what does 'shuffle' mean
Tuesday, 24. October 2006, 15:07:20
I had always been a fairly big proponent of listening to albums as albums, all the way through. A good album has a natural flow and a lot of talented people spent a lot of thought and energy in getting it just right.
When S got me a little iPod shuffle as a present a while back it took some effort for me to embrace the random idea but embrace it I did. After ripping a dozen CDs in a marathon sitting, I dumped them onto the device in random order and play it in random order.
But the Shuffle has a sense of humor and it's own moods.
The other day it played only 70s punk (Clash, Ramones, Warsaw) and today it alternated evenly between the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack (glam rock) and the Amelie soundtrack (sentimental orchestral).
If it keeps up behaving as if it has it's own preferences and finding little themes in my collection, I'm going to have to give it a name and list it among our pets.
When S got me a little iPod shuffle as a present a while back it took some effort for me to embrace the random idea but embrace it I did. After ripping a dozen CDs in a marathon sitting, I dumped them onto the device in random order and play it in random order.
But the Shuffle has a sense of humor and it's own moods.
The other day it played only 70s punk (Clash, Ramones, Warsaw) and today it alternated evenly between the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack (glam rock) and the Amelie soundtrack (sentimental orchestral).
If it keeps up behaving as if it has it's own preferences and finding little themes in my collection, I'm going to have to give it a name and list it among our pets.
My MiniDisc player's the same. I can press 'Random' to my heart's content but it will go right on picking out the same songs. I backed up my entire Steely Dan collection and obviously the player prefers mid-period stuff, especially the funky songs, although it does have a particular predilection (I had to look that up...) for Deacon Blue.
I think that's what's meant by 'The ghost in the machine'.
By Deke, # 24. October 2006, 16:10:57
My shuffle behaved the same way when I used it for music. Definite mind of its own. And it was amazing at finding songs I had no idea were even in the collection, leaving me looking puzzled and stupid while listening to it, I'm sure, as well as bemoaning its lack of a screen to tell me what the hell was playing.
By anonymous user, # 25. October 2006, 03:42:40
My theory is that it goes by beats per minute. IT seems to keep a similar rhythm, maybe two or three themes broken into segments. Great when it gives me boogie music when I am working out, not so great when it decides it wants to play Morphine and I am on the fast cycle on the treadmill.
And I have one song on there that i have no idea where it came from, why I have it or when I obtained it.
By anonymous user, # 25. October 2006, 13:51:56
I have no idea how the Shuffle works, but I can tell you that if you had an iPod with a screen you would have the option of doing a shuffle by Album as well as by Song. With such a feature you could more easily determine whether your new friend has actual moods, or if it simply suffers from a form of ADD. ;-)
By anonymous user, # 26. October 2006, 13:50:32