Author Topic: Shuffling is not random enough & "repeat one" hotkey needed  (Read 2584 times)

whock

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MusicBee is a brilliant program, thanks for developing it. I have two requests, which have been made by others over the past few years. I hope this time they get on the high priority list.

(1) The current shuffle algorithm is terrible. The same song comes on after every few other songs. I would like the algorithm to make shuffling more random and unpredictable.

(2) The hotkey for repeat only switches between repeat all and repeat off. I want a hotkey for repeat one. I've seen 2-3 other threads for this since 2018 but no changes so far.

frankz

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Welcome to the forum.

1. How would you suggest making something more random than random?  "Random" means some things will randomly come up more often than others.  To manage it a way other than pure chance would actually make it less "random" not more. 

It sounds like you need a shuffled autoplaylist that excludes tracks for a period of time after they've been played. (i.e. Last Played - is not in the last - x - days/weeks/months).

2. If you've seen other threads for a wishlist suggestion, you should "+1" those threads rather than cluttering the forum with duplicate requests.

whock

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Welcome to the forum.

1. How would you suggest making something more random than random?  "Random" means some things will randomly come up more often than others.  To manage it a way other than pure chance would actually make it less "random" not more. 

It sounds like you need a shuffled autoplaylist that excludes tracks for a period of time after they've been played. (i.e. Last Played - is not in the last - x - days/weeks/months).

2. If you've seen other threads for a wishlist suggestion, you should "+1" those threads rather than cluttering the forum with duplicate requests.

1. I would think the developer of this app has adequate knowledge to know how to accomplish this. Perhaps, an algorithm more complicated and complex than the current one will do. I just request that, e.g. from a pool of 5,000 songs, let there not be the same song very frequently. Given that a lot of people have complained about this so far, there is a big portion of users who want improvement to this feature. The autoplaylist thing is great but I want to not completely exclude the same songs, just maybe give it a harder probability rate.

2. I'm new here, I don't know much about this community. I initially believed that making a new thread will increase the chances of the developer resolving the matter faster. This matter is still not resolved. The 'repeat one' keyboard shortcut is an essential, literally one of the most important features, why would it be left out? When repeat comes to mind, it's either one song or all songs, not all songs or no song. And a lot of people have complained about this too yet it's still unresolved. Shocking.

mrbenn

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Assuming you have no settings that affect it, your maximum odds are 5000/1 of any track being played.

Picking all the numbers on the lottery is in the millions/1 and you still get a winner most weeks.

I have over 900k tracks in Musicbee and can vouch that it is random enough to not think otherwise.


phred

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Have you looked at the Auto-DJ settings?
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

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The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

frankz

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1. I would think the developer of this app has adequate knowledge to know how to accomplish this. Perhaps, an algorithm more complicated and complex than the current one will do. I just request that, e.g. from a pool of 5,000 songs, let there not be the same song very frequently. Given that a lot of people have complained about this so far, there is a big portion of users who want improvement to this feature. The autoplaylist thing is great but I want to not completely exclude the same songs, just maybe give it a harder probability rate.
That's not "random."  Giving something that starts out with an equal chance of occurring a higher or lower chance of occurring is the opposite of random.  The "a lot" of people who have complained about it also don't understand what "random" is.

I rate all my tracks and have an autoplaylist that sets a time before they can be played again based on that rating. 3 stars or unrated are 6 months, 3.5 is 3 months, 2.5 is 9, etc.  This is exactly what you're describing as what you want to happen.
Last Edit: January 21, 2021, 01:07:48 PM by frankz

Sokaris

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The Auto-DJ or shuffled autoplaylist both change the content of the playlist but not now playing, so unless you restart them every time MusicBee has been restarted, that doesn't help.

Couldn't we get an option that just shuffles?

Just play the entire playlist, every song just once, but in a shuffled order.
Preferably in a way that is remembered when MusicBee is closed and reopened again and only re-shuffle when all the songs in the playlist have been played.
That way random isn't used and there is no chance of repeating a song that has already been played.

voodoopunk

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If, like me you're not interested in playcounts this couldn't be more simple. Create an Auto-Playlist that has Playcount Is 0, then right click play shuffled. Any track will be removed once it's played.

When it's empty reset all the playcounts.

Sokaris

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Thanks, but I do like playcounts.
Also, the autoplaylist fills now playing only when something is started from the autoplaylist, so you would have to restart the playlist every time MusicBee is restarted. And even if you wouldn't mind that (because it's not that much bother of course) the now playing list you would get won't have the entire playlist in it anymore. Which would make searching more difficult.

voodoopunk

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Yup every time Musicbee is restarted I right click on my Play-All Auto-Playlist and choose Play Shuffled.

I don't keep a Now Playing list, so it's not an issue. Also, I don't search for anything.

My setup is probably a lot simpler than most.