Advanced method for fitting large library into 4GB Mini

[fujiorange]

Hey I'm new to iTunes and iPods, and i was setting up a most recently-played Smart Playlist to auto-sync with my ipod. However, I've noticed that when i play songs not loaded in my iPod, they don't go under the most recently-played songs list that i made. But songs that are loaded on the iPod do get updated in the playlist. Can anyone tell me why this is happening? thanks.

[Apesbrain]

Exactly along the same idea, but I want to keep entire CDs together rather than individual songs, e.g. "Favorite Albums", "Least Played Albums".

Can that easily be done? If so, how?

Thanks.

[eriqesque]

I would assume so
Just have it select by album

[nagromme]

eriq - glad my method was helpful!

fuji - did you tell iTunes to SYNCH that playlist? Look it iTunes Preferences, you can choose which to synch.

apes - good idea! but iTunes has no "albums" option in the Limit section, of you want to auto-limit by rating, times played, or whatever. The closest you can come is limit "by album" and then use the condition above to set a playcount you wish the songs to be over or under--but that won't limit the MB, so filling your Mini that way will require more effort and tweaking.

It would be great if the Limit line let you limit by MB AND Album both, instead of either-or.

Workaround: make a playlist of your favorite whole albums. Synch that along with the rest, and shrink one of the Smart Playlists' MB to make room if needed.

[Faide]

Ok. Ive only had my mini for just over a week and already i love Smart Playlists.

I have the following playlists setup (ok i used to be software developer so i love this kinda stuff)

I have over 4GB of music and since i just installed iTunes last week none of it is rated etc. So i needed a way to go thourgh all my music and start rating them. The playlists i created are designed to rotate through all my music as well as keep my favourite music on my ipod. (disclaimer: ive only been using them for a week and so far i like the results. You may feel different)

Smart Playlists
------------------
I create several Forgotten <Genre> smart playlists using the following rules;

My Mini is set to shuffle play the tracks

eg Forgotten Rock
-----------------------
Genre -> is -> Rock
My Rating ? is not ? 1 star
My Rating ? is not ? 2 star
Limit to - 25 songs - selected by ? Least recently played

(This will play tracks that you havent heard in a long time with 3 or more stars PLUS any non rated tracks, ie new tracks you just added)

Do the same for your other Genres eg. Pop, Classical, Oldies, Easy etc

Then i have my Favourites (these get better and better as you rate more of your songs)

eg Favourite Rock
-----------------------
Last Played - is in the last - 2 weeks
Genre -> is -> Rock
My Rating ? is greater than ? 3 star
Limit to - 25 songs - selected by - Random

(This brings back 4 and 5 star rated tracks that you have listened to in the last 2 weeks. It also selects by random so you get a nice mix)

Do the same for your other Genres eg. Pop, Classical, Oldies, Easy etc

I also include the following Smart Playlist in my iTUNES but i DO NOT synch this. This is just to help me remember to rate the songs.

eg To Be Rated
--------------------
Play Count -> is greater than -> 0
My Rating ? is ? 0 Stars
Limit to - 100 songs - selected by ? Most recently played

(This keeps track of any songs that i didnt rate on-the-fly while listening on the iPOD. I make sure i rate these on a daily basis)

My Star Rating is as follows;
0 - Unrated
1 - Cr*p
2 - So-So
3 - Good
4 - Very Good
5 - Excellent

As i said these have been working fine for me so far. Im sure they will get better as i rate more of my songs.

If this helps any of you guys please let me know. Or if you have any suggestions too.

I also have a selection of standard playlists which i use when i want to listen to a new album i just bought.

Have fun iPodding!

-Faide

[nagromme]

Cool, Faide--that's a lot like what I do, right down to using the name "Forgotten" and how I use the ratings

I don't use Genres, though, and I set my Least Recently Played playlist to be quite large--that way, with shuffle play, you get what feels like "true" random play of your library.

TRUE random play will sometimes repeat a song you've heard recently. But a more natural-feeling randomness comes from Least Recently Played, if the list is big enough and shuffled.

[aureus]

This post IS the reason I dumped the idea of getting other players in favour of the ipod mini.

The integration of itunes with the ipods is exceptional!

With the implementation of the smart playlists, I'm enjoying my music collection more than ever.

[Peachy]

As a suggestion for people who are sharing their ITunes this is how I've made up my mini playlist. I share ITunes with my boyfriend and his Ipod. I don't just want to do last played as that would include lots of his random stuff that I never listen to. So I:

Created a playlist that just included all of the albums I wanted to ever listen to and added my name to all of them in the comments section.

I then created a smartplaylist that did least played songs including the comment 'my name'. and was limited to 3.5gb

In this way I cycle through the songs I want to hear and don't have to listen to all the other stuff that's also in Itunes.

[Faide]

Thanks for the tip Nagromme!

I also use the comments field alot to help fine tune my smart lists.

eg ROCK genre has the following "comments" subcategories.
Rock-Pop (what some would call alternative eg, Matchbox Twenty, The Calling etc)
Rock-Classic (eg Queen, The Police, Rolling Stones etc)
Rock-Easy (eg Slow rock music)

POP also has sub-categories (in the comments field)
Pop-Dance (obviously dance remixes etc)
Pop-Oldies (70's and older)
Pop-80s (80s)
Pop-General (eg modern pop music from the 90s and onwards)

If its an 80s dance remix i will put both comments in.

-Faide

[nagromme]

Good ideas. I use comments to flag songs as "Explicit" and exclude them when older relatives are present

FYI, here's an article on how the default iPod Mini playlist works. It favors high-rated and often-played songs, mainly. http://www.macilife.com/ (March 12)

[hotch]

Originally posted by nagromme
Yep--the beauty of iTunes auto-synching is that it doesn't just synch music, it synchs info about how you listen! iPod and iTunes BOTH track--and exchange--the following:

* How many times you've played a song (vs. skipping it after it starts)

* When you last played it

LIES! I'm 95% sure that you have to use a 3rd party tool to sync this info.

[hotch]

my favorite feature is that the iPod will update smart playlists on the fly (although this is more important on my 30 than my mini)... but i have smart playlists of "4/5 star" in every category on my ipod, and it works like a gem! if i get tired of a track, i down-rate it, and poof, it's out of my list.

[nagromme]

Hotch--it's not a lie, iPod and iTunes really DO do that, with nothing 3rd-party needed

[hotch]

alright... hold on, let me go grab my cable so i can try it

[eriqesque]

Well I just tested this with iTunes and the iPod mini.
If you begin to play a song either on the mini or in iTunes and scrub through the song, almost to the end say the last 10sec. and then let it finish playing on it's own it will register as being played on that date and time.