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[LonWar]

Hello,.... I tried searching, but couldn't find anything like this...


I have a very diverse library... Some artists I have 1 or 2 albums and some I have 20 or 30.

If I create a random list, I get more Johny Cash, then I do Velvet Revolver.
How can I creagte a list that will balance my playlist out?

What I have so far is:

[media type]=[audio] ~t=400 ~sort=[Random] ~limit=-1,2,[album] ~limit=-1,5,[artist]

This will give me 400 min Random, of not more then 2 songs an album, and not more then 5 songs per artist.


Any better ideas?


Thanks,

[marko]

did you ever look at Seviien's suggestion over here ---> http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29940.msg206134#msg206134

You will almost certainly need to tweak some parameters to suit your own individual needs, but there should be enough there for you to get things up and running. After a little bit of tweaking, these foundations have produced one of my favourite smartlists...
like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get next

If it looks promising for you, my advice would be to work in a text editor rather than directly inside MC, as it'll be easier to see what's going on as you build the string. If it doesn't, post back and perhaps we can work something else out.

[LonWar]

Thanks Marco.... That is a little above my comprehension....   

I came up with

[media type]=[audio] ~t=480 ~limit=-1,4,[artist] ~nodup=[Artist],[Name] [Last Played]=>7d ~sort=[random]

That gets me a good mix.... But in that other post, it mentions a few songs from your least played. So I came up with this:

[media type]=[audio] ~t=480 ~limit=-1,4,[artist] ~nodup=[Artist],[Name] {~%=75~sort=[number plays],[Last Played]-d,[date imported]-d ~%=50 ~sort=[random]} {~%=25~sort=[number plays]-d,[Last Played],[date imported] ~%=50 ~sort=[random]} ~sort=[random]

It's like above except it's supposed to play 75% of my least played and 25% from my most played... I figured that would make an 8 hr work day fly by..... But the only problem is, I can't get it to work....


Any ideas as to were my mistake is?

Thanks.

[razumik]

try

[media type]=[audio] ~t=480 ~limit=-1,4,[artist] ~nodup=[Artist],[Name] ~mix={~%=75~sort=[number plays],[Last Played]-d,[date imported]-d ~%=50 ~sort=[random]},{~%=25~sort=[number plays]-d,[Last Played],[date imported] ~%=50 ~sort=[random]} ~sort=[random]

It works for me...but I am not sure if it will pull the songs you are trying for.  Another way to accomplish this would be to use a mix but mix playlists instead.  It would require 3 playlists to accomplish this same thing (A least played list, a most played list, and the mix list) but may not be as confusing to look at.

[LonWar]

Great Thanks
!

I see what I did wrong...   

[Craig]

Could you pick a random artist then pick a random track from that artist?

It sounds simpler to me

Craig

[marko]

as long as you're happy

You should note though that the strings above are quite flawed, and in in their current state, contain a lot of redundancy.

Believe it or not, all that it does at the moment is:

get all audio files
limit the list to 8 hours
limit that list to no more than 4 of any artist (this could remove files from the list reducing the running time)
remove dupes (this could further reduce the running time)
the only thing that happens from ~mix to the end is ~sort=random.

~mix requires a given number of files to mix, and each part (search) of the mix needs a specific percentage or number also, and none of these have been provided above.

one of the problems you're facing here is the ~mix modifier requires a fixed number of files to, erm, well, mix, and that flies in direct conflict with the 8 hour time limit. we could pull from all audio, and then apply the time limit at the end, but this could break the percentages specified in the ~mix.
I'll have a play and see what I can come up with...

....

[LonWar]

as long as you're happy

You should note though that the strings above are quite flawed, and in in their current state, contain a lot of redundancy.

Believe it or not, all that it does at the moment is:

get all audio files
limit the list to 8 hours
limit that list to no more than 4 of any artist (this could remove files from the list reducing the running time)
remove dupes (this could further reduce the running time)
the only thing that happens from ~mix to the end is ~sort=random.

~mix requires a given number of files to mix, and each part (search) of the mix needs a specific percentage or number also, and none of these have been provided above.

one of the problems you're facing here is the ~mix modifier requires a fixed number of files to, erm, well, mix, and that flies in direct conflict with the 8 hour time limit. we could pull from all audio, and then apply the time limit at the end, but this could break the percentages specified in the ~mix.
I'll have a play and see what I can come up with...

....

****stopps head from spinning****    For some reason I just don't get the hang of this....     I do a lot of Excel strings and advanced access programing... I can get that, but these just go right over the noggen....

I was just using plain random for a while, but there was a lot of artists that I just wasn't hearing.... At least this, while not perfect seems to be close.

[razumik]

A simpler way to get ALMOST what you want would be to create 3 playlists:

1. Most Played (2 hours) - This could basically be the standard Top Hits playlist with the limit changed to 2 hours instead of 100 songs, and the Artist/Album limits that you mentions.  I would also suggest adding a [last played] value so you do not end up listening to the same top songs everyday.

2. Least Played (6 hours) - You could use the playlist created and step one and change the ~seq=[number plays] to ~seq=[number plays]-d and set the limit to 6 hours

3. 1 and 2 combined - This would give you the 8 hours that you wanted and still retain the mix... I think ;-)

Personally, the only drawbacks I see with this playlist is that you will end up listening to your very favorite songs a lot, and infrequently played songs, but not the ones in the middle.  Just my 2 cents.  If you are interested, here is a link to another smartlist thread where I posted the playlist that I generally listen to:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=9765.msg220220#msg220220

[GHammer]

Well, do you have have ratings? I only rate favorites(4 & 5) and things that are only still on the system for completeness (1).

This works for me.
[Media Type]=[Audio] -rating=1 ~mix=30,80%,{-[Rating]=>[4] [Last Played]=>7d ~limit=-1,1,[Artist]},20%,{[Rating]=>[4] ~limit=-1,1,[Artist]} ~sort=[Random]

Gets 30 songs, 80% are unrated and have not been listened to in the last week while 20% are favorites. Only 1 song per artist in each grouping.

The time limit will be the deal breaker for you I believe. This usually (some song are LONG!) gets me 2 hours of listening. Bump the count to 120 and see if that works for you.