OK, so I've been an Iriver Clix 2 user for the past two year - best rated MP3 player on multiple sites a few years back - and no doubt one of the best sounding mp3 players ever. I hated apple and ipods and the monopoly i saw them building for themselves. well i finally gave in and asked for an ipod this year and got one.

downloaded itunes and seemed to move all 70gb of my music collection into it (a few hours later). But how in the HELL do I randomly shuffle my library to synch to the ipod? I mean with the clix and windows media player I was able to randomly add songs onto the player, and re synched whenever I got tired of the songs that were on it. I can't figure out how to do this on the ipod and its driving me nuts.

I'm searching the web as I write, any insight from you ipod old timers??????????????

mucho gracias in advance.

 

Sorry, confused by your question... I take it your songs are organized into playlists but what do you mean by "shuffle a playlist to synch to the ipod"? You can select which playlists are loaded onto the iPod and once you select which playlist to listen to, you can then choose to shuffle the songs to be played...

 

sorry I edited my post to hopefully clarify. I actually don't have my songs organized in playlists, just by artist, etc. How do I randomize my library to fill my ipod?

 

Not an expert but once you have successfully loaded all your songs in to iTunes you have several options. You can simply load all the songs into one playlist and have the iPod shuffle the songs for a mix or you can set up various playlists according to what ever categories you wish and shuffle within the individual playlist. I personally have all my songs in one playlist (Ken's Music) which then use in my car, simply allowing the random function to shuffle the songs for me. I do have separate playlists for Jazz and Classical but Ken's Music is all my rock stuff...

 

i think i got it - much harder to find and understand than media player though. we'll see how it goes.

in order to autofill my ipod i had to select manually manage though - anything to look out for having selected that option going forward?

 

Thanks for the help Ken! I'm getting used to this thing, but HATE that I have to relearn everything in the "Apple" way - but damn, if you want cool apps, accessories, etc you almost have to go with an ipod nowadays.

Again, appreciate your assistance.

-Bryan

 

Glad to help Bryan! Once you have manually selected which playlists to load on your iPod, you're basically good to go. If you purchase a new song from iTunes or load something from another source (like a CD), then you'll need to add it to the playlists you want and Sync, won't happen automatically. There is a section called "Recently Added" in iTunes which will show new songs. You can drag and drop to which ever playlists you want the songs in. And a song can be in multiple playlists if you want it that way...

 

Purely from an idiots POV and not a smart assed one...what's all this talk about playlists? do you have to move your entire library into a playlist, like you said with all your rock music, or can you just autofill from your entire library (assuming you want a random sample of ALL your music)? Why do you create a playlist, or only to separate your rock from your classical?

I prefer to have an eclectic mix of all my music (rock, rap, country, folk, sinatra, etc) on my player, so i can go from some John Prine to Hed Pe in one change of a song. I don't understand the usefulness of a playlist in that situation, am i missing something?

 

It is purely a way to categorize your music. Not required if that's what you prefer...

For example, I have a Running playlist for songs that I like to listen to while running. I want to be selective in that list to songs with a good, upbeat tempo. So it's helpful to make a Running playlist. I generally don't like to mix the Jazz and Classical with my rock stuff so I keep them separate. I know others who do make playlists for parties, dance mixes as well as separating rock, rap R&B etc. But you can easily leave it all lumped together and play it as one giant group..

 

Oh, and good to see you have finally been assimilated!!