I'm sure I will get yelled at on many accounts for posting this, but I'll post it to see what people think.

I am not using my empeg to its fullest potential. Largely, because I haven't tried all the software (which I plan to do, relentlessly, starting January 2005). But also because I'm not sure the feature I need has been implemented yet. It goes something like this:

Starts by having all your MP3s on the empeg in playlists that allow you to easily find artist, album, or song. That part's done. But I'm interested in quick access to playlists based on "mood" and other song attributes, easily accessible, but without having to create duplicate song entries in numerous additional playlist structures.

A way to do this may be "attribute files" that can be appended to individual MP3 files, similar to the lyrics files. Attribute files could contain data fields for any number of ways you want to organize your music; genre, mood, instrumentation, texture, key (tonal center), major/minor, tempo, etc. The files would contain data similar to the Allmusic mood categories you see assigned to an artist or album, and then some. And since they are separate files, they could be distributed like the lyric files. Sure, my attribute decision may not match yours, but it might give you a start. And since they are embedded into the MP3 file like a bunch of extra ID3 tags, an extension of the standard empeg search functionality (by year, artist, album, genre, etc) could be used.

I'm not going to ask if this already exists, because I need to read the documentation for the various empeg software as my civic RTFM duty. But... how does this sound? To me, it would be ideal. I essentially only choose music to hear based on attributes such as mood, instrumentation, and tempo; sometimes combinations of attributes. And songs could be cross referenced using so many different attributes that it could really build a powerful way to access your music intuitively and quickly.

Should I make this my next project after the buttons are done? Or should I just manually replicate my entire playlist structure six or seven times, each arranged by a different attribute?

PS: An insane extended feature would be a "rigidity" setting, specifying how strictly the search results should adhere to the query. An example from a recent listening scenario: I wanted to hear serious songs that were just voice and one other instrument (this specifically excludes all my They Might Be Giants voice and accordion songs). By hand selecting a mix of songs, I added a few that maybe had three instruments or maybe weren't entirely serious, which introduced variation within my current mood and prevented monotony. A "rigidity" setting, coupled with a whole pile of rules for how to "be less rigid" could automatically introduce as much or as little variation as you'd like. Maybe you start off only wanting to hear minor key thick textured metal, but the empeg throws in some moderately textured punk rock because you told it to be less rigid. *That* would put a smile on my face.

PPS: (pss?) An even more insane extended feature would be "auto beat mixing" for techno tracks. This would be implemented by specifying for each track: BPM, intro and outtro times and durations, key, intro and outtro pitches (optional), genre, texture, etc. Also, have your MP3s trimmed to start exactly on the first beat of the song. Then, just specify a mix duration and a framework for the mix (ie: start slow - build to highpoint at middle - end slow). The built in intelligence table could choose songs to fit the framework and the, haha, built in realtime pitch shifting and time shifting could make it a smooth mix during playback. Oh, how nice it would be to quit my job and work only on this project.