INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: mediocretapioca on July 01, 2006, 10:33:53 pm
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is there any way i can turn off a song or album? for instance in itunes i can simply uncheck the song so that it will not play in shuffle. i like having the files in the library but would prefer to not hear comedians or other similar tracks when i play the entire library.
i apologize in advance if this has been answerred. (my forum searching accomplished didn't find it)
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This is the first time I see someone asking this. No, I don't think MC has an exactly similar function.
However, it has always been possible to exclude any files that have something in common by using a smartlist or a custom view scheme.
You could make a smartlist that excludes these files. Perhaps the files already have some unique field value that you could use as an exclusion rule (like genre, comment or perhaps rating).
The easiest option would be to rate these files e.g. as "one star" and exclude all "one star" files from a smartlist that has no other restrictions. After that you can simply play this smartlist and it will exclude the unwanted files.
Another option would be to create a new custom field. You could tag the files e.g. with an "X" letter and exclude the files that have this field value from a smartlist. Later on any new "X-files" would be automatically excluded from this smartlist.
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I use the rate as 1 star method and it works great. Another option for you would be to create a playlist with every song and then manually remove individual songs you don't want. I don't want the feature iTunes has because it seems like too much overhead and something I could forget about. I much rather have the ability to use a playlist. My sister is just understanding the power of smartlists and I think it would be foolish to say, oh for that, you don't need a smartlist. It seems to nice to keep MC simpler and less bloated while keeping the power fresh and at your fingertips.
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I also use the ratings for this.
1 = I never want to hear this track.
2 = I don't hate the track, but generally don't want to hear it (album 'filler' tracks, comedy tracks, etc).
3 = Average tracks
4 = Good tracks
5 = Great tracks
My 'normal' play lists don't have 1 or 2 rated items in them.
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is there any way i can turn off a song or album? for instance in itunes i can simply uncheck the song so that it will not play in shuffle. i like having the files in the library but would prefer to not hear comedians or other similar tracks when i play the entire library.
This is very easy to do if all you want is to not hear them in MC and the ideas suggested earlier will work.
It gets trickier if you want the same with the iPod. Using a 1 star rating is the only way i can think of that will work there. But i dislike this method as its overloading what rating means and if you use album ratings then a 1 star has a strong effect on overall albums score. But if you use a custom field the iPod won't see it. You will need to use MC to filter out these tracks before syncing with the iPod.
of course, if you never plan to own an iPod/portable and depend on it to filter then you can happily ignore what i just said :)
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This is very easy to do if all you want is to not hear them in MC and the ideas suggested earlier will work.
It gets trickier if you want the same with the iPod. Using a 1 star rating is the only way i can think of that will work there. But i dislike this method as its overloading what rating means and if you use album ratings then a 1 star has a strong effect on overall albums score. But if you use a custom field the iPod won't see it. You will need to use MC to filter out these tracks before syncing with the iPod.
of course, if you never plan to own an iPod/portable and depend on it to filter then you can happily ignore what i just said :)
Overloading the rating system is a very real concern. I've tried to use ratings to help me manage my Christmas music - since I only want that showing up during Christmas. It's been more of a hassle than a help.
Other ideas:
Create a top-level group that filters these items out by genre.
Create a smartlist that filters these items out, then just shuffle that smart list.
For portables, use a custom field (I have a 'My IPod' field) to control flow via smartlists. The only songs in my library that sync to the IPod are in a dedicated group of smartlists.