alternative method for preference star rating?

[bluetide]

Is there a way to create a shortcut to rate preference of the song currently playing (assuming the collection is open and minimized) For instance, if I was surfing the web, and I wanted to rate a song a "5", I could hit Ctrl-Alt-5.

Alternatively, a preference rating feature could be added to the mini tray or the on screen control strip.

By the way, I'm vey happy with dbpoweramp I finally found a worthy replacement for winamp with advanced, functional features like collection, preference ratings, mini tray, etc.

Thanks,
Neil