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[drb]

Have been using MC12 for the past 2 yrs. I have never used it to its max potential. Just open the program and browse to the folder where all my mp3s are and listen. I know this is not the best way, but it ok'd my needs.

Now my collection is growing bigger and I would like to organize mp3s (so that I won't hear a techno music when I am in a zen mood). Thought of creating playlists. Is that a good way? What would happen if I change the drive? will the playlist quit working? should the playlist be stored in the same drive as mp3 resides?

or should I create libraries? like zen music? techno music etc?

I read through 'how to..." but not quite clear.

(by the way, planning to upgrade to MC13 as well once a stable release gets out). MC + DFX for me - rocks!.

drb

[rjm]

The best method is to first ensure that your mp3 tags are accurate.

The minimum subset of tags you should focus on are: Genre, Artist, and Album.
Other tags that are very helpful if accurate include: Track #, Name, and Cover Art.

Once you have good tags then you can take full advantage of MC to search, filter, and sort on any combination of the tags to find what you are looking for.

And you can then play what you have found, or put it in a playlist for future use.

If you do not have the time or energy to clean up your tags, then a reasonable approach is to create a bunch of playlists for different moods or situations and manually add appropriate tracks.

Wrt to changing a drive, it is no problem provided either you:
- copy your music to the new drive using MC, or
- copy the music to a new drive using whatever tool you want but maintain the exact same drive letter and folder structure on the new drive

In all cases you should regularly backup you MC library to protect your playlists and any other customizations you make in MC.

[221bBS]

Have been using MC12 for the past 2 yrs. I have never used it to its max potential. Just open the program and browse to the folder where all my mp3s are and listen

How are you navigating to your music? Are you using the Drivers & Devices > My Computer > etc...?

[drb]

rjm, looks like that's how I was heading except without tags.

221bbs - Yes I navigate like that. And it takes awful lot of time whenever I browse/navigate - it says 'working...' and then shows all files.

[221bBS]

There are a few ways you can start organizing your music...

1) Import all your music by using Tools > Import Folder... (Also you can have MC automatically import music from folders using Tools > Auto-Import Options) then click on the Audio icon (on the upper left of the tree, under the volume slider and on top of the Start link). All your music should show up.

2) Use windows explorer and navigate to your music folder and drag & drop small groups (by Artist or Album) into Playing Now and tag them. Then Select all the songs and right click
and use the import options in the right click menu.

The 1st option is good if you have the basic tags (Artist, Album, Name, Track #, Genre). The 2nd option is good if your music isn't tagged at all.

Once your music is imported it will show up when you click on the audio icon.

After you have tagged you music we can start customizing your View Shceme  or just start making playlists/smartlists 

[221bBS]

O almost forgot. You can also use the directory structure and file names to help you tag your files.

If you music is stored like "C:\Music\Madonna\True Blue\(1) Madonna - Papa Don't Preach.mp3" than we can say that your music is arranged like this "Album Artist\Album\(Track #) Artist - Name.mp3" MC can fill in the tags by using Library Tools > Fill Properties From Filename.

Basically if your filenames has a pattern to it you can have MC use it to help tag your files.

[drb]

Thanks,
let me try.