Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes, I get the same selections over and over. Fix It.

19 (54.3%)

No, I like listening to the same set of tunes again and again.

1 (2.9%)

It works for me

11 (31.4%)

I don't care one way or the other

4 (11.4%)

Total Members Voted: 33

[GHammer]

When I add [Random] to any Smartlist, I get the same artists again and again. There has to be a way to get a random list each time. I'd like to see this seemingly simple function made to work well.

[LonWar]

Other:

I get a random list every time.... No complaints,

[media type]=[audio] ~t=500 ~sort=[Random] ~nodup=[Artist],[Name]

[Matt]

It really is random.

If you have more of an artist, it'll be more likely to make the cut.

And having duplicates is actually more common that a person would think:
http://images.beggerlybend.com/puzzles/birthdays.html

You can use the ~nodup or ~limit keyword to prevent duplicates.

[GHammer]

So, you're saying you don't get selections from a smallish subset of artists? I certainly do, and I guess we'll see how many others do.

[LonWar]

Not sure what you mean...

If 60% of your library is Rolling Stones, Most of your playlist will most likely be Rolling Stones...

[Madcow]

I do find that artists tend to "bunch together", but I'm pretty sure that's just my perception of what is in fact a truly random list.

Most people would expect artists to be pretty evenly spread across a long list, but of course there's no reason why you shouldn't get, say, three tracks in a row by the same artist.  That's what random's all about.  Once I've had one track by the Rolling Stones, there's exactly the same chance that the next track will be by the Rolling Stones too...

Incidentally, isn't the point of a poll to allow people to express two different opinions?  

[Quisp]

Incidentally, isn't the point of a poll to allow people to express two different opinions?  

Yes and no...

[JimH]

I added a couple of options.

[JimH]

Incidentally, isn't the point of a poll to allow people to express two different opinions?  

Yes and no...

Is that your final answer?

[TimB]

I live and die (mostly live) with MC10.  MC's "Random" seems to consistently clump artists together even with a large sample.  However I really like the non-dictionary definition I just found of random "A remarkably tricky term, far too much so for me to attempt a definition here".



-=Tim=-

[Quisp]

Incidentally, isn't the point of a poll to allow people to express two different opinions?  

Yes and no...

Is that your final answer?

Maybe...

[Scarpad]

I have'nt used it enough to say either way, if anything I'm more likely to use the program's shuffle mode to play anything from my library, How's MC10's shuffle mode?

[Bryan]

"Random", "Shuffle" ... whatever..  it doesn't work very well for me.   I can shuffle a list of several hundred songs and get 3 from the same album within the 1st 10 songs..  It happens frequently.    I end up doing CTRL-R a dozen or so times and it's still not as random as I would like.

I've always thought this area needed some attention to make it work better.

Bryan

[Nolonemo]

"Random", "Shuffle" ... whatever..  it doesn't work very well for me.   I can shuffle a list of several hundred songs and get 3 from the same album within the 1st 10 songs..  It happens frequently.    I end up doing CTRL-R a dozen or so times and it's still not as random as I would like.

I've always thought this area needed some attention to make it work better.

Bryan

There's always going to be some clumping, that's the nature of true randomness.

I think what you are asking for is not true randomness, but a psuedo-randomizing algorithm that would eliminate duplicate album tracks within X tracks of each track.  I'd like that too....

[Rob L]

Yeah, exactly - if you're seeing "clumping" then that's pretty much proof that it IS random :-)

It seems totally normal to me.

[Bryan]

Yep,  I agree..  technically speaking, Random *IS* Random..   but I think what we really want (and expect) when we randomize is something like "distribute evenly..... randomly"...    

B

[Magicland]

Exactly, we don't want something that IS random, we want something that fits our perception of random, ie. no repeat listings, no songs from the same album (or possibly the same artist) within "x" number of spots from each other. We don't need the random mode fixed, it apparantly works correctly, we'd like another "pseudo-random" mode added which fits the above criteria.

[GHammer]

OK, let me clarify a bit.
According to MC's library, I have 501 Album Artists and 810 Albums.
When I use [Random] in a playlist MC certainly seems to pick the same artists and albums way too often to be 'random'.

I'll guess that this is the same function from v9 and for all this time I notice the same 'preference' for certain artists.

It also seems that I can influence this by playing an album then using a playlist with [Random] in it. Much more likely to have the last played album come up.

So, in my opinion, it isn't random. You know, MS just had to patch Excel because (rnd) wasn't.
Saying a function is there does not always mean is works as it should.

[Matt]

I think most of the confusion stems from people using limit smartlists, but then sorting the results.

If you want a sorted file list, use ~sort=[Random] or else you'll get the default Artist / Album / etc. sorting, which would cause the clumping some people see.

[gpvillamil]

I think most of the confusion stems from people using limit smartlists, but then sorting the results.

If you want a sorted file list, use ~sort=[Random] or else you'll get the default Artist / Album / etc. sorting, which would cause the clumping some people see.

So basically what you're saying is, apply the Random sorting modifier before applying a limit to the entire list? This makes sense, I've been doing this.

[LonWar]

I was making a random disc for a car ride for me and the wife... I noticed that there is some clumping of artist together at times. I am aware that it happens with a random function.

Is there any way to add a do not duplicate artist for xx songs? That way if you set it at say 10, you are guaranteed that artist x will not appear more then once in xx amount of songs...

Just an idea..

[GHammer]

I think most of the confusion stems from people using limit smartlists, but then sorting the results.

If you want a sorted file list, use ~sort=[Random] or else you'll get the default Artist / Album / etc. sorting, which would cause the clumping some people see.

But, I am using [Random].
[rating]<4 [media type]=[audio] ~t=74 ~sort=[Random] ~limit=-1,2,[Artist]

As you can see, I added the limit you mentioned, but all that seems to do is to limit the number of times an artist is added to a list.

The problem, for me, is that MC doesn't seem to pick from very many artists and I hear the same selections again, and again while other artists/CDs are never chosen. I just play the library in shuffle mode anymore...