Organizing mini-sets in iTunes

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Haydn
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Organizing mini-sets in iTunes

#1 Post by Haydn » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:57 am

Several DJs have talked about organizing songs into mini-sets of between 3 and 5 songs, sometimes putting them into mini-sets before a gig. I was wondering how you do this in iTunes (or other software). How do you make sure the songs play one after the other?

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J-h:n
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#2 Post by J-h:n » Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:53 am

Here's how to put an iTunes playlist in the order you want:

Go to the bar at the top of the list and click on the nameless column to the extreme left (with the numbers showing the sequence of the songs), highlighting it. Then click and drag the songs into whatever order you like.

You can now change the order around by clicking on another top column, sorting alphabetically, BPM-wise or what have you, but whenever you highlight the left column, iTunes will restore your chosen order.

If you use iTunes as your output player, you can then just choose all songs in that playlist and drag them to the master list that goes out to the room. They will show up at the end of the master list in your chosen sequence. I guess this will work if you use Winamp or something else for output as well, but you have to try and see.

It works in a similar way in jRiver and probably in most other applications.

Haydn
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#3 Post by Haydn » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:09 am

J-h:n wrote:If you use iTunes as your output player, you can then just choose all songs in that playlist and drag them to the master list that goes out to the room. They will show up at the end of the master list in your chosen sequence..
OK - so you mean have your 'mini-set' in a separate playlist, then move those songs to the main playlist for playing. So I guess you could have a different 'preparation' playlist for each mini-set, then drag your selections from each one to the main list.

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J-h:n
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#4 Post by J-h:n » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:39 pm

Haydn wrote:OK - so you mean have your 'mini-set' in a separate playlist, then move those songs to the main playlist for playing. So I guess you could have a different 'preparation' playlist for each mini-set, then drag your selections from each one to the main list.
Yep, that's the idea. Then you can throw in one of your prepared mini-sets whenever you like, and you can keep fiddling with the song order and selection in the main playlist without affecting the original mini-set playlist.

This can of course mean that you end up with an awful lot of little playlists, so you'll have to keep them well organised not to clutter things up.

Haydn
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Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

#5 Post by Haydn » Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:47 am

J-h:n wrote:
Haydn wrote:OK - so you mean have your 'mini-set' in a separate playlist, then move those songs to the main playlist for playing. So I guess you could have a different 'preparation' playlist for each mini-set, then drag your selections from each one to the main list.
Yep, that's the idea. Then you can throw in one of your prepared mini-sets whenever you like, and you can keep fiddling with the song order and selection in the main playlist without affecting the original mini-set playlist.

This can of course mean that you end up with an awful lot of little playlists, so you'll have to keep them well organised not to clutter things up.
Thanks Johan :)

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