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[WMarkT]

So here's what I want. I will have several pre-fab playlists loaded when I go to an event. When I start a playlist, I sometimes modify it in Playing Now. However, these changes are not seen by the original pre-fab playlist. Is there a way to save Playing Now as the original pre-fab playlist?

I know this is minor, but I would like to have this ability.

[JimH]

MC has a playlist group called Recent Playing Now's.  You might be able to find it there and save it.

[blgentry]

There are several ways you can do this.  Here are two:

1.  Use the "car radio" playlists.  See those flat buttons numbered 1 through 12 sitting right at the top of the Playing Now list?  Those are playlists that you can bring up by clicking them.  Like the presets in a car radio.  At least that's what they are supposed to look like.  Now, if you press and hold on one of those buttons, it will save the current playing now into that button (playlist).  If there's anything in it already, it will over-write it.  You can change the names of these as well to be more meaningful.  That same "press and hold" behavior will let you change the name as you save it.  This might be a good thing for you.  Or maybe not since there are "only" 12 of them.

2.  You can send any song or group of songs to a playlist by right clicking.   This works everywhere in MC, including in Playing Now.  So, go to Playing Now, select all (control-a), then :  right click > send to > playlist > (find your playlist name here).  The only issue with this is that this ADDs to the selected playlist.  It does not replace it.  You could instead create a new playlist this way and then name it appropriately.  Or, perhaps better you can delete the contents of your existing playlist first.  So that would look like:

A.  Navigate to your target playlist.
B.  Select all.
C.  Press delete to delete all songs.
D.  Go back to Playing Now.
E.  Select all.
F.  Right click > send to > playlist > (select playlist name)

Maybe some of that will help you out.

Brian.

[WMarkT]

Thanks, Brian. The radio button method seemed to hold some promise, but there are a couple of issues that will thwart what I'm trying to do. Giving it a test run, I started my first pre-fab playlist, then went into Playing Now and saved it to the first radio button. I shuffled the songs, then did an Update Order by right-clicking on Playing Now. But when I start a different playlist and then go to the radio button with my earlier playlist, the order has reverted back to how it was when I loaded it (before my shuffle). And one more thing: when I hit the radio button, it starts the playlist from the top.

To clarify, here's what I want to do. I'm at a day-long festival. Generally, it's country music in the morning and pop/oldies in the afternoon. Mixed in between are performance tracks (vocalists, dance) and other stuff (cake walks, kids music, etc). I want a separate playlist for each category that doesn't revert to the original lists (i.e. remembers changes). Now let's say someone requests "Never Coming' Down," which is near the bottom of the country playlist. No problem, I drag it up to the top of the country tab and play it at 9:30. When I change tabs (or playlists) to performance tracks (because someone tries to sing), when I go back to the country tab, I want "Never Coming' Down" where I left it at the top of the playlist so I can restart the playlist with the next song below it and don't have to worry about it playing again in an hour because it's still where it started in the playlist. Is that understandable?

So I would really like multiple playlists that are unchanged when I switch between them.

Thanks for your help!
 

[blgentry]

I don't think there's any way to have Playing Now "live update" a playlist.  MC isn't designed to work that way.

However, you can emulate this fairly easily with the Radio Buttons.  You just have to Press and Hold on the radio button to "update" that playlist.  Press and Hold is a "save to playlist".  If you don't do it, it only knows about the last time you saved it.  So, each time you make a change to Playing Now, save it with a press and hold.

Or, just remember to do that *before* you change to a new playlist.  That's what I generally do:  Before I start playing something new, I will save Playing Now by doing a press and hold on a radio button.  (Assuming I want to keep what I have.)

However, do note that MC Playlists do not remember the last song you played.  So you will need to either find the last song you played, or get smart and sort by "Last Played", which has the date and time you last played each song.  That makes finding your place a bit easier.  Just set one of the columns in Playing Now to be "Last Played" and then scroll down until you see the break in the dates:  That should be where you left off last time.

I hope that makes sense. 

Brian.

[WMarkT]

Makes perfect sense. But I still have one question. Is there any way to not auto-play when you hit a radio button? As I'm playing from one playlist, I will likely want to look at another playlist without starting a song just yet.

Thanks for your help, I'm just trying to fine tune things.

[blgentry]

Your auto play question is really "how do I look at playlists while I'm playing music?"

The answer is just to go to the Playlists tree (in the left navigation area) and click on playlists there.  You might want to use Tabs to make this easier.  Open a new tab and use it to navigate around in playlists.  Keep your original tab open to Playing Now so you can always get back there easily.

To open a new tab, click just to the right of the existing tab.  It's up top just under the Playback information area.

Note that Radio Button playlists are stored in a slightly funny place:  Playlists > Car Radio .  They will have numbers and whatever names you have given them.  They can be edited directly there in the playlists tree just like any other playlist.

Brian.

[WMarkT]

Okay, so I have noticed this in a "New in MC25" post:

7. NEW: Panel - Added support for saving playlists. When selecting 'Save Playlist' from the additional options menu, it will grab the list in Playing Now for the current zone and save it with the name the user provides.

This has promise for what I want to do, IF I can save Playing Now to an existing playlist name. There's only one minor issue: I cannot find that additional options menu. Can you point me to it?

[JimH]

Did you try updating MC?

[blgentry]

On the chance that you don't know what Panel is:

Panel is a web interface to MC.  You can get to it in a web browser, on the machine that runs MC via:

http://localhost:52199

Not sure if that interface will help you or not.  You can explore a bit and decide for yourself.

Good luck.

Brian.