Foobar 2000 Order of Play

Foobar is something I've been using a long time and my computer audio player of choice. That said it does have some quirks. One of the ways I was able to get it to be more user friendly is by downloading someone else's skin and config. That person made an instruction manual for setting up and operating the player in his config which helped immensely. Even so I discover new quirks and features with the program all the time. There are tons of plug-ins for the program.

Where I ran into trouble is when the developer of the config stopped being able to update the skin/config. As Foobar updated its software and plugin developers updated their plugins, I ran into some issues. Some of those issues I was able to resolve and others I could not. It still works better (for me) and my large music collection than other alternatives so I stick with it.

If I was a brand new user or not very patient I might use something else. I used to use JRiver, for example, and a lot of people like that program. When they run a discount it is not too expensive and I think you can still get a free trial. There are also programs like MusicBee that are pretty popular.

For CD ripping I use dBPoweramp and have moved over it from EAC for about 4-5 years now. I think it's a great program.

Here's a screenshot of my config. This is how I sort the files for playback. Usually it's automatic if they are properly tagged.

Now, certain types of file tagging can really throw things off. Foobar has a built in tagger or you can import a plug-in that will do the job.

However, a much better solution, IME, is the free MP3Tag program.

https://www.mp3tag.de/en/

With this program you can customize tags any way you want, though it does take some experimentation to figure out all the features. For song naming, if you tag the songs as something like "01 - Artist Name - Track Title", that will solve track playback order problems on a lot of programs/devices. Important thing is the number be in that format "01, 02, 03, etc."

Get the file tagging and library location and structure sorted out form the off and everything works swimmingly well.