TrackRate user guide
Mixer
Build weighted TrackRate Mixer recipes, control ingredients, generate playlists, and manage repeat behavior.
6 questions
What is the Mixer, and when should I use it instead of a playlist?
Mixer is a Premium mode that continuously chooses tracks from weighted ingredient groups. Use it when you want a reusable listening formula—such as 50% rock, 30% soul, and 20% ambient—rather than one fixed sequence.
A static playlist is better when exact membership and order matter. A Mixer recipe is better when the library changes and you want future sessions or generated playlists to reflect the same proportions.
What can I use as a Mixer ingredient?
Ingredients can target artists, albums, tags, years or ranges, folders, durations, ratings, and other supported scopes. Examples include artist:Radiohead, album:OK Computer, #rock, year:1990-2000, folder:Jazz, or dur:>10.
- 45%
#alternative - 25%
year:1990-1999 - 20%
#ambient - 10%
dur:>8
Overlapping tracks can qualify through more than one ingredient, so inspect each pool rather than assuming the labels are mutually exclusive.
How do ingredient weights and strictness affect the result?
Weights express the desired share of selections from each ingredient. Strictness controls how closely Mixer tries to maintain that balance over time. Higher strictness follows the proportions more tightly; lower strictness allows more natural drift and short-term variation.
Percentages cannot create tracks that do not exist. A 40% ingredient with only a few eligible files will drain quickly unless repeats or drift behavior allow the session to continue.
What do Repeat, Stop, Drift, and the drain indicator mean?
The drain indicator estimates how quickly an ingredient’s available pool is being consumed. Stop ends the mix when a required ingredient can no longer satisfy the recipe. Drift lets the remaining ingredients continue when one runs out. Repeat settings determine whether and how often used tracks can return.
If a mix stops early, find the ingredient at 0%. Add more qualifying tracks, reduce its weight to match its pool size, allow appropriate repeats, or switch from Stop to Drift.
| Setting | When an ingredient drains | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Stop + no repeats | The mix ends | Strict, finite recipe tests |
| Drift + no repeats | Other ingredients continue | Long sessions without repetition |
| Stop + limited repeats | The mix ends after repeat capacity is used | Controlled-duration sessions |
| Drift + repeats | The session can continue indefinitely | Background listening |
How do filters affect live Mixer playback and generated Mixer playlists?
Live Mixer playback uses the recipe’s saved scope against the library. Generate Playlist additionally captures the filters currently visible in the library and intersects them with that scope. This lets you generate a contextual version of a recipe, but an unrelated forgotten filter can make the result unexpectedly small.
A “Balanced Favorites” recipe generated while year:2015-2022, dur:>5, and ratings 8–10 are active becomes a playlist constrained to those conditions. Clear them first if they should not become part of the generated pool.
How do I troubleshoot a Mixer recipe that sounds unbalanced?
Inspect the eligible count and drain state for every ingredient. Confirm that weights total the intended balance and that broad groups are not overwhelming small ones. Overlap also matters: one track may satisfy several ingredients and make the audible balance differ from the labels.
Test the ingredients individually, reduce strictness temporarily, and run a shorter session. Change only one weight or control at a time so you can tell which adjustment caused the improvement.
No questions match that search.