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[sapnho]

I would like to have a smartlist which gives me 500 full albums. However the returned result is not random at all but keeps getting back the same albums often even in the same order. The function that I use is:

~a ~sort=[Random] [Complete Album]==1 ~limit=500,-1,[Album],[Album Artist (auto)]

MC 12.0.130 with XP/Parallels on Mac OS X

[KingSparta]

~sort=[Random]

Does not return a more random list, random here randomizes the sort of the list.

[gappie]

what king sparta says. i use this for random albums:
[track #]==1 ~sort=[Random] ~limit=21,1,[Album] ~a
this gives me 21 random albums sorted alphabetically. this last thing is disturbimg but i believe there is nothing you can do about it right now ( i asked about it several times).
i use the track = 1 to give a two track album as much change as a 60 track album, but this might not work because the ~a overrules everything? but maybe the complete album = 1 would.  ?

[marko]

Consider changing your topic title to "How to get a random list of full albums?" I've struggled with this too, and have essentially, given up trying.

you shouldn't need the full album modifier, ~limit should take care of it for you:

[Complete Album]==1 ~limit=500,-1,[Album],[Album Artist (auto)]

will return 500 randomly selected full albums, the problem then, is in the presentation.
If you use the default sorting in the "customise current view" dialogue, the tracks of those 500 albums are presented randomly, even though no ~sort=random has been specified.
If you open the customise dialogue, and remove the "media type" rule from the top of the sort list, then you get your albums grouped together, but always sorted by [album]. The same applies if you load the 'empty' sort preset.
It seems to me that the only way to get MC to pull random full albums, and keep the tracks from each album together, is to sort the results by album, which is rather defeatest.

The following will work well for you, if you don't have other media types in your library with matching [album] tags:

[media type]=audio [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a

With the 'empty' sorting preset in customise current view, which will give you 500 albums sorted randomly, but, if you have any other media types in your library that have matching [album] tags, then these files will also be pulled into the results, which is why this approach is no good for me, as I end up with cover art files, and sometimes, video files, along with the audio, which is obviously, not desirable, and trying to use a second smartlist to filter out the unwanted [media types] destroys the random element of the original list.

-marko

[sapnho]

So is there no real way for having a randomized display of the randon album selection? Even the "[media type]=audio [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a" presents them in a sorted-by-album way.

[marko]

So is there no real way for having a randomized display of the randon album selection? Even the "[media type]=audio [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a" presents them in a sorted-by-album way.

Mine doesn't. For me it shuffles the album order on every refresh. Did you remember to open the customise current view dialogue and load the "empty" sorting preset?

[gappie]

i can get a random album list in a view scheme, but not as a smartlist. they are always alphabetic, but in album artist order.

[marko]

Mine's just a regular smartlist, I haven't tried setting up a view scheme as yet.

Did you check the sort rules in the customise current view settings for the smartlist?

I'm also curious...
For me, [media type]=audio [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a pulls in unwanted jpg and avi files. So far, I've been unable to produce an audio only list of random full albums, sorted randomly but grouped by album.
Has anyone with imported, tagged coverart been able to achieve this?

[BartMan01]

Has anyone with imported, tagged coverart been able to achieve this?

The only way I have seen it work is as follows:
Playlist1 : [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a
Playlist2:  Media Type: Audio Playlist: Playlist1

[marko]

The only way I have seen it work is as follows:
Playlist1 : [complete album]=1 [track #]==1 ~n=500 ~a
Playlist2:  Media Type: Audio Playlist: Playlist1

This doesn't work for me any better than using the ~limit modifier, because Playlist2 completely destroys the random nature of Playlist1, because it sorts by [album artist (auto)] by default, and there's no way to shuffle the list keeping the tracks grouped by [album].

any more?

[gappie]

Mine's just a regular smartlist, I haven't tried setting up a view scheme as yet.

Did you check the sort rules in the customise current view settings for the smartlist?

yes i did check the sorting in the current view. just as a test i made a random list as proposed before (with less tracks) and made two screen shots (they are big, sorry).

http://www.gappie.nl/fotos/random1.JPG

http://www.gappie.nl/fotos/random2.JPG

[BartMan01]

This doesn't work for me any better than using the ~limit modifier, because Playlist2 completely destroys the random nature of Playlist1, because it sorts by [album artist (auto)] by default, and there's no way to shuffle the list keeping the tracks grouped by [album].

any more?

Didn't think of that.

Just played with it, and the only way I could get it to work (and keep the random sort) was with nested view schemes.
Set up the ~a selectivity for the first view scheme.
Set up the the second viewscheme as 'audio only' and 'honor parent search strings'.

This has limited use though, since you can't sync a view-scheme to a portable device.

[marko]

yes i did check the sorting in the current view. just as a test i made a random list as proposed before (with less tracks) and made two screen shots (they are big, sorry).

http://www.gappie.nl/fotos/random1.JPG

http://www.gappie.nl/fotos/random2.JPG

intersting. using the 'album thumbnails' view is resorting the results.
If you switch to 'details' view, you should then get a list of tracks sorted randomly, grouped by album.

[gappie]

intersting. using the 'album thumbnails' view is resorting the results.
If you switch to 'details' view, you should then get a list of tracks sorted randomly, grouped by album.

yes, indeed. intresting. and it is a nice solution for the random albums playlists i made for my remote.