Random isn't ramdom

Question

Random isn't ramdom

I saw this was posted before and a lot of people complained that they tend to hear the same songs over and over on their ipods when they're set to shuffle. Some people said this was in fact random but I don't think so.

I took a trip last summer and the ipod had 1800 songs and there were about 20 songs that were repeated as many as 5 or six times. I just got back from another two week trip and now my ipod had 2200 songs. It actually started to get really annoying as certain songs continually repeated - once as many as 7 or 8 times in a single day. It drove me nuts and I went in and delete those albums when I'd stop for the day just because I didn't want to hear those **** songs again.

Why? Why is this? Is there some sort of tag that increases songs chances of being played? Is the ipod incapable of going deeply into a catalog? Is it just a really cheap random engine?

Please enlighten me...

15 Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

17 1.33Mhz G4 Powerbook

Posted on Aug 18, 2006 9:26 AM

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Answer 1

Bozz_2006

Level 3

505 points

Aug 18, 2006 10:19 AM in response to Gregor Halenda

random IS random. your ipod 'randomly' plays through every song in your selected folder, be it the entire library or a playlist... either A) you have multiple copies of certain songs, causing them to play more than once in the mix or B) you are, at some point in time, restarting the random play (which would be evident by your ipod "booting up" with the apple when you switch it on OR C) your ipod doesn't work right.

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Answer 2

Chris CA

Level 10

82,525 points

Aug 18, 2006 10:26 AM in response to Gregor Halenda

certain songs continually repeated - once as many as 7 or 8 times in a single day.
Did you stop the iPod between the repeats or did you let it play continuously and get repeats?

I don't recall ever hearing a repeat on mine, wheter it's Shullfe all on the main menu or turning on Settings -> Shuffle - Songs and selecting a playlist.

In fact, on Now Playing, it'll read "14 of 127" (or whatever) and continue to count up.

Is it just a really cheap random engine?
Not sure but a true random sequence could play the same songs because it's random. If it did not play the same songs because they were already played, it would not be random.

Make a short playlist (20 songs or so) and see if it repeats songs. Should be able to just let the song start and FF to the next song.
Mine always goes to the end of the playlist and stops. 20 songs in the list and it'll only do 20 songs.

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Answer 3

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Aug 18, 2006 10:36 AM in response to Gregor Halenda

I have not really noticed this myself, but then I tend to play a lot of my tunes out of a smart list I created that I have found very useful with iTunes and my iPod to play song that have not yet been played..
Simply create a new playlist and tell it to only play songs that haven't been played yet (play count = 0). Shuffle still works with this play list so when you use it you still get a random assortment of tunes, but also only the stuff you haven't heard yet (well hasn't yet been played since adding it to iTunes). Very useful for when you add new albums and songs to your iTunes and iPod as they automatically get added to this playlist.
Further more, once they get played, they no longer have a play count of zero and so no longer belong to this playlist, therefore, no repeats are possible. With the iPod/iTunes set to automatic update, when you sync you iPod to iTunes, anything you played on your iPod gets the count updated in iTunes.
If you don't normally care about play count, you could reset your whole library to have a play count of zero and your whole library will start out in this playlist. You can also modify the playlist if you do have a lot of play counts you want to keep. For example, instead of the decision being songs with a play count of zero, make it a play count of, for example, 3 or less. Now you will hear some repeats, but after the third time those song drop out of the playlist so you are not forced to hear a song for the 5th+ time.
Sorry I don't know a solution for your question with respect to your whole library, but you may find playing around with Smart Playlists might allow you a lot more control over what plays.
Patrick

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