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[robeffy]

Hi,
I have approx 10k tunes on my server, a PC. I like to listen to my music files in random order, as I find that hearing all my tunes in no specific order is like having a custom music feed, where I appreciate all the songs I hear.
The problem with doing this currently, is selecting Audio, or Album or Artist and then hitting PLay seems to repeat the same songs, after hours of play.
If I use the Shuffle feature, I get to hear new tunes, but, eventually they start to repeat, as well.

So, how about having a Shuffle feature with a seed number?

If you enter a seed number of say 1000 song, after playing 1000 songs the software does a new shuffle, at every 1000th song, it reshuffles?
Seems to me that this would access nearly all of my songs.
Users with 50,000 songs could enter a different seed number, users with 1000 songs, could shuffle at 150 songs, etc etc.
I may be using the software incorrectly, and if so, ie, if there is a better way to avoid hearing the same tunes over and over, let me know.

[swiv3d]

Create a smartlist with these parameters:

[Media Type]=[Audio] [Last Played]=>3w ~n=1000

This will give you a random 1000 audio files which you haven't played in the last 3 weeks. Personally I would choose a value less than 1000 since I am unlikely to sit down and listen to 1000 titles in a single session.( 1000 2.5 minute tracks would play for 1.7 days!)

[blgentry]

The problem with doing this currently, is selecting Audio, or Album or Artist and then hitting PLay seems to repeat the same songs, after hours of play.
If I use the Shuffle feature, I get to hear new tunes, but, eventually they start to repeat, as well.

That should not happen.  When you do a Play action against a view, it adds all of the songs in that view to Playing Now.  Playing Now is where everything gets played from.  If you haven't examined it, you should.  Playing Now is extremely powerful and lets you do all kinds of great stuff.

Getting back to it:  Since it just adds your selections to Playing Now, you should get no repeats.  Unless of course you have a library with a lot of duplicates.  Which is possible.  You could go to Playing Now and sort by Song Name temporarily and scroll down to see duplicates.  Or you could just shotgun it and do Player > Playing Now > Remove duplicates from Playing Now .  That should remove true duplicates (same Name, Album, and Artist).

Personally I find a full Library "shuffle" to be not very pleasing.  I have numerous genres in my collection including Rock, R&B, Jazz, Classical, and more.  Some of that stuff back to back is pretty awful.  Like if you heard a Miles Davis track followed by Heavy Metal, it probably wouldn't make you all that happy.

You might experiment with adding similar Genres to Playing Now and shuffling those.  Or lots of individual albums (which is what I do).  Just a suggestion.

Good luck.
Brian.

[robeffy]

Create a smartlist with these parameters:

[Media Type]=[Audio] [Last Played]=>3w ~n=1000

This will give you a random 1000 audio files which you haven't played in the last 3 weeks. Personally I would choose a value less than 1000 since I am unlikely to sit down and listen to 1000 titles in a single session.( 1000 2.5 minute tracks would play for 1.7 days!)

I like your thinking and appreciate your answer. I have no idea how to create that smartlist with the string you provided. However, I did find Smartlists, and there is a Audio -- 100 Random that I am now using. I can see how you would create a new one with any number of songs.. say 500?

Thank you, I believe my "problem" is solved.

[robeffy]

That should not happen.  When you do a Play action against a view, it adds all of the songs in that view to Playing Now.  Playing Now is where everything gets played from.  If you haven't examined it, you should.  Playing Now is extremely powerful and lets you do all kinds of great stuff.

Getting back to it:  Since it just adds your selections to Playing Now, you should get no repeats.  Unless of course you have a library with a lot of duplicates.  Which is possible.  You could go to Playing Now and sort by Song Name temporarily and scroll down to see duplicates.  Or you could just shotgun it and do Player > Playing Now > Remove duplicates from Playing Now .  That should remove true duplicates (same Name, Album, and Artist).

Personally I find a full Library "shuffle" to be not very pleasing.  I have numerous genres in my collection including Rock, R&B, Jazz, Classical, and more.  Some of that stuff back to back is pretty awful.  Like if you heard a Miles Davis track followed by Heavy Metal, it probably wouldn't make you all that happy.

You might experiment with adding similar Genres to Playing Now and shuffling those.  Or lots of individual albums (which is what I do).  Just a suggestion.

Good luck.
Brian.

I am going to play with your suggestion, to remove duplicates. I know I have some. I am using the Gizmo interface to run to my preamp, as my music server is on a PC in another room and I am streaming wirelessly to the Android tablet. I am able to access Smartlists and Playlists, something I have not experimented with.

Smartlist has a built in random 100 song list generator... which I am now using.

I am not using many of the features of the software, obviously.

I do find that I am getting a pretty good sound, however I want to get a tablet which offers a digital output. I have a nice Bryston external DAC, the BDA-1 and it bugs that I am not using it, except on when I run my CD player ( which is basically a transport now ).

I believe that an added benefit of having the server in a remote room is I have eliminated any electrical noise from the PC.. so something good has come of this kludge. My PC music server died and I am using this until I decide what my final solution will be.

Thanks!

[JimH]

You might consider a JRiver Id. 
https://jriver.com/Id/

[swiv3d]

I like your thinking and appreciate your answer. I have no idea how to create that smartlist with the string you provided. However, I did find Smartlists, and there is a Audio -- 100 Random that I am now using. I can see how you would create a new one with any number of songs.. say 500?

To set up the smartlist I outlined - just copy the code to your clipboard - then go to the smartlists section in playlists - select the button add smartlist. When the popup for defining the smartlist appears click the import/export button and paste your code into it - click apply and you are done, although I would give the smartlist an apt name.

[robeffy]

Create a smartlist with these parameters:

[Media Type]=[Audio] [Last Played]=>3w ~n=1000

This will give you a random 1000 audio files which you haven't played in the last 3 weeks. Personally I would choose a value less than 1000 since I am unlikely to sit down and listen to 1000 titles in a single session.( 1000 2.5 minute tracks would play for 1.7 days!)

Hi, I must say, I made the time to implement the rules that you suggested!  It works amazingly well. 

I have no idea, yet, where you create that string of commands, but, with some trial and error I was able to create the string using the "rules". 

Thank you very much!

[robeffy]

I am going to play with your suggestion, to remove duplicates. I know I have some. I am using the Gizmo interface to run to my preamp, as my music server is on a PC in another room and I am streaming wirelessly to the Android tablet. I am able to access Smartlists and Playlists, something I have not experimented with.

Smartlist has a built in random 100 song list generator... which I am now using.

I am not using many of the features of the software, obviously.

I do find that I am getting a pretty good sound, however I want to get a tablet which offers a digital output. I have a nice Bryston external DAC, the BDA-1 and it bugs that I am not using it, except on when I run my CD player ( which is basically a transport now ).

I believe that an added benefit of having the server in a remote room is I have eliminated any electrical noise from the PC.. so something good has come of this kludge. My PC music server died and I am using this until I decide what my final solution will be.

Thanks!

I also have a Bryston BDA-1, and my PC is the source.

I am planning on buying a Baetis music server, basically a special purpose PC, and I also plan on getting their recommended DAC, a T+A DAC 8. One of the most obvious improvements in SQ was using a DAC.

[robeffy]

Added T+A DAC 8 DSD and a Baetis music streamer, and WOW.

The overall improvement is sound is amazing. The simple test I did of replacing only the Bryston BDA1 with the T+A, feeding the signal from the YBA CD3 showed a distinct increase in SQ across the board.

Playing my library thru the Baetis and into the T+A and then into the rest of my system has impressed even my friends, who can hear the improvement instantly.