Sorting Audio Tracks on the Zen Nano
Podcasting is overrated but I am addicted to IT Conversations.
I’ve been looking for a portable MP3 player that works well with linux for a long time. I wanted something small and light, with long battery life and a backlit display that shows the file name. I wanted to be able to mount the file system and copy files across directly as well as the ability to delete files on the device itself. One gigabyte seemed the ideal size: just enough space to squeeze a few albums in as well for when I need a break from the spoken word.
Finally I’ve found the ideal player for my needs: the 1GB Zen Nano Plus.
It’s very small, fitting into that tiny jeans pocket for which I’ve never previously found a use. It runs around 18 hours on a single charge, takes AAA batteries, supports drag and drop and uses USB 2.0. (It has a number of extra features too like radio, direct encoding to mp3, voice recorder etc that I do not want or need but one never knows when they might come in handy).
It might lack the smooth finish of an Apple device but it is perfect for my needs. It’s small and light enough to take anywhere and not notice you’re carrying it. Now I can make the most of otherwise dead time spent travelling, queuing, shopping or waiting.
Ordering Tracks
Albums are defined by folders. However, tracks within each album/folder play in alphabetical order rather than track number order. To get round this, the supplied Windows software from Creative manipulates the file names:
When you sort your audio files using ID3 tags, Zen Nano Media Explorer adds a 3-digit prefix (a number from 000 to 999) to each filename. For example, Song 1 is renamed as 001_Song 1.
(From the Creative Windows help files)
Since I’m using linux, I’ve written a quick and clumsy bash script that does the same thing: nanoplaylist.
After ripping a CD to mp3s, cd to the generated directory and run the script to rename each file appropriately.
eg
tim@withnail:~/mp3/WAITS Tom/Small Change$ ls
WAITS Tom - Bad Liver And A Broken Heart.mp3
WAITS Tom - I Can't Wait To Get Off Work.mp3
WAITS Tom - Invitation To The Blues.mp3
WAITS Tom - I Wish I Was In New Orleans.mp3
WAITS Tom - Jitterbug Boy.mp3
WAITS Tom - Pasties And A G-String.mp3
WAITS Tom - Small Change.mp3
WAITS Tom - Step Right Up.mp3
WAITS Tom - The One That Got Away.mp3
WAITS Tom - The Piano Has Been Drinking.mp3
WAITS Tom - Tom Traubert's Blues.mp3
tim@withnail:~/mp3/WAITS Tom/Small Change$ nanoplaylist
tim@withnail:~/mp3/WAITS Tom/Small Change$ ls
001_WAITS Tom - Tom Traubert's Blues.mp3
002_WAITS Tom - Step Right Up.mp3
003_WAITS Tom - Jitterbug Boy.mp3
004_WAITS Tom - I Wish I Was In New Orleans.mp3
005_WAITS Tom - The Piano Has Been Drinking.mp3
006_WAITS Tom - Invitation To The Blues.mp3
007_WAITS Tom - Pasties And A G-String.mp3
008_WAITS Tom - Bad Liver And A Broken Heart.mp3
009_WAITS Tom - The One That Got Away.mp3
010_WAITS Tom - Small Change.mp3
011_WAITS Tom - I Can't Wait To Get Off Work.mp3
The script assumes that you have not modified the mp3s since you ripped them and that your software has ripped them sequentially, first track first. Download nanoplaylist here.
September 20th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
To mount the Creative Zen Nano Plus under linux.
As root use dmesg to find the item id -
Sample output:
“usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using address 2
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver…
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: CREATIVE Model: Zen Nano Plus Rev: 1021
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sda: 2034944 512-byte hdwr sectors (1042 MB)
sda: assuming Write Enabled
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage”
Then to mount the device, first create a mount point then mount it as follows:
(Still as root):
mkdir /mnt/nanoplus
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/nanoplus
(Replace /dev/sda1 with /dev/sdb1 or whatever is appropriate using the info from dmesg)
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:40 am
Thanks for the script! I still have problems, however. Some files and folders are skipped. Is there any documentation on the file system format that is not in Windows help format? (I have only a Linux box). Thanks again.
July 3rd, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Hi Dave. I’ll check next time I’m logged into my windows but off the top of my head, you can’t nest folders and you can’t use many non-alphanumeric characters in the file names (underscore and the full-stop are permitted but I don’t think you can use asterisks or plus signs for example). Post more information about the file and folder hierarchy you are trying to copy across and I’ll see if I can help.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Hi Tim. I bought a Zen Nano Plus today because of your blog.
I did discover a way to mount it that’s more convenient for me:
(In KDE - I’m also using Suse 10)
Right Click -> Create New -> Link to Location (url)
For File Name: Enter “Zen Nano Plus” - or something descriptive like that
For Enter Link to Location (URL): Enter “/media/usbdisk”
Right Click -> Properties
Click on the current icon to change it to something more obvious
This provides a shortcut that opens the Zen Nano when it is plugged in.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Hello again. I just tried the Zen Nano Plus in an Apple iBook and it automounts perfectly as a removable hard drive. This is a very compatable device, I guess Creative just doesn’t want to market it as such. A very nice alternative to an iPod.
July 19th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Hi Jeremiah. Glad you’re pleased with your purchase - too bad I’m not on commission! After ten months of use I’m still very happy with mine. Thanks for the Suse/KDE tip and the info on using it with Mac devices.
September 18th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Hi Tim,
I just bought Creative Zen Nano Plus mp3 player. My system is Debian Sarge and kernel version is 2.4.18-bf2.4.
I succeed to move songs between nanoplus and Debian. But after I’ve saved songs into nanoplus and going to start it. The Creative logo appears and won’t disappear. Any press of buttons won’t help, only remove the battery.
I have tried different kind of file names, pretty short ones. But only song which works properly is default “Introduction.mp3″ song, which came within device.
Have you any ideas, how the songs should be save into nanoplus to be able to turn it on successfully and listen music too.
BR,
Janne
September 19th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Hi Janne
Apologies if these seem obvious questions but to work out why this is not working we need to ask them.
Are you successfully unmounting the nanoplus from the file system after putting the music on it? Check from the command line by typing “mount”. If your device shows as still being mounted then the files may only have been scheduled for transfer but not yet written to the device. Type “sync” to force the actual write and once that has finish umount /dev/sda1 (or whichever device the player is registered as). Physically removing a mounted file system (ie disconnecting the player without umount-ing it) may cause this kind of problem.
How many tracks are you putting on at a time? If you overfill the player you may cause problems by overwriting hidden configuration files. Try it one track at a time.
What format are your music tracks? Try downloading any show from IT Conversations in mp3 format and putting that on it. They work on my player.
Do you have access to a windows machine? If so, can you try moving music onto the device with that. It is possible that the device itself is faulty in which case you should return it for an exchange.
Let me know if any of these help or not. I’m sure we can get this working.
September 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Hi Tim,
Thank you.
I have mounted and unmounted successfully. I have make sure, that everything goes under protocol. And only put one or max two files at the same time.
I made mp3s with “lame –preset 128″ so they should be the correct ones. At first song names were long ones, but currently under 16 characters. The default file in device “Introduction.mp3″ was exactly 16 characters long.
Actually my system uses USB 1.1 but it works properly.
One weird thing did happen, once the device lost the song.
I mounted the device
I added one song
I did check there is two songs in total
I unmounted the volume
I detached the USB cable
I I started the device .. everything went like mentioned earlier. Creative logo stayed in display until I removed the battery
Then
I attached the battery back
I attached the USB cable
I mounted the volume
I check the content : one song was missing
I just thought, should I put the songs into certain folder or structure or can I just save them into mp3 player like any other usb storage.
But it’s pretty sure that device is broken. They gave 12 months guarantee, so not a problem with it. I still might test it with office pc(XP).
BR,
Janne
September 19th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Just heard from colleague,
Maybe the “lame –preset 128″ won’t insert any ID number or tag for songs. And that’s why the player don’t know is there mp3 files or not. This could cause phenomenon where the player jam.
There is actually ready solutions for better quality and maybe for better functionality. For example: “lame –preset standard” or “lame –preset insane” which add more information to mp3 file.
Another issue which I’m going to check is the grip tool. Does it work properly.
-Janne
September 19th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Hi Janne
Sounds like the problem could be with the device. I use USB 1.1 without problems so you’re right in thinking that’s not it.
You can just drop mp3 files direct onto the root directory or you can put them into folders. You cannot nest folders, however.
That’s very odd that the file shows up as being present before you unmount but not later. Quick test: add a file, verify it’s there, umount, disconnect then - instead of starting device, reconnect and mount. Is the file still there? If the file is not there then we know the problem is in the transfer.
If it is still there, umount, remove device, start nano, stare at screen, disconnect battery then remount. If the file is now missing then we know that there is something going on in the start-up process that is deleting the file. Narrowing down where the problem is happening should help us detect the cause.
Testing on the office machine sounds like a good idea. If the device is faulty, the only solution is to return it. Since Creative do not officially support linux afaik you’ll probably have less hassle doing so if you tell them truthfully that you tried it on Windows.
September 20th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Hi Tim,
Colleague of mine succeed with the player and Windows. He did check the file which I added and notice there is not ID3 tag at all. So something went wrong whether ripping or coding process.
My lame version is 3.97 beta.
Tonight I’ll try again
I rip with grip-cdparanoia and made mp3 coding with the lame
I don’t remember exact rip syntax, but the lame syntax which I tried was:
% lame –preset standard file.wav file.mp3
In addition I added –add-id3v2 or –id3v2-only or –id3v1-only parameters, but they didn’t give any better solution.
Me and my mp3 player seems to be now like a global problem *grin*. But nice to notice good people like you who are willing to support.
Best Regards,
Janne
Ps. I live in Finland - North Europe
September 20th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Hi Janne
Your lame settings *seem* right to me so the problem may lie with grip-cdparanoia which I don’t use. Personally I use KAudioCreator for cd ripping. grip-cdparanoia may be better but I haven’t explored it. I rarely rip cds and listen mostly to podcasts on my player.
I assume your colleague also transfered mp3 files from Windows and confirmed that they were available on the device and that the startup problem didn’t occur? Or did he just confirm that the file you transfered from linux was on the device when it was mounted (effectively) as an external drive? It would be odd if it could be seen under Windows but not under linux.
I would guess that the player updates an internal index of files on startup. If your mp3 files lack proper tags, it may not be able to register them. Why this would lead to them being deleted however baffles me. I can only guess there’s a bug in the indexing routine that marks the new files for deletion and causes the device to crash. It seems odd, though.
Although it seems like you may have found the problem I would strongly advise you to test the device with a known good mp3 file like one of the shows from IT Conversations. If that transfers ok from your linux box then you can be confident that it is the conversion process that’s at fault. There’s no point spending hours trying to tweak the rip if it turns out that’s not the problem after all. I’ve spent enough time at the keyboard chasing what turned out to be the wrong problem to be wary
Let’s see if we can get someone from outside Europe to contribute suggestions then it can be a truly global solution
Keep us posted with your progress.
September 21st, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Hi Tim,
Yep, colleague of mine found that there is not any ID3 tags in my song. He added them and after that song was recognized succesfully. I noticed that my lame(3.97beta) won’t set ID3 values automatically.
So I tried within linux box the same. mp3info program will help to check the song from ID3 tags point of view.
But althogh I added correct tags and check that my version was exactly the same than colleague’s version from mp3info results point of view, still the Nano didn’t recognize my version.
But like you said, perhaps the ripping process won’t go properly. I have to study that .. but maybe on weekend. Must do other things too than only hack my mp3s.
In case you can, could you tell the KAudioCreator parameters if any. Maybe I try that one. Or study more the grip.
-Janne
September 21st, 2006 at 6:32 pm
I just use the default KAudioCreator settings with lame as the encoder.
Just had a closer look. I’m guessing you’ve built lame from source. I’m using lame 3.96.1-1 from what was the marillat depository which contains extra mutimedia packages for Debian with officially unsupported codecs. Marillat has now moved to debian-multimedia.
Try adding the following to your /etc/apt/sources
#debian-multimedia
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sarge main
Then move your compiled lame to a safe place in case you want to keep it, apt-cache update && apt-get install lame. See if that helps also.
September 25th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Hi Tim,
Case is now closed. Thanks to you!
Shortly: create mp3s with linux, copy them to win pc and move from there to nanoplus.
Long version of problem:
I pick up that KAudioCreator .. made mp3s with it. And check with several ID3 program that those correct ID3v1 tags are truly there. Friend mentioned eyeD3 which was one. Also ID3 is another ..
Anyway I guess every single GNU tool do the job SUCCESSFULLY.
Then I save mp3s to USB stick. Came to office and copied them to hard drive of Win XP.
After that I attached the Zen Nano Plus and moved those mp3s into Nano. And everything plays well.
Friends said, Creative would not be very GNU friendly. But I don’t know, at least I was not able to move files directly from Linux to Nano. Maybe the Zen file system was not really vfat. I mount the device as vfat.
Finally I keep on jogging with good music.
http://www.discogs.com/release/130811
Thanks a lot Tim and have nice Autumn to You.
September 25th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Sorry to hear you couldn’t get the transfer working from Debian - it works fine for me and I’m not sure why what you’re doing isn’t working - but I’m pleased you’ve found a way of getting your music across. Enjoy!