The magic of iTunes Smart Playlists

It's all about the equipment

Moderators: Mr Awesomer, JesseMiner, CafeSavoy

Message
Author
Haydn
Posts: 1277
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

The magic of iTunes Smart Playlists

#1 Post by Haydn » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:22 am

This is one of the best things about iTunes, which I use as my library. I've recently started making Smart Playlists by track name, using the option:

Name contains xxxx xxx

It's great way to compare different versions of the same song. For example, 'Blue Lou' by Benny Carter, Benny Goodman (Metronome Allstars?), Chick Webb, Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, or 'The Gal From Joe's' by Nina Simone, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Barnet , and Duke Ellington.

User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

#2 Post by trev » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:38 pm

I find that the search is also simple and effective for these kind of comparisons.

User avatar
Greg Avakian
Posts: 382
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2002 10:27 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

#3 Post by Greg Avakian » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:33 pm

Yeah, I would use a playlist to save a search that I actually liked...
Hey, my e-mail's changed, here's the new one:
SwingDJ@gmail.com
About me: www.geocities.com/swingboypa

Nate Dogg
Posts: 886
Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 3:29 pm
Location: Austin, TX

#4 Post by Nate Dogg » Tue May 08, 2007 8:59 pm

You can do the same thing with WinAmp and any number of other Music players.

If you keep good tags, you can write all sorts of wonderful saved queries/searches/smart playists/whatever your prefer to call them. Throw in ANDs, NOTs, ORs, etc... really make the Smart Playlists hum...

I have extensive tags within my MP3s, so I just go from playlist to playlist when I DJ. (Ex: Jump Blues Songs with BPMs between 150 and 159)

User avatar
Greg Avakian
Posts: 382
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2002 10:27 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

#5 Post by Greg Avakian » Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:55 am

Greg Avakian wrote:Yeah, I would use a playlist to save a search that I actually liked...
Changed my mind on this; I now search within smartlists and enjoy the automatic updating.
Hey, my e-mail's changed, here's the new one:
SwingDJ@gmail.com
About me: www.geocities.com/swingboypa

SoundInMotionDJ
Posts: 154
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:27 pm

#6 Post by SoundInMotionDJ » Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:12 pm

Greg Avakian wrote:Changed my mind on this; I now search within smartlists and enjoy the automatic updating.
The automatic updates is the killer feature of smartlists. This is one feature that I wish was included in any software that can do a search.

I have some smartlists that are setup to search by dance and by rating. As I update the ratings, the songs move from one list to another. It's awesome.

--Stan Graves

zipthebird
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:01 pm
Contact:

#7 Post by zipthebird » Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:14 pm

Actually, I think smart playlists sort of blow, compared to what they could be. For instance, I know of no way to include OR or NOT connectors in smart playlists.

I-Tunes just isn't designed to be a versatile database. If it were, you'd be able to do multiple filters on any field, not just hierarchically by genre, then artist, then title.

SoundInMotionDJ
Posts: 154
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:27 pm

#8 Post by SoundInMotionDJ » Tue Sep 04, 2007 2:08 pm

zipthebird wrote:Actually, I think smart playlists sort of blow, compared to what they could be. For instance, I know of no way to include OR or NOT connectors in smart playlists.
Granted.

I'd go even further - I'd like to be able to write my queries in SQL...just because I already use that in my "day job." But, for most people smartlists are better for searching than any of the other manual options.

Then again, what I'd really like is the ability to add fields to a song, and then be able to search on those - using SQL.

--Stan Graves

User avatar
CafeSavoy
Posts: 1138
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2002 6:25 pm
Location: Mobtown
Contact:

#9 Post by CafeSavoy » Tue Sep 04, 2007 2:30 pm

zipthebird wrote:Actually, I think smart playlists sort of blow, compared to what they could be. For instance, I know of no way to include OR or NOT connectors in smart playlists.

I-Tunes just isn't designed to be a versatile database. If it were, you'd be able to do multiple filters on any field, not just hierarchically by genre, then artist, then title.
True. Sadly, you have to create multiple smarlists if you want to do beyond the basic filtering.

Haydn
Posts: 1277
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

#10 Post by Haydn » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:22 pm

zipthebird wrote:I-Tunes just isn't designed to be a versatile database. If it were, you'd be able to do multiple filters on any field, not just hierarchically by genre, then artist, then title.
You can do multiple filters, by clicking the '+' key and adding a second filter on the same field.

I discovered there's a lot of info about smart playlists out there -

http://www.smartplaylists.com/

http://www.workingwith.me.uk/blog/apple ... ists_in_it

http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/0 ... /index.php

http://log.hugoschotman.com/hugo/2004/1 ... lists.html

zipthebird
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:01 pm
Contact:

#11 Post by zipthebird » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:47 pm

Haydn wrote:
zipthebird wrote:I-Tunes just isn't designed to be a versatile database. If it were, you'd be able to do multiple filters on any field, not just hierarchically by genre, then artist, then title.
You can do multiple filters, by clicking the '+' key and adding a second filter on the same field.
I meant in the music browser, not using a Smart Playlist. For Smart Playlists, I just wish that you could use OR conjunctions.

Haydn
Posts: 1277
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

#12 Post by Haydn » Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:18 am

zipthebird wrote:For Smart Playlists, I just wish that you could use OR conjunctions.
You can do this by selecting: 'Match ANY of the following rules', and if necessary linking one playlist to another

Example:

To select all Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller tracks with a rating of *** or above:

1. Create 'Goodman/Miller' Smart Playlist:

Match ANY of the following rules:

Artist contains Miller
Artist contains Goodman

2. Create 'Goodman/Miller Good Stuff' Smart Playlist:

Match ALL of the following rules:

Playlist is Goodman/Miller
My Rating is greater than **


See the links I posted above for more information.

User avatar
Jonas
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 6:00 am
Location: Uppsala, Sweden

#13 Post by Jonas » Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:55 am

Haydn wrote:
zipthebird wrote:For Smart Playlists, I just wish that you could use OR conjunctions.
You can do this by selecting: 'Match ANY of the following rules', and if necessary linking one playlist to another
Yes, but I can't do BOTH, right? I'd love it if I for example could state that "Genre" contains "Jazz" OR "Blues" BUT NOT "Groove" AND "Year" is "1954".

Is that possible?

/Jonas

User avatar
Ryan
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:15 pm
Location: LA to NY-Fuckin-C

#14 Post by Ryan » Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:35 am

Jonas wrote: Yes, but I can't do BOTH, right? I'd love it if I for example could state that "Genre" contains "Jazz" OR "Blues" BUT NOT "Groove" AND "Year" is "1954".

Is that possible?

/Jonas

Yes. The trick (as stated above) is to do a preliminary filter on another playlist. You have to do this on any field that you want to include an "and / or" on. Here's how you would do the example you listed above.

1. Create a smart playlist with two GENRE fields, one containing Jazz, the other containing Blues. Choose "Match Any" in the rules. This is your palette essentially for doing more specific smart playlists.

2. Create a new smart playlist where you "match all" rules. Create a field where you choose the playlist "Jazz / Blues" that you had just created. Create another field where the GROUPING (or wherever you have the groove field) is NOT "Groove". I'm assuming you didn't put groove into the Genre label. If you did it shouldn't be. Move it to somewhere else. Add the last field for Year containing "1954".

Bam, you're done.

Haydn
Posts: 1277
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

#15 Post by Haydn » Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:41 am

Jonas wrote:
Haydn wrote:
zipthebird wrote:For Smart Playlists, I just wish that you could use OR conjunctions.
You can do this by selecting: 'Match ANY of the following rules', and if necessary linking one playlist to another
Yes, but I can't do BOTH, right? I'd love it if I for example could state that "Genre" contains "Jazz" OR "Blues" BUT NOT "Groove" AND "Year" is "1954".

Is that possible?

/Jonas
Yes - similar to what Ryan said.

This is the way I thought of:


1. Create Jazz/Blues smart playlist:

Match ANY of the following:

Genre contains Jazz
Genre contains Blues

(This automatically screens out tracks where Genre contains Groove)


2. Create Jazz/Blues 1954 smart playlist:

Match ALL of the following:

Playlist is Jazz/Blues
Year is 1954

Locked