Support and General Use > Audio Playback, Database and Playlists

Random Playback Selection by Artist or Album then Song instead of Shuffle

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efiniti:
I was wondering if Rockbox had this playback method yet. 

The problem I have when playing back songs is I'll have five or six albums by one artist and then a few artists with only one song.  So when using the shuffle method of playing back songs it'll select any of my songs by random and this means it'll play more of the artist with a lot of songs rather than artists with only one song.

So is there a way to playback my songs by selecting an artist at random, selecting an album at random, and then selecting a track by random?  This would keep me from playing the same artist several dozen times and only listening to other artists barely at all when playing back all my songs.

edit:

If anyone here has used Amarok and turned on Random, there's random by tracks and random by albums.  Random by albums would be what I'm looking for.  Is this possible at all under Rockbox?

AlexP:
It is possible if you have each album in a separate directory.  I don't know using the database, maybe there is some crafty config (I don't use the database).

For the folder method see Auto Change Directory under:

http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-ipodvideo/rockbox-buildch7.html#x10-1150007.1

bascule:

--- Quote from: BigBambi on July 30, 2008, 03:12:37 AM ---I don't know using the database, maybe there is some crafty config...
--- End quote ---

No there isn't. The best you can do is manually filter on a random artist/album/genre, you can't build a whole 'random album' playlist.

...But to go back to how this works as outlined by the OP, I don't fully understand the concept:

Imagine your music collection has 2 artists A and B. Artist A has 1 track (belonging to an album). Artist B has 10 albums of 10 tracks each.

In your scenario of not wanting to hear the albums disproportinately, would it be correct that your 'Random by Albums' playlist would consist of exactly 11 tracks, one from each album? Surely anything else would be just as weighted towards the more prolific artist as simply shuffling all the tracks.

AlexP:
Ah, I misread - I assumed he wanted album shuffle.

efiniti:

--- Quote from: bascule on July 30, 2008, 09:14:15 AM ---
--- Quote from: BigBambi on July 30, 2008, 03:12:37 AM ---I don't know using the database, maybe there is some crafty config...
--- End quote ---

No there isn't. The best you can do is manually filter on a random artist/album/genre, you can't build a whole 'random album' playlist.

...But to go back to how this works as outlined by the OP, I don't fully understand the concept:

Imagine your music collection has 2 artists A and B. Artist A has 1 track (belonging to an album). Artist B has 10 albums of 10 tracks each.

In your scenario of not wanting to hear the albums disproportinately, would it be correct that your 'Random by Albums' playlist would consist of exactly 11 tracks, one from each album? Surely anything else would be just as weighted towards the more prolific artist as simply shuffling all the tracks.

--- End quote ---

That would do it, in terms of shuffle.  I can't think of an easier/efficient way to do it.

Maybe if I get some time I can study the Rockbox source code and write something up.  Is there a place I can get more information on how rockbox handles shuffle and uses playlists (or should I just look at the source)?  There doesn't look like much info on the wiki.

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