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Author Topic: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists  (Read 2798 times)

mark_h

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[REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« on: September 26, 2007, 07:36:22 am »

When I play tracks I often review their rating and if necessary adjust it.  In this way I attempt to keep my track ratings current.  I have a number of smartlists which help me with voting by displaying the last track played along with  a small list of songs with various ratings across the range - I can then compare the track played with those other tracks as reference and give a more accurate rating to the last track played.

One thing I've always wanted to be able to do is build this smartlist using only tracks from the artist being played or just played, eg say I am playing a Pink Floyd track, the smartlist would only present other Pink Floyd tracks as a rating reference for comparisons.  Unfortunately there is no way to do this currently (or is there?!).

My request is that there be some special field names which relate to the playing now track, eg

[PN Artist] would return the name of the currently playing artist
[PN Album] would return the name of the currently playing album
etc

This would enable us to build interesting smartlists which were context sensitive to the current track being played.

This image shows my current 'vote adjuster' smartlist: http://www.pix01.com/gallery/F6C13E01-1261-4789-8696-1F73F2BBB3D9/Vote_Adjuster/bigslide0.html
By giving access to playing now data I could build a smartlist with tracks from the playing artist only.

Please, please, please :D


Mark
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gappie

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2007, 11:56:04 am »

interesting idea.  8)
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hit_ny

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2007, 12:24:00 pm »

not sure if this is what you're looking for..

..in a smartlist, look at the modifier, limit database to and select PN there.
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mark_h

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2007, 12:48:38 pm »

That doesn't quite solve the issue because how do you cross reference what's in that subset with the main database by specific fields, such as Artist or Album?

Mark
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gappie

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2007, 02:22:25 pm »

not sure if this is what you're looking for..

..in a smartlist, look at the modifier, limit database to and select PN there.

the thing is that with this you can get the last played song/artist, and when combining it with a smartlist with all audio, you could get the last played artist or album. but not the currently playing.
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mark_h

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2007, 04:06:56 pm »

the thing is that with this you can get the last played song/artist, and when combining it with a smartlist with all audio, you could get the last played artist or album...

I don't even see how you can do that...?  Can you give an example?

Mark
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gappie

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2007, 04:28:20 pm »

I don't even see how you can do that...?  Can you give an example?

Mark
sure,
the point is , that the limit database thing does not make things easier in this case.

put
~sort=[last played]-d ~limit=1,-1,[artist] ~a
in a smartlist or search list of a view and you get a list with all the albums of the artist who was just played.
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mark_h

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2007, 03:11:22 am »

Gappie.  Until today I was an Atheist, but I have found God and his name is Gappie!  That little smartlist trick of yours finally gives meaning to my life!!  Let me know what I can sacrifice in your honour :D

I still think my original request has value.  The easier JRiver makes it to access data within MC the better.

And kudos to MC, or course, for providing the most powerful smartlist engine out there.

Mark
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mark_h

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2007, 04:18:04 am »

A slight wrinkle - your smartlist pulls in compilation albums containing the [artist].  You need to use [album artist (auto)] to get around this...

Mark
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mark_h

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2007, 10:17:12 am »

I now have the following Vote Adjusters (see my image above)

Vote Adjuster - presents a list of randomly chosen tracks to compare with last played track
Vote Adjuster (by artist) - presents a list of tracks by the artist last played for comparison
Vote Adjuster (by genre) - presents a list of tracks by same genre as last played artist
Vote Adjuster (by Yes) - presents a list of tracks by Yes (my benchmark) for comparison

Now when a track plays I can select the most appropriate Vote Adjuster for deciding how to rate the track last played.

AWESOME!

Would still love to be able to do the above while the track is playing though... but need the suggested fields to do that...

Mark
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steveklein

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2007, 10:55:23 am »

just read this thread and it never ceases to amaze me the results you can get when you combine a few ingredients:

- very powerful software
- very smart people
- very needy people  ;)
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gappie

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Re: [REQUEST] Make Playing Now data accessible to smartlists
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2007, 03:28:26 pm »

I still think my original request has value.
i agree.  ;)
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