Synth-DIY Yahoo! Groups Archives

How to Keep the Songs in Proper Order When Copying

2012-07-28 by nehs1975

I'm trying to copy to a USB stick my smart pianosoft floppy discs.  I have an E3 piano and having all my smart floppies in one USB stick will make it very convenient for me.  No more floppy discs to handle!

The problem is once the songs are copied over to the USB stick using RootaRipper app, the songs are automatically arranged alphabetically.  It loses the correct order of songs as listed in the accompanying CD

I noticed that the E3 controller generates and stores a file with an extension of .MNG in the USB stick.  It seems to be the repository of file names and titles.

I tried changing the song order in the .MNG file but it's a hit and miss.  I also added 01, 02 03 and so forth in the beginning of song titles in order to force the correct order.  Still, I can't make it play in the right order in the disklavier.

Any tips I can try?  Thanks.

Re: [disklavier] How to Keep the Songs in Proper Order When Copying

2012-07-28 by George Frederick Litterst

Good morning, everyone.

I do not know if this trick will work, but I recommend that you give it a try. In the old days, if you copied MIDI files to a floppy disk, they showed up on the Disklavier in the order in which they were copied. If you dragged a bunch to the floppy at once, you had no control over the order in which they were copied.

Try dragging the files to the flash drive one at a time.

Regards,

PianoBench

www.georgelitterst.com

On Jul 28, 2012, at 4:23 AM, nehs1975 wrote:

I'm trying to copy to a USB stick my smart pianosoft floppy discs. I have an E3 piano and having all my smart floppies in one USB stick will make it very convenient for me. No more floppy discs to handle!

The problem is once the songs are copied over to the USB stick using RootaRipper app, the songs are automatically arranged alphabetically. It loses the correct order of songs as listed in the accompanying CD

I noticed that the E3 controller generates and stores a file with an extension of .MNG in the USB stick. It seems to be the repository of file names and titles.

I tried changing the song order in the .MNG file but it's a hit and miss. I also added 01, 02 03 and so forth in the beginning of song titles in order to force the correct order. Still, I can't make it play in the right order in the disklavier.

Any tips I can try? Thanks.

Re: [disklavier] How to Keep the Songs in Proper Order When Copying

2012-07-28 by Spencer chase

if that doesn't work, you might try adding alphabetical prefixes. i have a similar problem when making CDs for LX pianos. i have a system for producing them from various sources and the final step when making a CD for distribution is to append prefixes. My software does this automatically. It adds A .... Z and then starts over with AA or something since over 100 MP3 files can fit on a CD. at least with CDs, i have found windows to be somewhat random about the sort order, it seems to depend on a number of factors that i never remember including the last sort applied to a folder and what software was used for burning the disc.

i have a similar problem with MP3 CDs that i make of podcasts and have been thinking of using my code to write a drag and drop type of program that will rename the files to insure proper sort order. if others are interested in such a program i might be more likely to get around to writing it. my initial idea would be to have a little desktop app to which you would drag the files (MP3, mid or whatever) and it would rename them and or change the modified or created dates or whatever was useful so they would sort properly on CDs, flash drives etc. i would probably also add other features such as changing tags in MP3 files and allowing the files to be renamed by the user in meaningful ways as well. i love podcasts but each car i play them in has different info displayed (or none) and i really do like to hear the files in the correct date order.

if anyone has any ideas on this, please contact me directly.

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On 7/28/2012 5:59 AM, George Frederick Litterst wrote:

\ufffd

Good morning, everyone.

I do not know if this trick will work, but I recommend that you give it a try. In the old days, if you copied MIDI files to a floppy disk, they showed up on the Disklavier in the order in which they were copied. If you dragged a bunch to the floppy at once, you had no control over the order in which they were copied.

Try dragging the files to the flash drive one at a time.

Regards,

PianoBench

www.georgelitterst.com

On Jul 28, 2012, at 4:23 AM, nehs1975 wrote:

\ufffd

I'm trying to copy to a USB stick my smart pianosoft floppy discs. I have an E3 piano and having all my smart floppies in one USB stick will make it very convenient for me. No more floppy discs to handle!

The problem is once the songs are copied over to the USB stick using RootaRipper app, the songs are automatically arranged alphabetically. It loses the correct order of songs as listed in the accompanying CD

I noticed that the E3 controller generates and stores a file with an extension of .MNG in the USB stick. It seems to be the repository of file names and titles.

I tried changing the song order in the .MNG file but it's a hit and miss. I also added 01, 02 03 and so forth in the beginning of song titles in order to force the correct order. Still, I can't make it play in the right order in the disklavier.

Any tips I can try? Thanks.

-- 
Best regards, Spencer Chase
67550-Bell Springs Rd.
Garberville, CA 95542 Postal service only.
Laytonville, CA 95454 UPS only.
Spencer@...
http://www.spencerserolls.com
(707) 984-8356 
(425) 791-0309

Re: How to Keep the Songs in Proper Order When Copying

2012-07-29 by nehs1975

Hi George,
Thanks for your suggestion,  I tried it but it did not work.  The E3 still reads files alphabetically.  

What seems to be working is the old but time consuming method of adding sequential numbering on each filename, ie 01.songtitle.mid, 02.mysong.mid, etc.

I also did not bother moving two files from the original smart pianosoft floppy to the USB stick, namely, PDISK.MNG and PSONG.MNG. These files seem to contain the correct order of playback but the E3 does not follow it.  The E3 generates its own MNG file called album.mng.  It also looks like I can edit this file in notepad but it's too much hassle.

Interesting to note that when songs are played alphabetically, the E3 looks for the correct song in the CD and plays it.  

The only downside to playing in alpha order is it does not follow the correct order of songs in the original commercial CD.  It's nice to play it this way in case you want to know the song title.

All the best,

Joe


--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, George Frederick Litterst <PianoBench@...> wrote:

Show quoted textHide quoted text

>
> Good morning, everyone.
> 
> I do not know if this trick will work, but I recommend that you give it a try. In the old days, if you copied MIDI files to a floppy disk, they showed up on the Disklavier in the order in which they were copied. If you dragged a bunch to the floppy at once, you had no control over the order in which they were copied.
> 
> Try dragging the files to the flash drive one at a time.
> 
> Regards,
> PianoBench
> 
> www.georgelitterst.com
> 
> On Jul 28, 2012, at 4:23 AM, nehs1975 wrote:
> 
> > I'm trying to copy to a USB stick my smart pianosoft floppy discs. I have an E3 piano and having all my smart floppies in one USB stick will make it very convenient for me. No more floppy discs to handle!
> > 
> > The problem is once the songs are copied over to the USB stick using RootaRipper app, the songs are automatically arranged alphabetically. It loses the correct order of songs as listed in the accompanying CD
> > 
> > I noticed that the E3 controller generates and stores a file with an extension of .MNG in the USB stick. It seems to be the repository of file names and titles.
> > 
> > I tried changing the song order in the .MNG file but it's a hit and miss. I also added 01, 02 03 and so forth in the beginning of song titles in order to force the correct order. Still, I can't make it play in the right order in the disklavier.
> > 
> > Any tips I can try? Thanks.
> > 
> >
>

Re: [disklavier] Re: How to Keep the Songs in Proper Order When Copying

2012-07-29 by James Fry

On 29 July 2012 08:11, nehs1975 <nehs1975@...> wrote:
> Hi George,
> Thanks for your suggestion,  I tried it but it did not work.  The E3 still reads files alphabetically.
>
> What seems to be working is the old but time consuming method of adding sequential numbering on each filename, ie 01.songtitle.mid, 02.mysong.mid, etc.
>
> I also did not bother moving two files from the original smart pianosoft floppy to the USB stick, namely, PDISK.MNG and PSONG.MNG. These files seem to contain the correct order of playback but the E3 does not follow it.  The E3 generates its own MNG file called album.mng.  It also looks like I can edit this file in notepad but it's too much hassle.
>
> Interesting to note that when songs are played alphabetically, the E3 looks for the correct song in the CD and plays it.
>
> The only downside to playing in alpha order is it does not follow the correct order of songs in the original commercial CD.  It's nice to play it this way in case you want to know the song title.

You could get a renaming utility to do that for you - a friend wrote
this but it's been so long since I had to use Windows I can't remember
if it does quite what you want.
http://www.olliholliday.co.uk/renamerfairy/

On some of my pianosoft floppy disks there is also an index file, but
I know little about its format or function.

Can you post an example of the MNG file to the list? Maybe one of us
can write a short script to help you (eg if you were to copy the files
one by one in order, presumably they would have a sequential modified
date, and we could then reorder and update the contents of the MNG
file accordingly).