Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: [fb2k v2] Random Pools (foo_random_pools) (Read 176189 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

foo_random_pools

Reply #125
I realise this is an old thread but I've just discovered Random Pools and think it has great potential.

I wondered if anyone could help me set it up to create a playlist, in reverse order of the date I added the album to the PC, so the last album appears first in the list and runs for my entire library. My library is on a network so it would be handy to know how to set it up so that both networked PC's (running Foobar) had the same setup as the host PC.

I've seen this added to a 'skin' but never managed to work out how it was done (it wasn't via Random Pools but I thought this would be able to recreate it)

Help would be much appreciated.

S.

 

foo_random_pools

Reply #126
I wondered if anyone could help me set it up to create a playlist, in reverse order of the date I added the album to the PC, so the last album appears first in the list and runs for my entire library.
foo_random_pools is the wrong tool for this purpose. You should create an autoplaylist to get what you want. See here.


foo_random_pools

Reply #127
I wondered if anyone could help me set it up to create a playlist, in reverse order of the date I added the album to the PC, so the last album appears first in the list and runs for my entire library.
foo_random_pools is the wrong tool for this purpose. You should create an autoplaylist to get what you want. See here.


Really? That's a shame - I thought this would finally be the tool for the job :[ Particularly because I want to organise them by the date the mp3 was created not the date it was added to Foobar - because that would be redundant if I reinstalled the PC (which I have) so all the tracks were added on the same day.

I don't really understand how to use Random Pools properly, I've basically messed about with it and tried to find functions through trial and error - I don't find the documentation particularly friendly. I tried a previously posted entry to add and play random albums but it ended up just listing those tracks which I'd rated 5. -_X

Cheers for the reply.

foo_random_pools

Reply #128
I want to organise them by the date the mp3 was created not the date it was added to Foobar
As a search will reveal, date of creation has been requested numerous times but remains inaccessible, for reasons that have been explained IIRC. The closest thing you get is %last_modified%. That still does not require foo_random_pools, so, as fbuser said, your request is not relevant. You clearly want a specifically ordered list, the opposite of random.

As for the apparent problem with playing random albums, I guess that’s one of the perils of trying to adopt prefabricated solutions from other users! I suspect that the person who originally posted it is the most relevant to ask, although perhaps fbuser might be familiar with the relevant pattern.

foo_random_pools

Reply #129
You clearly want a specifically ordered list, the opposite of random.

As for the apparent problem with playing random albums, I guess that’s one of the perils of trying to adopt prefabricated solutions from other users! I suspect that the person who originally posted it is the most relevant to ask, although perhaps fbuser might be familiar with the relevant pattern.


Someone once said, you have to know how to do something very well before you can pervert it's use with any efficiency ;]

With regards to random album. the post was in this very thread, however I have actually managed to get it to display entire albums now. I've still not figured it out properly though as it only 'posts' one album per click and I have a couple of thousand so clicking them would give me RSI - I suspect the error lies in 'population' but can't figure out which.

Again, cheers for the reply though.

foo_random_pools

Reply #130
With regards to random album. the post was in this very thread, however I have actually managed to get it to display entire albums now. I've still not figured it out properly though as it only 'posts' one album per click and I have a couple of thousand
You can increase the number of groups for the relevant pool to add more than one album. But unless it is no problem for you to block your foobar2000 for a while, you should not increase this number too much.

foo_random_pools

Reply #131
I want to add some random tracks from one playlist to a new playlist
what should i do?

sorry for my poor english

foo_random_pools

Reply #132
I want to add some random tracks from one playlist to a new playlist
This is not possible. The source for a pool is always the media library, which can be filtered by the filter expression for the relevant pool.

foo_random_pools

Reply #133
Hi

Can you tell me why the following filter is working:

%genre% IS Classical

and not this one:

%genre% IS NOT Classical

? (invalid filter type)

Thanks again for this great job

foo_random_pools

Reply #134
Try:
Code: [Select]
NOT %genre% IS classical


foo_random_pools

Reply #136
Could someone please help me. I can't get this plugin to do anything.
I have hundreds of albums. They are all properly tagged and in folders. They are all in one huge playlist called "Albums". I want to play albums in a random order. I don't like the "shuffle albums" option because the albums are played in the same order. This option shuffles the order changes when I restart foobar, but I want a random album to come on whenever an album is finished. So if I play the last track of an album, the next track is the first track of another album. If I play that last track again, this time I hear the first track from a different album. Is this what the plug in is for?
The plug-in is installed. I can see an entry for it in the File menu and in the preferences windows. I've clicked the Add button, created a pool called "RandomAlbums", and for group I've put "%album%". I've left everything else at the defaults. To be honest, I haven't a clue what any of these other options mean.
So in the list in the preferences, now I can see:
Name: RandomAlbums
Priority: 0
Group: %album%
Group count: 1
The Autoadd box has my playlist name "Albums" listed as an option, so I leave that selected. The other two boxes, for an "Add" number, I've left at their default, 0.
Click OK. But what now? It doesn't seem to do anything. In the foobar menu, Playback->Order is default. Is that right? But songs are just being played in the order they are in the window. There is a menu option File->Random Pools that has three options, All Pools, RandomAlbums, More. Clicking the RandomAlbums options doesn't seem to have any effect at all.
I feel like I must have missed a step.

foo_random_pools

Reply #137
Can't offer specific help, but if you really have no idea as to the various options, you might of missed the .html documentation that comes with the component. Hopefully that may help some.

foo_random_pools

Reply #138
my preferences dialog and my random pool dialog look exactly as they are on the html documentation http://www.palm-internet.eu/foobar2000/com...pools_help.html, except for the autoadd playlist patterns, he has "Random*;Main". I assume his playlist is called Main, not sure why he has "Random*",  or if it matters to me.

Foobar is behaving as if it completely ignores this plug-in. How do I get it to actually take effect?

foo_random_pools

Reply #139
ok, I think I figured it out.
clicking my pool name "Random Albums" on the file->random pools menu added a random album to the bottom of my playlist. It seems this is a tool for building a playlist.

But it isn't what I want.

I have a predefined playlist. I want to play random albums from that list. So, play song 1 from an album, play the album through to song the last, then choose a random album from the playlist and play song 1 from that.

Shuffle albums doesn't do this. Playing the last song from an album, you will always get the first song from the same next album.

anyone have any ideas on how I can get what I want.

foo_random_pools

Reply #140
EDIT based on your above text, you may ignore all that follows
Keep in mind this is a down and dirty explanation. I have never used the component till right now.

Don't believe you will get exactly what you are looking for. That is, playing a previous 'last' track to an album and then have the subsequent album added by the component change. OTOH, once you get it to work, you may find a use for it.

Add a playlist named whatever. Add whatever to random_pools config.

Keep in mind if you have followed his html exactly you are filtering on rating. may cause troubles if you do not use rating. Delete it for now.

In the config where you have add when 20 items remain, also put 20 in the next add option.

Save

Go to your whatever playlist. Click in the empty playlist. File>random pools>whatever.

you should get a random album inserted. When there are less than 20 items [if for instance you have the playlist to automatically remove played items] or when you start playing a track 20 from the end of the playlist, a new album will be added.

For your specific use, i would set both the add options to 1. then when you played to last track, a new album will appear. If you good back to that previous track a new random album will not appear. However a quick delete of the last added album will then be replaced with a new album.

good luck. hope i have not made it worse.

foo_random_pools

Reply #141
From your initial post, all albums are in your playlist. if this is the case random_pools may very well do what you want. As you are using it, it is populating your playlist with extra copies of your albums. Use a different blank playlist as I mention above and you may find it gets your towards what you want.

foo_random_pools

Reply #142
Shuffle albums doesn't do this. Playing the last song from an album, you will always get the first song from the same next album.

Hmm... Shuffle (albums) doesn't behave the way you describe when I use it. I'm trying to get it to do what you say it does when you use it, but it randomly plays an album for me no matter what I do. Are there any other details you can give that might enable me to reproduce the behavior?

Shuffle (albums) does for me what you say you're wanting.

foo_random_pools

Reply #143
Feature request:

Do not add songs that are included in a named playlist.  If appropriate, I could first write the other playlist to a file.

Thanks

foo_random_pools

Reply #144
I am trying to create playlists with different type of content. Is it possible to link pools per playlist?

foo_random_pools

Reply #145
Isn't this the function of auto-playlists? Or do you still require the random element?

Creating an auto-playlist, playing in shuffle mode and having something like  ...    "AND (NOT %last_played% DURING LAST 7 DAYS)" to dynamically filter out recently played tracks; would this simulate what you are after?

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

foo_random_pools

Reply #146
I know about auto-playlists but this is not always a good solution.

I understand currently it isn't possible to set a pool (or pools) per playlist.

foo_random_pools

Reply #147
I’ve just discovered this plugin that might do what I need, but I don’t want to define any specific pool, I just want the plugin to generate a playlist of random entries from the entire library. How do I do that?

foo_random_pools

Reply #148
You still have to define a pool, and foo_random_pools will pick from your entire library unless you enable filtering for the pool.

I'll give you a simple pool for you to start off.

Go to File > Random pools > More... This will open up foo_random_pools preferences page.

Now click on the Add... button.

In the dialog that opens, do the following (leave any unmentioned settings as they are):

In the "Name:" box, enter Artists.

In the "Group" box, enter %artist%.

In the "Number of groups to add:" box, enter 20.

Tick the "Filter with the content of the target playlist" box. (This will prevent duplicate artists from being added if they are already present in the playlist).

In the "Number of tracks to add:" box, enter 1.

Make sure the "Sort/limit each group" box is ticked.

Now click on OK to close the dialog, and then click on Apply and OK to close the preferences dialog.

Now you can go to File > Random pools > Artists, which will add 1 track from 20 random artists in random order to the playlist.

(I suggest using an empty playlist; otherwise, it might be difficult to notice if any tracks were added since the artist may already be present in the playlist.)

You can increase the 20 to however many artists you want foo_random_pools to add, but you can just go to File > Random pools > Artists as many times as you want to keep adding random tracks without duplicating artists. You can also increase the 1 if you'd like more than one track from each artist.

foo_random_pools

Reply #149
Thanks for the instructions. They work fine except they don’t select any songs with an empty "Artist" field...