How do I take individual mp3 files and create a NEW album in Windows Media Player 12

Yes, you can create your 'own' album. Could you just clarify for me how you have put the tracks together and I'll be happy to guide you through the process.

Part of your issue may be that you assembled the files in a location where WMP was still monitoring them. This sort of project works better if you isolate the work in progress from WMP. Then when you relocate it to your music folder WMP will see it as a 'new' album. Below is an example/screenshot of a compilation I put together. - Cheers, Ric

No the info you gave is fine - the side A/B was a method I used to use back when I was first converting old vinyl and tapes to mp3; like you found, it saved editing/renaming time. I'd then put a dozen or so mp3 albums on one cd at a time to take to France when I was away for the summer. (Happy Days!) 

Right - what you need to do is this (using the Segovia)... Away from WMP (eg My Documents) create a folder with the album title. 'A Bach Recital' and move in the required tracks.  Highlight all the tracks and right-click to select 'properties' - 'Details' tab In the dialogue box enter the information that applies to all tracks (as indicated in the snip below - although 'Contibuting artisis' may also be 'multiple values') and then work through properties on the individual tracks to give them title track number etc remembering to click 'apply' and 'OK' at each stage.

Make sure the file title and track numbers match (so under 'general' tab... 01 Partita No. 3 - under the 'details' tab  #1 etc. The 'Title' in 'Details' tab should not include the number...) Note that file titles must be 01 - 02 etc. NB When you create your own version you need to give the album a different name from anything that is already in WMP or it will just put them all together. So if WMP already has a version of 'A Bach Recital' title your version 'Segovia Plays Bach' or something of your choosing.

Let me know if this is making sense and check back before transferring work over to your music folder.

Best - R.

Okay Ric, here's where I got to at this point:

I tried working through your instructions, but was a bit confused after the first 10 minutes (and didn't succeed with any).  Not that the instructions were bad at all, just involved a lot it seemed....

I would have tried further, but the following is what I stumbled upon while trying to initially remove (1) the individual files that were already in WMP (all under ONE "unknown" album.  And (2) removing the folders containing the MP3 files/songs, that I created from each LP.  (Doing this to remove them from a "monitored" folder by WMP).

You had suggested moving them temporarily to, for instance, My Documents (which is not set to be monitored).

But instead, I moved all the folders (albums) to the Desktop, in one new folder.,

So, when I clicked on an "album folder" from the Desktop location, I noticed an option in the heading tabs (in Windows Explorer) for "Include in Library" with a dropdown arrow.  In the dropdown was the choice of "Music" folder.  So I tried moving folder to there, using this option. -- just for the hell of it...

NOTE:  By the way, (using Windows Explorer) this "Add to Library" tab does NOT come up under "My Documents." 

So what happened was that it did move all the files from within that folder to a new (or existing -- more on that later) "unknown album" within WMP.

So from the "albums" view and the "details" sort within WMP, I could then just edit the album/artist/etc. info.

So here's the note regarding the "unknown album:"   If there was already an existing "unknown album" in WMP, then whatever files that were there had to first be ***"deleted from the Library only" (a popup option after selecting "delete") BEFORE editing/creating the new album info.***Otherwise, all files/songs in the unknown album would be included in the newly created album (after adding the album title).  Also note that once adding any album information using the edit option, the album immediately got resorted in the list, so you had to find it again under that field/sort

Anyway, this allows me to create the "new" album and edit album information one folder/album at a time.  If you have an opinion on this method, versus yours, please let me know -- especially if yours allows you to create more than one album at a time. (Which I don't think it did)?

I suppose this would not be any different that just taking one folder/album at a time and initially saving it to the "My Music" folder in the Library?  But I didn't try that yet, due to WMP brain overload...

Even this way, it is pretty time consuming entering all the album information, especially each track name.  So my guess at this point is that I will only do this for some of the albums, where I would more likely find a need to locate / move to a specific song/track.

Whew..... lots of work/time, it seems, to do this....

Thanks,

Bob

Hi Bob

There are a number of ways of side-stepping the 'unknown album' issue. One useful method is to use a CD/RW to create a temporary CD album and then you can enter all the details before ripping it.

My method is to use a 'temporary' folder on an external hard-drive for putting this sort of project together but  the documents folder could be used equally well as that is not monitored. Then all the new information (except artwork) needs to be applied in that location before it is returned to the music folder. Once WMP has incorporated the new album, artwork (if wanted) can be added there.

Could you give me an example - album name - artist(s) - track number and name - that you want to create? About 5 tracks will be enough to give you clear directions - you can use those as a template for the rest. - R.

Thank you RicW-nw,

Here is the answer to your questions about how I "put the tracks together:

The short answer, I think is this:  Yes, I put the folders/files in the "Music" (windows default folder), which IS monitored by WMP (although WMP did not recognize them initially -- see details below).  So I think I understand your suggestion to "isolate the work in progress," which I'm assuming means to initially copy the folder/files to a location that WMP does NOT monitor.

It that's correct, then I would probably need an explanation please of your next suggestion, to "Then when you relocate it to your music folder WMP will see it as a 'new' album."  Does that mean to one-by-one, transfer each "album folder" from an "unmonitored folder" to the "Music" (monitored) folder, and see if it's recognized as a separate album... and then edit the information for that one folder/album before moving another "folder/album" to the "Music" folder and doing the same thing?  Or do you have a  method of doing this in a "batch," instead of "importing" one at a time...?

Details:

After creating separate tracks/files for each song, I put all the songs of each individual album in one folder with the folder having the "Album Name."

I put several folders inside the "Music" folder - one of the folders that WMP monitors.

I should mention that after doing that, WMP did NOT recognize the files/folders at all (they did not show up in the WMP Library).  So I apparently had a "corrupt library" based on the error message.  So I rebuilt the library following the instructions in "Step 1" here:  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/media-library-is-corrupted-on-windows-7/2afcac17-984b-48fe-98fa-451aa5c085e6  which said to do this:

Method 1.

Here are the steps to rebuild the Media Library.

Now you may try rebuilding the Media library on your computer and check for the issue to do that you may follow the below provided steps.

1.Shutdown windows media player. 

2.Stop the media sharing service.  Go to Start->Control Panel->All Control Panel Items->Administrative Tools->Services.  Right-click on the “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service” and select Stop.

3.Navigate to “c:\Users\”your username”\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player.  Now delete the files named CurrentDatabase_***.wmdb and LocalMLS_*.wmdb. 

4.Start the media sharing service.

5.Now start Windows Media Player and watch it build up your library again.

The rebuild was successful in that it now recognized all the folders/files in the "Music" (Window default) folder.

But then, like mentioned in original post, all the songs from each separate folder were ALL listed in WMP under one "Unknown Album."

In my case, since the files are already in the monitored Music folder, do I just move them all out of that folder to an unmonitored folder, in order to "remove" them from WMP until later?

Thanks very much again,

Bob