Sorting Music Into Folders?

Nikkolai · Post by **Nikkolai** » 09-25-10 1:46 pm

It is highly likely that this has been requested but I couldn't find it in the voting page and I really didn't know what to search for, so if it has then I apologise.

I wished to download a number of MIDI files but when I added them to Synthesia looking through all the songs was overwhelming. Is it possible for the user to sort songs into folders and open/ collapse them?

If so ignore the following idea:

There could be a button on the song list that would switch between it's current view (which is excellent for sorting a-z and with difficulty level) and another view. This 'other' view could be styles like the old Windows drop-down/expansion thing. Not sure what to call it but it didn't have actual folders it had a little + sign next to the folder things name and when you pressed it, it then expanded to all the files inside the folder. I think this would be useful to find the MIDI files that you wanted. Also I'm not sure but I believe that Synthesia could use the same folder watching/file detection system to create the folders i.e. Easy, Medium or any user created folder that is in the file.

Anyways the program is awesome and I can't believe I haven't found it earlier. Just remember if this has been suggested this is my first post so be nice. =P

Possible my longest first post EVER.

Edit:
Nicholas,
I didn't want to say this and look stupid at first but now I've checked it out, I've never seen a developer/creator so involved with the community and so willing to make additions to the program. Usually there are suggestions boards but they are never taken into account. So in summary: You rock! =P

Raymond · Post by **Raymond** » 09-25-10 5:33 pm

it is called tree view.

Anyways I use the Manage Watched Folders to 'hide' folders. So the list is not as big(and it loads faster).

See I take a folder of songs like 'Synthesia Music' and I put all the songs in a new folder named the same.
So before it was: 'Synthesia Music\Songs'
Now it is: 'Synthesia Music\Synthesia Music\Songs'

Then in Synthesia i go to 'Manage watched Folders...' and i add the first folder: 'Synthesia Music\'
Then when I want to play a song in it i just select in the list and click the 'Also watch its sub-folders' button.
When I am done I just press the same button wich is now 'Don't watch its sub-folders'

I have ~2,500 songs and doing this way seems to work.

It is kinda a hacky roundabout way of doing it but it works for now.

Post by **Nicholas** » 09-25-10 8:12 pm

Raymond wrote:It is kinda a hacky roundabout way of doing it but it works for now...

Yeah, that's kind of the best we've got for now.

A tree view is one solution... though, I wanted to keep it a little simpler. I like the flat playlist list that iTunes uses. There would be a list of the folders you had added right on the library screen, and you can click each to show just songs from that folder (and/or sub-folders). There would be a top-level "All" (so it's sort of like a tree view) that would show everything and would probably be where you go to use the search box.

TonE · Post by **TonE** » 09-26-10 7:59 am

The whole watched folders story is not needed if you are willing to use the command line, then you can find and organize your songs where and how you want, there are so many possibilities, why wanting a much worse version INSIDE Synthesia, just get the best solution you want OUTSIDE of Synthesia and be happy.

Typhlosion · Post by **Typhlosion** » 09-26-10 9:36 am

Yeah, why do we need a user interface. A cli is entirely adequate. It could just show numbers of the keys I have to press instead of this guitar hero mode. So no need for a window or such...

maccer · Post by **maccer** » 10-09-10 11:14 am

Nicholas wrote:I like the flat playlist list that iTunes uses. There would be a list of the folders you had added right on the library screen, and you can click each to show just songs from that folder (and/or sub-folders). There would be a top-level "All" (so it's sort of like a tree view) that would show everything and would probably be where you go to use the search box.

See? Everyone (including you) want folders!

I agree, the flat list is great if you also have some kind of a folder navigator. The navigator should of course show the folder name, but I would also like to see how many files and folders (two different numbers) each folder in the navigator contains.

@Tone: But when you're outside Synthesia you can't see metadata about your songs, and with the latest Mac version you even need to quit Synthesia (should be fixed with the "windowed full screen" mode) if you want to select a song outside of the game.

Post by **Nicholas** » 10-09-10 3:51 pm

maccer wrote:... and with the latest Mac version you even need to quit Synthesia...

This actually bit me pretty good. I had to hard power-off the machine by holding the power button because I couldn't get out of the Synthesia window and to the debugger when a crash happened.

It's unfortunate that the CGL stuff is so much more aggressive than the AGL stuff... but yeah, windowed mode on the Mac side will absolutely fix this. Just kind of an intermediate set-back.

A work-around for now if you have a 2nd monitor is to run Synthesia on the non-primary screen. Then you can sort of trick your cursor into doing stuff on the primary screen. That's how I was able to get things working anyway.

swalker133 · Post by **swalker133** » 10-28-10 12:05 pm

just filter them by folder by clicking on the folder colum:

: click, 'folder' at the top; folder.JPG (23.17 KiB) Viewed 4559 times

Pianotehead · Post by **Pianotehead** » 10-28-10 8:40 pm

Agree with you guys, a huge MIDI collection makes it heavy for the program, always have the feeling it's going to crash (though it hasn't yet) after arranging the list in the window. So I decided to watch only the G major music folder and change to the other collections when I want to play them. When I think of it I only play a small portion of my midis, over 300 right now in the collection.