USB Stick playing order.

Posted by: soileduk on 22 February 2011

I have just acquired an Ndac and am now experimenting with a USB stick. Although I transfer each wav file onto the stick in its correct playing order, when replayed via the Ndac the playing order is altered although if I view the stick contents on the computer the files are shown as correctly ordered.Also Windows media player plays in the correct order. I am a bit new to all this so if a kindly soul or two could give some pointers I would be most grateful.
Posted on: 22 February 2011 by Naijeru
The DAC will play the files in the root folder in alphabetical order, so when playing USB sticks with the DAC treat them as CDs (i.e. all files in the root with no subfolders).  Theoretically the DAC is supposed to ignore files in subfolders but my DAC will occasionally play those as well, but I treat any such behavior as unpredictable.
Posted on: 22 February 2011 by Asenna04
In my experience this following is the order of play:

1. Song files in root folder in number and then alphabetical order.
2. Folders in number and the alphabetical order, the song files within the folders are played in number and then alphabetical order.

If there are sub-folders within folders the same logic applies as 2 above.

ASenna04
Posted on: 22 February 2011 by pcstockton
Make sure to convert to WAV using a "%N - %T" or "%N - %A - %T" naming scheme.  This way your tracks will always sort correctly.

-patrick
Posted on: 22 February 2011 by Hook
Aleg recently reminded me to make sure to use two digits:  01, 02, 03, etc.

Otherwise 1 may be followed by 11 and then 12 before getting back to 2 and 3!

Hook
Posted on: 22 February 2011 by garyi
I think patrick is making the point that how you see the files in a structure is not the point, its how they are tagged.
Posted on: 23 February 2011 by Aleg
Originally Posted by garyi:
I think patrick is making the point that how you see the files in a structure is not the point, its how they are tagged.

The instruction by Patrick refers to the naming of the files, not the tagging.

Tags don't come into play with USB playback.

My nDAC plays all files from root and from all folders automatically and in alphabetical order, so tracknumbers are best using two digits.

-
aleg
Posted on: 24 February 2011 by Asenna04
Originally Posted by Aleg:
Originally Posted by garyi:

My nDAC plays all files from root and from all folders automatically and in alphabetical order, so tracknumbers are best using two digits.

-
aleg

I also support the 2 digit naming convention.

ASenna04
Posted on: 24 February 2011 by pcstockton
Yes, Aleg is right.  It is how the files are NAMED.  It appears the Naim DAC plays naturally in alphabetical order.  If you open the USB stick in Explorer it will show you the "default" order.  It should play in this order.

Lastly, in my experience it "1, 2, 3" rather than "01, 02, 03" works fine.  Of course 2 digits cant hurt.