Make a smarter smart mode

Gabriel
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:15 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by Gabriel »

Hello,

I'm using Guayadeque and enjoy it, but I have a problem with the smart mode: it always makes me listen to the same songs and does not seem to let me discover new songs, although I have an extensive music library. I have the feeling that it's always the same 50 songs repeating and repeating, even although I set "do not repeat the last 20 artists or 100 tracks" and a smart playlist of 100 tracks.

The problem is that I do not like some of the songs that are repeated over and over, and even if I skip the track and/or remove it from the playlist, it will come back again and again. And for the songs I like, it's alsol not so good to hear them too much, until I got tired.

I guess that Guayadeque's smart mode algorithm gives a song a higher probability to be played when a good note is given (which is good) and also when a song has been played many times (which is not so good). It means that if a song you don't like is added to a smart playlist and then played, its playcount is incremented, so it increases the probability that the song is added again in the smart playlist. Repeat the process 10 or 20 times and Guayadeque "thinks" it is a good idea to make you listen to the bad song.

I suggest the following modification: each time a song is skipped or deleted from a smart playlist, decrease the probability that it is added again in the smart playlist, and of course if the song has a bad note do not add it as well. Also it would be awesome to have a slider with on the left "priority to songs I like" and on the right "priority to new songs".

Meanwhile, I had to stop using the smart mode and switched to fully random tracks added to the playlist.

Thank you for Guayadeque!
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anonbeat
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Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:47 pm

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by anonbeat »

Guayadeque smart mode dont use the ratings or the playcounts.

Do a playlist with the tracks that you dont to be added and set it as the deny filter so the tracks in the deny filter will not be included.
Be sure you are not limiting the number of tracks to be selected in the allow filter.

Thanks for your comments
Gabriel
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:15 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by Gabriel »

Ah, okay, then maybe it's based on Last.fm or Libre.fm (I use both services)?
Thank you for your solution, and good luck for the development of Guayadeque :)
tamalet
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Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:34 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by tamalet »

As far as I know it uses only Last.fm but you don't need to have an account with the service.
rickstone
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:57 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by rickstone »

This is something that has been bothering me as well. While the deny filter is a great thing to have (though the static nature of a playlist for this purpose seems somewhat confining), it truly does seem as if there are a few things going on. First, smart node DOES definitely repeat the same tracks/artists/albums regardless of what you select in preferences. Second, a love/ban or +/- or thumbs up/down (or some combination of love/ban and +/- for keeping tracks out of smart mode or giving them a lower or higher priority in the algorithm) would be super helpful. Also it seems as if it takes the top last.fm match or the first 100% match instead of mixing things up a bit. Many times I have had the exact same song repeat within a couple of hours. I have more than 40k tracks in my library so this sort of thing really shouldn't happen. I'm not sure how to work around this, but I'm sure it's not that tough an obstacle to tackle.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from smart mode but, this (and possibly a visual refresh) coupled with all the innovations in library management and speed in Guayadeque would really help to push it to the forefront of Linux music players.
camaron
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Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:38 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by camaron »

rickstone wrote:This is something that has been bothering me as well. While the deny filter is a great thing to have (though the static nature of a playlist for this purpose seems somewhat confining), it truly does seem as if there are a few things going on. First, smart node DOES definitely repeat the same tracks/artists/albums regardless of what you select in preferences. Second, a love/ban or +/- or thumbs up/down (or some combination of love/ban and +/- for keeping tracks out of smart mode or giving them a lower or higher priority in the algorithm) would be super helpful. Also it seems as if it takes the top last.fm match or the first 100% match instead of mixing things up a bit. Many times I have had the exact same song repeat within a couple of hours. I have more than 40k tracks in my library so this sort of thing really shouldn't happen. I'm not sure how to work around this, but I'm sure it's not that tough an obstacle to tackle.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from smart mode but, this (and possibly a visual refresh) coupled with all the innovations in library management and speed in Guayadeque would really help to push it to the forefront of Linux music players.
I personally think that you are right when you say you (really, people in general) expect too much from the smart mod. It probably is fair to say that any particular kind of standard list-generation is going to disagree with many people: what would be ok for you wouldn't be for me.

It is a long time now that I stopped using the smart mode. But guayadeque still produces good dynamic streams for me: I define big dynamic playlist based on genre, I add to them the rule of not having being played in the last week; this will be the allow filter. And then I set the deny filter to above certain stars. Preferences is set to play random tracks.

The above is just a tiny example but you get the idea. Maybe is a bit more involved but at least the level of customisation is much, much greater.
rickstone
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:57 am

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by rickstone »

That's a good point, camaron. I suppose what would make ME, and probably/possibly others, more happy is maybe just offering more choices to tailor the stream the way you would like. I suppose keeping things the way they are for those who like it, but then having additional or advanced options to help tailor the algorithm more to each users liking. But, maybe that's going too far. That said, I find that I'm listening to Pandora more and more and my own collection (via Guayadeque) less and less for just this reason.
tamalet
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Make a smarter smart mode

Post by tamalet »

@rickstone You mention the "static nature of a playlist". Just to clarify, filters can be dynamic playlists, like as @camaron mentioned, the songs played in the last week.
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anonbeat
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Make a smarter smart mode

Post by anonbeat »

I will try to find out why its repeating as if you have set not repeat the last 20 artists or 100 tracks it should not include over and over again.
Also keep in mind that its very important to have the music correctly tagged so guayadeque can find it.

Note:
After many tests I dont see its repeating artists or tracks.
hasufell
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Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:53 pm

Make a smarter smart mode

Post by hasufell »

Remember that the dynamic playlist "last played tracks" is set to a range of ONE day by default. You can set it to whatever you want.
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