Relffuhs (1.2.1)

About

A better way to play songs randomly.

Relffuhs uses weightings to make sure songs that havent been played for a while become more and more likely to be played next. It guarantees a song will never be played twice in a row (assuming more than one song is in the playlist, obviously).

Install

$ ./configure; make
# make install

Configure probably needs some parameters, like --prefix=..., and maybe --with-qt-includes=...

Use

Relffuhs is designed to play songs randomly, so set Noatun's Loop Mode to Random. Sequential modes are supported but are only very rudimentary.

Config

There are a couple of items in the Preferences page for Relffuhs:

Weight Exponent: This determines what exponent is given to a weight when

determining the probability of a song being picked. The higher the exponent the more non-linear the probabilities will be. Exponents reduce the risk of a song being played twice with only a couple of other songs in between. The default is a safe bet.

Skip Penalty: Each time you hit the Next button to skip a song prematurely

a penalty is applied to the Bias of that song. Bias determines how weights are spread after each song is played. Higher bias means that more weight is transferred to the song than a song with lower bias. The aim of this system is to learn which songs you like and which you usually skip. This field determines how much a song's bias is decreased when skipped.

Pick Benefit: If you manually select a song its bias will be increased, the

amount determined by this value.

Return Rate: This determines how quickly a bias returns to its default neutral

value of 1.

Skip Time Leniency: How lenient Relffuhs should be when determining a song has

been skipped. If The song is less than this many seconds from finished it is not counted as a skip.

FAQ

Q: Why make Relffuhs when we have Split? A: Split is shoddy with playing at random since it is literally

AT RANDOM. It is very likely (and very irritating) that Split will play a song twice, perhaps even three times in a row, especially if your playlist is not large. Some songs seem to be played almost constantly, while others are hardly played at all. Relffuhs addresses these problems by introducing a weighting factor to each song based on how recently that song has been played. This solves the problems of some songs seeming to be preferred over others by the playlist, and guarantees no song will be played twice in a row.

Q: So is it usable yet?
A: Yes. Definately. It's my default playlist - it should be yours, too.

Q: What's that Bias column thingy for?
A: You've just discovered a new feature in Relffuhs 1.1.0! Bias allows

you to have greater control over how weights get spread over songs. If a song has a high bias relative to the others it will gain weight quicker. This allows for another nifty feature: Pick Benefits and Skip Penalties. Relffuhs can adjust the bias of songs, raising their bias if they were explicitly selected from the list, and lowering their bias if the song was skipped by the user (ie the user hit the "Next" button). Relffuhs will also gradually return the bias of each song to 1 over time. The degree of all of these bias adjustments can be set in the new Relffuhs preferences section of Noatun's configuration dialog.

Q: OK, so do those new menu items let me change the Bias? A: Yep. The one labelled "Set Bias And Weight To 0" is particularly useful.

It effectively turns all the selected songs off by removing their current weights and stopping them from accumulating weights. To set them back, use the "Reset Bias" or "Reset All Biases" menu item.

Q: Is there any easy way of understanding all this weights/bias/exponent

stuff?
A: No, not really. If it's any consolation, you won't care about it most of the

time.

Q: Is there a way of skipping a song without incurring the bias penalty? A: There's two, actually. Firstly, you can turn off the bias penalty in the

Relffuhs configuration window, hidden inside Noatun's configuration window. Alternatively, you can seek to the end of the song and let it tick over to the next one. A penalty won't be incurred for seeking in a song.

Q: Why won't Relffuhs let me rearrange my song list beyond a simple

column sort?
A: Relffuhs is designed to be good at RANDOMLY selecting songs, so

rearranging your song list is kind of pointless. For this reason it has not been implemented, and probably won't ever be.

Q: Relffuhs doesn't remember the last song I had playing. How can I get

it to continue playing in order after I quit and restart Noatun? A: Why? I told you already: Relffuhs selects songs at RADNOM. Support for

moving sequentially through the list is only very basic, but hey, if you want to submit a patch to add functionality you're more than welcome!

Q: Why is Relffuhs so slow/bloated/pointless? A: Shutup. That's why. If you don't like it, fix it and send me a patch.

Q: I saw the screenshot. Do you really listen to that music? A: Yes, I really listen to that music. Get over yourself.

Q: What the hell does "Relffuhs" mean, anyway? A: "Relffuhs" is "shuffler" spelt backwards. See how imaginative I am?

Contact

Send criticism, complaints, and spam to /dev/null Send comments, bugs, patches and praise to bh_doc@users.sourceforge.net The web page is at http://relffuhs.sourceforge.net/