Play by genre

[quartz0]

My ipod can select songs to play by genre, can winamp do this?

[JonnyMac]

You can create genre based categories in Winamp's Media Library...

1. In the ML right click on Local Media > select 'Add Smart View...'
2. From the 'Choose a Preset:' drop-down box select 'Audio'
3. Click the plus button underneath the first "formula" boxes, that will bring up a 2nd row of "formula" boxes
4. Make sure 'and' is selected between the two rows of "formula" boxes
5. In the 2nd row, first column select 'Genre' > 2nd column select 'Contains' > third column type a genre name of choice
6. At the bottom of the 'New Smart View' box, give it a new name of your choice (based on the genre) > Press the OK button.

Repeat the procedure for the various genres of choice.

[quartz0]

thanks I have

Main Window
Playlist editor
Equalizer
Video

[JonnyMac]

Alt+L toggles the ML

What version of Winamp do you have? When installing Winamp, was the Media Library one of the install options?

latest Winamp version downloads

[quartz0]

winamp5666_lite_en-us_redux

Winamp 5.666 Lite (basic 2.x-style mp3/cd player)

alt-L seems to not do anything

[JonnyMac]

The full version of Winamp has the Media Library. The ML is like the playlist editor on steroids with many different features.

More information on the ML from Winamp Help > Media Library. Also from Winamp Help > Winamp Installation Guide.

[quartz0]

thanks I go thro the formula boxes and change the name to the genre, but when i go back into add smart view it's forgotten the formula boxes I just typed in

[JonnyMac]

Here is a example of Smart View settings for the Rock genre...



Make sure to click the 'OK' button after entering the settings.

[quartz0]

many thanks I've just done that, I've just seen it creates an extra menu entry (I did it 3 times). Do you know where I add in the directories for it to search for tracks

[JonnyMac]

OK, I think I know what may be going on. Do you know if your files are properly tagged? Winamp uses the music file's metadata for the information.

I-Tunes has its own tagging/file-ID service. Which allows the automatic playback by genre. However, Winamp lost its tagging/file-ID service after AOL sold Winamp to Radionomy. So, unless you files have been tagged, I am not sure of what else to tell you.

Anyone else with suggestion or ideas?

Another possibility (if the files are tagged) is the Genre tags have an alternative word for Trance. For genres that can have alternative words I create additional "formals" with the alternative word/tag. The following is a Smart View example for video game music...



Note how the extra operatives are 'OR' instead of 'AND'. However the first operative still stays as 'AND'.

[quartz0]

can you post what the media library window *should* look like (if I dont have to manually add directories)

I think my mp3s are all tagged, if you mean the ID3 tags they definitely are

[JonnyMac]

Yes I do mean the ID3 tags. For my files, Genre is tagged respectively. In the following example of the ML, I set up much of the genre based categories (the ones with the speaker icon).



Sorry, I am at a lost as to why you are having troubles.

[quartz0]

how does winamp know where to look for the music to fill up that window?

[JonnyMac]

Winamp draws the information from the ID3 tags (AKA metadata).

Sorry, my apologies. There is another step that I forgot. It has been a long time since I have set up the ML, it completely left my mind (assuming I have one).

1. Winamp Preferences via Ctrl+P
2. Media Library > Local Library
3. In the right hand plane click the Watch Folders tab
4. Click the 'Add Folder' button
5. Navigate to the folder containing your audio files
6. Select the folder and click the 'Add' button
   repeat steps 4-6 to add other folders
7. Click the 'Rescan now' button
8. Close out of Preferences

In the ML double clicking on 'Local Library' to collapse and expand the branch. It not a necessary step, but it does help to update the Local Library views. Another way is to click one of the LL categories ti go back to the desired one. Now that the Local Library knows where to look, it should populate with the correct information.

[quartz0]

thanks, once I have how do I go about queueing one genre in winamp?

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by quartz0

...
how do I go about queueing one genre in winamp?

Use context menus! Right-click on stuff (headings, sub-headings, 1 or more items selected in track listings, etc.) to get a pop-up menu containing commands (such as play or enqueue) that you can use on the thing that was clicked on.

Also, I use a different kind of smart view filtering to handle sorting my files by genre. The major advantages are it uses less space in the "Local Library" listing and it makes it easier to use context menus on the resulting file groupings. Music is grouped into several genres. To make a smart view for each one would result in a lot of views. The method I use makes 1 smart view for all of the different genres in my collection. To further manage things, I edit the genre tag in every file I add to my collection to be 1 of 16 unique genre types.

I heard about this method from another Winamp user. It's easy to do. Right-click on the "Local Library" header and select the "Add Smart View..." command. In the dialog that opens, select the "Audio" preset (in the drop-down box at the top), then select the "Two" in the "Filters:" area (near the bottom), and select "Genre" in the 1st drop-down box (below on the left-hand side). Select whatever you want in the 2nd drop-down box to the right-hand side of the 1st one (I selected "Album Art" because I have images associated with each of the files in my collection). Then give this smart view a name (in the "Name:" box) and click the "OK" button to save and add it to the listing under the "Local Library" header.

You can click & drag any item in the "Local Library" listing (up or down) to change it's place within the listing.

The final steps are to customize the contents shown in the smart view's panes. In my case, I right-clicked on a heading in the top left pane and bottom track pane to select the "Customize columns..." command. I used the "Pane Options" button (immediately to the left of the Search bar) to customize the display of the album art shown in the top right pane.

Click on the image below for a larger version of how my "Genres" smart view looks in the Big Bento skin.

[quartz0]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

Use context menus! Right-click on stuff (headings, sub-headings, 1 or more items selected in track listings, etc.) to get a pop-up menu containing commands (such as play or enqueue) that you can use on the thing that was

Got ya, so in the lower box, right click and enqueue selection?

I'll have to re read the rest of your post again