November 2007 Archives

On the left side of the screen you will find the Playlist Designer, this is where you decide how you want to use the songs in the Raw Playlist section in your Scheduled Playlist.  There are three controls in this section:  Tempo, Artist Separation and Rating.  These three controls determin how the patented PlayDJ scheduler uses the music in your Raw Playlist.

One note here, if you haven't assigned stars (ratings) or BPM (tempo) to your songs, those controls will have no effect on your schedule.  Since all of your songs will have an Artist name assigned to them this control will have an effect on your Scheduled Playlist.  Artist Separation works like this.  When you move the slider to the minimum setting it will reduce the length of time between plays of the same artist, likewise when it is set to maximum it will increase the length of time between plays of the same artist.  If the slider remains in the middle the schedule will default to the natural amount of time between plays of the same artist.

Here's how that works.  Let's say that you have 1,000 songs on your iPod and that 100 of them are from The Beatles.  PlayDJ will basically play one Beatles song every 10 songs.  Moving the Artist Separation slider to the Max position will increase that to perhaps one of every 15 songs, moving it to the Min position will reduce it to perhaps one of every 5 songs.

Now all you have to do is create a Scheduled Playlist.  A really cool feature of this is that you can have a raw playlist with a thousand songs and you only want to create a one hour Scheduled Playlist for your workout today and another for tomorrow and so on.  PlayDJ remembers what songs it used on Monday so when you go back to that raw playlist to create a Scheduled Playlist for Tuesday you will get different songs, same thing for Wednesday, Thursday and so on.

There's a lot mor to talk about and we'll be posting more on a regular basis.

When I first heard about PlayDJ, I thought "Yes, that is exactly what my iPod player needs!"  I can't believe that I have lived this long without it!  Rock on, PlayDJ guys! 

Well here we go with the first post to our new blog.  If you have just purchased PlayDJ, thanks.  We've worked long and hard to provide you with a new way to enjoy the music on your iPod.  If you are like we are, you really love your iPod, and use it very often.  Maybe it's what get's you through your morning commute, or keeps you motivated during your daily workout, or maybe you just like having your music with you wherever you go. 

It doesn't matter why you love your iPod, we're here to help you get the most out of it.  If you've noticed that when you just press play and shuffle your songs you seem to hear the same songs over and over again and never hear some songs.  Or that you hear the same artists way too often and never hear others, PlayDJ is here to solve this problem.

PlayDJ has two main functions, first it allows you to build playlists quickly and easily from all of the songs you have in your iTunes library.  The easiest way to do this is by using the Filter Builder on the right side of the screen.  The Filter Builder allows you to select groups of songs, artists, or attributes and move them into the Raw Playlist section in the center of the screen.  You can then take this Raw Playlist and remove any songs that you don't want in the final playlist that you will put on your iPod.

Once you have narrowed you selections and have only the songs that you want to play selected you can schedule this list and create a PlayDJ Scheduled Playlist.  This is the list that you can send to your iPod.  The Scheduled Playlist is very different from shuffle or anything else you have ever used.

One of the really great things about PlayDJ is that even if you don't make any adjustment to any of the Playlist Designer tools, the system will do a much better job of spreading out the artists, tempo and ratings of your songs.

As you get more comfortable with PlayDJ you'll want to start experimenting with the Playlist Designer and you can do this and listen to what your going to get using the live player.  Changes you make while the live player is playing are instantly reflected in what you hear.

We'll talk more about that in future blogs as well as offer you many more tips on how to get the most from PlayDJ.  We'll also keep you informed about upcoming features and developments.

Thanks and welcome to the PlayDJ family.