Randomized playlists on Karma

Posted by: tanstaafl.

Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 04:56

I have a brand new Karma that I am setting up for a friend.

The music is all loaded, and I have one genre that I wish to have the Karma play in random order.

It would appear that to do so, I must use the "Rio DJ" function, but in my Rio Music Manager software, that option is grayed out, and the help system says that Rio DJ may not be available on all players.

Does the Karma support Rio DJ?

Is there a way to create a playlist on the Karma and have it play in random order?

Also... I just ran the "Check for Updates" feature in RMM, and the program went through the "Logging In" and "Checking List of Servers" bit for about half a dozen repetitions, then said "No updates are available at this time."

Is this a temporary problem, a server down or something?

tanstaafl.
Posted by: tman

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 10:11

Quote:
Does the Karma support Rio DJ?

It appears on mine at least. Play Music -> Rio DJ.

What firmware version you got? What RMM version you got as well?
Posted by: Roger

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 11:54

Quote:
Does the Karma support Rio DJ?


Yes.

Where the confusion may arise is that the Karma has Rio DJ on the unit for putting together playlists on the fly.

Rio Music Manager also has Rio DJ functionality, which is used for putting together static playlists -- but they can be regenerated from the same parameters.

You can (IIRC) only get Rio DJ in RMM on local content -- it's used for putting together a playlist which you then send to the player (using the synchronisation feature, e.g.).

So, what do you want to do?

If it's just play a particular genre in a random order, select that Genre on the Karma and then turn on shuffle.

If you want to build a playlist in a random order from a particular genre, do this in RMM and then send it to the player (it'll stay in that order once it's there).

But no, there's no way on the Karma to mark a playlist as "always randomise", as there would be on the empeg, which is what I think you really want.
Posted by: peter

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 12:12

Quote:
Also... I just ran the "Check for Updates" feature in RMM, and the program went through the "Logging In" and "Checking List of Servers" bit for about half a dozen repetitions, then said "No updates are available at this time."

Is this a temporary problem, a server down or something?

No; that stuff never worked. The only way to get Rio Music Manager 2.92 is from Rio Japan's web site. Note that both 2.90 and 2.92 have a severe, data-damaging bug with device-side playlist support. Unless you have a device unsupported by 2.61, it's best to stuick with 2.61 until the next release comes out.

Peter
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 22:33

If it's just play a particular genre in a random order, select that Genre on the Karma and then turn on shuffle.


Now I'm going to appear really dumb!

The on-line help does not mention the word "shuffle" anywhere. The word "random" appears only in reference to the "Rio DJ" function.

So, ummm... after I select a genre on the Karma, how do I turn on Shuffle?

I did look through the menus on the Karma, and didn't see it. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to own a Karma...

In my defense, the only thing I use my own Karma for is listening to Audio Books, where shuffle mode would be counter-productive.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 22:38

You are not the only person to complain that the Shuffle feature on the Karma is hard to reach. It should be its own main menu item.

Instead, it is located in the Settings, Playback screen.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 03/05/2005 23:16

If you want to build a playlist in a random order from a particular genre, do this in RMM and then send it to the player (it'll stay in that order once it's there).


Hmmm... I can get a pseudo-random order in Windows Explorer by arranging the files in order of file size.

If I arranged the directory in question that way, then dragged it into RMM, would RMM leave it alone and import it into the Karma in that same pseudo-random order?

I'll have to try that.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 04/05/2005 02:10

I think RMM might try to sort stuff by track number if you're dragging from the PC onto RMM.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 04/05/2005 05:32

I think RMM might try to sort stuff by track number if you're dragging from the PC onto RMM.


No... actually RMM pretty relentlessly and undefeatably arranges the tracks alphabetically by title, regardless of what order I arrange them in in Windows. RMM does a pre-scan, sorts that by title, then imports the tracks alphabetically.

I managed to get pretty much what I wanted by taking the genre in question (called "favorites", an eclectic mix of 340 tracks containing everything from Pachelbel to Pink Floyd), sorting the genre by file size in RMM by clicking on the column header, then highlighting all 340 tracks in their newly sorted order and adding them to a playlist.

So now, instead of playing the Favorites genre, she'll play the Favorites playlist.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: Roger

Re: Randomized playlists on Karma - 04/05/2005 06:56

Quote:
No... actually RMM pretty relentlessly and undefeatably arranges the tracks alphabetically by title


This is because the order in which Windows gives you the files is fairly arbitrary, and is not necessarily related to the order in which they appear in the list.

Because most people do have them sorted alphabetically, and thus expect them to be imported alphabetically-sorted, and because of this arbitrary ordering in how Windows hands over the names, we simply opted to always sort them alphabetically.

That, and the fact that alphabetically-sorted is a spot on match for how I name my MP3 files, and how I want them sorted

What you can do is this:

In "My Music", click on Playlist / Rio DJ to bring up the wizard. Choose to create a new mix. On the "Select Tracks" page, choose "Select music where...". Then choose "Genre" and "Favorites", and click Next.

On the next page, choose "Random order". Then work through the other pages in the wizard. When you get to the "Use the mix" page, choose to create a playlist.

Then you can send this playlist to the player. To regenerate the list, just go to the Rio DJ again and select "Use an existing mix". It'll generate a new playlist with the same parameters.