Because it is not the most obvious how to go about, plus it thus far always has been a kind of awkwardish to randomize, here's a small outlay on how to do this in a convenient and fast fashion. Notice that many more options and combinations are possible, and this is just the most "iPod like" one.
Note : I'll add pictures later.
Step one : Getting preparedIn order to later randomize quickly (like playing in 10-15 seconds) you must prepare a few things. These things come off handy anyway (you will learn), so it is good to do them. And, keep in mind, this is about just one way of randomizing; other ways won't need this preparation.
- Activate the Library Area (hence click the tab).
- Untick the Chk checbox when it's checked. Because, a. this is necessary in order to process a large number of Library Items (otherwise it will be far too slow) and b. you won't be using Checkboxes for selection during this process.
Think of the "genre" folders you may have you may want to use for randomizing. Whether they are the physical original music folders or Galleries does not matter. Pick one by means of the "..." button at the bottom or via the Embedded Explorer at the left.
To keep in mind : I talk "genres" here, because it usually is not the best thing to hear hiphop pass by along with Vivaldi.
Now replace the default "A" for Albums with the "T" for tracks in that little box (see picture above). Next click Search.
Depending on how large the folder is this may take a while, because all the tracks in there will be collected, and presented to you in the Library Area. Might you have a 10,000 albums, no problem, but expect over 100,000 tracks to be there. That may take a minute or two.
Now, just because this may take two minutes, we are going to save the result as a Saved Result List. You could call the List Rock Tracks if this is about rock as a genre, so you will know later. Rightclick on the small F button to get there.
Step two : Get the tracks to randomizeHa, but we just done that ? yes, true, but this assumes it now is "tomorrow", and helps you understand why Step one was important.
We are going to randomize some rock, and we want to do that fast. Allright, so we are going to re-load that Save Result List containing our Rock tracks.
Ah, you see, these 100,000 tracks are there in 0.2 seconds. Good (ok ok, in my case that's 41979 tracks).
Although anything being in the Library Area will be the base for randomizing, this is the fastest means for huge quantities as the base (the larger the base, the more surprised you will be what comes along for actual playback). Note that "huge" easily can be a million tracks.
Step three : RandomizeBefore you forget, you may want to click Clear in order to clear the Playlist Area.
Now, rightclick on any of the Items visible in the Library Area. Which one you click is not important.
Go to Play each ... and choose Randomly. From there, go to the combobox at the bottom, and select AutoSelect. This latter means that the system is going to select the Items to randomize (don't read this again, or you won't understand
).
Now go to the "Enter number to randomize" box, and there enter the number you expect to play in this session. Remember, don't make it very much longer than you expect to play, because in a few seconds you will be starting playback, and as always the Playlist has to be prepared (converted etc.), and the longer it is, the more time it takes. Of course I expect Unattended playback, which is advised for the best sound quality; if you are going to play Attended, the output amount doesn't matter much, but keep in mind that for each track to appear in the Playlist Area, the Coverart must be collected. On this matter, 40 tracks will take about two times the time needed for 20 tracks.
Let's say you chose 40 tracks to output to the Playlist Area. Now you are ready to click Go.
What will happen next is that the system first selects 40 tracks out of the, say, 8000, you have in the Library Area for the genre you chose before; These 40 tracks will be randomized and output to the Playlist Area.
Important to understand : Depending on how the genre you chose is physically organized on the disks you have (now assuming the genre is held in a Gallery), the tracks selected for playback may be spread over all the disks you have, and they all have to spin up when spun down. This takes time ! Thus, when you have 4 disks, and each take 7 seconds to spinup, you will be waiting for 28 seconds for the spinup only. Nothing to do about that !
But if the disks were spinning already, you will find your 40 tracks in 5-7 seconds to be in the Playlist Area.
Step four : PlayNo big deal of course. But when you really want to be surprised what will pass your loudspeakers, do not click the Playlist tab. Just click Play. With Attended you could let it stay like that, and with Unattended the GUI will disappear after a while, as you re used to.
Get the grasp of what happensWhat we did above, was letting the system decide what to select as the base for our randomizing. This, while functionally we thought it was the whole bunch of Rock tracks (and this *is* how it works out of course). The effect (for the result) would have been the same of we had chosen "Do not Autoselect" in that combobox, and next select all (!) the Items in the Library Area, enter the 40 for the number of output tracks againm and click Go. However, technically this means that the 8000 tracks are taken as input for the 40 to randomize out of that. And this takes longer !
Anyway, where letting the system select for you is a kind of trick to make it all faster, the more normal means would be that you sit down, and roughly select from the chosen genre, or maybe select all and deselect those you sure don't want to be in the result. This latter you'd do only when you really have the time for it, and want to prepare some really good (randomized) playlist. But, once you have decimated such a list, and let's say the result is still 5000 tracks, why not save *that* as a Gallery Result List, and keep on picking that one to randomize 40 tracks from, which you can do for days and days and days before you will be fed up with hearing the same tracks.
Or what about this one : Do as described per above three steps (leave out step four for now), and notice that the 40 tracks still show selected after the Playlist Area has been filled. Aha, this means that the selected tracks can be thrown out by means of the Delete Selected Items function. So, why not do that. Next, save the currently remaining tracks into something like a RockRemainingTracks Saved Result List. Now click Play ...
Tomorrow you can retrieve that Save Result List, and repeat the exact same procedure. So each day the list will shrink and shrink, until there's nothing left (for 8000 tracks and 40 to output each day, this will take 200 days). And all the time you will never hear a track which was played earlier (from that list).
I guess it is all up to your own creativity.
Small issue for Cue FilesWhen you ask for Tracks ("T") in the Library Area, and during the search Cue File albums are discovered, they will show as that one large track they really consist of. However, when such an Item is selected for Randomizing, it will explode to its individual tracks first, and they will be part of the base to randomize. But now watch out : when this really is about a Track selection, and we let the system select the Items in the Library Area, and supposed within out 40 tracks (!) to select are two Cue File albums, they will be the majority of tracks. Thus, supposed those two Cue File albums contain 12 tracks each, than out of the total of 40 to output, there are 38 + 12 + 12 = 62 for input, and 24 of that are from those two albums !
Now, at looking at the Library Area, you can also see a "dishonesty" from another angle, which is that each normal album shows all its tracks in there, while the poor Cue File album only shows 1. So, it is tougher to get selected, but once it is, it is all over.
I don't think there is a good solution for this, until Cue File albums are exploded in the Library Area to begin with. Maybe later.
Have fun.
Peter
