link songs

[mbuser]

okay, I am aware this is quite a rare thing to ask, but listing here anyway.

before I describe the wish, I'll just make a short description of how I use mb. Most of the time I want to hear music but I prefer to let the computer choose. I've seen this first in winamp AFAIR, using the randomize list option. The problem with randomize list was that if I wanted to listen to all my media in random order I'd have to load all songs in winamp. Another issue was the difficulty to break the randomness when you want to listen something specific then let the randomness continue.

The solution to this then came as itunes party shuffle, later renamed as dj or something. The problem with itunes is in the first place that is horribly SLOW, along with other much hated features or lack of.

Then I discovered mb and auto-dj. wonderful job. next, it plays a song. that song belongs to an album. when I grew up I used to listen to the ENTIRE album, because, you know, when I grew up there were no mp3s or other form of electronic bits of music. so we either put on the casette or the audio vinly, which allowed only continuous playback of several tracks at once (well, unless you wanted to get up from the chair and press buttons).

With that in mind, that old song enters auto-dj list and plays, and suddenly you want to listen the entire album. Ofcourse you can right click - find album, BUT why not instruct mb do this AUTOMATICALLY for a certain album/song? So next time it hits that song, continue playing the rest of the album. or optionally, if that song enters the queue, bring along the entire album.

I would imagine this as simple as this: the song comes in auto-dj. i right-click, find album, go to results, sort songs by their album order, select songs, right click and choose "link songs". next time ANY of these songs are chosen for auto-dj, the remaining ones are brought along in the auto-dj list. simply inserted in the playlist like you would do "queue next"
an additional preferences checkbox would decide whether hitting such a song would bring the entire album in playlist (and play the album from the beginning instead of the middle song that popped up) or just continue album from the random picked song.
ideally I could be able to select any songs in library and choose "link songs", not just that album

what do you think, Steven? is this hard to implement?

Thanks.

[ma_t14]

It's already possible. Select an album >right click >edit > got to settings and:



I kinda feel sorry for the time and effort you put into writting this very detailed request 

[mbuser]

nice, thanks

[greenday1987]

Does that set the whole album to load though if one song is picked from A-DJ? That seems to be what OP wants unless I'm misunderstanding?

[ma_t14]

Does that set the whole album to load though if one song is picked from A-DJ? That seems to be what OP wants unless I'm misunderstanding?

Well, I haven't tried with auto-dj to be honest but it works fine with general shuffle

EDIT

Reading the request again the functionality is not exactly the same as the one requested. The way it works now is, it treats an album as one. So there is no way a song from e.g. the middle of the album is played in any other order. It will always start playing from the start of the album to the end.

Also, just tested and it does not work with auto-dj

[Zak]

If I went to a club and the DJ was playing an album at a time, I would say that DJ verily sucks.  

On the other hand, I can see why someone might want to have whole albums played in a random order, but I think this:

I would imagine this as simple as this: the song comes in auto-dj. i right-click, find album, go to results, sort songs by their album order, select songs, right click and choose "link songs". next time ANY of these songs are chosen for auto-dj, the remaining ones are brought along in the auto-dj list. simply inserted in the playlist like you would do "queue next" ... ideally I could be able to select any songs in library and choose "link songs", not just that album

is really over-complicating it. That just makes it work more like a playlist and takes the Auto out of Auto-DJ. The whole point is that you don't know which song you're going to get next.

[Zak]

Does that set the whole album to load though if one song is picked from A-DJ? That seems to be what OP wants unless I'm misunderstanding?

Well, I haven't tried with auto-dj to be honest but it works fine with general shuffle

Just tried it out and the answer appears to be "maybe".

It works as requested if Auto-DJ is running and selects a tagged track - it will continue to select and play all tagged tracks from the album in order.
But it doesn't seem to work if a tagged track is "Sent To > Auto-DJ" (it plays only that one track) or if the initial list when starting Auto-DJ via its entry in the Playlist navigation menu contains only some of the tracks from a tagged album (when the initial list runs out it will keep it populated by adding random tracks rather than the rest of the album).

Should be sufficient for the OP's requirements though.


I wonder if there will ever come a day when I don't find out about a new MB configuration option. 

[ma_t14]

If I went to a club and the DJ was playing an album at a time, I would say that DJ verily sucks.  

I don't think its meant to be used for that kind of music 

[Bee-liever]

This is what I also suggested way back here http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=8015.0

Because some days I want to listen to matching tracks, other days I want to listen to the entire album that track came from.
The ability to link an entire album if a single track matches selected search criteria (it's the first option, Always Show Entire Album, in the searchbox menu) already exists, and you can already keep albums together in shuffle, so I didn't think it would be that hard to extend it into Auto-DJ.

[mbuser]

sorry for late reply: it seems I come to visit only when I run into issues; this means most of the time I am happy with MB
beel-iver's hint is good, but not all the time I want to listen to the entire album. actually i almost never want to listen to the entire album.

instead,
For example, half an hour ago "take it back" from pink floyd's "the division bell" album entered auto-dj queue.
if you listen to the album, you will understand that there are four consecutive songs that blend into each other.

so that's what I mostly wanted to achieve with this feature request: do not interrupt the music even if logically the music is partitioned within several logical units called "files".

so the desired result would be that if any of "take it back", "coming back to life", "keep talking" or "lost for words" win the lottery of getting into auto-dj, ALWAYS start with "take it back" and keep playing until "lost for words".

I hope is way clearer now explained

[psychoadept]

there are four consecutive songs that blend into each other.

so that's what I mostly wanted to achieve with this feature request: do not interrupt the music even if logically the music is partitioned within several logical units called "files".

so the desired result would be that if any of "take it back", "coming back to life", "keep talking" or "lost for words" win the lottery of getting into auto-dj, ALWAYS start with "take it back" and keep playing until "lost for words".

This would be a really useful feature with classical albums containing multiple works, too.  For instance, I have an album that contains Dvorak's Symphony no.9 (4 tracks, 1 per movement), plus a few shorter works by other composers.  There's no way to shuffle the whole symphony independent of the other stuff - it's the whole album or nothing.

Added: Just brainstorming here - I'm wondering if there's a way to fake it using "define as album" settings and a tag like grouping or a custom tag?  I don't have time to experiment right now.

[tom_dl]

There's no way to shuffle the whole symphony independent of the other stuff - it's the whole album or nothing.

Not entirely true, if you use "grouping". I use the grouping tag for the "work" and the title tag for the "movements" then shuffle by grouping, as this unaswered thread illustrates:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=8715.0

Don't think that works with auto-dj (never use it, wouldn't know), but hope that helps.

[psychoadept]

Good point.  So it just needs to be applied to auto-DJ and problem solved.

[Zak]

so the desired result would be that if any of "take it back", "coming back to life", "keep talking" or "lost for words" win the lottery of getting into auto-dj, ALWAYS start with "take it back" and keep playing until "lost for words".

If you always want these tracks to be played together in order, an easy solution is to rip them to a single file/track.

[psychoadept]

If you always want these tracks to be played together in order, an easy solution is to rip them to a single file/track.

That assumes you have a CD to rip them from, and didn't buy them as MP3s or lose the CD or whatever.