[sygyzy]

I am using a third party shuffle plugin for foobar which works great. At least it works the way a shuffle should - next track goes to the next random track, not the next logical track.

Anyway, I was wondering how "smart" this shuffle is. Or, if there are any smart shuffles out there.

How I would create a smart shuffle - When each track is played, take note of the total length (time) of the track. Then part it out into sections. Let's start with 10, to make it easy. So say a song is 5 minutes. That's 300 seconds. 10 parts is 30 seconds a part. Then figure out how many sections a person listens to that track before pressing next or stop. Basically, how long does a person listen to a particular song for. Then you give it a score. The longer, the better.

After a while, you can assume that if a person repeatedly skips tracks after barely hearing the intro, you probably should give it a very low priority weighting. Eventually, with enough long term use, you have a shuffling system where the person gets random music, but only stuff they like.

This is particularly useful to me since I don't like making custom playlists. I like all my music accessible to me. Even if I rarely or almost never listen to a particular song, I'd like it to come up once in a while just in case I might be in the mood for it at that time.

So, does this sort of shuffle exist as a plugin for foobar?

 

[Talonz]

Not that I know of. Your best bet would be to post this at the hydrogen audio foobar forums. (what a mouthful)

 

[geekmaster1]

its been 5 years and i still dont think foobar improved on shuffling and random.

 

[WindspEEd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sygyzy /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am using a third party shuffle plugin for foobar which works great. At least it works the way a shuffle should - next track goes to the next random track, not the next logical track.

what 3rd party shuffle plugin are you using?

 

[geekmaster1]

im not using a 3rd party shuffle plugin. should i be? is there one that would behave differently from the default?

 

[apatN]

^ I stopped using the default shuffle from Foobar as I kept hearing the same songs over and over and it left some songs not played as well!
I know listen to albums instead and I like that better than shuffling. I see albums as a whole.

 

[geekmaster1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^ I stopped using the default shuffle from Foobar as I kept hearing the same songs over and over and it left some songs not played as well! I know listen to albums instead and I like that better than shuffling. I see albums as a whole.

u said u stopped using the "default" shuffle. does that mean u use another?

 

[apatN]

Nope.
Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^ I stopped using the default shuffle from Foobar as I kept hearing the same songs over and over and it left some songs not played as well! I know listen to albums instead and I like that better than shuffling. I see albums as a whole.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Shuffle is fine in foobar, I just randomize it myself sometimes by just randomly selecting some song in my entire library. Generally I dont hear repeats very often.

OP's idea is pretty decent, but I have a huge collection with lots of stuff I havent heard yet, the reason I use shuffle is to randomly play an artist or song I havent heard. Your shuffle logic might work for that initially, but over a period of time, its gonna start playing only stuff I like very often and hardly stuff that I havent heard before, and worse still not give some songs a second chance cos I had skipped it once or twice cos I wasnt in the mood for it back then.

 

[DarkScythe]

As far as I understand it, Foobar has 2 shuffle modes..
The first is "Shuffle" with a choice of tracks, album or folder, and according to the docs, it generates a random queue and does not repeat tracks. The other is simply "Random" where the docs say it only does a simple check to make sure the same track doesn't play again twice in a row, but other than that, there will be repeats.

I use both modes quite often and it hasn't bothered me.

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^ I stopped using the default shuffle from Foobar as I kept hearing the same songs over and over and it left some songs not played as well! I know listen to albums instead and I like that better than shuffling. I see albums as a whole.

Thats how I listen, so for lazy days is there a way to shuffle albums?