Sequencing tracks in a playlist

sherm123

The sequence of tracks, (songs) in an iTunes playlist is critical for classical music. For example, an opera that was ripped from a 3 disk set. There may be as many as 40 tracks that must remain in a specific order. I've recently set up iTunes in my new iMac and am having difficulty maintaining the sequence of music in some playlists. Although I rip it and store it in sequence, when I go back to the playlist several days later its not in the same order. In addition, I'm unable to drag tracks into the order I want. However, in another playlist I can drag and drop tracks anywhere I want.

In another case, I want to maintain a 1, 2 3, 1,2 3,...etc. sequence for several concertos, each consisting of 3 movements. I've inserted numbers at the start of each tag to keep the proper sequence but again something I don't understand causes them to be rearranged.

Can someone help explain how the sequencing of tracks in am iTune playlist is controlled?

denton

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherm123


The sequence of tracks, (songs) in an iTunes playlist is critical for classical music. For example, an opera that was ripped from a 3 disk set. There may be as many as 40 tracks that must remain in a specific order. I've recently set up iTunes in my new iMac and am having difficulty maintaining the sequence of music in some playlists. Although I rip it and store it in sequence, when I go back to the playlist several days later its not in the same order. In addition, I'm unable to drag tracks into the order I want. However, in another playlist I can drag and drop tracks anywhere I want.

In another case, I want to maintain a 1, 2 3, 1,2 3,...etc. sequence for several concertos, each consisting of 3 movements. I've inserted numbers at the start of each tag to keep the proper sequence but again something I don't understand causes them to be rearranged.

Can someone help explain how the sequencing of tracks in am iTune playlist is controlled?

Which OS are you using (Windows, OSX), and which version of iTunes are you using (should be found in the Help menu); and when you say "Playlist", are you talking about playlists as found in the "Source" list (File -> New Playlist)? or are you talking about the lists in "Browse" mode (Edit -> Show Browser) from your music "Library" (ie, "Genre", "Artist", "Album")?



I find that it is good to have my "Library" sorted ascending on Album. But Playlists should normally be sorted by the first collumn (which indicates the track number of the playlist). Also, there is not much point to changing track names for order. The best way to order your music is by making sure that the Track and Disc Numbers (select a song then choose File -> Get Info) are entered properly.

sherm123

I'm using OS X and version 7 of iTunes. The playlists are those associated with (File-New Playlist). I understand you suggestion but unfortunately I don't think it will work for me. As an example, for my classical music I create playlists by composer and type of work, ie. Beethoven Symphonies. I want to keep the symphonies, each with 4 movements, (4 tracks), in order by their number. (Symphony No. 1 ,,,Symphony No.2......Symphony No. 9). The symphonies are ripped from different CD's, and its probable that Symphonies No.3 and No. 5 are on one disk (Album) and No.s 1 & 4 on another. Therefore using Album or disk in the sorting sequence won't give me the desired result.

The thing that is most puzzling is that I can get them ion the order I want and then when I bring up the playlist several days later its in a different sequence. I don't understand what I might have done to cause that to happen. And then, when I attempt to drag and drop the tracks to the original sequence iTunes won't accept the rearrangement despite the fact that several days before that is how I got the order I wanted.

denton

Which column of the playlist is the sorting taking place on? The sorting is indicated by the column whose header is blue and will have an arrow either pointing up or down (up indicating "sort ascending"). In your playlists you will want the sorting to be on the left-most column (the one with the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc in them). When you are sorting on this column you ought to be able to drag the tracks of your playlist to whatever order you desire.



If this is what you are doing already, then I really don't know what else to tell you. Perhaps you might consider re-installing iTunes, or if you don't need iTunes 7 for syncing to the newest iPods or watching video from the iTS, perhaps down-grade to iTunes 6 and see if the problem persists. Old versions of iTunes for OSX may be found at OldApps. 6.0.4 is a very good version in my opinion.

physguy

What I've done in these cases is to create a playlist with all the tracks I want to sequence from a series, say the three discs I have of Carmen. For me (Same software/platform as you) when I sort by album I get the albums in alphebetical order with the tracks in accending order. If the import didn't put the album names in approriate alphbetic order (so that disk 1's name comes before disk 2's name, etc.) then you can select the tracks 1 album at a time and hit command-I to edit the album name for all of them at once. If you then want to order the tracks differently than they were on the CD's I would edit the track numbers accordingly in the Info (command-I) panel.

thinkingdifferent

I've had some problems rearranging tracks in playlists. Some playlists allow it while others don't.

sherm123

Thank you for the input.One vital piece of information I got from your messages is that I can drag tracks up and down in a playlist when the far left column is the sorting key (in blue). When other columns are selected as the sorting key, the dragging won't work. This enables me to move tracks into the desired sequence.

What I've finally done to resolve the problem is sequentially number the tracks at the start of the album name once they are in the order I want. The result looks like the following.

Album (Whatever the actual album name is)

1 - Beethoven Symphony No. 1 (Movement 1)

2 - Beethoven Symphony No. 1 (Movement 2)

3 - Beethoven Symphony No, 1 (Movement 3)

4 - Beethoven Symphony No. 1 (Movement 4)

5 - Beethoven Symphony No. 2 (Movement 1)

.

12 - Beethoven Symphony No, 3 (Movement 4)

.

.

33 - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Movement 1)

.

.

36 - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 ( Movement 4)



It is tedious work but, once done eliminates any sequencing problems.

Thanks again for the responses.