iPod What does Grouping do?

[SuperJoe]

How is Grouping different from comments? I've searched on some posts and there are suggestions to set the grouping and then create smart playlists to select the group. I don't see how that's different from the comments field.

I have a CD where there are 18 songs, but really there are only 12 songs. 6 of them have an "Intro" song that's 15-30 seconds long and it's right before the real song. Why the artist did that I don't know, but if song 8 is the intro for song 9 I'd like them both to be played when iTunes randomly picks song 9. I could do without that, but I really don't want iTunes to randomly pick song 8.

I could uncheck the intro, or give it a low rating or whatever, but I was hoping that I could connect the two. Is that what grouping is for? If so, how do I use it? Do I just put a number in it and every song with that number is connected? I'm not sure how to keep track of that.

 

[howard]

i don't know what grouping was specifically intended for, but i think its just an extra field that you can use. I personally put moods of songs in it. things like chill, rocking, sad happy, love, mad..whatever, and make playlists based on that. you could compare it to the comments, but i use comments as a more misc. thing... just alittle comment about the song, or whatever

 

[SuperJoe]

Is there any way to link multiple songs so that they will always be selected together when iTunes or the Shuffle randomly picks them?

 

[el greenerino]

It's a way to link songs together so they play to together in, say, party shuffle.

Put the same entry for the songs you want linked and they will always start with the track first listed.

works great for classical CDs where the movements overlap

 

[Bedawyn]

You can link two (or more) songs when you first rip them. I don't have the app here to look at, but you can select the songs before you import them and one of the menus (toward the right end of the menu bar, I believe) will have a "Join Tracks" option. If you don't want to go back to the CD, I _think_ you can do the same by selecting and joining the versions already in your library, then selecting "Import" again. Haven't tried it, though, so use at your own risk.

I've heard that the Grouping option is designed for classical music, which may have things like "Symphony #whatever, movement #whatever" instead of standalone songs on an album. Personally, I use it for subgenres, and leave the comments field for miscellaneous tags.

 

[SuperJoe]

el greenerino, what would you suggest I use for the entry? Just the name of the "main" song?

I still have the CD's, so if I can't get this figured out I'll try the join option.

I'm not at my main computer so I'll try both tonight.

 

[SuperJoe]

Putting the same entry in didn't seem to work. I had no songs in a particular smart playlist. I picked two songs and put the same grouping in both. Then I modified the smart playlist to get those two songs plus about 10 others (I created a new genre for this experiment). When I ran throught the party shuffle the songs were there but not next to each other.

Suggestions?

 

[Bedawyn]

When I ran throught the party shuffle the songs were there but not next to each other.

Grouping won't affect the shuffle or randomizer at all. It's just another field that you can use to select or sort by; if you sort by Grouping and those are the only two songs that have that grouping, they'll appear next to each other, but they may or may not be in the order you want, depending on other factors. You need to join the tracks (Join CD Tracks, under the Advanced menu).