People have asked a number of times for a truly random shuffle. People have asked to make playing the whole collection of tracks truly random. This has to be an option. Why is it not in 1.3?
1 Like
The Shuffle icon on the Queue screen shuffles the Queue for a Zone. You can reshuffle by toggling it on and off.
You can randomly play the whole collection using Play All/Play from the Albums or Tracks screens.
Why do said people say these options are not “truly random” ?
Where exactly is the Shuffle Icon?
And I agree with OP…the shuffle is definitely not random
How are you able to agree that Shuffle is not random without being sure where it is ? Are you thinking of the Radio feature ? It is certainly not random.
The Shuffle icon is on the Queue screen to the right of the expanded dynamic wave display in the centre of the screen.
In my experience the “Play All” hugely favors tracks and albums that are marked as picked or marked as favorite. Quite the opposite of random.
I noticed this because when setting up my library, I marked all albums/songs as unpicked. Then I started marking certain songs that I like as picked. When I do this “Play All” it often happens that I get the hear the same picked songs multiple times before all songs are played. And since my library is huge enough to not be able to hear all songs in one single listening session, it can get quite bothersome.
3 Likes
Thanks Bart,
Anyone else seeing this behaviour with “Play All” ?
Let’s flag @mike and see if it’s designed that way.
“Play all” is definitely not random.
For one thing it keeps tracks such as movements from a concerto together. I would like an option to turn that off. But even if we ignore that behaviour it shows clear preferences for certain tracks. Definitely not random. (BTW I am a professional statistician but it doesn’t take that to see this is not random). Again there should be an option to turn off this learned behaviour and play the whole collection in a truly random order.
3 Likes
Write the algorithm in pseudo code and share it here.
PS this non-random preference for certain tracks does not require them to be marked as picked or marked as favorite. I have not marked any tracks, but “play all” is clearly not random.
1 Like
ha. Well you need a reasonably good random number generator from a random seed that can draw numbers independently from a uniform distribution over the numbers from 1 to the size of the collection. Draw numbers to index tracks. (For good enough random number generators see R code).
To be clear, I doesn’t matter whether or not it is designed that way. What we want is an option for “Play all” to play the whole collection in truly random order.
Please don’t include me in the “we”.
I like a weighted random function.
Perfekt would be that besides favourites and picks also never played tracks get a bigger weight in the random algorithm.
ok then, this thread is for the people who want a truly random (unweighted) shuffle
1 Like
Funny to see this post pop up today. While drinking my coffee this morning listening to a “not truly random” random…I thought to myself, when will I be able to get a real random. Like my iTunes, mix my sh!t up random random.
I suppose I don’t necessarily want a truly random shuffle… I’d like an already played track not to be considered until all unplayed tracks were played. By definition not random 
I might have figured out how to play the whole collection in random order.
The trick is to add the whole collection to a playlist, then add that to the queue and shuffle it there.
Is it “truly” random over all tracks? Don’t know yet. If this is the way to do it I don’t know why roon support did not say so already.
1 Like
Play all in tracks view is not random. It doesn’t take long to discover that.
Queue shuffle might reasonably randomise it, but it can’t break into multi-part tracks. Roon is there a way to shuffle these parts?
1 Like
The issue on Random Play is as the first poster described - it has been an issue for a while (search “random” in forum) and I think this has been a clear want from many.
I “focus” on ten Classical genres and that gives me about 800 albums. Still, when I Play All, I get the same 8-20 repeating often. I was hoping in 1.3 for a fix…
And if there will be a fix, I would like the option for playing randomly either tracks, works, or albums. I can’t think that would be too tricky, but please correct me if I am wrong.
@mike I flag Mike on this as I think he once indicated that his team got the message and was going to address. Maybe I am dreaming but hoping he can remind us where Roon is on random play and correct me on any mistakes in using Roon I am making to achieve random play.
Random play aside, I love my Roon experience.
1 Like
I’ll add my voice to the call for a random playback feature. Having just moved from LMS to Roon, I genuinely miss the random functionality offered by LMS. Random playlist generation by song and not including the same track twice in the same playlist was my preferred LMS listening method. Radio and the pseudo-shuffle of Roon are both interesting experiences, but very different from random. I look forward to getting that functionality enabled.
1 Like
If it is not possible to have random play on All Focus, how can we make a Focus selection into a playlist where we can employ some degree of random play?