Making shuffle very random

Question

Ive got one great smart folder in iTunes that picks from various other smart folders. It updates itself and is amazing.
BUT...on my iPod it tends to pick two songs next to each other from the same Smart Folder. It doesnt appear that random!
How can I make the shuffling even more random within my iPod and iTunes?
Tc

Answer 1

Okay, first, let me repeat that random is random and your brain isn't. In early days we had lot of discussion where people attempted to prove that random wasn't random. Apple eventually added the shuffle options in the Preferences to, in effect, make random less random!
Basically, if you set Smart Shuffle to the Random setting, you get real randomness which means you might wind up hearing four Stones songs in a row. If you move the slider in one direction, you increase the likelihood that the next song will be by the same artist or on the same album while if you move it in the other direction you decrease that likelihood. If you select the Artist or Grouping then an Artist or Grouping is randomly selected and all the songs by that Artist or Grouping will be played one after the other, then a different Artist or Grouping will be randomly selected.
Of course you can also create a smartlist that selects music randomly from your criteria. This random selection isn't influenced by the preference settings so your criteria might be selecting 100 songs from 20 different artists and wind up with 50 songs by one artist. No matter how randomly you try to play that list, your chances of getting three songs by the same artists are pretty good.