How do you import the audio tracks from Windows "My Music"

[TheMusicGeek]

I have not been having much luck with the new 4.01 Hoster so far, so as I wait for MTU to iron out the bugs I thought I would start importing the audio tracks I have. This was a major selling point on the new version of Hoster because of the added ability of using the search for DJ music.
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to import the audio tracks from the WIndows "My Music" folder into Hoster. I have a couple thousand CD’s ripped to the computer as wma’s. Some have the track number in front of the song name and some don’t. No matter what field order option I use to import I get a “separator character” error. I would be willing to re-rip directly to Hoster from the original CD’s if I absolutely had to but I don’t see that as an option as it looks like the import from CD is only for karaoke CD’s.
I know I suck at trying to explain things but what am I missing here?

[ddouglass]

List a file title here as an example of what exactly you have. If you right click one of the files and choose rename then use Ctrl-C and copy the name then paste it in a post here.
That way we can see exactly what separator you have in them and be able to tell you how to set it up.
You are correct that importing audio directly from CDs won't work.

[TheMusicGeek]

01 Thunderstruck.wmv

Barry White Can't Get Enough of Your Love Rock.wmv

08 Gloria.wmv

These are the default files created from windows media player "rip" feature. The ones with the track number are from earlier version of wmp and the ones without are from wmp11.

[ddouglass]

The wmv is a video file format. Are you sure they aren't WMA?

You are going to have problems with these because they don't any separators.You can import them with just the title as the first column and leave the separator blank after it. However those that have a track number will have that included in the title. All artist fields will be "Unknown " unless you know who they are and can go through the list and add them.
If you have the CDs it would be better to re-rip them in a format that will work. ALso that would update the files to much better ripping as even Windows Media Player has progressed in that department to much better quality.
In WMP11 click on tools/options. Find the Rip Music tab. On this tab select Windows Media Audio (WMA). Also click the "File Name" Button. In this dialog I would suggest setting it to Title, Artist and Track Number. Also set the separator as the Dash.
Then when you set up Hoster to import them you can custom setup the items. If they are in the order I listed them you would put Title in the first block, the "-" in the small second block, Artist in the next block, the "-" in the next and Track number in the next. Then set Brand to Custom Assembly and the DiskID to your own made-up number. Set your BookID to what you want it to be. I have started mine at 5001 to isolate the audio from the karaoke.

[TheMusicGeek]

I meant wma not wmv. Long week, sorry.

I guess I will rerip everything with a seperator.

Also to clarify, You said that you started all the audio files with a higher book number. Does that mean that Hoster doesn't know the difference. So when I look up a DJ song it will show all the karaoke versions as well?

[ddouglass]

In 4.01 it search does not have any way to determine which you are looking for so will present all forms of your search request.
The next release 4.02 will have buttons to select karaoke, audio and video (future use), so if all you want are the audio you turn off the others and only audio files will show.
Starting the audio way up above my karaoke was just my way of keeping all the audio together and separate from the karaoke files. I also have created a separate folder to store the audio KMA files in to futher separate them. We don't do any strictly DJ shows so those won't get used that much.

[billyo]

question in importing audio files, if i import all my audio files and put them on a playlist,just like you would do on hoster , would i be able to play them non stop if i set it up on auto ? since audio files doesnt have any brand names on them, or they will have gaps in between songs ?

[ddouglass]

The only gap between songs is whatever you set the delay to for the Auto. If you set it to 0 then there will be no delay except for the cue time.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

The only gap between songs is whatever you set the delay to for the Auto. If you set it to 0 then there will be no delay except for the cue time.

oh ok..thanks

[TheMusicGeek]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

In 4.01 it search does not have any way to determine which you are looking for so will present all forms of your search request.
The next release 4.02 will have buttons to select karaoke, audio and video (future use), so if all you want are the audio you turn off the others and only audio files will show.
Starting the audio way up above my karaoke was just my way of keeping all the audio together and separate from the karaoke files. I also have created a separate folder to store the audio KMA files in to futher separate them. We don't do any strictly DJ shows so those won't get used that much.

Ok, so I started playing around with this. I reset the rip parameters of WMP11 artist and song title and to dash separate the fields. Since I can’t designate audio from karaoke, I took your advice and tried to set the book ID to 5000. Despite these being audio tracks the import window wants a disk brand and ID. I type in Audio for brand and no matter what I put in for id the book id value reverts to what next would assign (3132 in my case) and then grays out so I can’t change it. First off why do we need brand and disk ID for audio import if all the data is in the file name? Second of all how to you get the book id to stay put at the higher number.

[ddouglass]

Maybe you have already used Audio and the diskID you picked? That would be the only way it would insert a BookID and grey it out.
Try Custom Assembly as the Brand and choose/type in a DiscID that isn't in the dropdown list. That should allow you to use your choice for BookID.
You should be able to check by doing a search for that 3132 BookID and see if anything is already imported under it.

[TheMusicGeek]

Nope, it is picking up on what ever the next book id would be. Additionally the disk ID is changing to XYZ followed by the bookid number. If I leave the disk ID blank it auto populates with the XYZ number. If I put a number in it, it changes to the XYZ number.

[ddouglass]

I am assuming this changes when you tell it to Add Files? At this point change the DiskID to whatever you want it to be. That should ungrey the BookID, then don't click the "Next" button but type in the BookID you want to start with.