Sorting Songs In a Specific Order, as For a Gig

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Posted by: centralscrutinizer, on 12/24/2009, in category "Articles About mTrax"
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Abstract: This articles shows how to use the user-defined column 'Misc. Category' to display tracks in a non-alphabetical order, as you would for a live performace or a gig.

If you are a performing musician, or simply playing song sets for friends and family, you may find it useful to practice your songs in the order that they will be performed later. Here are a few tips to accomplish just that.

1. If your main music library contains thousands of songs, it may find it more practical to create a library in a folder that is dedicated to the music that you play with you band.
2. From this library (Band Master List), create a Practice List, a song subset that will only show the songs played at your next gig.
3. In the Trax Explorer, use the column with the "Cat." header (Misc. Category). If you cannot see this column, consider the follwing:
1. Make sure you have the latest release of mTrax Version 2
2. Scroll the columns to the right, untill the column appears.
3. Use the Column Choose to select or make sure the column is selected.
4. Enter track order numbers into the cells; you can use 'hundreds' to signify song sets if necessary.
5. Once done, make sure the column is sorted ascendingly.
6. At this point, you can also export and print your set list to MS Excel:)
7. If you are using the Difficulty column to rate your music in terms of how hard they are to play, you can now easily toggle between sorting by Difficulty, if you wish to focus on the trickiest songs/sections first, and by 'misc. category', your gig song set ordering.

If you prefer using a Smart Practice List as opposed to the more static Practice List subset, create a smart practice called 'next gig' for example, and set GIG column filter to checked. Then, in you band library, check all the tracks you will play at your next gig and only these tracks will appear in your Smart Practice List.