Mashable!
While setting up an
iTunes playlist may not be rocket science, there are quite a few cool features buried in
Apple’s Smart Playlist software that you’re probably not taking advantage of.
Did you know you could add different equalizer effects to each of your tracks? Want to create favorite lists on the fly? Need to find some deep cuts in your own library? Take a look through these quick tips and share your own quick fixes in the comments below.
Creating a “Regular” Playlist
In a nutshell: You can add a new playlist by clicking the plus sign on the bottom left of your iTunes window or select it from the File menu up-top. Name your playlist something awesome, find songs you like, drag-and-drop them onto the playlist and your set.
Quick note: You can re-order and delete songs from within a playlist without erasing them from your computer. However, any info you change (like song title, artist, or rating) will carry over into your music library.
Creating Smart Playlists
This is really the meat of iTunes’ playlist suite. Add a smart playlist by selecting it from the File menu. From there, you’ll get a pop-up screen asking you to set parameters for what songs will be included. There are a ton of options here, allowing you to select by date added, artist, genre, etc. You can add several parameters to narrow down the exact kind of songs you want by hitting the plus sign on the right of the parameter.
Quick note: Each category will give you different sorting options. For example, “Artist” will give you one drop down — “contains,” “is,” “is not,” “starts with,” etc. — and a text box whereas “Date Added” has another drop down — “is after,” “is in the last” — with either a date box or a month/day/year drop down. If you change your mind at any point, you can always right click a playlist to change it.
If you don’t want to bother with all the clutter and want iTunes to do the work for you, set up a Genius playlist. Simply click on a song you like, hit the Genius button on the bottom right of the iTunes window, and iTunes will pull together a playlist for you. Not so much control, but also not so much work if you just want to get up and go.
Create a Best-Of List On the Fly
iTunes will automatically set you up with you a “Top 25 Most Played” List, but it doesn’t always do the trick. Use a custom smart playlist to help you compile a best-of playlist which you can add to without having to drag and drop. Create a new smart playlist and set the category to “Rating” — “is greater than” — and set the stars to as high as you like. Mine’s at three stars.
You’ll notice that any song on iTunes will have a column for rating. If it’s not there, right-click on the bar that has “Name,” “Album” etc. to add it. Now, whenever you like a song, just hit the five star rating and it will automatically show up in your smart playlist. You can edit how many songs you want in the list or leave it to include all your top rated songs. No more drag and drop required.
Deep Cuts
If you have more than three hundred songs on your computer, there’s a good chance you probably don’t listen to all of them each week. Find some of those deep cuts by setting a playlist category as “Last Played” — “Is not in the last.” You can modify the actual time depending on how frequently you cycle through your songs. Mine, for example, is set to “6 months.” You can further narrow by adding category “Plays” — “Is less than” — “10″ to get at those songs you really have let slip.
Play Around With Sound
While audio purists might balk at making adjustments to the sound of a recording, iTunes does offer an equalizer option. If those laptop speakers just aren’t cutting it for music, you can increase the amount of bass, treble, etc. by moving a set of sliders. Sliders on the left manage low notes, and sliders on the right manage high notes. This can help get a better sound out of your playlists, but it can be a little confusing. No worries, there are also bunch of presets like “Jazz,” “Hip-Hop,” “Bass Booster,” or “Small Speakers.”
You can access a general iTunes equalizer through the Window folder at the top of the screen. However, you can also modify the equalizer settings for individual songs (you don’t want a “Bass Reducer” on your Daft Punk songs, do you?). Right click on the bar that has “Album,” “Artist,” “Rating,” etc. and add “Equalizer.” This will bring up a small button next to every song. You can then set individual presets for songs to match their style or your preference. You can actually tweak those presets from the main equalizer under “Window.”
Your Turn
Hopefully some of these tips have been helpful. Still, we know there are even more tricks out there that we haven’t thought of. What’s your set-up like? What are your tips? Let us know in the comments.
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