"Or" Filters in iPod Smart Playlists

July 22, 2006 12:54 PM

iPodFilter: Can you do complex filters in Smart Playlists?

I want to create a smart playlist combining more than one Genre. (eg Songs from Rock or Pop)

Is it possible to enter "OR" style entries so that it can collate more than one Genre into a Smart Playlist?

(Ipod Nano on Windows XP)

posted by pettins to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

yes, iTunes has a choice between "any" and "all" in the smart playlist creator, any is OR, all is AND.

You can only have one set of or / and clauses per playlist. To mix and and or clauses, you need to separate each to a playlist and use "in playlist" clause to merge them.
posted by neustile at 1:11 PM on July 22, 2006

Wow - That is amazing - I had tried clicking the plus symbol to see if I could add more conditions but not noticed the sneeky Any / All box that appeared at the top.

Nice one neustile - Just what i needed and superfast response! Thank you.
posted by pettins at 1:17 PM on July 22, 2006

the sneeky Any / All box that appeared at the top.

It sure must be sneaky as I can't see it. Where?
posted by dobbs at 1:55 PM on July 22, 2006

Oh. That box. I see it, but don't find it overly useful. In all honesty, I don't find the smart playlists very smart. Either that or I'm not.

For instance, I can't figure out how to:

- Add the last record added by artist X and only the last record added.
- Add only the last 10 albums added by any artist

There are plenty of other things I've tried to do with them and failed at but those two jump immediately to mind.
posted by dobbs at 1:59 PM on July 22, 2006

- Add the last record added by artist X and only the last record added.

Maybe if you spoke english, iTunes would be easier :)
(Seriously, what are you trying to do? There might be a way.)
posted by neustile at 2:14 PM on July 22, 2006

Yep, you've got me there. I can see what type of thing you are trying to do but I sure can't figure out how to do it. Maybe someone with more iTunes experience might be able to suss it out.

Guess you would need some sort of sequence field and that doesn't appear to be included in this release of iTunes. However, I guess it could be on their future features list.

I think you are smart by the questions you are asking - Would suggest you raise them with Apple and see if they can add them to their future development list.
posted by pettins at 2:16 PM on July 22, 2006

neustile, I want to add the last album by artist X to a playlist. Ie,if I have 10 records by Hella, I want the playlist to only add their last album. When I get a new Hella album, remove the one there and add the new one.

For my second request, I meant I want a playlist that includes the last 10 albums I bought (added to iTunes). However, there's no way to do this. The only thing I can do is add the last X songs or the the last X MB (which is pretty bloody stupid).

pettins, all that Apple needs to do is add "Album" to the drop down list that currently includes "songs, mb, minutes, hours, gb" so that someone can create a line that reads:

"Limit to 10 albums selected by most recently added."
posted by dobbs at 2:53 PM on July 22, 2006

dobbs, got it. Yeah, you can't do that w/ smart playlists as is, and it would just take apple to make that 'albums' in the size/songcount dropdown. There is probably some scripts people use (iTunes is Applescriptable and WSH compliant) that might get you there.
posted by neustile at 3:23 PM on July 22, 2006

It looks like you have what you need, but if you want to do even more with your playlists, read this. Kind of intense to set up, but it's helped me get a lot more out of iTunes.
posted by donnagirl at 5:11 PM on July 22, 2006

AFAIK, you can't do anything at all with albums with smart playlists. It's all based on individual songs.
posted by smackfu at 5:23 PM on July 22, 2006

dobbs, if you're using a Mac, what you're looking for wouldn't be hard to implement using Applescript. Feel free to email me (address in profile) and I'll toss something together.
posted by Acetylene at 7:28 PM on July 22, 2006