Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

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luke
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Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby luke » Tue Jun 07, 2022 3:10 pm

I organize mp3's by filename. Example:

story.01.01.mp3
story.01.02.mp3
story.02.01.mp3

What that means is that the directory listing is the order that the story files are meant to play. (01.01 may be part 1 chapter 1, or chapter 1 fragment 1).

The mp3 player I've tried can use "track number" or "alphabetical listing (by "Title", rather than filename) to order the files. One issue here is that often there isn't a "track number" on self-created files. One can add the track number with an mp3 tag editor, but that doesn't always go well. For example, it messed up tags that had accent characters. (For books where the chapters have titles other than "chapter 1", it's nice to have the name of the chapter. E.G., "An Unexpected Party").

So, wondering if anyone knows an ad-free, open mp3 player that they like that understands you may want to play a set of MP3s in directory order.

BTW, not exactly related, but sort of. There's a free program called DriveSort.exe that sorts USB files based upon their name. That's how I get MP3s to play in the proper order on a USB stick.

Is anyone handling this to their satisfaction on an Android?
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby luke » Tue Jun 07, 2022 8:43 pm

I found a solution.

I used this (new to me) mp3tag editor: MP3TAG The universal tag editor

I corrected the Titles that lost accent characters, etc, when I added track numbers last night.

The "track number" and "USB MP3s need a USB sorter program" are generic "solutions".

All that to say, my investigation hasn't turned up an mp3 player that includes an option to sort by filename. (There must be one somewhere :)).

But I think I'm in business now.
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby rdearman » Tue Jun 07, 2022 10:18 pm

VLC. Just tell it to play the directory.
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby luke » Tue Jun 07, 2022 11:29 pm

rdearman wrote:VLC. Just tell it to play the directory.

Looks good. The mp3 listing is exactly what I expect. Thanks!
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Jun 08, 2022 5:22 am

luke wrote:All that to say, my investigation hasn't turned up an mp3 player that includes an option to sort by filename. (There must be one somewhere :)).


My physical MP3 player (hidden somewhere in the mess on my table) plays tracks in the order they are added. If I've selected a number of files (let us assume they are in some alphanumerical order), the track I happen to click when I drag and drop is the first one to appear. Now I know, but the first two or three times, it was very confusing.
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby luke » Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:32 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:My physical MP3 player (hidden somewhere in the mess on my table) plays tracks in the order they are added.

That sounds similar to my experience with adding MP3 files to a USB stick. In that case, the main reason MP3s play in the order they were added is because that is the order they appear in directory. (I know you're technical, but for those who may be less so, it's the physical order of the files in the directory listing). The solution there was a "directory sorter" (like DriveSort), which rearranges the physical entries in the directory. Basically, it rewrites the directory in alphabetical order. (Behind the scenes, this may be related to the Microsoft FAT32 filesystem, which is common for USB sticks).
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby Le Baron » Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:19 pm

The reason my mp3 player plays things in order is because:

1. I numbered and named the files in the metadata in VLC.
2. I separate them into folders.

All this is super-fast done manually. I'll also never understand why people plug mp3 players into those so-called organisational systems like iTunes etc. Or footle about trying to auto-order huge amounts of data. How much does a person need to use at one time? It takes mere minutes to fix metadata on a folder's worth and about 10-20 seconds to drag and drop (or move) a folder from your computer to a player; mere seconds for a file. With no internet connection even. There may well be too many operating all this on bothersome smartphones which just slows everything down and adds endless unnecessary problems.

On a hi-fi forum I occasionally visit a lot of the (especially younger) people there use streaming systems to listen to music and there are threads and threads of people kneecapped (by themselves mostly) and in a quagmire of wrestling with the technical delivery systems for infinitely more hours than the actual time they'll ever spend actually listening to music.The old-school method of playing a physical album never involved a fraction of this sort of bother. You only had to worry about handling the object!
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby luke » Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:41 pm

Le Baron wrote:The reason my mp3 player plays things in order is because:

1. I numbered and named the files in the metadata in VLC.
2. I separate them into folders.

Yes, mp3 players can use various criteria to sort. Title and track number appear common. VLC is smarter and also understands filenames.

In Audacity, the top 4 tags in the Save sub-dialog, "Edit Metadata" are the ones I've found most useful:
Artist Name
Track Title
Album
Track Number

There are a lot of pieces of metadata. Are there any other tags that show up frequently in players that you've found particularly helpful?
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby Le Baron » Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:05 pm

Virtual players or my physical m3 player? I only use VLC for this process. I've used others in the past, but decided there was no need to duplicate what seemed to be working. Audacity I'll use only if I'm altering the actual file - like trimming-off those overindulgent, somewhat vacuous introductions on Spanish/French radio podcasts. :lol:

On my previous mp3 player I did fiddle with the indexing system file to make it properly recognise files, though the one I have now behaves itself.
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Re: Is there a good free Android mp3 player?

Postby jeffers » Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:49 am

luke wrote:There are a lot of pieces of metadata. Are there any other tags that show up frequently in players that you've found particularly helpful?


The lyrics tag. It is rarely used, but Assimil adds a lesson's text to the lyrics tag so that you can read it while listening to a lesson. I've posted two examples below, taken from Rocket Player. I find it really helpful when I'm listening to Assimil on the go, because sometimes I want to verify what I'm hearing. It would also be great when you want to read while listening but haven't brought the book with you.

The problem is, most music players won't display lyrics tags. Some music players will try to display lyrics from online databases (which is honestly more useful for most users, but not for us!)

Screenshot_20220610-124006_Rocket Player sm.jpg

Screenshot_20220610-122759_Rocket Player sm2.jpg
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