A song template can help you to save time and make your song writing and recording much simpler. A song template can help you to manage your preferences across multiple songs. No more resetting your count for each track. Instead of having to set your preferences for each track, you can simply get down to business and create your song. Also, having a song template will prevent GarageBand from automatically opening your last song when you double click on the icon, which will reduce the load time when you are ready to create a new track.

Now, let’s get you set up with your first template.

1. Create your GarageBand song the way that you want it to be. Don’t get too invested, unless you plan to re-use elements of the melody again. Play with your settings, your default instruments and anything else that you prefer that is not standard. Once you have your file just the way that you want it, save it with the name “Template”.

2. Use finder to locate your template track. You can do that with a simple search in the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner. Just click on it, and then begin typing to search. Once you find your song, select it. That way, you will be able to open your template style file, and begin to build on the foundation of a song that you have already created.

3. Now you can double click on the file to open it. All of your preferences are ready to go, and you can begin the creation of your song. Alternatively, open GarageBand, and simply choose Open an Existing File, then navigate to your track and open it as you would any other saved file.

4. Make one change to your song. Not a big one. Then click on File and Save As. Rename your track with whatever the title of the song will be. Be default, the title will be Template, at this point, so be sure to change the name before randomly clicking on the Save button. If you do accidentally click on the button, be sure to click on Edit then Undo and re-save your template file. You can then click on Edit and Redo, and go ahead and re-save your changes under a different name.

There you have it. This is not exactly a template, it is as we mentioned in the title, it is a sort of template. It allows you to not waste your composition time on setting up the same details again and again. As long as you are careful not to save over it, you will have nothing to worry about. If however, you know that you are the kind of person who will save without thinking, you should save more than one version of the template. Save a Template and a Template2, just be sure not to use Template2 unless you mess up the first version.

One of the iTunes features that I like most is the rating system. Users can tag any song with one to five stars based on their preferences, and users can sort or filter the playlist based on the rating. A quick glance at someone’s iTunes display and you can clearly tell which songs he/she likes and dislikes.

The rating system really is a great idea; but, and this is a big but (no pun intended), the bigger the song list, the more difficult for users to give rating to each and every song. Can you imagine editing 2376 songs one by one? That’s the size of a tiny part of my current song list. (And I don’t know anybody who has less than 100 songs on their list).

AutoRate to the rescue

Luckily, there’s an application called AutoRate which can help iTunes users to rate their songs. This app tries to ‘guess’ user’s listening preferences and give rate to each song automatically by looking at how often each track is played and how many times each track is skipped.

The formula uses a combination of play and skip frequency (averaged out over the life of each track), and the play and skip count. Tracks that are frequently skipped are penalised, while often-played tracks are given a higher rating.

Both the track play count and skip count are used in conjunction with the length of time each track has been in your library to determine, on a relative basis, how much you like each track. Ratings become dynamic and change with your taste in music following how you listen to your songs.

That is why you will get no rating for the track that has never been played.

The Simplicity

Before using AutoRate, please make sure that you have iTunes version 7 and above, and Mac OS X 10.5 (and above). If those requirements are met, download and install the app.

The usage is simple: you just open it, and click the “Begin” button. It will analyze your playlist, then assign the ratings automatically based on the result.

There are some adjustments that you can make via the Preferences, such as:
- which playlist folders to be given ratings to. (General)

- how would you like to set up the rating system. (Rating)

- whether to use full star or half star rating. (Advanced)

With AutoRate, my iTunes playlist has grown a little bit more mature without me having to do the hard work.

One last note, you would want to run AutoRate every once in a while to keep the rating system up to date.

Have you use AutoRate? Or do you have other alternatives of similar app? Please share using the comment below.