What is the default source used for song names used in a list?

[AliShibaz]

I store all my music files on my Windows Desktop PC and that is the primary source of my files. From there I transfer them to my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone and use Poweramp to play them.

I'd like to begin by asking if anyone can explain what is meant by Poweramp's use of the term "Player Screen/Notification"? When I start Poweramp, it dispays a menu with the standard "Start/Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind" buttons. I would assume this screen is the "Player Screen". But what is meant by "Notification"? Is it the same screen or is there some separate screen?

I don't understand from where Poweramp gets the file names it displays when I show the Queue or any other list of songs. I would think the logical source of those names would be the names of the files as they are listed in Windows Explorer - in other words, just the names of the files as Windows knows them. I think Poweramp refers to each of those names as "Track Filename". To try and explain further, these names usually end with the file extension ".mp3".

There is one option in the Settings menu. If you click on ... Settings -> Look & Feel -> Player UI, there is an option titled, "Filename as Title - Use track filename instead of tag in Player Screen/Notification".

I understand a little bit about MP3 Tags. I use them when playing music with Winamp on my Desktop PC. I can set the MP3 tags with Winamp. But, when I need to set those tags for multiple files, Winamp is just too slow. It only does one file at a time. However, I have found an excellent utility called, "MP3tag". If anyone wants to try it, Google "download mp3tag freeware". When I tried that, I found the following site: www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html

But the strangest thing happens. When I check that option, Poweramp works just fine. It displays the song names by using the file names. But when I clear that option, Poweramp displays names that are similar to the file names. But are a little different. They still have the ".mp3" extension. But there are some extra numbers in the middle of the names ... like "0904" and I have no idea what that means. I checked and confirmed there is only one name for that particular song on my hard drive. So, from where does Poweramp get the name it is displaying when I clear that option? It's not getting them from my original file names.

This has been a mystery to me since I first started using Poweramp. I thought that I would have figured it out by now. But it's still a mystery. I would have guessed there would be an existing thread here that discusses this question. But I can't seem to figure out how to search thru existing threads in this forum. Also, I can't seem to display all threads into which I have posted. Can anyone please tell me how to do this?

I'd really like to know from where Poweramp is getting the names of songs that it displays. I understand there are some data bases which Poweramp can access and they have all kinds of info for each song - including Album Art, for example. I guess another way of asking this question would be, "When Poweramp displays the name of a song, what is the default source for that name?

Also, from where does Poweramp get the name if you turn off the option that says to use the File Name? What other source is there? As far as that option goes, I'm not sure I understand what is meant by "Player Screen/Notification".  Can anyone explain that to me?

Sorry this post is so long and I thank you for your patience.

 

 

P.S. I just found out how to get a list of my posts and threads. I just click on my name at the right of the main forum screen. Just wanted to save  you some time cuz you dont need to answer that anymore.
 

[andrewilley]

Correct, Song Titles (just like Album titles and Artists) are gathered from the tag information contained within each MP3 file. You can override this in order to display the filename instead if your files are mis-tagged.

'Notification Area' refers to Android's standard pull-down notification area at the top of the screen, so you can control basic playback functions from there while working in another app for example.

Andre

[AliShibaz]

Thank you.

 

Is their anyway I can access the Tag info directly from Poweramp? If not, is there any way I can access it from any existing utility on my Samsung Galaxy S4?

 

Or do I have to do that using my PC and then transfer the files to my phone?

 

It's by no means a real problem. It would just make things a little more convenient.

[andrewilley]

Much easier on a PC where you can look at them all at once on a decent sized screen in a batch editor (e.g. TagScanner) but within Poweramp's Player screen you can use Menu > Info/Tags > Edit Tags , but you will need write-access to the SD Card and you can only do it song by song.

Andre

[AliShibaz]

Thank you Andre.

 

Unfortunately, I can't seem to understand just what this Settings Option does. (Filename as Title). I have entered the Tag info and checked it on my Desktop. But I've been trying to see the song names - using the file name or the info from the Tags.

 

However, I've tried many times to set this option and examine my Queue and then I've cleared this option and examined my Queue again. The results just seem random. Sometimes it shows the file names and sometimes it shows the names from the tag. And it seems to be completely unrelated to how this option is set.

 

I can't understand what is going on. It's as if this option has no effect. But worse than that, it seems like Poweramp just randomly decides to use the file names sometimes and the tag info sometimes and it has nothing to do with whether this option is checked or not.

 

I thought maybe it might operate one way when I list the songs in my Queue but a different way when I list songs in a folder or in a Play List or some other way. But I can't seem to find any consistency.

 

Do you have any idea what might be going wrong?

 

Also I want to ask what the name is for the list of songs that I may have selected to be played but that I have not yet enqueued. For instance, when you look at Poweramp's main Player screen, there is one icon at the top of the screen and if you tap it, it displays the songs in the Queue. But there is another icon at the bottom of the screen and usually when I tap that one, I am shown a list of the songs that I selected to be played but are not yet in the Queue.

 

What do you call that group of songs? To try to clarify, if I go into the folders and tap on one specific album, Poweramp will play the songs in that album but they are not put into the Queue until I enqueue them. I can see that list of songs by tapping the icon at the bottom of the Player screen. But can you tell me what the name is for that roup of songs?

 

Also, sometimes when I tap the icon near the bottom of the Player screen, Poweramp will show me that list of songs (the ones that are playing but not yet enqueued). But sometimes it will show me the songs in the Queue instead.

 

Can you tell me why it behaves this way and how I can contol which icon will display which list?

 

 

I

[andrewilley]

If you have the "Filename as Title" option enabled, Poweramp will always show you physical filenames (instead of the song title from the tag) in the PLAYER Screen, and I would suggest leaving it unticked for what you see to want to do. If you have edited a lot of tags, it might be an idea to do a FULL Rescan to make sure everything has been picked up cleanly (although just a normal Rescan should probably be sufficient).

The normal Poweramp playback method is using Folders or the Library (e.g. Folders/files, Albums, Artists, Playlists, etc). Just select any song from a folder, album, artist, etc and Poweramp will then continue playing all the songs in that folder/album/artist. Once done, it will move on to the next folder/album/artist (assuming you have Repeat mode set to 'Advance List', otherwise it will stop at the end of the current folder/album/artist, or Repeat, depending on the setting you choose).

If you enqueue another song in the meantime, that song will temporarily interrupt the regular playback order (and you can queue several songs this way). Once any queued songs are finished, Poweramp will go back to its normal playback mode wherever you left off. The Queue is just a temporary way to play specific songs though, don't use it as your regular mode of use.

Tap on the song title just below the album art to view the currently playing list (folder/album/artist/etc), which would be the queue if that is what is currently playing.

Andre

[AliShibaz]

Hmmm .... very interesting. A FULL Rescan versus a normal rescan.

 

I have no idea what either of those are. I'm guessing that is probably a real good reason why I can't seem to see the info I expect.

 

LOL. I have never done any rescans since I don't know what they are. I will now search through the settings and other menus to see if I can spot where scans are done and I will try that. I hope I can find it.

 

Thanks Andre. I'll let you know if I can't find how to do a rescan.

[AliShibaz]

AHA! SUCCESS!  --  I am so happy! These are the moments that I enjoy so much with Poweramp. Not only did I learn a new concept - thanks to you Andre - but that concept is related to several others which increases my understanding of all of them.

 

It is so nice to have that control now. I now understand the difference between the songs in the queue and those in the list of songs to be played. Although I still don't know the correct name of that group of songs and I sure would like to. After all, it must have a name. Doesn't it?

 

When I have some songs in my queue and I select a folder, Poweramp begins to play that folder. Now the settings  that deal with the queue and the libraries and folders all make sense to me and I feel very good about that.

 

I love it when I understand a new concept and that enables me to piece together several other related concepts. It increases my overall understanding of Poweramp by more than just that single concept becasuse that concept (in this case, the diff between song names taken from the file name vs the song name taken from the tag) impacts several other concepts and so I now understand a few more related concepts. At this rate I believe that one day I will have a good overall understanding. But my understanding today is very much better than it was even just a few days ago.

 

I thank you so very much Andre. I'm very happy. I love Poweramp. It's one of my most favorite apps.