agh! Winamp isn't random.

[gdorf]

I have winamp, and I have it set to choose songs randomly out of the playlist. The trouble is, I can tell it is not completely random. The same songs will play 2 or 3 times every day. And I don't understand why. i have a very big playlist, it should be at least 2 or 3 days before hearing the same song twice. I have also noticed that often the songs go in the same order.

Does anyone know of a plugin, or some fix that will make winamp play at random?

[Mitsukara]

I've noticed something like that. Granted, I don't usually have playlists longer than, say, 75 songs, but I do find it tends to keep playing the same 2-5 over and over and over much more than other songs... I've wondered if it's just my imagination, or what (I use 2.5, though, if that's of any relevence).

Unfortunately I have no idea how to change that. I remember finding a setting somewhere in the program that lets you adjust how random it is, I think, but I seem to recall it being set to maximum by default... *shrug*

Sorry if that's no help at all:P

[Paradox]

if you don't need a bunch of special features, just switch to windows media player... works for me, and the random is actually random. :shrug:

[Eckels]

Same here. My playlist is at around 1700 songs, and There's a solid 300 or so that i hear over and over. Whenever I add or delete songs it tends to change it a bit, but not enough.
It's pretty frustrating.

I found a few plugins on winamp, that might solve the problem, although I haven't fucked around with em at all..
http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?componentId=116245
http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?componentId=135264

Those are for winamp2. If you're looking for something for winamp3, too bad. Look for it yourself, winamp3 eets teh dick.

[Rijuhn]

I have that same annoying problem to gdorf! It makes me so mad because sometimes I'll hear the same song 3 times in one day and then hear it again the next day in the same order. So I'll randomize my list several times and still put it on random, but then when I want to play a song I like I have to reorder the list and it's just a pain in the ass.

[TedHead]

I have the same problem. But I dunno if it's a Winamp thing, because I bought an MP3 player (the ones that play MP3's off of data CD's) and it's shuffle mode is even worse, it's always repeating the same songs too.

Maybe our "random" technology just isn't developed enough :lol:

[Tsukuru]

If you haven't tried this already, in Winamp3 open the Preferences window, click Playlists and change Shuffle Window Size to however high you want it.

[AlexMax]

I've never had a probalem with it myself...though I did try Tsukuru's fix just in case I'm just not observant

[Ian]

I usually dont set it on random anyways. I just let it play right through them all. That's the only way to be sure you don't get repeats. Though, nowadays, I only listen to internet radios on winamp, and I never hear the same song in a week, let alone each day. :p

[Ich]

I eliminate the problem by putting my entire collection on the playlist, then going through and manually weeding out all the songs I don't like. Whenever Texdex or I go through our collection and rename songs from "Artist - Track 17.mp3" to "Die Toten Hosen - Kein Alkohol.mp3" the songs on the playlist stop working, and I either have to go through all the ones I like and put the new version on the playlist, or just pick through the entire list again.

When I want random play, I set it on random, and it doesn't seem to have any repeats.

[DemoQuestFan]

Ive had this problem for as long as I had playlists loaded. My playlist currently has over 350 songs on it and it doesnt even play half of them in shuffle mode.

[zables]

Well the reason that you guys might be having the problem with a truly 'random' song order is because with computers 'random' is not possible to achieve because algorhythms still have to be programmed in order for it to grab a song, there will never ever be true random selection with a computer...

[gameguy032]

Well, I think it's because you consider "random" as never hearing the same song until you've heard all of the others. Each song has the same percentage of being played (that is, if it's only on the playlist once). If you have 100 songs, you have a 1/100 chance that a song will be played, and you have a 1/100 chance it'll be played next. Of course, if you haven't done like Tsukuru said way up there, then increasing the random-ness level will help you out here as well.