Thursday, September 6, 2007

Use auMusicPort to load music

I have the preliminary write up for loading music. Please ask any questions, and make corrections. I have not included pictures, but can add them in if anything is unclear.


Music Library Primary Functions

First, open auMusicPort.From the main screen, select Music Library.
There are four icons on the far left. Their function is as follows:

1: Picture of a PC with a play arrow in the monitor - Shows the songs currently in your 'PC play list'. Play your tunes from the pc or phone here.
2: Phone and PC with two directional arrows - Sync function to load songs to and from the phone
3: papers with a pencil on them - I have no clue.. perhaps some sort of tag editor or viewer or rating thing.. whatever, dont need it! ;)
4: Musical Note, an arrow, and a PC - File importing.


Step 1: Importing Music

Click on File import (music note and PC). You will see a spreadsheet. Above this you see the import functions.

Looking at the import features: First is a CD with a drop down bar. You can rip right from a CD drive. The drop down selects which drive to rip from. It only shows valid music CDs in the drop down.
Below that is a file folder, and a LONG button. Click the button. You can now point to a specific file, or a folder. If you point to a folder, it will recurse all sub folders within that folder.
Ok, so you have chosen either a CD or a music folder.

CD: your cd will be ripped, and the file names will appear in the spreadsheet with a rip progress bar.

Folder: you will be prompted with a popup box. You are given a few options. The default selection is ALL known file types. the other options or for such options as WAV, WMA or M4A. It's important (and sad) to note here that MP3 files are NOT on the list. Unfortunately AMP only reads those three file types. You will have to convert your mp3s to WMA, or use Sonic Stage to convert them and then load to a M2 card. :( booo hiss..The top section of the popup allows the file type selection (default to all) while the bottom section allows you to choose Scan Whole System, or In a folder only. It should be pretty obvious to you how to use this function.
Left button is Ok, right is Cancel

So, hitting ok will default to all. Now all files in the folder are shown in the spreadsheet.
Its important to note that amp is a bit slow on this process.. watch progress bar. I strongly advise you point to a folder only, as the full scan initially will take FOREVER and grab all those silly sounds from the OS...

Now that you have a list, you can choose what to convert to phone format. Throw check boxes in the songs you want, using shift to select groups at a time.

Finally click the large square button with the CD icon and down arrow. You will now see progress percentage as the files are converted. When everything is 100%, move on to the next step.


Step 2: Uploading

Your tune is now in the PC library. You can even play it by clicking on the first large icon on the left (PC with a play button). Go ahead and check the quality.

When you are ready to transfer, click the icon of the phone and PC.You now have two spreadsheets. The top is your PC library, the bottom is the phone library (likely empty at first).
Highlight the songs from the top list you wish to transfer. You can use Shift and Ctrl click options to highlight groups.

Between the two lists, are 4 buttons. One has a down arrow and Japanese, then two with Japanese, then one with an UP arrow and PC.
The first and the last should be pretty obvious. The third is "Resetsuto" Im not sure what number two does, but I have had good luck with number on (down arrow) and number two for loading songs to the phone.

You can now disconnect the phone and find the music either in the phone memory, or the memory card (be it microSD or M2). The Default location is the memory card when installed.

Your music will play from either folder via the Music Menu. You can also move the songs to the other memory area from the normal file menu, and they will be found again when you re-open the Music Menue.