Random Copy

[Andrew Lee]

First, let me get the summary out of the way. From the website:

https://www.bernd-leitenberger.de/randomcopy.shtml

I programmed Random Copy to solve an Issue with my MP3-Player which I used some Time ago. It was a simple Device and it only played all Songs in alphabetical order. You could not resort it, and it had no random play function. For that i programmed Random Copy, simply to arrange the Songs in random order. Over the time people asked me after other functions, so it got more complex. For Version 3.1, I redesigned the User-interface.

The program has a portable mode. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work. Clicking on the "Enable portable mode" button in settings creates RandomCopy.ini, but it appears to continue to read from the user profile folder (AppData\Roaming\BL-Soft). Even after I delete everything from the user profile folder, it continues to create a new INI file in the user profile folder, which is quite frustrating.

I can't find a way to contact the author about this, and since this program was last updated in 2016, I think the chances of the problem getting fixed is probably quite low.

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Now why would I post something like this, which hasn't been updated since 2016?

The reason is, I don't seem to be the only one who has this need, and in 2023, there's surprisingly not a good portable util that will perform this simple job.

I have been using a Java program called Mix2stix for the MP3 player in my car for many years now. Over the years, I have recommended this util for a few friends who encountered this problem. It's not just car MP3 players without a random play function. A number of them do have such a function, but the randomizer is not written probably. So instead of taking the entire sound list and randomizing the songs in the list, they simply generate a random number and play the song. So if you have a song list with 10 songs, instead of playing each song exactly once in some random order, it might play songs 2, 5, 6 multiple times just by pure chance, which is really annoying.

One way to solve this problem is to copy the files to the memory stick or SD card in random order, and just get the MP3 player to play without randomization, which is why you need a utility to copy files in random order, preferrably having the option to specify the total size of files you want to copy.

So couple of days back, a friend mentioned he has this problem (and he's driving a 5yo car!, so I guess firmware programmers for car MP3 players haven't improved much over the years..). I tried recommending Mix2stix, but he didn't want to install a Java runtime on his laptop. So I decided to google and see if anything better has emerged since then, and to my surprise, I could only find Random Copy, which is from 2016!

If any of you have a better program to recommend for doing this, or can tell me how to make Random Copy portable, I am all ears.

(My friend doesn't actually care about portability, so he is happily using the program now. But if there's a way to make it portable, I would love to replace Mix2stix with it)

[Cornflower]

I use ReNaMeR by Den4b to do exactly this. https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=562

I copy my mp3s to a temp directory, then rename them using the Randomize rule. I then copy them to the memory stick or my old mp3 player. On one player, no longer around, I also had to wipe the tags first, but it was quick and easy. I don't recall the portable tool I used for wiping the tags back then.

[Andrew Lee]

I use ReNaMeR by Den4b to do exactly this. https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=562

I copy my mp3s to a temp directory, then rename them using the Randomize rule. I then copy them to the memory stick or my old mp3 player. On one player, no longer around, I also had to wipe the tags first, but it was quick and easy. I don't recall the portable tool I used for wiping the tags back then.

Thanks for the suggestion! But in this case, wouldn't the display on the MP3 player be totally messed up since it usually displays the filename?

[Cornflower]

[quote]Thanks for the suggestion! But in this case, wouldn't the display on the MP3 player be totally messed up since it usually displays the filename?[/quote]

In my case, I usually just randomize 2-3 characters and choose the prefix radio button, followed by a dash, then the original name. It still looks funny, but you know the name of the MP3.