I love smartlists!
You know, when I bought MC9, I thought, "I don't really need all this. I'm just buying it because Adam and Chris say it's cool..." I don't need to do a lot of the things other folks use smartlists to do. I don't have more than 15 gigs of music (yet.) I don't want to do rating (yet.) So, I made a few smartlists and that was that.
Then my 9-year-old son came home from a friend's house with a copy of an Aaron Carter CD. (I suppose "bubble gum" is the genre.) And *really* wanted it in the iPod.
So, we ripped the CD and after only a moment's thought, I batch-edited the genre to "Sam's Songs" - with my son's approval - then invented a Smartlist which includes only the genre "Sam's Songs" and another Smartlist which excludes only the genre "Sam's Songs" (this will be *my* primary smartlist from now on.)
I can see a future in which we revise this, but for now, we'll cool.
Ta da! Thank you MC9 for keeping peace on our Pod and in the home! Smartlists are wicked cool.
[1073 byte] By [
spksmom] at [2007-11-9 14:13:29]
# 1 Re: I love smartlists!
Ok, here's another thing you can do--Adam does this: Make a playlist GROUP, and put your playlists in it.
Make another playlist group, and put your kids playlists (Sam's smartlist would be a great start) in it. Now you have two seperate "libraries" in the same tree; you can make playlists in each playgroup to your hearts content, and they'll be completely seperate, and you can mix and match and synch relatively easy with no confusion. If you only have one smartlist for Sam, you don't really need to do that, but if it gets to the point where he wants more than one playlist, it comes in handy..
And with the setup you've already made, it'll be easy for you to make as many smartlists as you want, and exclude your kids stuff, and vice versa (there is some real cool stuff you can do with intensity and BPM to create mood music, but I'm still working on that one--haven't really figured it out yet)...You're well on your way to playlist Nirvana!!!
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:20:38 >
# 2 Re: I love smartlists!
Ooo. Thanks, Chris. I went right back and made separate playlist groups for Sam and me. I had missed the whole playlist group possibility. So far, Sam only wants to find a handful of songs that he likes, but this set-up appeals to my sense of order...and leaves open possibilities for him, should he want them. It also solves the problems of how to let him find the Beatles without having to change their genre to "Sam's Songs"...See, I am trying to introduce him to GOOD music without being too pushy!
# 3 Re: I love smartlists!
OK, I'll blast your world open even wider. Suppose young Sam decides at some point that he too wants smartlists based on Genre. Well, with your current format, that won't work as all if his tunes say "Sam's Tunes' for the Genre.
Well, MC9 allows you to create Custom Fields. So, in Tools>Options on the General tab, you can create a new custom field. You can even make the field a drop-down list so it will have pre-poplutated in it "Sam's Tunes" and "My Tunes". Then, populate this field for all of Sam's songs w/the appropriate value and all of your with the other value. You could probably make a third value, "Both" for songs that both of you like.
Then, just use this value in your smartlists.
See, it gets even funner. :D
Adam
# 4 Re: I love smartlists!
Yep--one word of caution on those custom fields though--if you download a new build, you might lose them...I've gone away from the custom fields because of that; I use the composer field, or one of the other permanent ones that I have no other use for for stuff like that...If you do make a custom field, just make sure to back up your library before downloading later builds, so you won't (hopefully) lose it...
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:23:38 >
# 5 Re: I love smartlists!
Wow...in the words of some Star Wars geek...
"Now I am the master"
Nice catch there young Padawan. :D
Adam
# 6 Re: I love smartlists!
Wow, this thread is even better than the battle in star trek: nemesis between picard and his clone!
Come on ashawley, you can take him!
# 7 Re: I love smartlists!
I just figured you were testing me...:D
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:26:40 >
# 8 Re: I love smartlists!
Thanks to both Chris and Adam again. (I see I'm profiting from some friendly competition, that's fine with me.) Adam, I did get rid of the "Sam's Songs" genre for exactly the reason you mention. And once I had playlists in groups, it wasn't necessary. I will have to experiment some with custom fields, but will, as Chris suggested, back up my library first.
I think that for now, Sam will only want a few songs at a time - he has that 9-year-old focus and has played one song a hundred times in the past 48 hours. I think that by the time he's into smartlists he will probably be old enough to have his own iPod or, dare I say it, whatever comes next.
# 9 Re: I love smartlists!
Hey, there's nothing friendly about THIS competition...Let me tell you about the time Adam sent me a virus that allowed MC9 to make smartlists including only The Village People, Debbie Boone,Olivia Newton John, and Bay City Rollers after a particularly acrimonious encounter...Man, it was truly awful...:D
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:28:41 >
# 10 Re: I love smartlists!
The Bee Gee's man, you forgot The Bee Gee's. :D
Yeah, well, you don't live in my shoes. I've got a 4 year old at home that thinks "The Wiggles" is just the best show to watch at 6:30AM. So, I have the pleasure of starting my day off w/the "Fruit Salad, Yummy, Yummy" song tearing through my head.
See, I could have made that virus (known as the "Nightmare of the 70's and 80's" Worm Virus) much, much worse. ;)
Watch, with my luck some big federal virus hunting bot will find my post and report me to the Dept. of Homeland Security as a virus maker...hey bot, it was a joke OK?! :D :D
Adam
# 11 Re: I love smartlists!
Time must be passing. I don't even know what The Wiggles is. But I spent YEARS of my life watching Shining Time Station...Anyway, I'll be careful never to #### Adam off. Lord knows what he might unleash upon me.
By the way, however do you have time (and brain cells) free to answer all these poor souls' questions with a 4 year old running around? You must be younger than I am or something. Oops I guess I'm sort of wandering off the point.
# 12 Re: I love smartlists!
hehe, Judy, you haven't lived until you've seen The Wiggles, I'm telling you. ;)
No, iPod time doesn't get to happen until little man is asleep. And no, I'm probably not younger...just very, very patient. ;)
In all actuality it helps keep me somewhat sane. At least this is something that's fairly cut and dried. :D
Adam
# 13 Re: I love smartlists!
Hmmm...The wiggles eh? I always wake up to "SpongeBob", which is ok, 'cause I kinda like it, even at 6:30 A.M...(Still can't a believe a 6 year old gets up that early, but he does, EVERY friggin' morning, weekends too...) Now, when I get home though, I am often subject to "Dora the Explorer" by my 2 and half year old--do you know what it's like to go through life with the phrase "I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map, map map" looping endlessly through your brain?? Maybe I can get him hooked on wiggles...
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:32:46 >
# 14 Re: I love smartlists!
Ah...Dora. Doesn't come close to The Wiggles though. Sadly the wife for some strange reason doesn't feel SpongeBob is approrprate for a 4 year old. Secretly I think she doesn't think it's appropriate for a 38 year-old, so I miss all too much of it. :D
Adam
