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[iCamp]

I'm attempting to make a Smartlist that will only playback "fast" or upbeat songs for a cardio workout.  I've played around with using the BPM and Intensity fields but can't seem to find the right mix.  There are songs MC rates as a 4 or 5 intensity which I consider too slow for my purposes.  Additionally, MC seems to give some tracks I'd consider very 'intense' a low Intensity rating. 
I'm thinking I should use a combination of BPM & Intensity in the Smartlist.  It will probably be a trial and error process but I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else has gone down this road before I begin.

Thanks in advance!

[syserror]

Though I'm fond of MC's 'analyze audio' feature for being able to normalize listening volume, its BPM rating appears almost a random-number-generator.  I'm as likely to say, see an Enya song above 130 BPM as a Ministry one, or likewise for below 80 BPM.  I don't fault them for it as truly identifying the beat in arbitrary music would be a very hard problem, but from my experience I just don't think the BPM measures are really usable yet for something like you intend.

Aaron

[lee269]

iCamp:

Its been a while since Ive played with BPM and intensity, but I agree with both syserror on BPM and you on intensity. In this case I thnk youd be better off creating a 'workout' field in your library and manually assigning it to your favourite workout numbers, which you could then use in smartlists.

As for your comments on intensity, Ive never seen it defined on the board - it seems to be mainly (completely?) based on the max volume in the song. Itd be nice if someone can point me to such a definition, if it exists.

[iCamp]

In this case I thnk youd be better off creating a 'workout' field in your library and manually assigning it to your favourite workout numbers, which you could then use in smartlists.

Yea, I considered that.  It's a LOT of work though. 

I too would like to see a definition of "intensity".  It would be great if future versions of MC allowed the user to customize this type of audio measure. 

[Alex B]

Matt has defined it here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=20920.0

[BlueGlow]

FYI, BPM can be arbitrary, but I use it as a starting point to find fast or slow music. I make sure my songs are all analyzed then create a smartlist to view what MC thought were fast or slow songs.  I scan this list , preview here and there, and then drag songs into a new playlist like, 'Workout 1-17-04' or 'Sleepy time'. It's not a science but it's often faster than trying to wade through thousands of files.

Good luck,
  BG

[BlueGlow]

FYI, most of my songs were re-analyzed with 11 and I just ran a quick test of a few dozen songs with search set to BPM > 120 and BPM > 150. The results were much better than I expected, probably a 90% success rate on tracks that were close enough to the correct tempo to do a great workout mix. The 10% that failed were all about 1/2 the listed tempo, for example, a 'Platters' track listed as 160 BPM was really 80 BPM.