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[Windcrest77]

I have about 4,000 different artists in my library. It would be really cool if under the "Artists" tree MC would insert an additional "virtual album" node called "best of" when you expand an artists branch node. This virtual album would simply consist of all the songs rated 4 stars or better for that particular artist. This would enable users to automatically have a "best of" album for any artist in their collection. So they can very quickly get to a playlist of any given artist that will play all their favorites of that artist. Without having to make 4,000 separate smartlists which would be a nightmare task. Additionally every time you mark a song 4 stars or better, it will auto-magically appear under the "best of" virtual album for that artist.

Currently when you expand an Artist node the system automatically generates a node called "All Albums"... I'm thinking the "Best Of" node would be generated directly under "All Albums" like this:

• Ella Fitzgerald
• All Albums (153)
• Best Of (>= 4 stars, 237 items)

Thanks
Rick

[jctcom]

You can easily do this.

Just create a new view.  Then add a rule to show only tracks with ratings of greater than or equal to 4 stars.

Carl

[blgentry]

You can make your own view to do this pretty easily.

Just make a new view and set the files to include to "Rating is greater than or equal to 4".
Customize View > Settings > included files > set rules for file display

I just set one up as a categories view, so I'll see my Artists as images.  When I click on an artist, I get a window down below with all of the songs that are 4 stars or greater.

You could make this a Panes view instead.  That would give you faster access to the artists, since scrolling in a pane is going to be faster than scrolling a big list of artists with pictures.

This kind of thing is why MC is the best media manager.  You can do so many tasks like this, and display them in friendly ways that make it easy to explore your collection in the ways that make sense to you.

If you need any help getting your view set up, ask, and we'll try to help.

Brian.

[Windcrest77]

Would creating a new view still show all the other albums/songs under the artist as well? I have not used views before.

I would still need to see all the songs of all the other albums, but have a way to display separately all the 4 star or better songs for the artist I'm currently browsing.

I'll investigate views.

[jctcom]

If you create the view for this specific purpose then when you want to see the rest of the tracks you just go back to your regular view in the list.  I have one that I created that shows both Audio and Video tracks for any artist I click on.

In addition to the above to truly make it a display of "Greatest Hits" you can change the options in the list (Just above the list on the left side) and set "Grouping" to "None" and "Sorting" to "Random".

Carl.

[jctcom]

Cool.  I just did this to give it a try.  When you hover your mouse over the selected artist the album covers flip through the ones included in the selection.

Carl

[jctcom]

If you want something more flexible on the fly.  You can create a "Panes" view and include "Ratings" as one of the panes.  Then you can click on a particular artist and then "CTRL" + Click on the 4 and 5 stars to instantly reduce the selection to your "Best Of".

But probably easier to have a new view like mentioned above that already pares it down to 4 Stars or more.

Carl.

[Windcrest77]

I tried creating a view but no success.

I'm still not seeing a "Best Of" album under the artists list and the system doesn't seem to be saving the view I created anywhere.

But it does temporarily filter out all the songs from every album except the > 4 star songs, which I dont want, I still need to see every song of every album.

I'm going to need a training video maybe from youtube to see how to use views, its not very intuitive what is happening here for me or even how to begin.

I still need to see all the albums and songs for an artist in the grid when any artist is selected in the tree. I just need a pane to display the "best of's" as i click through artist nodes as well. So I would maybe get the list of album subheaders with songs, but maybe have a pane that dumps all the >= 4 star songs into a locked album at the top? if that makes sense.

[jctcom]

Ok.  Here's a quick Step-by-Step.

1.  "Right Click" on "Audio" in the left hand pane.
2.  Select "Add Library View" from the drop down list.
3.  Choose a view  (For this purpose I used "Artists (Small, With Files)"
4.  Change the name to whatever you want ("Best Of", "Greatest Hits", "4 Stars +" etc...)
5.  The location should already be set to "Audio".  For now I would leave it like this.
6.  Click "OK".

You will now have a new view under Audio called whatever name you selected in step 4 above.

Now to customize the view to show only 4* or more.

1.  "Right Click" on the new view you just created
2.  Select "Customize View" from the drop down list
3.  For the purposes of this view make sure that "Album Artist (Auto)" is the first category listed. (It should be if you followed the instructions so far)
4.  Under "Settings" Click on "Set Rules For File Display"
5.  Click on the "Down Arrow" and scroll down to "Rating" and select it.
6.  In the next field select "Is Greater Than or Equal"
7.  In the next field enter the number "4" (Without quotes).  Then click on "OK"
8.  Click "OK" to close the customization window.

The last two steps to truly get a "Greatest Hits" list.

just above the file list on the left side you will see "All Files".

1.  Click on "All Files"  Go down to "Group by" and select "None"
2.  Click on "All Files" again and go down to "Sort By" and select "Random"

Now you have a file list in the lower section will all of the tracks in your library rated 4 stars or higher.

Click on any "Artist" and it will narrow it down to that artist. 
(Hint.  you can use "CTRL" or "SHIFT" plus click to instantly create a "Greatest Hits" selection for multiple artists.)

Also in the upper section you can start typing an artist name to instantly get to that artist.

Hope this helps.

Carl.

[blgentry]

I've just been playing around with this and have something that might work for you.  The first page shows Artists as images.  Click on an artist and the second page shows two images:  One that says "all albums".  Another that says "Best Of".

If you click on either one, you get a list of albums.  Double click an album and it will show you all of the songs.  In the Best Of, this only shows you 4 and 5 star songs.  In the "all albums", it shows everything.  The only down sides to this are:

A.  An extra double click to get to your selelction (All or Best Of).
B.  In Best Of, you have to highlight all of the album covers to see the best of all albums at once.

Screen shots attached as an example of how the artist Rush appears in this view.

Brian.

[Windcrest77]

thanks jctcom for the detailed instructions. I got it set up and it works, I have a second Artists node in the sidebar tree called "Artists (best of)".

This isn't exactly the solution I was thinking but it will do, I was thinking more of the system creating a virtual "best of" album under each Artist that selects a rule for that Artist.

Thanks also blgentry for this way too. I see how I can use views now.

Rick

[Windcrest77]

Wow, thanks again, this view allows me to do in one click what I used to have to do with dozens of clicks.

[blgentry]

Nice job Jctcom.

Brian.

[jctcom]

You're welcome.

Wait till you get into Expressions for renaming / moving / organizing your stuff!

Carl.