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newbie needs help understanding shuffle


prb123

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Hello fellow PA enthusiasts!  Would someone kindly help me understand the different types of music shuffle? 

Say I've got four albums (1 through 4), and each of them has 10 songs (A through J), such that the first song on the first album is called "1A", the third song on the second album is called "2C", the last song on the last album is called "4F", and so on.

"Shuffle all available songs" is pretty clear to me (i.e. play the songs randomly from all 40 of them, with no regard for what album a given song is on), as is "shuffle off" (play each song in order, then repeat with the next album, then the next, and so on). 

But how might "shuffle songs, lists in order" play them? 

And how might "shuffle lists, songs in order" play them?

Finally, how might "shuffle songs, shuffle lists" play them?

Also, for purposes of this discussion, how does a "list" (I assume that means "playlist") differ from an "album"?  When figuring out how to shuffle things, does PA simply consider albums to be logically equivalent to lists, and vice-versa? 

Thanks to anyone who can help me to understand this.  I sure wish that PA had a User Manual (with pictures!)

Cheers, everyone!

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A 'list' is a general term for the grouping level used in the current playback mode, whatever that may be (e.g. Albums, Folders, Artists, etc). So if you are playing in Albums mode, then each album is considered to be one 'list' for the purposes of sorting, repeating and shuffling. So assuming you are playing in Albums mode for example, the following would apply (but it also works for other groupings such as Folders, Artists, etc):

Shuffle Songs, Lists in Order: Play all of the songs in Album 1 in a randomised order, then move on to the next album (Album 2) and play all of its songs randomly, then Album 3, etc.

Shuttle Lists, Songs in Order: Choose a random album and play all of its songs in order (e.g. play tracks 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E and 2F). Then  choose another album at random and play it from start to finish, then another random album, etc.

Shuttle Songs, Shuffle Lists: Combine both of the above. First PA picks an album at random and plays all of its songs in random order, then it picks another album at random and plays its song randomly too, etc. Very close to full 'All Songs' shuffling, except that you will hear all of one album's shuffled songs before hearing all of another album's songs, etc.

As you say, All Songs and Shuffle Off are pretty obvious.

Note: Repeat Mode will affect how playback continues after each list, so ensure it is set to Advance List to allow the app to move on to the next list (i.e. next Album in this case) after it has finished playback of the current list (album).

Andre

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