We could quickly script up a tool to set the Playback Range for a sequence of files. It could set the duration and start/stop times to fit within the tracks duration. Then you'd just play random tracks and it would just work.
That's what I was thinking.
You can set them on the fly, and they'll apply to a current Playing Now?
You'd have to make a very clever
plugin to do it with the audio analysis feature I was dreaming about. You could do it though. When enabled, it would just have to set the "shuffled playback ranges" and then generate "fingerprints' for each item remaining in the playback list, and then order them appropriately. It wouldn't be instantaneous, but it could be the type of thing where you click "go" from within the plugin, it thinks for a bit, and then fills Playing Now and starts playing. Kinda like the Play Doctor.
That's of course, a much bigger thing.
For the simple scripted method, would those Playback Ranges be remembered for next playback (in other words, do you need to wait and clear them after playback)?