confusing - especially these last three steps...

  yeah I see what you mean  -- FAIL  

And changing the directory structure to "2" will end up giving me 12 separate folders with a Artist\Album layout - instead of a single folder called "Killer Mix 1" with all 12 tracks inside...

Yep, this is embarassing.  as I have been using dbpoweramp's batch converter externally which dynamically uses the metadata (tags) to create new folder/file names .. (why the second conversion) I just presumed/assumed that jriver does the same thing, however it appears to be using the file name + path for the folder structure not the tags .... so looks like I was wrong ---

HOWEVER,  I found a solution to making unique albums using only JRiver   -- but, sigh, it involves an additional step  (see in red below)

Basic steps without the wall of text, in this order - hopefully clearer

1) create playlist from selecting all in Playing now (playing off of your smartlist)

2) convert (right click) by selecting all in the created playlist AFTER setting up the options as explained above you should be converting to a temp directory - eg. TempMix

3) select all the Mp3 files (not the originals of course) and retag for the fields AlbumArtist and Album (the album name change is why it works) eg. "Various Artists" and "KillerList1"

4) reselct retagged files and right click ==> Library Tools - Rename, Move Copy Files
choose rename and only check "Directories"

- fill in base path eg  E:\ipodmusic\TempMix\ where Tempmix is the temporary folder you converted the mp3s to

- fill in "Rule" box  folowing the example E:\ipodmusic\[Album] (whatever path you like provided that the field [ALBUM] is at the end) which will create a directory using the album name "KillerList1". You will find it under Various Artists, and all subsequent playlist-albums you creat too. This is why you set structure to 2 btw to give you something like this E:\ipodmusic\Various Artists\KillerList1

- once you get this to work hit the preset button to save your path and set-up (button on lower left of move copy screen

4) NOW you can import/sync the files to ipod  

5) clean up the temp folder deleting the temp mp3s folders there

There might be a more elegant solution, I admit. If still unclear, I can post some screen shots this we.

but then the playlist is out of order as well...had to do that manually in another tool as MC seems to not allow me to "reorder" a selected block of songs and apply a new order to it

I didn't realize the order was important!

Well, short of exporting/importing the playlist whiuch defeats your purpose, this would involve retagging the playlist using the Fill Track Numbers from list order command under library tools, before you convert --  which is a no-no of course; you do not want to touch your original files. and the temp mp3s are in "12" separate folders as you observed so the order would be mixed up there after converting.

There is probably an expression to retain list order, but I'm not surehow to do this .  

Help Mr. C -- I'm losing street cred here  

Hope this helps, a little bit at least