Shuffle on in currently playing playlist or queue

[RBEmerson]

AFAIK there's no direct, easy way to shuffle within a list (queue or playlist) of currently playing material. For example, if I've queued up a list of Dixieland tracks, I want them to play back in a random order, but not, not, not(!) into other lists, etc. This is the same with playlists. If I have a playlist of my Dixieland albums, I may want to hear the list of all tracks in the playlist in random order. AFAIK this can't be done now. 

[andrewilley]

Start a track from the Playlist playing; if necessary, click on the Shuffle icon to set to 'Shuffle Songs'; if necessary, click on the Repeat icon to set to 'Repeat Off'. That should do it.

Andre

[RBEmerson]

Went there, tried that. The playlist has two artists : N'to and Worakls. Playing the first track, by N'to, the next track is by N'to but it's not on the playlist. 

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, RBEmerson said:

Went there, tried that. The playlist has two artists : N'to and Worakls. Playing the first track, by N'to, the next track is by N'to but it's not on the playlist. 

Odd, how many songs are in the Playlist? And you started it playing by going to the Library > Playlist > listname screen and tapped on a song from the list, and then made sure that Repeat was set to OFF and Shuffle was set to SHUFFLE SONGS (used to be "Shuffle Songs, Lists in Order"). That should not play anything from outside of the playlist you have selected.

Andre

[RBEmerson]

There are 14 tracks in the playlist. 

I now seem to have shuffling of a sort. That is, by clicking on the shuffle icon, I can find my way to "Songs" and the order of tracks in the playlist is, in fact, not the order in the playlist. All well and good.

But... The shuffle is not random in that the shuffle provides the same (shuffled) order. Instead of a random shuffle when skipping forward or backward, the list remains the same, albeit not in the original order. For example, the list opens with two N'to tracks, a single Worakls track, three N'to tracks. The shuffle now becomes N'to's opening track in the list, two Workals tracks, three N'to tracks, etc. Not a random, non-repeating shuffle. 

[andrewilley]

Once shuffled, if you repeat a shuffled list then it will be played in the same randomised order as before. To force a new reshuffle, either start playing one of the tracks in the list again manually, or tap the shuffle icon several times to cycle back to Songs mode again (any change in the mode will trigger a re-shuffle).

Andre

[RBEmerson]

Playing one track and then sliding the track artwork gives the same sequence every time. 

Cycling through the shuffle options does create a new ordering. IMHO this is a workaround, albeit a useful one. 

My suggestion is to create a "shuffle song with new random order" mode that does the suggested "cycle through modes back to song mode" without stepping through the modes. Or add a random modifier (i.e. never the same shuffle sequence) that can be applied for all shuffle modes. 

[andrewilley]

2 hours ago, RBEmerson said:

My suggestion is to create a "shuffle song with new random order" mode that does the suggested "cycle through modes back to song mode" without stepping through the modes.

The irony is that Max has been actively trying to reduce the amount of system events that will trigger a reshuffle (by user request).

Andre

[RBEmerson]

Er, why? Or at least why not allow it in a limited number of situations (e.g., song shuffles).

[andrewilley]

6 minutes ago, RBEmerson said:

Er, why? Or at least why not allow it in a limited number of situations (e.g., song shuffles).

Re-shuffling occurring when someone is mid-way through listening to a shuffled album or playlist has always been a much bigger issue than having Repeat not cause a reshuffle. In fact, Repeat triggering a reshuffle means you could potentially hear the same song twice in quick succession, which most people do not want and hence the software does not do.

However changing the shuffle mode, or stopping and restarting playback of the same or a new song (not just pausing) will definitely trigger a new shuffle.

Andre

[RBEmerson]

OK, I get that, and it's a fair complaint/request.

I think my suggestion of adding a "randomize" modifier resolves the problem of accidental or unwanted shuffles. Enable randomizing and it happens, disable it and all is what other users want. Strictly speaking duplication (same track twice) is as much a random result as getting a (desired) non-duplication. The fix is to check what is playing against the next track to be played. If the current and next track match, randomize again. (Think about rolling two dice - it's possible that, out of the twelve possible results (guessing), the results may be a duplicate of the last roll (not guessing). With a huge playlist, duplication can still happen, only the odds of that happening are far less. Chance is like that [/ grin])