To Shuffle or Not to Shuffle

[Orville]

Just curious, how many folks using a PC {since you can not do this with a Director unit} to run their show use the "Shuffle" option in the Show Editor so that each show does not remain "repetitive"?

 

Or do you just let the sequences play in sequential order over and over for every show?

 

And have you ever tried using the shuffle option?  What did you think of it?  Good, bad?

 

I'll tell you what I'm doing after seeing some of the responses to the questions.   Just interested in what the consensus of the masses are and what they feel is the best way to play sequences in a show.

 

Thanks to all that answer and take part.

 

BTW: There are no right or wrong answers, it's all personal choices and taste!

 

[habmann]

I'm with Pikadroo on this one. I wanted to set the order to give the show a flow. People really love the TSO songs that I've got, but I think they've got even more punch because most are preceded by a slower song with less action and intensity. 

[KStatefan]

I switched mine to shuffle.  I did not like coming home each night and the same sequence was playing.

[Nurples]

I keep with a fixed show...  My show is 15+ minutes with a friendly "be nice to the neighbors" reminder at the end of each loop.  The show seems to be a good lenght for the people who want to see the entire show, yet short enough to keep traffic moving.  We don't get a huge amount of traffic as we've moved housese the last three years (this house should be our resting place for a while). 

 

I think if you put your show on shuffle, someone may hear the same song twice close together and then leave thinking they've heard them all...  Maybe the software doesn't repeat a song till all the songs have played?  I don't know, I've never tested that theory.

[Orville]

I keep with a fixed show...  My show is 15+ minutes with a friendly "be nice to the neighbors" reminder at the end of each loop.  The show seems to be a good lenght for the people who want to see the entire show, yet short enough to keep traffic moving.  We don't get a huge amount of traffic as we've moved housese the last three years (this house should be our resting place for a while). 

 

I think if you put your show on shuffle, someone may hear the same song twice close together and then leave thinking they've heard them all...  Maybe the software doesn't repeat a song till all the songs have played?  I don't know, I've never tested that theory.

 

I use shuffle too.  Why?   Because it makes each show it's own. 

 

But to answer your question, no you will not hear each song more than once or back to back, not UNLESS you have specific options checked or unchecked in the Show Editor for that.  You can actually tell the Show Editor to play the songs randomly and NOT repeat a song UNTIL all songs are played, or it can play the same song back to back if that option is selected.   The show editor has a lot of nice features in this respect.

 

Even when the show loops back to the beginning for the next set, the Show Editor, at least the way I have it set, does not repeat any of my songs back to back, all songs must be played before they will repeat in my settings.  

 

So I like the way the show runs randomly, most of my songs are all upbeat and quick paced, so the shuffle works well for my show.

 

But like stated, it's all in personal taste and choice.

[Tim Fischer]

I don't shuffle for the above reasons, and also because I have a "bumper" playing between songs.  I have about as many diferent "bumpers" as "songs", and they need to alternate.

[WhitePlainsNY]

I like to keep a set schedule for my show. I group songs together in groups by tempo, comedy, classics, etc. I like to have the mood change throughout the night. After every fifth song is a video. The song schedule on my website helps families plan when to arrive so they can either see virtual Santa of hear a favorite song. The show runs continuously from 5:30pm to 11pm every night. A few songs repeat twice and some songs only play once. Other songs or videos play more depending on how I wanted the show to turn out. Many visitors have told me they drive by and listen for a few songs and then continue on their way, only to return wit a carload of people so they can see the show too.

[George Simmons]

I'm with the other creative types who put their shows together to evoke specific moods and to vary songs by tempo, effects used, etc.  Plus I use a lot of bumpers and announcements that are designed to impart information to the viewers at specific intervals.

 

Back in 2008 or 2009 I used the random option for about thirty minutes one night.  When I heard the third consecutive announcement I decided what I was trying to do was a bit too sophisticated to leave to random chance.  I think it took me all of one minute to shut that show down and start the usual one.  I've never even considered it as an option since then

[EvilM0nkey]

I'm with the other creative types who put their shows together to evoke specific moods and to vary songs by tempo, effects used, etc.  Plus I use a lot of bumpers and announcements that are designed to impart information to the viewers at specific intervals.

 

Back in 2008 or 2009 I used the random option for about thirty minutes one night.  When I heard the third consecutive announcement I decided what I was trying to do was a bit too sophisticated to leave to random chance.  I think it took me all of one minute to shut that show down and start the usual one.  I've never even considered it as an option since then

I'm headed that direction. I'll probably be there next year.

[k6ccc]

I have fillers between each piece so having it shuffle would not work well.

[pstigerfan]

I'm running my show on Suffle Mode because, like stated in a previous post, I hated coming home from work and hearing the same song over and over again (coincidentally it was Wizards in Winter).  Aside from setting it to shuffle, I also started coming home at different times to make sure I was not being paranoid about hearing WoW again (so far, have not heard it yet since changing to shuffle).

 

Since I'm not running any bumpers or anything like that, it works well for me.  However, I think for next year I may end up going to a set schedule where I'll setup a couple of different/unique shows for certain nights, that way I can spice things up a little bit to make it interesting.

[Orville]

George and others using "bumpers" or "voice overs", I'm not using anything like that at the moment, and this is the first year I've used a PC, was kind of forced into that direction when my DC-MP3 Showtime Director decided to go belly up around 12/5 and had some real fast learning to do on how to use the PC options to set up a show.

 

But if I were doing what some of you are, I would not be using shuffle either.   And I may not use shuffle next year as I am thinking of creating some of my own voiceovers for the display, but don't really have the time, or the "motovation" to do it for this years show.

 

But I can understand why some are not using it and that makes perfect sense.

 

And after seeing the options and how I actually have better control of my shows using a PC, I'm very much leaning on not bothering to have my DC-MP3 Showtime Director repaired or replaced as I was initially thinking {and panicking when it bit the big one just before showtime!}

 

Probably the fastest learning I ever did having to get my show up and running in just under an hours time and had never used or even looked at the PC options, so at first I was totally and completely lost, just glad it was easier than it looked LOL, and had everything ready to go 15 minutes before showtime!

 

Anyway, like stated all in personal choice and taste, I was just curious as to what others thought about it, whether they had used it or not to get a feel of what most folks prefer.  

 

For now, my show will probably run this season on shuffle, next year, probably not, at least until and when I finally get motivated to get my voiceovers done for both Halloween and Christmas.

[bob]

Several people have mentioned that they dislike the way the shuffling is done ("don't like hearing the same song over and over", for example).  Orville mentioned that there are options to make it behave that way or not.  These options can be found in the Musical tab of the Show Editor.  When you select "Shuffle", there are a couple checkbox options underneath it:

 

(1) "Songs can be repeated before all have been played"

 

(2) "The same song can be repeated back-to-back"

 

So you can set up the shuffling behavior in four different ways, including, if you want, never hearing the same song twice in a row and never hearing the same song a second time before you've hear all the songs once.

[Tim Fischer]

Even with those "advanced" shuffling options, there's nothing to prevent a song from playing as the last one in the "shuffle", another song playing, and then the first song playing again.  I'm not blaming the algorithm - I don't really have a better idea either. 

I'll just stick with controlling my own show's destiny lol.  Besides, I always know when it's the last song of the evening, etc.

[Orville]

Even with those "advanced" shuffling options, there's nothing to prevent a song from playing as the last one in the "shuffle", another song playing, and then the first song playing again.  I'm not blaming the algorithm - I don't really have a better idea either. 

I'll just stick with controlling my own show's destiny lol.  Besides, I always know when it's the last song of the evening, etc.

On this, I can tell you Tim is correct, but doesn't happen that often.   There have very limited times when ALL songs have played, the new set starts, different song plays and the last song from the 1st set, plays at the 3rd set.   {I listen to my show from inside the house, just in case something goes awry and I have to go "fix" something!}

 

So not back to back, but, yes, this can happen when the 1st set has played all songs, and then the next set starts, again, this doesn't happen very often, but it does, can and will happen from time to time.   

 

Seen it and heard it happen in my show, but it's actually not as likely to happen as often you think.

 

But, yes, it can happen at times.

[khawes]

I use It's me Bobo's MIIP program.  So my show starts out in one order but the visitors can change the order, so over time it completely changes.  You can even setup your announcements to fire every x minutes and they happen as close to that mark as they can.

 

thanks bob!

[bob]

Just my thoughts as a programer. That is an awful not of extra work for the software to do on each cycle. It would make more sense to take the entire stack total number, rearrange it and count until the max number of songs are reached. Then take the stack and rearrange it again and play that till the total is reached. The system you described is a random number generation that just dosen't allow the same number to be picked twice. Not really a true shuffle... tho neither would address announcements being played all at once... tho... might be an oppertunity to create settings to designate a track type. I dunno... just my thoughts on it. Interesting to know it really works that way tho.

 

Drew

 

I'm not sure that I understand the objection.  It's not actually a lot of extra work for the software, but more to the point:

 

The four different possible combinations of the two different options each enable a different shuffling behavior, and what you're calling a "true shuffle" is one of them.  We give these four possible behaviors because different people like different behaviors, or at least are used to different behaviors based on other products that they own (I personally have owned four different CD players/MP3 players that each did shuffling in a different one of these four possible ways).  The combinations are:

 

(1) Both options off: This is equivalent to shuffling a deck of cards, and going through them all one by one, and then when you've gone through them all, shuffling the whole deck again and starting over, except that if the first card you get after the shuffle is the same as the last card that you got before the shuffle, you ignore it and shuffle the whole deck again, till you get some card other than the one you got immediately before the shuffle.  This is, I believe, the most popular behavior, and it's the default.

 

(2) "The same song can be played back-to-back": This is equivalent to what you are calling a "true shuffle": Shuffling the deck, drawing a card, drawing the next card, and so on, and shuffling the whole deck once again after you have drawn all cards.  A lot of people think they want this, but then eventually discover that they really want "(1) Both options off" instead.

 

(3) "Songs can be repeated before all have been played": This is equivalent to shuffling the full deck after every time you draw a card, except if you draw the same card twice in a row, you ignore it the second time and reshuffle/redraw instead.

 

(4) Both options on: This is equivalent to shuffling the full deck after every time you draw a card.  This is my personal favorite, though I think I might be alone.

[Nurples]

Looking at the options available, it seems decent enough.  I do like the option of being able to catagorize songs... would be like "songs" and "bumpers" or what not.  Then you could have a few options for the bumbers:  You could have second set of options just as the current four for shuffling and add an option to force the bumber to be played every X number of songs.