Smart playlists - how to ignore duplicates?

[aym]

I'm looking for Smart Playlist tips for 2 different but similar situations:

a) ignoring exact duplicates
b) ignoring multiples of same song

Assuming I want to keep both copies (I have space, I can choose), and I think the best option is probably adding a comment to the comments field, I'm looking for suggestions

For (a), I often have "Best Of" type albums plus the original album from the band, and therefore I have the same exact cut of a song with different album names and different dates. Theoretically, these deserve the same rating, but I don't want to clutter my playlists with them. What would you suggest to be able to rate them the same but then ignore all but one for the purpose of playlists?

For (b), this will become especially important as Christmas comes. 2 years ago, before ratings in iTunes, I made a bunch of playlists and picked *which* of the 12 copies of Silent Night I wanted to have in my regular lists. Now, however, I want to go in and rate them logically. Obviously, some copies might be horrid and would rate such, but presuming more than one is quite good how do I note which ones I don't want appearing, or which one I do, in Smart Playlists? I'm wondering if marking the ones I don't would be better so I wouldn't automatically ignore new additions. This theory would also work when the band does a different cut of a song they've done before. I hate rating things artificially low just because I don't want them to show up in playlists.

Generally, I use ratings from 1-5 on everything (1 means never want to hear it again, 5 means all but perfect), and most of my playlists by genre or type exclude everything below 3 stars, so I have to rate things pretty low to get them to drop off playlists.

Just wondering if anyone else had thought this through, and what you were doing....

Thanks,
Aym

[MikeM]

There is no easy way to ignore dupes. I personally delete dupes because I don't care if the original order of a 'Best of" album is held intact. Those albums are something that are 'the artist's original intention' or anything, so the flow doesn't mean much.

The comments field is probably going to be your best method for editing them out of playlists.

My question for you is: Why do you have stuff you never want to hear again in iTunes or on your iPod?

[aym]

Honestly, I don't know how to answer your last question. I believe the best answer for now is I haven't run out of room yet on my 60GB HD and 30GB iPod. I suppose I could also uncheck and not sync the songs I didn't want, since I rarely listen to iTunes as a source.

I just have taken to letting iTunes be the single repository for all my CDs, which have since been shuffled into a less accessible storage. Therefore, it seems that I should keep both the original and the collection albums complete, and since I can't tag a single song as being in 2 different albums (I can't, right?) it's there twice.

I assume some sort of tag in the comments section is the way to go. I was just looking for others to comment on how they handled this.

Is anyone else keeping duplicates on their machine and being forced to deal with this?

Thanks,
Aym

[mike1966]

Aym,
I don't keep exact duplicates. Once my music is in my collection I start to NOT think of them as albums, but a lots of individual songs. So, if I do a 'best of..' cd, I will only take the tracks I don't yet have and I change the years to reflect when the song actually came out. The Album stays 'best of' so I know where i got it from. I rate all my music so when I want to hear that artist I use ratings to give me my version of that artist's best songs.

a) Since you want to keep your duplicate songs rated the way they are, I think your best bet is to uncheck the songs you don't want to hear. With your pod prefs set to include unchecked songs, and each smart playlist to not include unchecked songs, then you will have them on your pod for playing by album and not included in sm plalists.

b) There's no real answer to this one. You're already using raings, just include them in your sm playlist... you'll just have to rate the bad versions pretty low. Or, get rid of them all together. I don't have much in my collection that I hate. There are a few mixed dance music cds that I wanted to keep the entire cd. So I rated the tracks I hate 0 stars. That way I can hear the whole cd if I want, but smart playlists using ratings will not pick them.

I use keywords in the comments field a lot. I strongly recommend them to everyone whos collection is gonna be big. I sometimes like sedate music and found BPM doesn't always work. So, I put 'quieter' in the comments of any song that is calm and quiet. Then I have several quieter playlist for different genres. I also use 'vocal' in genres such as Soundtrack, Electronic, & Classical to seperate out the instamentals. I have many keywords I use.

In using the comments field, remember a few things about how iPod and iTunes handle that info.
1) iPod generates its sm playlist from its mp3/acc files and info, not from iTunes.

2) iTunes only copies an updated mp3 when certain tags are updated (Name, Artist, Album, Genre, Composer), and not when others are (like Comments). So, your iPod's comment field info won't match iTunes untill you make a change in genre, update, change it back, and update again.

3) When the iPod get's an updated song file it treats it as new.. giving it the current date for it's Added date. iTunes will still have the correct date.

[aym]

Wow - great tips, mike1966! I think the best option for me is a combination of comment tags and perhaps rethinking my need to store duplicates of songs. Your explaination makes a lot of sense.

Thanks also for the info on how the iPod and iTunes keep knowledge of what's been changed. I have a feeling I'd have been very confused without that!

Much appreciated. If I wind up using a method I think is different I'll be sure to share it with the list.

Aym

[mike1966]

You're welcome Aym. And, thank you for saying thanks. Have a good holiday season.

-mike