"Shuffle songs"

Posted by: Pepiva on 15 July 2015

Hello.

The "Shuffle Songs" option on my iPod Classic always surprises me with a forgotten tune, or even with an unheard one. It is an indispensable one when you deal with a large album collection spanning many genres.

I don't seem to be able to find a similar function on the Naim app for the NDX.

Is there one? Is there a way to randomize play in any other way if the app is not capable to do it?

Thanks for your help.

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Bananahead

I know how I do it.

 

I use a seperate PC application to build a few random playlists that then get stored on my NAS. I then just play them with the NDX. The playlists get refreshed whenever I close the PC application.

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

The Naim app includes the random function. Once playback has started (from within album, genre, or entire collection) tap the volume control bar to bring up the now-playing screen, then tap the three dots on the upper right-hand corner, which opens a small window, then tap the *random* icon on the left. 

 

Note that once activated, random play remains on after switching inputs... a minor bug. Also, random play always starts with the first track of the album, genre, or collection.

 

Jan

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Gavin B

Your upnp server might also provide some of this functionality. Asset has a playlist of 500 random songs 

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by PG

It's amazing how un random, random is. 10000 songs and the same ones come up time and time again, even when I've added 10s of songs. 

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Pepiva
Thanks for your suggestions. I will try them when I get home. It sounds like it is not straight forward. We are a long way away from "user friendly". This is the general feeling I have after a month of music streaming and 7,000 plus euros now missing from the family bank account. Cranky.
Posted on: 15 July 2015 by dayjay
Originally Posted by PG:

It's amazing how un random, random is. 10000 songs and the same ones come up time and time again, even when I've added 10s of songs. 

I read once that Spotify had to change their random algorithm because it was truly random which means repeat songs can come up, theoretically, one after another which make humans, who like patterns anyway, believe it is not random.  If you select track and start playing when you select random it will play random tracks from within the list or, on Asset, use jukebox selection which does this automatically

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Pepiva
Jan
I am afraid the Naim app which is now available does not offer the "random" option as you have described.
Tapping the three dots in the top right hand corner does not lead to the "random" icon.
This is visible in the bottom section of the screen as it appears after the "now playing" icon is tapped. It produces its effects with respect to the album tunes or the playlist tunes (I still have to learn how to create a playlist).
If I am not getting it, please let me know.
Thanks.
Giuseppe
 
Originally Posted by Jan-Erik Nordoen:

The Naim app includes the random function. Once playback has started (from within album, genre, or entire collection) tap the volume control bar to bring up the now-playing screen, then tap the three dots on the upper right-hand corner, which opens a small window, then tap the *random* icon on the left. 

 

Note that once activated, random play remains on after switching inputs... a minor bug. Also, random play always starts with the first track of the album, genre, or collection.

 

Jan

 

Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Dave***t
Depending on your server, you should be able to browse by all individual tracks as well as by artist, album, folder etc. Using the random function while doing so should play a random selection drawn from all your tracks.

I believe it works by essentially creating (but not saving) a randomly organised playlist, so you could have issues with maximum playlist size. But I just tried it, and it certainly seemed like a bunch of random songs.
Posted on: 15 July 2015 by Jota

Doesn't the Naim streamer 'only' load 500 tracks?  I found when I tried to random my entire collection of nearly 2000 CD's that I'd pretty much get the same 500 selection every time.  That got a bit tedious after a while and now when I want to truly random play the entire collection I use BubbleUPnP because Bubble pushes the music from the source so can select any track no matter how much you have.

Posted on: 16 July 2015 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

Giuseppe,

 

As in the image above, the random function is activated by tapping the crossed arrows. You should be seeing this in the Naim app. Grayed-out is *Off*, white is *On*.

 

As Jota mentions, the random playlist generated by the app is limited to 500 tracks. In my experience, there is sufficient variation when a new playlist is created. 

 

Jan

 

Posted on: 16 July 2015 by Dave***t
Incidentally, since I can't see what platform the OP is using, my Android version of the app looks slightly different, in that the menu shown above is just a list of text options, rather than crossed arrows for shuffle etc.

Having borrowed an iPad to compare, the Android app is some way behind the iOS version in terms of stability and other niceties IMO. In this instance the functionality is the same, though.
Posted on: 16 July 2015 by Pepiva
Do you mean you can shuffle the whole collection?
I am iOS based.
 
Originally Posted by Dave***t:
Incidentally, since I can't see what platform the OP is using, my Android version of the app looks slightly different, in that the menu shown above is just a list of text options, rather than crossed arrows for shuffle etc.

Having borrowed an iPad to compare, the Android app is some way behind the iOS version in terms of stability and other niceties IMO. In this instance the functionality is the same, though.

 

Posted on: 16 July 2015 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

On the Naim servers, shuffle is limited to 500 tracks. A workaround is to create a random playlist from an album collection, save it as a playlist (say Random album 1), then create another random playlist, save it as e.g., Random album 2, and so on. 

 

A quick test just now shows only two albums overlapping in two playlists created from a set of 200 baroque albums. Each playlist contains about 25 albums.

 

Jan

Posted on: 16 July 2015 by Musicmad

I used Random play on my Logitech system and found the lack of such facility when I upgraded to Naim (NDX) a little annoying.  I've since found a way to play random tracks from the collection (stored on a NAS drive) and this is by using MinimServer.

 

I have to operate this from the NDX with the hand control ... not from a control point (iPad, iPod or Android smartphone).  Select MinimServer / xxx items / 1st muisc choice ... when sound starts, press Random on the Hand control and then press Next track (or let that 1st choice play through).

 

As far as I can tell, the whole music library of xxx tracks is available for selection.

 

Two problems: I haven't yet found a way to deselect a genre (e.g. Christmas songs) and, when you stop ... then re-start after a passage of hours to play, say, a symphony the NDX is still set to Random play!  I've learned that I have to cancel Random before I stop the random selection.

 

Note: it may be possible to do this via a control point but as I have a "large-ish" collection the control point seems to hang as if it's trying to read all tracks!

 

Mitch

Posted on: 16 July 2015 by SB

+1 for Asset

Playlists> Album or Track Jukebox Selection

Will give you a 100 track random playlist using default settings