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[digitaltrapper]

I never use them. I guess because I figure that all my songs are 4 or 5 stars, and there is not much a difference between 4 and 5 for me. If I had any 1 star songs, I surely deleted them by now. I guess I can't imagine saying "I'd like to hear some 1 star songs today"
Maybe I am thinking about this wrong and you guys can set me straight. I'd love a good reason to update my MC tags ! ;-)

[jleerigby]

I rate all tracks and have most of my view schemes based on them.  This is how I do it:

? = Not rated yet
1 = Rubbish
2 = not bad - don't mind listening to.
3 = good
4 = very good - favourite song
5 = excellent - reserved for max 20 tracks

I have view schemes for 2 & above, 3 & above etc.

[BlueGlow]

I use 1 star to mark music that is slated for deletion. I give almost all songs a few listens in case they grow on me.  When I do spring cleaning I blow out the 1 stars.

Also, now that ratings are working with the iPod I plan on using them to mark new music worthy of more attention found while listening to random mixes.

[wonmug]

I rate everything, using the ratings as follows:
1 is for something I plan to delete.
2 is for something I need to keep because it's part of a set, but don't want to include in any of the random playlists.
3 is for titles good enough to include in the random playlists but not a true favorite.
4 and 5 go to the gems. When I want to listen just to great music, I peg the playlists accordingly.

Note that I have around 18,000 titles on hard disks, so the ratings are necessary, along with genre and other track information.

[NoCodeUK]

Never saw any need for ratings.  If I don't like a track I delete it.  If it is part of a set and I therfore dont want to delete it for completeness sake I use this amazing thing called the next button

Adam

[wonmug]

If it is part of a set and I therfore dont want to delete it for completeness sake I use this amazing thing called the next button

Adam

Keep in mind that we don't all listen in the same way or to the same kind of music. I have a lot of classical stuff, so when I listen to an entire opera or other such work, I want to listen to the whole thing straight through. But I also use smartlists to put together random selections, and by excluding ratings below 3, I can have only highlights in the random playlist. Also, I listen while I'm using the PC for work, so MC is usually not in the foreground. Hitting the Next button every time is not practical.

[Jonny5]

I give all my songs get a default rating of 3 stars.
Current favorites get 4 stars.
All time favorites get 5 stars.
Stuff I don't want to hear very often gets 2 stars.
Stuff I plan on deleting gets 1 star.

All ratings done on my iPod while listening at work and uploaded to MC when I get home.  

[NoCodeUK]

MC is usually not in the foreground. Hitting the Next button every time is not practical.

This is where you need my patented MC toolbar;D  Basically set MC to run minimized to the tray and create yourself a windows toolbar with shortcuts to the MCC commands for play/pause, previous, next etc.  This way you can access the basic MC controls even when it is in the background without disturbing what is happening in the foreground.

I was only being obstinate before anyways I know people listen to MC differently to me...I just cannot imagine rating all my tracks and I only have about 6000.  

Adam

[jleerigby]

I just cannot imagine rating all my tracks and I only have about 6000.  

That's the only problem.  It does take ages but it's certainly worth the effort.  It's especially useful when I want to quickly find a good random selection of tracks to burn to an MP3 for my car stereo.  Without ratings it would take me ages to trawl through the library and find a suitable selection.

[zevele10]

Here ,as an old man ,i still think and listen to full albums only.
In this case Rating is not of big use.

But ,when i got albums  ,or artists i never heard of ,in this case i may use a raft rating during the first listening.
By album ,not by tracks.
I never did a playlist in my life ,so i do not need a tracks rating.

[Macavity]

Add me to the list of those that use Ratings.

I've been waiting impatiently while Steve worked on the interface for Ratings between MC9 and the iPod. Now that he has them working, I'm in Ratings/Last Played/Smartlist heaven!

[PaulH]

Adam (no code),

I am interested in your windows toolbar when mc9 is minimised in the system tray, how do you do this?

Is this a piece of software that you use?

If so, where can i get it?

I am fairly literate, but am at a loss with this!!

or are you just talking about the right click on the mc9 icon in the system tray.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

Paul

[Rands]

Although I started with using ratings weighted on the 3-star (3 being average), I now do it pretty much like JLee:

? = not rated
1 = Total crap
2 = Not bad, I won't skip it
3 = Good
4 = Excellent/Amazing/Exceptional
5 = Favorite Tracks of All-Time

There are very few 5 star tracks, obviously.

I ignored ratings for the longest time but now it's one of my favorite features.  I also listen to full albums only but I still like rating individual tracks.  I hope one day that I'll be able to rate an album overall as well (not averaged from track ratings).

[zevele10]

PaulH

Can you have a look at my 'VERY BIG problem rip non english cds' post.
Can you try to rip chinese cds to see if you have the same problem than me.
Thanks

[PaulH]

Hi Zevele,

I am english and do not have any chinese cd's.


However, on Monday I will have a chat to my chinese colleagues and ask if I can borrow one and see if I can rip it.

Cheers,

Paul

[zevele10]

I asked ,cause you may have some .

It looks like the problem is when you have name of artist and songs  in hebrew in my case , maybe in any other non english language

[rocketsauce]

I give a 1 rating to songs that need to be deleted and a 5 to songs that I want to burn to audio cd.

Here ,as an old man ,i still think and listen to full albums only.

That's how I used to be. Now, the only time I actually listen to a full album is in my car. At home, listening from the computer I almost exclusively listen using random playlists. As I've gotten older, I find I have less patience to sit through medicore songs just for the sake of completeness.

Rob

[KingSparta]

I have a new Chart Finder Program Comming Out Maybe this Weekend

And It Will Have Auto Rating

Rating
  5 - Peeked At 1-10
  4 - Peeked At 11-20
  3 - Peeked At 21-30
  2 - Peeked At 31-40
  1 - Peeked At 41-99

this is based on real world sales\billboard charts

[rocketsauce]

Rating
  5 - Peeked At 1-10
  4 - Peeked At 11-20
  3 - Peeked At 21-30
  2 - Peeked At 31-40
  1 - Peeked At 41-99

Actually, that sounds kinda cool.

Rob

[loraan]

I rate everything, using the ratings as follows:
1 is for something I plan to delete.
2 is for something I need to keep because it's part of a set, but don't want to include in any of the random playlists.
3 is for titles good enough to include in the random playlists but not a true favorite.
4 and 5 go to the gems. When I want to listen just to great music, I peg the playlists accordingly.

I use almost this exact same rating scheme. For an example of "2" ratings, I might keep a "2" song because it's part of a live album. I don't particularly like the song, but I don't hate it either, and the live set is disrupted if I take it out. Also, some songs sound okay when you're listening to the album, but you'd never listen to the song by itself.

[KingSparta]

Actually, that sounds kinda cool.

Rob

well the current chart finder does this.

The new chart finder 2.0 will work much better

it does not have a database that is downloaded with the plug-in it uses a database on my website to get the data.

it has info from 6 charts, if more than one is selected it will find the one with the best peek.

if you have this song it will download this info (this is a sample of data for this song from my database)

Artist Name: Savage Garden
Song Name: I Knew I Loved You
Chart List: Billboard Top Hits
Chart Year: 1999
Chart Pos: 01
Chart List: U.K. Top Hits
Chart Year: 1999
Chart Pos: 10
Chart List: Rick Dees Top Hits
Chart Year: 2000
Chart Pos: 09
Chart List: Argentina Top Hits
Chart Year: 1999
Chart Pos: 13
Chart List: Brazil Top Hits
Chart Year: 2000
Chart Pos: 13

if more than one database is selected, it will use  the Billboard Top Hits peek chart since it is the best and it will get a rating of "5"

[jleerigby]

Adam (no code),

I am interested in your windows toolbar when mc9 is minimised in the system tray, how do you do this?

Is this a piece of software that you use?

If so, where can i get it?

I am fairly literate, but am at a loss with this!!

or are you just talking about the right click on the mc9 icon in the system tray.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

Paul

Paul - Check out this thread:

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1061631291

[Markeau]

As a MMJB convert I still use the MMJB custom "Preference" tag to rate tracks, this could easily be converted to the star system, but I find actual words to be more easily understandable.

MMJB had standardized on the Preference possibilities of:  Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor to which I added Fantastic (since MC9 lets me use any text and I no longer need MMJB compatibility).   Plus, I also still use the MMJB tags: Mood, Tempo and Situation for further categorization.

After ripping a number of cd's in a session, I make a first pass to categorize using the above ... the Poor's are pretty much deleted rather quickly, otherwise this is basically my criteria:

Fantastic - a track I can listen to over and over again without getting tired of it, and that I want to make sure to let my friends hear ... typically always have one or more Fantastic compilation cd's with me in car, hotel, etc.
Excellent - a track that is always listenable in any situation
Good - a track that may have some obnoxious sound/instrument/mixing or may be overly repetitive or is just not quite Excellent
Fair - a track that is difficult to listen to, but not so bad as to be Poor and trashed

I keep the Goods around because there may be times that I'm sort of tired of listening to only the Excellent and Fantastic tracks.  I keep the Fairs around because I haven't yet decided to trash them or maybe I think there are other friends (or yes even myself) that might like to hear them at some future time.

I recently went on a trip to the coast.  Being an older married guy who was looking forward to some nice r&r we chose an upscale hotel with balcony overlooking the water.  I brought along a Sony mp3 boombox and 2 sets of Sony 7506 headphones (btw these are superb and to me sound better than any of the other 750x's and even the Sennheiser HD600 which has some missing mid-highs where the cymbals reside).  

Before the trip, I easily made compilations for the various moods I thought we might be in:

Morning:
Preference=Fantastic, Excellent, Mood=Upbeat, Tempo=Fast
Afternoon:
Preference=Fantastic, Excellent, Mood=Mellow, Tempo=Fast
Night:  
Preference=Fantastic, Excellent, Mood=Mellow, Tempo=Slow, Tranquil

I also made some compilations using other combinations but the above turned out superb!

I also use the Situation tag with my own made up values like: Dance, Dream, Romantic

[KingSparta]

I would think if you listened to "Fantastic" & "Excellent" tracks too much you may become jaded and they may then fall to the "good" or "Fair" level.

Before you know it they are at the poor level and your hitting the delete button. Only when you hit your mid+ years, you son puts you in the old folks home and sells your home, and then you remember all the tunes you deleted way back when and wished you still had them as you cry at the old folks home where they do not allow "Boom boxes"

[Sauzee]

Someone commented earlier about wanting to be able to rate albums as well as individual tracks.

I actually do this by using the 1-5 ratings for individual tracks and the Preference ratings for albums.

So I can choose to listen to either my favourite albums or a mix of my fav tracks.

I find it works really well.

[nameless]

Any "transition" track on a CD gets an instant rating of "1" by me (Why, oh WHY do so many artists feel the need to include bizarre sounds or crap music in between the real songs?  Witness any Tool CD).

But I never delete even those digital turds, just because, well, I guess because I'm neurotic and I don't like the idea of breaking up a "set" or "complete CD".  Yeah I'm weird, go figure.

[Markeau]

I just checked and it looks like after I added more hard drive storage I started keeping the Poors.  Most of them have bizarre, obnoxious, out of place instrumentation or vocals but indeed there may be some time in the future that I, or someone I know, might want to listen to those dogs.  

[drosoph]

I have a new Chart Finder Program Coming Out Maybe this Weekend

Well, King ... Make sure to post to the boards when it's released ... Im a big fan of your plugins .. and I DEFINITELY use the auto-rating feature from the Chart Finder plugin !!!

[KingSparta]

Well, King ... Make sure to post to the boards when it's released ... Im a big fan of your plugins .. and I DEFINITELY use the auto-rating feature from the Chart Finder plugin !!!

Almost Done.

I Am Working Out A Few More Bugs Today.

Currently Doing A Scan Right Now To See How it Does.

[drosoph]

Come on, Come on, Come on .. Ive got a kid's BDay party to go to in 1.5 hours .. and it would be great to be able to start the scan before then to see how things go (hehe, I gotta try what I can to get you to release it )

[Marc]

I use ratings.  However, only about 25% of my 17,700 songs are currently rated.  My ratings are given as follows:

? = not rated
1 = Total crap - makes me angry it's even in my collection  :angry
2 = Mildly annoying
3 = Good / Interesting / Possible future "4"
4 = Excellent/Amazing/Exceptional
5 = Favorite Tracks of All-Time

You know, I really wish the TiVo thumbs up / thumbs down could be integrated to work with ratings - I'd probably have close to 50% of my collection rated by now!

Marc

[Soundman]

Ratings are one of the reasons I like MC.  However, I don't use the built-in Ratings field for two reasons:
1. I have multiple family members, and need to store ratings for more than one person.
2. I find 1-5 too restrictive.  I prefer 1-9.

So, I created three custom fields for ratings for each person.  That's what is so great about MC - flexibility.

Now, if my wife is around, I may listen to all the music I rate high, excluding those that she rated very poor.

I never think in terms of Albums - only individual songs.  I feel liberated not having to hit Next every time a poor song comes up.

I use a TV and IR remote for listening at home, and a computer other times.  I am working on a quick way to assign a rating to the current track using an IR remote and Girder.

Regards,
Soundman

[KingSparta]

Come on, Come on, Come on .. Ive got a kid's BDay party to go to in 1.5 hours .. and it would be great to be able to start the scan before then to see how things go (hehe, I gotta try what I can to get you to release it )

I put the new version Of Chart Finder Up At

http://www.spartasoft.com

There Is A Picture There Also

It Has An Option To Use Auto Rating, You Can Turn It Off Default is On.

[KingSparta]

I Forgot to change somthing in the Installer Script File.

So It Should Work Now.

[drosoph]

1 bug -- the "SAVE CHART INFO TO FIELD" keeps changing back to the default "COMMENT" when i pop in/out of chart finder ..

I use the two fields CHART NAME and CHART POS for the information ..

Also, what happened to the ability correct items like Artist/Album/Year if found in the database ? I kinda liked that (esp the year).

[KingSparta]

1 bug -- the "SAVE CHART INFO TO FIELD" keeps changing back to the default "COMMENT" when i pop in/out of chart finder ..  

I Just Fixed That.

Also, what happened to the ability correct items like Artist/Album/Year if found in the database ?  

I will think about it.

I kinda liked that (esp the year).

it already did that but  added a check box

[drosoph]

One more request:

Checkbox for INVERT rating ... I use 5 for my Top Rating, not 1.

So, the Top 10 would be a 5

[KingSparta]

One more request:

Checkbox for INVERT rating ... I use 5 for my Top Rating, not 1.

So, the Top 10 would be a 5

That Should Be Fixed Now

I Added a check box depending on how users wanted there files rated.

[drosoph]

Thanks for adding those features in ..

BUG:  You have a typo "Save Info To FILEDS" -- No biggee
BUG:  Position Field -- Reverts to Defualt value each time you go out/in to Chart Finder

ByPass Word -- What field does that apply to?  Does it search all tags or just a single specified tag .. and which one is it ?

[kiwi]

I use them.  So far, I really only use rating "1".   I use this for songs that  I don't really like and would ordinarily hit next to.  

Sometimes I rate songs 4 or 5 if I really like them.

My library is pretty much songs ripped as APEs from my CDs (probably 98% of it).  I don't really like deleting the songs since I like to keep the albums together.  

I hope to have time to listen and rate every song, but for now, I will just be rating songs that I want to have automatically skipped.

I figure that updating my genres with a subgenre category and populating that will be much more beneficial to my listening.

that way I can have Classical with subgenre's of Chamber and Strings.  Or Rock with subgenre Classic or Pop.

The other thing that I would like to add is a mood listing.  Does MMJB have a listing of their different moods?  I think that a reasonably set list to start with would be good.  I find it easier to categorize things into existing categories, rather than have the options to create too many small moods.

kiwi

[KingSparta]

Thanks for adding those features in ..

BUG:  You have a typo "Save Info To FILEDS" -- No biggee
BUG:  Position Field -- Reverts to Defualt value each time you go out/in to Chart Finder

ByPass Word -- What field does that apply to?  Does it search all tags or just a single specified tag .. and which one is it ?

They All Should Be Fixed.

[KingSparta]

kiwi

I wonder if Mood could also be figured by BPM.

so if your file is Analized and you have 36 beats per min (My Lowest) that would be slow.

My fastest Is 159 Beats Per Min.

I could check this field and if it was between a maybe user selectable # you could then Auto Mood Your Files.

[kiwi]

I wonder if Mood could also be figured by BPM.

so if your file is Analized and you have 36 beats per min (My Lowest) that would be slow.

My fastest Is 159 Beats Per Min.

I could check this field and if it was between a maybe user selectable # you could then Auto Mood Your Files.

That would be very interesting.  My audio analysis should be finished up by tomorrow morning, and I'll have to give it a listen.

I guess that I'm not sure how well the BPM would corrispond to mood of the music.  I could see two pieces of music having similar beats, and while one is "laid back" the other might be "dark"  

I can't think of any good examples, but I'll check out some songs and see what I come up with.

'Does Your Mother Know' from 'ABBA Gold Greatest Hits' by 'ABBA' has a BPM of 135

so does
'Dead Horse' from 'Use Your Illusion I' by 'Guns N' Roses'

'Born To Try' from 'Now That's What I Call Music 12' by 'Delta Goodrem'  comes in at 134

as does  'Dedicated' from 'Dedicated' by 'ATB'

I think that I'd probably categorize these 4 songs as having very different moods.  

I will have to look into it more, to see if anything can be generalized, however, I think that I'll probably end up using BPM separately... probably in a grouped listing of ranges of 5-15.  

kiwi

[KingSparta]

Tempo?

[bjsolem]

As far as the original question goes....

I use ratings for music much like others have described, 1 for crap, 5 for best ever.

But I have started using ratings for Pictures as well.  I don't worry to much about rating every single one but I make sure that the good and really good ones are rated, ususally 3, 4 or 5.

5 is usually for great pictures, good light, everyone smiling, etc.
4 is for a good picture that might just be a little off
3 is for pictures that aren't great but are part of a set of vacation or event pictures

2 and 1 would obviously be crap but I haven't done too much to rate those since they will likely be deleted sometime anyway.

This is really handy for running slideshows.  If you only want to show a few, pick the 5 star pics, otherwise include more as you have time for.

[lee269]

This is interesting - Ive often thought of categorising my library to take some of the hassle out of creating 'mood' lists.

Re: BPM etc - can anyone explain the Intensity tag that the audio analysis also populates? It seems that it could help filter the 'slow-but-loud' tracks from the 'fast-and-quiet' ones. But Ive never seen a sensible explanation of how it works.

At the end of the day its always going to be a subjective decision, though.