"Now Playing" Playlist -> sorting issues

[cybertrash]

Hello,

so finally I dumped my loved Winamp and got another Music Player, MusicBee. But even after hours of trial and error i couldn'tfind a satisfying way to sort my Playlist. I provide 2 Screenshots of my MusicBee, one with the Track Detail panel and one with the Album an Track panel. My issue is, that I can't sort the Playlist by Artist/Album/Album#. Clicking the second tile while holding ctrl doesn't work here. I can only sort by one option at a time, so when sorted by Artitst the tracks are in random order for each artist.
If I use Album and Track, I can sort like I want to, but then I get that Album column with the album information and the album cover, which I really don't want and need.
So, is there a way to a) sort by multiple criterias in the Track Detail panel or b) is there a way to completely remove that Albuminformation column in the Album and Track panel or c) is there another solution i just couldn't figure out? I am used to use long playlists which are clean and only offer the information and sorting I want.

I also get an error everytime I sort by anything in the Album and Track panel:

MusicBee v2.4.5404.16303 (Win6.2), 13 Aug 2015 16:08:

>>System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Der Index war außerhalb des Arraybereichs.
   bei #=qbeRZhJiVjCl0vFGIm$H9rluk7X4a7NKLVYQQ$JY1Fck=.#=q1$9aOd8z7Xnn6EDmKe7Pw9sHw1junxpnVbxNL0qfab4=()<<

It says something like "Index out of array area"

Thanks in advance...

http://www11.pic-upload.de/13.08.15/wm49to3id752.jpg
http://www11.pic-upload.de/13.08.15/gebm2eygy38d.jpg

[Zak]

The Now Playing list isn't really designed to be used like a playlist that way. It's more like a "queue" to show which tracks will be played next. Tracks will play in the order shown in the list (assuming shuffle is disabled), so sorting them automatically doesn't make sense unless you always want your artists and albums to play in alphabetical order.

It should also be seen as temporary - the order of any tracks listed there will only last until the next time you do something that replaces the list with other tracks from your library (depending on your Preferences in the Now Playing tab). A safer workflow is to create a "proper" playlist in the Track Detail* panel where you can set the display and sorting preferences however you like, then play that to add the tracks to the Now Playing list in the order shown.

*To clarify, although the Now Playing list does have a Track Detail view, references to the Track Detail panel on the forum and in the documents means the main center panel where the details of tracks in your library are shown.

It's so long since I used Winamp I can't even remember how it handled playlists and queuing tracks, but the Now Playing list comes up occasionally as something that takes new users a while to get used to.

[cybertrash]

Thanks for the answer.

"safer workflow is to create a "proper" playlist in the Track Detail* panel where you can set the display and sorting preferences however you like, then play that to add the tracks to the Now Playing list in the order shown."

Can you clarify where and how i can do that?
If I start playback from the main panel the order still is random, so if i  want to listen for example to 5 albums from track 1 starting in a row i can't achieve this.

[Zak]

If I start playback from the main panel the order still is random, so if i  want to listen for example to 5 albums from track 1 starting in a row i can't achieve this.

I can't properly show the playlist process until I'm back at home, but when playing tracks from the main panel - by double-clicking or right-clicking and selecting Play Now / Queue Next etc. - tracks are added to the Now Playing list in the same order as in the main panel. So you want to sort that panel in the order you want your tracks to play before adding them to the Now Playing list. The only way MusicBee will play tracks in random order is when Shuffle is enabled.

[cybertrash]

Thanks again for taking your time to answer. After some "fight" with the options i managed to get it working like that. Now I have a sorted playlist and the panels look much better
MusicBee rocks 

[Zak]

Cool. Glad you found a way to set it up more to your liking.