Hi Everyone / Random MixTape Maker ideas

[seedling]

thanks for the reply.

here's a little explanation of how the app works and using keywords.

a list is created

a song is randomly picked from the list

the song is then put through whatever filters the user defines

with that in mind, i'm not really sure how you could put a sliding scale of inclusive vs exclusive keywording limits. outside of maybe allowing x amount of certain keyworded items or something like that.

I may have misunderstood something - but as far as I can see the keyword inclusion element (under Keyword Options) searches only for lyrics tags?

there are two keywording options:

1) song keywords: which will check both artist + title (from any tag present) AND filename (in case the song isn't tagged)
2) lyrics keywords: which, if present, will check the lyrics for any keywords defined.

the logic of keywording works like this:

if both song keywords AND lyrics keywords are active then it will check the song keywords first.  if the song is allowed at that point, it will then check the lyrics.  if there are no lyrics tagged, then the song will be allowed.  if there ARE lyrics, AND it meets the lyrics criteria, then it will be allowed. so basically, the lyrics keywording check trumps the song keywording check if disallowed.

i could include the option to have it check in comments as well. i'm not sure if another keyword input field would be required for that, but i could just link it to the song keywords to have it check from that pool of words.

[parpfish]

I see so weighting is not possible.

I'm not a programmer - and from your explanation of how the app works it seems my suggestion maybe too much.

The only way I could see to impliment is would be at the "a song is randomly picked from the list" stage, because the skewing / weighting would have to be applied here.

So you skew the random list to which is then say 50% more likely to include keywords with "Love" somewhere in the meta data -- then the rest of the filter are applied.

That would still achieve the weighting. How you do this mathematically/programming-wise I don't know. If I find out I'll let you know.

Anyway --- the other thing I wanted to check was the version:
I'm using 1.06.68

I can't see the Keyword options that you refer to. All I have is:

Use ID Limits/Ignore ID Limits
Use Keywords
Use Keywords Exclusively
Exact Keyword Search


How do these option relate to:


"there are two keywording options:

1) song keywords: which will check both artist + title (from any tag present) AND filename (in case the song isn't tagged)
2) lyrics keywords: which, if present, will check the lyrics for any keywords defined."

Sorry if I'm being a bit daft here, but I haven't managed to get the keyword search to influence results --- so I'm clearly doing something wrong. MP3's are all ID3 v1 and v2 tagged.

Thanks for your quick reply and for considering the idea.

P.

[seedling]

I'm using 1.06.68

download the latest version in this thread (at the bottom of the first post) https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3380.0

in the older version (1.06.68) the keywording would only search for matches in filenames and artist/title tags.  in the newer version i added a separate lyrics keyword check.  it could be that something was broken at the time with that build as well.  try the newer version first, if you still are getting no results let me know.

[parpfish]

Thanks for that -- using the new version.
Strange - as I came from the Hydrogen Audio link re. the new WavPack support and downloaded from: https://www.donation...g/MixTape/index.html
And got the older version!

I have one final question regarding these Keywords:

I created a "must have list" of 120 mins approx (must have list enabled).

Time & Size: Limit play time to 180 mins, Limit Max song duration to 5 mins (everything else clear)

Genres Pop and Classical ticked

Only searching MP3s (the collection is 100% MP3)

Limit artists to 5 songs each

Keywords:

Use Keywords (ticked)
Exact keyword search (ticked)
Use ID Limits (ticked)

[everything else unticked]

Song Keywords:

1st test: cowboy junkies
2nd test: cowboy junkies,sweet jane
3rd test: cowboy junkies,sweet jane,ramones


I have only one Cowboy Junkies song and it's called "Sweet Jane" - Genre = Pop, it's less than 5 mins long - yet it's not getting picked up. Ran the other tests, and likewise for the Ramones, though again they fulfil all the criteria and none of their songs are in the must have list.

Can you help me here, it seems like I'm not getting something. It's weird for me because I often use pretty complex audio software and yet this simple looking application is defeating me.

Thanks again for replying so promptly. Your help is much appreciated!

P.

[seedling]

i'll be glad to help.

it's strange cuz i test this out with my 99.9% mp3 collection and use this thing almost daily. i'll debug it with a similar setup to see if i can find any programmatic misteps in logic

are you using v1.8.28.77?


another thing you do is ditch the complete 'cowboy junkies' (unless you KNOW there's a space in your tag) and just go with 'cowboy'.  what exact search does is search for an exact match to a single word or defined phrase (non-case sensitive).

i'll let you know my results in a bit.

[parpfish]

Yes, I'm using v1.8.28.77.

Just to let you know -- did another test with Use Keywords Exclusively and keyword was 'cowboy junkies' -- that worked fine but of course ignored the "Must Have" list and thus provided a playlist with only one entry namely "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies. So clearly the keyword thing works but for some reason doesn't when combined with the other criteria.

With 180 mins predefined playlist time:
120 mins of Must Haves
leaves 60 mins for random / keyword influenced additions.
Is it possible this is causing a problem - logically it shouldn't the one song that fits the criteria is only 3 mins long.

Anyway, the reason for my interest and raising these issues/suggestions is because I think your Random MixTape Maker has the potential to be THE playlist program. I'm part of Giant Pygmy Audio (http://www.giantpygmy.net) - collectively we've researched god knows how many audio related applications - and in many fields (recording, mixing, editing etc...) there are superb applications -- however in the playlist (support) field there's a huge void - my feeling is this application will fill it and it won't take much to do so. Please take that as a big compliment.

Furthermore, I'm a big fan of standalone applications that do just one job well over those that attempt to do everything and often do many of them poorly.

I read a previous post about the excellent fooobar2000 which as you know has very many 3rd party add-ons and yet even they have not managed to extend the playlist functionality of foobar as much as your application does. I guess what I'm saying is keep up the development and improvements and keep being creative - enthusiasts like me will no doubt increase its exposure.

By the way it works really nicely with foobar2000 - I like the autolaunch element (with save options).

Another minor suggestion is this:

The option to autosave to (and thus overwrite) a default.m3u playlist (in the program's home directory) with the option to "save as ..." on closing the application.

Anyways -- keep up the excellent work.

P.

[seedling]

thanks for the encouragement!

looking at how i coded the 'use keywords' options along with 'use ID limits' sub-option, it seems a poor choice really. this is how it all works together:

[Select]

[x] Use Keywords
(x) Use ID Limits

This basically does nothing, what happens is this:

the song is really only added so long as it passes the ID check.  because, after all, we're not using keywords exclusively.

what would make more sense is that if the non-exclusive keyword option is checked, only allow it to be used with the 'Ignore ID Limits' sub-option. because what will  happen then will say: if the song meets keyword criteria, just add it and forego the ID check. otherwise, there's no real point in having it check a keyword if it's gonna be allowed by the ID check anyway. it's just logical. so i'll make this change.

in case i'm rambling a bit and this isn't making any sense, let me provide a little flow picture for you.

again, using these options:

[Select]

[x] Use Keywords
(x) Use ID Limits

and the song 'cowboy junkies - sweet jane' is in your must have list.

as long as the song fits these criteria:
(min/max duration)[if used]
(year range)[if used]
(genre)[if used]
(redundancy)[if used AND happened to be picked in the artist limiting round]
(and of course the time limit for the list itself)[if used]

this song would be allowed without regard to any defined keyword.

using the same options above AND the song is NOT in the must have list BUT it was randomly picked by the process, the song would still be allowed without regard to any defined keyword. because, again, as long as it's meeting ID criteria (genre, year, etc) it'll be allowed.

to recap, i'm going to make the sub-options greyed and only select ignore ID limits when using non-exclusive keywords because there's no real point to using non-exclusive keywords with the 'use ID limits' option enabled.

now, if after i do this and items in your must have list are not being added, then there must be a further problem.  the only condition that must-have items are not included in the list are when using redundancy limits and using exclusive keywords.  the rest of the ID limits should be ignored.

[seedling]

ok, just did another build (v1.8.29.80). you can grab it from the beta thread for now. i believe i fixed quite a few things. please give it a try and let me know if you're still having trouble.

thanks!

[parpfish]

Hi Seedling

Just tested the new version. That was quick by the way!

I ran tests the same as before.

Keyword = 'cowboy junkies'
There's only one cowboy junkies' song in the collection.

In the Keywords section:

1) With only "Use Keywords" ticked:
Output = Playlist 180 mins, BUT no Sweet Jane by 'Cowboy Junkies'

2) With "Use Keywords Exclusively" + ID Limits ticked:
Output = Playlist 3.23 mins, BUT ONLY Sweet Jane by 'Cowboy Junkies' included

3) With "Use Keywords Exclusively" + Ignore ID Limits ticked:
Output = Playlist 3.23 mins, BUT ONLY Sweet Jane by 'Cowboy Junkies' included

4) With "Use Keywords" + "Exact Keyword Search" ticked (ID Limits greyed out):
Output = Playlist 180 mins, BUT no Sweet Jane by 'Cowboy Junkies'

I guess that's not what you wanted to hear.

FYI -- I'm using Win XP SP2, totally stable good system. Program runs fine, stable, no crashes.

thanks for the reply.

here's a little explanation of how the app works and using keywords.

a list is created

a song is randomly picked from the list

the song is then put through whatever filters the user defines

-seedling (December 10, 2007, 12:23 PM)

Later down the line I'm pretty certain I'll be recommending this program on GPA and Hydrogen Audio etc .. I want to be clear how it works:

From the quote above it seems as though I may have got how the program works a little backwards. I'll outline what seems to me to be the obvious way it "has to work" (if you know what I mean) - let me know if this makes sense:

Hypothetical:

All MP3s are stored in 1 directory, I'll call this the database or DB.

Program selects the "Must Have List" from the DB = MUST HAVE SELECTION (say 60 mins worth).

Then checks that this selection fulfils the "Total MB/Total Playing time" criteria (say 120 mins).

= Fine - it has 60 mins of space to fill.

Then it searches the DB on the Keyword criteria and puts these files aside as a KEYWORD SELECTION (say 120 mins worth).

Your program then applies "Time & Size", "Genre", "File Formats" and "Redundancy" filters to the DB (excluding KEYWORD & MUST HAVE SELECTIONS)

Files are then randomly pulled from the pool that fulfil this criteria and stored as a RANDOM SELECTION (120 mins of random stuff - i.e. Total Playing Time criteria).

It then randomly picks from the KEYWORD SELECTION until the remaining 60 mins are filled.

If there's any room it then goes to the RANDOM SELECTION and fills the remaining time from that pool.

Then shuffles the list.

a) Is that correct?
b) If not, does it at least make sense?

All the best - and thanks again for looking at this.

P.

[parpfish]

By the way thanks for putting the save on exit option in -- that's very nice!

P.

[seedling]

thanks again for the feedback.  i'm glad that someone else is using this and really checking it out (and being vocal about it) cuz i'm so used to using it 'my way' i never notice 'strange' behaviour of other methods.

let me explain as best i can in its entirety how this app actually works, cuz you have it partially correct.

DB = directory (an other dirs and sub dirs if recursive checking is on) of audio files
LIST = combined files (either from must have or random picked files)

for this example, i'll use your numbers of max time set to 180min and must-have's set to 120mins
step 1) DB is filled in memory with authenticated, supported media files. (this is only performed again if you change the search directories in order to speed up the process if you want to run it a 2nd, 3rd, etc time)

step 2) if the must have list is used fill LIST with the files in the must have list (subject to exclusive keyword and/or redundancy limits)

step 3) calculate time of files in LIST (if all files in must have pass the above filters (keyword/redundancy(if used)) then this will be 120min)

step 4) fill the rest of LIST by choosing songs randomly from DB and testing each selected file for user limits (genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) until LIST is 180min (or as close as possible).  this is where setting a min song limit comes in handy.  if you have not set a min song length, then it will continue to cycle throughout the entire DB until the list is EXACTLY 180min or the DB search has been exhausted. so, if you use a min song length of 2min, then if the LIST is at a total of 178.1min it will stop right there, cuz it will know that it is impossible to fill the list to 180 exact because by using even a 2min song, the LIST will be 180.1min (which, of course, is >180). if you have a min song limit of even 1min, it can be helpful, but usually (unless your list happens to be 179.1-179.9min long) it will still cycle thru the entire DB until exhausted.

at this point, you'll see that your 'cowboy junkies' song only stands a chance of being added only if LIST hasn't been completely filled AND that particular song has been randomly chosen in order to be tested against said user limits.

keywording (by itself) doesn't guarantee that any song with that keyword will be added (that's what the must-have list is for). rather, it is merely another user-defined filter that says 'ok, if the song that has been picked meets this criteria, then add it regardless of other criteria.'

again, perhaps this is just because i'm the only one really testing this for myself. so maybe i need to reword things to make it clear or provide popup hints or something. (which i'd be happy to do).

i'm out travelling until the weekend (but still checking in) so until this weekend i will not be able to make any adjustments.

i hope the above makes sense.

let me know if i can be of any further assistance.

[parpfish]

Thanks seedling, that's a very clear outline.

Enjoy your travels.

So, I think it's step 4 that creates my particular problem.

I expected the standard KEYWORD search ("Use Keywords" only ticked) to act ahead of Step 4, because as you can see if you only have 60 mins to fill after the MUST HAVE LIST - the chance of a specific KEYWORD SEARCH occuring among the Randomly Chosen files is slim and kind of negates the KEYWORD SEARCH (unless it's extremely general).

step 4) fill the rest of LIST by choosing songs randomly from DB and testing each selected file for user limits (genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) until LIST is 180min (or as close as possible).  this is where setting a min song limit comes in handy.  if you have not set a min song length, then it will continue to cycle throughout the entire DB until the list is EXACTLY 180min or the DB search has been exhausted. so, if you use a min song length of 2min, then if the LIST is at a total of 178.1min it will stop right there, cuz it will know that it is impossible to fill the list to 180 exact because by using even a 2min song, the LIST will be 180.1min (which, of course, is >180). if you have a min song limit of even 1min, it can be helpful, but usually (unless your list happens to be 179.1-179.9min long) it will still cycle thru the entire DB until exhausted.

at this point, you'll see that your 'cowboy junkies' song only stands a chance of being added only if LIST hasn't been completely filled AND that particular song has been randomly chosen in order to be tested against said user limits.

-seedling (December 12, 2007, 10:18 PM)

STEP 2 and 3 are clearly ideal:

"step 2) if the must have list is used fill LIST with the files in the must have list (subject to exclusive keyword and/or redundancy limits)"

step 3) calculate time of files in LIST (if all files in must have pass the above filters (keyword/redundancy(if used)) then this will be 120min)

What I guess surprised me was that after STEP 3 the Keyword Search didn't take priority over the Purely Random selections of STEP 4

i.e. step 3.1) fill the rest of the LIST by choosing songs THAT FULFIL THE KEYWORD CRITERIA randomly from DB and testing each selected file for user limits (genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) until the LIST is full.

step 3 AGAIN) calculate time of files in LIST (if all files in must have pass the above filters (keyword/redundancy(if used)) then this will be 120min)

THEN IF THERE'S ANY SPACE LEFT:

step 4) fill the rest of LIST by choosing songs randomly from DB and testing each selected file for user limits (genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) until LIST is 180min (or as close as possible).


I suppose what this suggests is a 3 tier approach rather than a 2 tier one.

i.e.

1) MUST HAVE (subject to exclusive keyword and/or redundancy limits) TRUMPS
2) KEYWORD SEARCH (subject to user limits - genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) which in turn TRUMPS
3) RANDOM FILES (fill the rest of LIST by choosing songs randomly from DB and testing each selected file for user limits (genre, keywords, redundancy, min/max time, min/max size, year, etc) until LIST is 180min (or as close as possible). 

The benefit of this approach is that the user can tweak many of the limits and Keyword search (which if Boolean would be very powerful) to the point where they can pretty much guarantee the degree of PURELY random files added.

I'll give one example then leave you alone, as I'm sure I've caused you enough of a headache already.

User has 10 files they must have which use up 60 mins:
1) MUST HAVE TOP 10

They want to include some (due to time and other limits) Bach pieces in the key of C Major (this comes to 60 mins):
2) KEYWORD SEARCH = Bach & "C Major" (if there's too many the user can add '& Fugue' and narrow it)

The rest are Random that fulfil the criteria (so clearly if CLASSICAL was not selected in GENRE) then STAGE 2 would yield 0 files.

3) RANDOM = POP & CLASSICAL, less than 5 mins, max play time = 180 mins, etc ....


That would be my perfect RANDOM MIX TAPE MAKER.

Again I hope you'll find this greedy suggestion of interest and helpful. Obviously I am only one person and what I want does not necessarily apply to everyone (or indeed anyone else).

But if you think what I've said makes sense, then please give it some thought.

I'll leave you to your travels.

Best wishes and good luck with this application --- I'm certain that it will become THE ESSENTIAL playlist support application.

Thanks again for your patience and swift attention.

P.

[seedling]

i can certainly see the benefits of setting things up in the way that you put them; and to that end i will implement (in the next build) an option to use keywords as a priority search.  i do not want to make this the default mainly because it defeats the over all randomness of the default app. but it will be implemented as an option if any user chooses to use keywords in such a fashion.

you'll have it by the end of the weekend

[parpfish]

I really appreciate that! 

Looking forward to it.

Thanks again.

ps. Glad you implimented the WavPack suggestion, as that's how I came across your program via the HA post (http://www.hydrogena....php?showtopic=59570).

P.

[Daleus]

seedling,

Thanks for an excellent bit of software.  I have read through the other threads and also want to say thanks on everyone's behalf for being so responsive and helpful in implementing new ideas.

Would it be possible to implement dragging and dropping a playlist onto the blacklist window?

I have a large library of MP3's (don't we all) and I have been tasked to create a collection of compilations from the library.  The idea is to come up with a set of CDs.

In order to prevent songs from repeating across CDs in the collection, I have been creating a playlist to fill a CD by time, then moving the songs on the playlist to a seperate folder.  From there I drop that new folder onto the blacklist and then proceed to reload the library and make a new playlist - rinse and repeat.

Is there an easier way to do this, for instance, being able to drag and drop a playlist onto the blacklist?  Or is there another easier way for me to create a collection of CDs from my library, ensuring the songs are unique from disc to disc?

I realize this may be moving into an area beyond the scope you had planned.  If that is the case, no problem - this is still the best "mixing" app I have found and I will continue to use it in the way I outlined above.  I just wondered if I had missed a feature or if someone had come up with a clever procedure that might make the task a bit easier.

Thanks again!

[seedling]

Would it be possible to implement dragging and dropping a playlist onto the blacklist window?

-Daleus (December 14, 2007, 08:00 AM)

that shouldn't be a problem at all. drag and drop support is already on the black list, but for now it only adds files or folders. i'll just add a handler for .m3u files.  i'll put it on my to-do list this weekend.

[seedling]

ok, new version posted in the beta thread. please check it out and post any bugs found.

i'll get to the .m3u drag-n-drop shortly.

[parpfish]

Hi Seedling ---

Thanks again for the Keyword Priority Search   --- gave it a thorough testing.

Results are here:
http://www.giantpygm...pe_maker_results.txt

Hope they are helpful.

Keep up the excellent work and again congrats on a great program!

P.

[seedling]

thanks for the results! i think the main reason there's problems picking up some of the songs, is because i'm haven't checked for the 'album' metadata. i've only tested for: artist, title, and genre (and of course lyrics albeit separately). i'll add album checking as well. i guess what i need to do in the future is really add options to search all possible text fields with keywords. that's prolly the better way to go overall.

i also noticed a strange exception occuring during playlist making on one of my machines, but can't seem to get it to happen on another. are you experiencing these problems?

[parpfish]

that's strange -- because it handled the "Gould" search fine, yet Gould only appears in the ALBUM field (unless it also checks for filename - as "gould" is there too).

The biggest hitch re. the results was where there was more than one Keyword Search term. Unless I got the delimiter wrong (used a comma) it seemed to ignore the second term (see results).

See for example the 'Velvet Underground, Debussy' keyword search results.

i guess what i need to do in the future is really add options to search all possible text fields with keywords. that's prolly the better way to go overall.

-seedling (December 17, 2007, 03:42 PM)

That makes sense to me.

By the way, does the program concatenate the metafields into a string and then search that string -- or am I way off? Also something I couldn't figure, was the method behind the search. Does it allow for Boolean AND/OR and "containers" (i.e. search ALL FIELDS containing:  [Bach AND "C Minor"] OR ["Velvet Underground"] Thus finding matches for both "Bach pieces in C Minor" and "The Velvet Underground").

I have no idea a) if it can do this already, or b) whether that is hard to impliment.
But it strikes me that if it were to allow for a "Boolean logical search" in all text fields that would be pretty powerful and flexible! The user would be able to pretty much control the degree of a) Certainty (MUST HAVE), b) Bias (KEYWORD with Filters) and c) Randomness - which, I would have thought would cater for pretty much everyone.

i also noticed a strange exception occuring during playlist making on one of my machines, but can't seem to get it to happen on another. are you experiencing these problems?

-seedling (December 17, 2007, 03:42 PM)

Not quite sure what "exception" you're referring to?

P.

[seedling]

that's strange -- because it handled the "Gould" search fine, yet Gould only appears in the ALBUM field (unless it also checks for filename - as "gould" is there too).

-parpfish (December 17, 2007, 04:40 PM)

yeah, the way it works is it looks in the concatenated 'song title' text (which consists of artist and title BUT if there is no tag present to fill this info, it reverts to a locating the text in the filename)

The biggest hitch re. the results was where there was more than one Keyword Search term. Unless I got the delimiter wrong (used a comma) it seemed to ignore the second term (see results).

See for example the 'Velvet Underground, Debussy' keyword search results.

what is probably happening here is that you're putting a space in between the comma and the word. as the code is written now a proper keyword search term would be 'Velvet Underground,Debussy' NOT 'Velvet Underground, Debussy'

i'll have to write some sort of trim-space-between-delimiter code to filter out the natural instinct of placing spaces between commas.

By the way, does the program concatenate the metafields into a string and then search that string -- or am I way off?

not really, the song (or file) is stored into a memory structure which holds (separately) all info about that file.

Also something I couldn't figure, was the method behind the search. Does it allow for Boolean AND/OR and "containers" (i.e. search ALL FIELDS containing:  [Bach AND "C Minor"] OR ["Velvet Underground"] Thus finding matches for both "Bach pieces in C Minor" and "The Velvet Underground").

it's really a simple match finder. it looks merely to see if a given keyword is found in any part of the 'song name' (artist/title) OR filename. if exact word method is applied it looks for common characters before and after the found word to determine if it's a standalone word. but to answer your question more directly, ALL keywords are tested against the picked song. (i.e. even if you have 100 keywords, it'll try all of those keywords until a match is found or the keywords are exhausted)

I have no idea a) if it can do this already, or b) whether that is hard to impliment.
But it strikes me that if it were to allow for a "Boolean logical search" in all text fields that would be pretty powerful and flexible! The user would be able to pretty much control the degree of a) Certainty (MUST HAVE), b) Bias (KEYWORD with Filters) and c) Randomness - which, I would have thought would cater for pretty much everyone.

well, in a way the app already does this when it tries to allow a file through its filters.
the point of writing this (in the very beginning) was to search directories and fill up a playlist completely at random. then i started playing with filtering those randomly chosen picks with user-defined limits (such as genre, time allowed, etc). i just kept adding more and more filter-features in order to assure that you'd get the 'type' of playlist you wanted in the end.  and while this may not be as powerful as a structured database query engine or anything, it gets the job done by just not allowing randomly picked songs into your list unless they meet the criteria setup by the user.

i guess i could tweak the inner workings of the app to allow for these exact types of setups, but again, when using the app the way YOU want to use it, you can pretty much acheive the kind of outcome you want.

Not quite sure what "exception" you're referring to?

hehe, it's just a write access error that pops up every now and then when creating a list. not sure what's causing it (just a bug)


Thanks again for all of your interest and both positive AND critical notes on this thing.  I'll keep working on it as long as there is a demand for it.

[parpfish]

what is probably happening here is that you're putting a space in between the comma and the word. as the code is written now a proper keyword search term would be 'Velvet Underground,Debussy' NOT 'Velvet Underground, Debussy'

i'll have to write some sort of trim-space-between-delimiter code to filter out the natural instinct of placing spaces between commas.

-seedling (December 17, 2007, 06:56 PM)

Ah!  That's solved the major problem I was having -- that explains the bulk of the test results that weren't spot on! Cool, thanks for that.

Have just been running it and it's excellent. So, thanks again -- I'm sure to use RMTM loads - so if any bugs or weirdness crops up I'll let you know.

Have a great Xmas!

P.

[kartal]

I was looking for a randomizer for long time. No software randomizes enough for me and I hate shuffling. I never listen 1 full album, I am all for random mode. i am very excited to try it now. I will let you know

[Anakinra]

First of all I wanted to deeply thank you for this program, I had been unsuccesfully looking for something like it for months and finally had to do some of my CDs just picking songs with my eyes closed    and the results were really disappointing
The program has much more options than I had hoped for,  but I'd like to suggest another one. I have no idea of programming so perhaps what I say needs a lot of rewritting or something 
Would there be any way in wich you could tell the program to sort ALL your songs in as many playlists as necessary, each one limited by lenght or size? I find that if I want to record ALL my music into musical CDs or mp3 CDs I have to keep adding the previous playlist to the black list and shuffling again...
This way I could say: "sort all of them", and the program could come with the exact number of CDs I need...
I don't know if you get me...
Another minor improvement would be to add something like an "at least" option, the contrary of the redundancy control, to make sure your compilation comes with a minimum number of songs by one author (with the "must have" you have to pick the exact song, you can't pick just an author and let the program decide the songs... or if you can I don't know how and would be glad to learn)
Thanks again for this great program, I found it yesterday and have been recording perfectly shuffled CDs all day long...

[seedling]

'sort all' and 'minimum by artist' features sounds good.  when i get some time i'll add these.