Generate Playlist Feature Is Awful

[Jamil]

I started playing around with the Generate Playlist button on the latest version of Winamp. I am not sure how this feature is supposed to work, but its results are very poor. I have let it analyze all of my music, but it is not able to generate a decent mix from an MP3 library of over 6,000 songs. I am not sure why.

I can show some screen shots or examples demonstrating the failures, but are there any tips at getting better results?

Thanks.

[Batter Pudding]

I don't use it, but I assume it will need good tagging on your MP3s. Especially the Genre tags.

[Jamil]

Good thing you do not use it.

Here's an example of a very bizarre play list that this feature just generated. My seed song was Wes Montgomery's I Wish I Knew from his 1961 release So Much Guitar! This is a slow jazz guitar ballad.

My tags are all managed via Tag&Rename. This is my batch tagger, and all tags are accurate.

Here's the goofy play list generated. This is basically an anything goes list. If a radio DJ were to play songs in this order, I would hope he gets fired soon.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:325,Wes Montgomery - I Wish I Knew
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\03-I Wish I Knew.mp3
#EXTINF:170,Earth, Wind & Fire - Shining Star
Earth, Wind & Fire\1975, That's The Way of The World\01-Shining Star.mp3
#EXTINF:341,Grover Washington, Jr. - Little Black Samba
Grover Washington, Jr\1985, Anthology of Grover Washington, Jr\08-Little Black Samba.mp3
#EXTINF:243,Billy Joel - Baby Grand (Duet With Ray Charles)
Billy Joel\2001, The Essential Billy Joel\26-Baby Grand (Duet With Ray Charles).mp3
#EXTINF:251,Fred Wesley - Just Like That
Fred Wesley\1991, Comme Ci Comme Ca\06-Just Like That.mp3
Yusef Lateef\1991, The Yusef Lateef Anthology\19-The Lovers (Excerpt).mp3
Parliament\2005, Gold\03-All Your Goodies Are Gone.mp3
Average White Band\1992, Pickin' Up The Pieces\06-Cut The Cake.mp3
Dennis Coffey\1971, Evolution\07-Sad Angel.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\08-Fried Pies (Take 1).mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1994, All My Tomorrows\03-I'm Glad There Is You.mp3
Kool And The Gang\1993, The Best of Kool And The Gang\08-Jungle Boogie.mp3
Cameo\1986, Word Up!\07-You Can Have The World.mp3
War\1971, All Day Music\07-Baby Brother.mp3
Joe Sample\1994, Did You Feel That\07-Did You Feel That.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\11-Let 'Em Roll.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1966, California Dreaming\01-California Dreaming.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\06-Somethin' Like Bags.mp3
Cameo\1985, Single Life\04-A Good-Bye.mp3
Prince\1986, Parade\06-Life Can Be So Nice.mp3
DeBarge\1997, Ultimate Collection\11-Love Always.mp3

[Jamil]

This is looking more and more like a buggy feature

I have all genres of music in my collection. I have almost every Nine Inch Nails CD. In this example, my seed song was from their Ghosts CDs. Regardless of which mp3 from this set I use as the seed song, I always get the same results:



If I check the option to include songs from the same album, I get this (none of which is from the same album):

[Jamil]

Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\03-I Wish I Knew.mp3
Earth, Wind & Fire\1975, That's The Way of The World\01-Shining Star.mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1985, Anthology of Grover Washington, Jr\08-Little Black Samba.mp3
Billy Joel\2001, The Essential Billy Joel\26-Baby Grand (Duet With Ray Charles).mp3
Fred Wesley\1991, Comme Ci Comme Ca\06-Just Like That.mp3
Yusef Lateef\1991, The Yusef Lateef Anthology\19-The Lovers (Excerpt).mp3
Parliament\2005, Gold\03-All Your Goodies Are Gone.mp3
Average White Band\1992, Pickin' Up The Pieces\06-Cut The Cake.mp3
Dennis Coffey\1971, Evolution\07-Sad Angel.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\08-Fried Pies (Take 1).mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1994, All My Tomorrows\03-I'm Glad There Is You.mp3
Kool And The Gang\1993, The Best of Kool And The Gang\08-Jungle Boogie.mp3
Cameo\1986, Word Up!\07-You Can Have The World.mp3
War\1971, All Day Music\07-Baby Brother.mp3
Joe Sample\1994, Did You Feel That\07-Did You Feel That.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\11-Let 'Em Roll.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1966, California Dreaming\01-California Dreaming.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\06-Somethin' Like Bags.mp3
Cameo\1985, Single Life\04-A Good-Bye.mp3
Prince\1986, Parade\06-Life Can Be So Nice.mp3
DeBarge\1997, Ultimate Collection\11-Love Always.mp3

Here's the MP3 genre tag in the order listed above for these songs:

Jazz
R&B
Fusion
Rock
Jazz
Jazz
R&B
R&B
Rhythmic Soul
Jazz
Jazz
R&B
R&B
Crossover
Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
R&B
Pop/Funk
R&B

It doesn't look like this is using genre tags for this.

[Jamil]

I Found A Solution -- Don't Use Winamp's Generater Playlist

I forgot all about MusicIP Mixer. I actually bought a license key for this years ago. My key still works for the latest build (that is now four years old). The software works under 64-bit Windows 7, but it is no longer supported since the company is no more.

Take a look at the mix it created using the same seed song (and music library) that Winamp's Generate Playlist used. Every single song in this mix is mellow and fits with the seed song:

Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\03-I Wish I Knew.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\15-You Don't Know What Love Is.mp3
Paul Chambers\1957, Bass On Top\02-You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\10-For Heaven's Sake.mp3
Ruben van Rompaey\2008, Eastern Expressions 2\05-Ko Chi (Wind From The East).mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\06-Canadian Sunset.mp3
Jaco Pastorius\1976, Jaco Pastorius\03-Continuum.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\27-I Can't Stop Loving You.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\06-Somethin' Like Bags.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\04-Days of Wine And Roses.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\07-While We're Young.mp3
Paul Chambers\1957, Bass On Top\04-Dear Old Stockholm.mp3
Joe Sample\1993, Invitation\02-A House Is Not A Home.mp3
Amoeba\2007, Watchful\08-Big Clouds.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1960, The Incredible Jazz Guitar\08-Gone With The Wind.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\05-Repetition.mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1994, All My Tomorrows\10-For Heaven's Sake.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\02-Cotton Tail.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1961, So Much Guitar!\04-I'm Just A Lucky So And So.mp3
Stan Getz And João Gilberto\1964, Getz, Gilberto\01-The Girl From Ipanema.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1966, Tequila\10-Bumpin' On Sunset.mp3
Earl Klugh\1991, The Earl Klugh Trio, Vol. 1\06-What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life.mp3
Yusef Lateef\1961, Eastern Sounds\01-The Plum Blossom.mp3
Winard Harper\1999, Winard\04-I Fall In Love Too Easily.mp3
Yusef Lateef\1961, Eastern Sounds\07-Purple Flower.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1965, Willow Weep For Me\01-Willow Weep For Me.mp3
John Coltrane\1963, John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman\05-You Are Too Beautiful.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1963, Boss Guitar\01-Besame Mucho.mp3
Nine Inch Nails\2008, The Slip\08-Corona Radiata.mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1994, All My Tomorrows\11-Estate ('Ess-Tah-Tay') (In Summer).mp3
Milt Jackson\1993, Reverence And Compassion\11-Compassion.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\06-Ain't No Use.mp3
John Coltrane\1961, My Favorite Things\02-Everytime We Say Goodbye.mp3
Yusef Lateef\1991, The Yusef Lateef Anthology\11-Stay With Me.mp3
Dianne Reeves\1999, Bridges\04-Goodbye.mp3
Earl Klugh\1991, The Earl Klugh Trio, Vol. 1\10-Too Marvelous For Words.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1966, Tequila\08-Midnight Mood.mp3
Wes Montgomery\1960, The Incredible Jazz Guitar\07-Mr. Walker (Renie).mp3
Wes Montgomery\1965, Willow Weep For Me\04-Surrey With A Fringe on Top.mp3
Terence Blanchard\2007, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem For Katrina)\08-Mantra Intro.mp3
Jan Seiden\2003, Woodland Winds\11-Night Falling Through The Pines.mp3
Grover Washington, Jr\1994, All My Tomorrows\03-I'm Glad There Is You.mp3
Charles Fambrough\1993, Blues At Bradley's\03-Andrea.mp3
Grant Green\2002, Retrospective 1961-66\19-Lazy Afternoon.mp3

[Aminifu]

Hi Jamil,

I agree. The Gracenote playlist generator used by WA is very bad. The additional options added a few versions back do not help. The WA devs seem content with out-sourcing this feature. Unfortunately, there aren't many free options available.

I have tried a lot of 3rd party playlist generators (paid and free) and 'MusicIP Mixer 1.8.1b' does the best job, imho. Somehow it still works for playlist generation, too bad it's no longer supported. But, it also throws in an odd tune from time to time. What mix options do you use?

[Jamil]

Hello Aminifu.

I did not play around with the settings much when I had installed MusicIP Mixer. I have an exclusion set to not add files to mixes with the genre set to Other. I set all intros, preludes, postludes, or talk to Other in my files.

I have the option to always include seed song in mixes, ignore style slider to the far left (but not max), and Low variety to the max on the Mix settings. I have the mix size set to 240 minutes.

[Aminifu]

Thanx Jamil,

Reducing the variety option helps a lot. Should have been able to figure that out for myself.

[validator]

Jamil,

I forgot all about MusicIP Mixer. I actually bought a license key for this years ago. My key still works for the latest build (that is now four years old). The software works under 64-bit Windows 7, but it is no longer supported since the company is no more.

I use MusicIP Mixer all the time and have done for years. It's alwasy been awesome and still is, not super fast by any measure, but the best bixer I've ever tried.

That said I don't even know what the Power Tools are that a registration key unlocks, as it works fine out of the box so to speak. But I am curious I admit and the software has not been sold fro so long it's not funny, which elaves me wondering if you'd share your registration key, of if there's any otehr way we could register unregistrable, unpurchasable software now?

No drama if not, just curious really what Power Tools bring.

[Jamil]

Sorry -- not going to share purchased license keys that are associated with my email address and/or name.

I don't think you are missing much with Power Tools. Then again, I had only used it like once or twice years ago.

[validator]

No probs. Just asking. Do remember of course that MusicIP is no longer sold and keys can't be bought, so it's not exactly criminal IMHO. But your call, no probs if you'd rather not.

[DrO]

but it is deemed against this forums' rules to do such things if you're posting requests publically...

-daz