Hi All,
I'm starting a new thread about smart playlists, but this post is also
in reply to some recent questions about how to efficiently manage
music on devices like the new iPod Shuffle 3G and the iPod Nano 4G.
This is a particularly useful way to select content from a large music
library without having to constantly edit playlists by hand.
Overview
Smart playlists work like regular playlists, but they allow you to
select content by using rules instead of by selecting individual
tracks. For example, to create a playlist consisting of all tracks in
an album, instead of adding tracks one by one to a regular playlist,
or even by using the more efficient means of toggling on the file
browser (Command-B), selecting an entry from the Album column, and
using the "New Playlist from Selection" (Command-Shift-N) shortcut to
make a regular playlist of the tracks in an album, you could make a
smart playlist (Command-Option-N) and use a rule like: <Album> <is>
<Name of Album> where you set the first two entries of your rule from
pop up buttons to "Album" and "'is", and then type in the name of the
album in a text field. This technique is most powerful when you're
working with multiple albums, artists, etc. and/or multiple rules.
You might have a multi-volume set where the title sometimes has the
name of the series first, and sometimes the name of the individual
album. Then your rule might be: <Album> <contains> and then "The
Bootleg Series" for the text entry. This would simultaneously select
albums like "No Direction Home: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7" and "The
Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 - Concert at Philharmonic
Hall".
You can add a rule to exclude certain tracks. If one of the album
tracks is a music video version that I don't want transferred to my
iPod Shuffle, the second rule might be: <Kind> <does not contain>
<video>, where I type the word "video" into a text field and set pop
up buttons for the first two conditions.
Smart playlist rules aren't limited to the information assigned to
tags; you can use them to make up playlists according to your
listening habits and preferences. If you rate your music you can apply
rules to only include tracks above a certain star rating. You can
assign rules according to the number of times you've listened to a
track -- to make a favorite tracks playlist. For audiobooks you can
play from a smart playlist and use it to keep your place in the book.
A smart playlist with rules like <Album> <is> <Name of Album> to
select the audiobook, and <Play count> <is> <0> can keep the latest
unplayed track at the top of the playlist and roll off the tracks that
you've listened to as their play count increases and they no longer
match the rule for inclusion in the smart playlist. You can also add
rules based on when you last listened to a track such as <Last Played>
<is not in the last> <2> <months> to ensure a new flow of music
listening. Most, but not all, of the iTunes view options (Command-J
to show the menu) can be used to assign smart playlist rules. In
addition, you can build smart playlists out of other playlists with
rules like <Playlist> <is> <Name of Playlist>, where the named
playlist can be either a regular or smart playlist (and can be chosen
from a pop up menu).
Two other features of smart playlists make them particularly useful
for setting up your music on a Nano or iPod Shuffle 3G: you can limit
the size, time length, or number of items in the smart playlist, and
tell iTunes how you want to achieve this in case your smart playlist
is too large, and you can use the "live updating" feature to
dynamically control the contents of your smart playlist. The first
feature means that you can set up a transfer playlist with a condition
like <Limit to> <3.2> <GB> <selected by> <least recently played> and
if the smart playlist that results from applying your rules is larger
than 3.2 GB, it will be cut down in size by giving preference to the
least recently played tracks. Or, you could created a workout
playlist, that lasts exactly 40 minutes for your gym session (<Limit
to> <40> <minutes> <selected by> <genre>), or a travel/commuting
playlist that chooses a random sampling of podcasts that fit into your
trip (<Limit to> <1> <hours> <selected by> <random>). The second,
dynamical updating, feature means that your rules will continue to be
applied on the iPod, even when you're not connected to your computer.
If you make a smart list containing music that where it's more than 2
months since the track was played and you have the box for live
updating checked, playing a track on your iPod will immediately remove
it from that playlist.
Your smart playlists can be used either as a convenient way to
transfer music to the iPod, or a way to make playlists for playing.
With the Nano 4G, you might want to transfer music with a smart
playlist, to keep sizes down below the maximum, but then you might
want to navigate the menus to play songs by album or artist. With the
iPod Shuffle 3G, you have to navigate by playlist, so you want to use
these not just for transferring music, but also as the main way to
play your music.
There are some limitations in the way smart playlists operate. At
present you can only set a smart playlist to either match all or your
rules or any of your rules. So you may need to create smart playlists
of other playlists to combine your rules (for example, all work
composed by Wynton Marsalis in the jazz genre in either the years from
1985-1990 or the years from 1995-2000).
Example
Here's an example of constructing a smart playlist of podcasts added
to your library in the last week that you have not finished listening
to. The rules are:
Podcast: Is True
Date Added: Is in the last 1 week(s)
Play Count: is: 0
Start by selecting your library in iTunes' sources table (in this
case, select "Podcasts"), then create a new smart playlist. You set up
the rules by interacting with with the rules section of the dialog
window for the smart playlist, and use VO-Right Arrow to create your
rules by pressing pop up buttons and/or typing in text. At the end of
each rule, you can either stop interacting with the rules section, add
another rule, or delete the current rule.
1. In iTunes press Command-Option-N (shortcut keys for "New Smart
Playlist") to bring up a smart playlist dialog window. You'll hear
"selected by".
2. VO-right arrow to the "Rules Section" and interact (VO-Shift-Down
Arrow)
3. VO-space on the pop up button ("Artist") and change this to
"Podcast" by pressing "p o"
4. VO-right arrow to the next pop up button and leave this at the
default "is true"
5. VO-right arrow to the end of rule to the "Add" button and press (VO-
space)
6. (Second rule) VO-space on the pop up button ("Podcast") and set
this to "Date Added" by pressing "d"
7. VO-right arrow to the next pop up button, VO-Space, and change this
to "is in the last" by arrowing down
8. VO-right arrow to the text field and type "1"
9. VO-right arrow to the pop up button, VO-Space, and change this to
"weeks"
10. VO-right arrow to the "Add" button and press (VO-space)
11. (Final rule) VO-Space on the pop up and set this to "Play count"
12. VO-right arrow past the "is" pop up button and leave the text
field set to "0"
13. Stop interacting with the rules section
14. If you now VO left-arrow to the start of the dialog, the first
line will be "Match <all> of the following rules". This is OK for us.
It's possible to change the pop up from "all" to "any".
VO-right arrow past the rules section to view the checkboxes for limit
conditions. By default this is unchecked, and reads "Limit to" <text
field> <items> "selected by" <random>, where "items" is a pop up
button that can be set to minutes, hours, MB, or GB and "random" is a
pop up button that can be set to album, artist, genre, name, most
recently played, least recently played, highest rating, lowest rating,
most often played, least often played, most recently added, or least
recently added.
Press "OK" and type in a name to save your smart playlist and end the
dialog.
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MacVisionaries" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
