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Soandso
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I'll become a paying user based on the 3rd trial described here; good fun for a very reasonable cost. Having listened to a large portion of this 3rd generated playlist I am pleased with a sense that what am being offered isn't just some routine the-best-of compilation. Of this playlist's 38 songs there may be one among them which, depending on my mood at the time, I'd skip or decide to simply delete.
I again, as for 2nd trial, entered guitarist Dick McDonough (1904-1938) as the seed artist. However, for this trial made the selection for "Balanced" which the O.P. mentioned widens the search circle. Who the "Vault" came up with can be seen in the 1st screen shot below.
Here below are screen shots of the actual playlist generated. This time it even included 3 Dick McDonough tracks among fellow guitarist old timers Lonnie Johnson (1899-1970), Eddie Lang (1902-1933), Carl Kress (1907-1965), George Barnes (1921-1957), and Chuck Wayne (1923-1997).
I again, as for 2nd trial, entered guitarist Dick McDonough (1904-1938) as the seed artist. However, for this trial made the selection for "Balanced" which the O.P. mentioned widens the search circle. Who the "Vault" came up with can be seen in the 1st screen shot below.
Here below are screen shots of the actual playlist generated. This time it even included 3 Dick McDonough tracks among fellow guitarist old timers Lonnie Johnson (1899-1970), Eddie Lang (1902-1933), Carl Kress (1907-1965), George Barnes (1921-1957), and Chuck Wayne (1923-1997).
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OP
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Thank you !
Hearing it doesn't feel like a routine "best-of" compilation is exactly what I'm going for, so this means a lot.
Great to see Dick McDonough turning up alongside Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Carl Kress, George Barnes, and Chuck Wayne. Balanced widens the circle and tends to surface more of these pre-war players and their deeper catalogs.
One thing I'm still improving is how well the pre-war catalog gets matched and pulled in. There are more McDonough and Kress recordings out there than are showing up right now. Tightening this up is on my list. These early-era playlists will keep getting richer over time and I'm working on it as we speak. Expect to have a fix for this by tomorrow.
Thanks for becoming a paying user. It helps more than you'd think. Keep the feedback coming.
Alessandro
Hearing it doesn't feel like a routine "best-of" compilation is exactly what I'm going for, so this means a lot.
Great to see Dick McDonough turning up alongside Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, Carl Kress, George Barnes, and Chuck Wayne. Balanced widens the circle and tends to surface more of these pre-war players and their deeper catalogs.
One thing I'm still improving is how well the pre-war catalog gets matched and pulled in. There are more McDonough and Kress recordings out there than are showing up right now. Tightening this up is on my list. These early-era playlists will keep getting richer over time and I'm working on it as we speak. Expect to have a fix for this by tomorrow.
Thanks for becoming a paying user. It helps more than you'd think. Keep the feedback coming.
Alessandro
OP
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@Soandso
Wanted to follow up on your feedback about guitarist seeds pulling in the wider swing world, that was spot on and it pushed a set of improvements that are now live.
Seeds like Charlie Christian now build rosters of actual guitarists, and playlists for very early artists (1920s-1930s) now anchor to the right era and surface the right recordings.
One small truth: for seeds that old or obscure, the playlists can be short, I can only include what the streaming platforms actually carry, and pre-war catalogs are thin everywhere.
I am also testing a further refinement to the recommendation engine that should make Essential even more instrument-pure for genres where the instrument defines the artist (jazz, blues, classical). It needs proper testing across genres before it ships, so no promises on timing, but it is in the works.
Thanks again for the feedback
Alessandro
Wanted to follow up on your feedback about guitarist seeds pulling in the wider swing world, that was spot on and it pushed a set of improvements that are now live.
Seeds like Charlie Christian now build rosters of actual guitarists, and playlists for very early artists (1920s-1930s) now anchor to the right era and surface the right recordings.
One small truth: for seeds that old or obscure, the playlists can be short, I can only include what the streaming platforms actually carry, and pre-war catalogs are thin everywhere.
I am also testing a further refinement to the recommendation engine that should make Essential even more instrument-pure for genres where the instrument defines the artist (jazz, blues, classical). It needs proper testing across genres before it ships, so no promises on timing, but it is in the works.
Thanks again for the feedback
Alessandro
Soandso
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This morning for the purpose of testing any changes I re-entered on "essential" setting the same 10+ old jazz guitarists' names I created a playlist from last night. The "vault" had some issues! I think the "vault" was generally functioning better before this last tweak to it.
For example when typed in the old guitarist Django Reinhardt the "vault" only reported one result. A 2nd time when re-entered his name and pressed "discover" again only the same one result was displayed. Top most screen shot below shows this.
In closing a worse re-testing I have a screen shot to show (last image below) was for the old jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Last night the "vault" had appropriate suggestions and this morning was way off. And further re-testing using the artist drop down menu for "joe venuti quartet" kicked out the exact same off-base suggestions.
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OP
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Soandso
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QUOTE #50's post: …Thanks …for … feedback.
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My comment =
Fun was how I yesterday described the app and after sundown about 10 stairway steps into my nightly 1,000 a new SonicO playlist made me laugh from these previously unknown lyrics "… I know an old boy who had the blues… Feets so big that couldn't get shoes.…The shoe clerk said 'Come back again. And I'll fit you with the box that the shoes come in."….
That playlist's origin started with a "type in genre" entry for "western swing" which brought no results. I then entered "rockabilly" which got some responses so generated that playlist(s). Next for western swing leads using the artist search I entered the old timer "Bob Wills" and the vault gave results which generated separate playlists when set for "essential" and following that also "balanced". So I combined these and that is what enjoyed listening to while getting my stairs' exercise done to playlist selections that weren't just what I'd always heard streaming.
Another SonicO playlist from yesterday (before that last reported vault modification) built from the exploratory tactic of using both the essential and then the balanced settings separately for each artist (about 20 old time guitar and violin jazz notables) was what I just got home from listening to on my daily 1 hour morning walk (I'm retired). The artists and tracks weren't narrowly focused but I found the SonicO selections perfectly enjoyable and within parameters of their jazz era, which I happen to like. Again, the selections were not just a bunch of jazz golden-oldies so were engaging to hear as I was out sidewalk steppin'.
At this time I'd like to review the "Advanced" option and give it a thumbs down for anyone who has formed over the years some musical preferences. At first I browsed through a few advanced playlists generated off of individual old jazz guitarist names to review the results and very soon gave up bothering. I did keep some of the earliest compiled into a single "advanced" identified playlist for potentially revisiting with a future artist by artist perusal.
Lastly:
It surprised me to find entries in playlists generated via the vault's search which carried the "E" tag which signified explicit lyrics. My recollection is this occurred mostly when I was individually searching over 10s of names of jazz violinists' and not the real old timers. However, for some of the above mentioned early experiments in advanced playlists there were multiple artists' with explicit lyric notations, and even in at least one advanced playlist there was one single artist with about 5 tracks that all were annotated "E."
-----------------------------------------
My comment =
Fun was how I yesterday described the app and after sundown about 10 stairway steps into my nightly 1,000 a new SonicO playlist made me laugh from these previously unknown lyrics "… I know an old boy who had the blues… Feets so big that couldn't get shoes.…The shoe clerk said 'Come back again. And I'll fit you with the box that the shoes come in."….
That playlist's origin started with a "type in genre" entry for "western swing" which brought no results. I then entered "rockabilly" which got some responses so generated that playlist(s). Next for western swing leads using the artist search I entered the old timer "Bob Wills" and the vault gave results which generated separate playlists when set for "essential" and following that also "balanced". So I combined these and that is what enjoyed listening to while getting my stairs' exercise done to playlist selections that weren't just what I'd always heard streaming.
Another SonicO playlist from yesterday (before that last reported vault modification) built from the exploratory tactic of using both the essential and then the balanced settings separately for each artist (about 20 old time guitar and violin jazz notables) was what I just got home from listening to on my daily 1 hour morning walk (I'm retired). The artists and tracks weren't narrowly focused but I found the SonicO selections perfectly enjoyable and within parameters of their jazz era, which I happen to like. Again, the selections were not just a bunch of jazz golden-oldies so were engaging to hear as I was out sidewalk steppin'.
At this time I'd like to review the "Advanced" option and give it a thumbs down for anyone who has formed over the years some musical preferences. At first I browsed through a few advanced playlists generated off of individual old jazz guitarist names to review the results and very soon gave up bothering. I did keep some of the earliest compiled into a single "advanced" identified playlist for potentially revisiting with a future artist by artist perusal.
Lastly:
It surprised me to find entries in playlists generated via the vault's search which carried the "E" tag which signified explicit lyrics. My recollection is this occurred mostly when I was individually searching over 10s of names of jazz violinists' and not the real old timers. However, for some of the above mentioned early experiments in advanced playlists there were multiple artists' with explicit lyric notations, and even in at least one advanced playlist there was one single artist with about 5 tracks that all were annotated "E."
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Soandso
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Finished tonight's 1,000 stair steppin' exercise listening to my new 3,163 tune SonicO playlist which, to me, came out enjoyably mixed. Those tunes could run non-stop for 8.9 days and was easy to compile from what the vault came up with 2 days ago (before the OP's subsequent attempt to improve artist seeding).
With a quick learning curve it's rewarding to get more out of the search options. So although my 3,163 tracks mixes artists/genre eras at anytime I can seed the vault to rapidly give me short more specialized playlist to meet my mood.
With a quick learning curve it's rewarding to get more out of the search options. So although my 3,163 tracks mixes artists/genre eras at anytime I can seed the vault to rapidly give me short more specialized playlist to meet my mood.
OP
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OP
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Soandso
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Quote: "…a new fix was shipped this morning …please test your discoveries again and let me know …."
My comment:
I have a playlist which combined both essential and balanced results for the old jazz artist Adrian Rollini which had been assembled on Aug 22 before the newest fix. This morning, Aug 24, I made the same combination of essential and balance playlist for him. And after had both of those assembled I made a totally separate playlist combining both the 22nd and the 24th Aug Adrian Rollini playlists (within my Tidal account) without that creation including any duplicate tracks in the Adrain Rollini Aug 22+24 playlist.
For informational purposes only here are different screen shots (the first is how the 3 are named within my Tidal account and shows the total number of tracks in each for easy comparison):
My comment:
I have a playlist which combined both essential and balanced results for the old jazz artist Adrian Rollini which had been assembled on Aug 22 before the newest fix. This morning, Aug 24, I made the same combination of essential and balance playlist for him. And after had both of those assembled I made a totally separate playlist combining both the 22nd and the 24th Aug Adrian Rollini playlists (within my Tidal account) without that creation including any duplicate tracks in the Adrain Rollini Aug 22+24 playlist.
For informational purposes only here are different screen shots (the first is how the 3 are named within my Tidal account and shows the total number of tracks in each for easy comparison):
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Good luck to this independent developer, but algorithmic recommendation is not for me. I’m also uninterested in following subgenre labels unmediated by taste and judgement down rabbit holes. It’s all too similar to the way AI “thinks,” narrowly and robotically with shallow associative links and too often ahistorically. Not to mention exacerbating the streaming-era syndrome of too-muchness, generating enormous playlists and curated mountains of endless hours of music that never manage to slow things down and give me even one minute of extra listening time.
New music and new-to-me discover of music of whatever vintage is important to me. I’m a words guy. I use reading, history, music criticism, friends, trusted human voices and storytellers, and serendipity to explore the unknown and the unexpected. You just can’t effectively code culture.
New music and new-to-me discover of music of whatever vintage is important to me. I’m a words guy. I use reading, history, music criticism, friends, trusted human voices and storytellers, and serendipity to explore the unknown and the unexpected. You just can’t effectively code culture.
Soandso
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Quote: "…a new fix was shipped this morning…please test your discoveries again … try the genre/decade discovery ….."
My comment:
I got back from morning walk and liked that "western swing" entered into "browse by genre" returned tracks unlike none were found days ago for "western swing."
Below is my Tidal playlists for this category. First I entered "western swing" in genre once for essential and then again for balanced. Then I entered the same genre for each of the era's of 1930 to 2010. In regards to the individual years' results the number of artists shown for different years was not consistent. Western swing's hey-day is long past so I don't think a year returning few different artists, followed by a year returning more different artists, and that followed by a year again returning fewer artists is of major concern.
EDIT: I just tried entering into the genre search box "jazz flute" and got no results; likewise for the genre "jazz violin" there was nothing found so I didn't continue those kinds of probings. If at all possible to expand the genre function for instrument parsing I think that would be an upgrade.
My comment:
I got back from morning walk and liked that "western swing" entered into "browse by genre" returned tracks unlike none were found days ago for "western swing."
Below is my Tidal playlists for this category. First I entered "western swing" in genre once for essential and then again for balanced. Then I entered the same genre for each of the era's of 1930 to 2010. In regards to the individual years' results the number of artists shown for different years was not consistent. Western swing's hey-day is long past so I don't think a year returning few different artists, followed by a year returning more different artists, and that followed by a year again returning fewer artists is of major concern.
EDIT: I just tried entering into the genre search box "jazz flute" and got no results; likewise for the genre "jazz violin" there was nothing found so I didn't continue those kinds of probings. If at all possible to expand the genre function for instrument parsing I think that would be an upgrade.
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Soandso
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If anyone interested in how entering a musician works out nicely here is yesterday's (23 Aug. 2026) "Vault" (not the "Popular" track selection option) generated music from my entry of the name "Edmond Hall" (1901-1967; jazz clarinetist born in Louisiana) with results from both "essential" and "balanced" which I then combined into this 81 track 4+ hour extended playlist. It has lots of little remembered recordings and so far (at least) no duds in my estimation - I'm enjoying swinging along at my desk and even tapping both feet. Probably took me all of about 15 minutes using SonicOracle to permanently create it and add to my Tidal library.
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Soandso
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Earlier today I mentioned how the Vault now had expanded "genre" coverage to at least "western swing." For general orientation here below are screen shots of 24 Aug.'s "essential" category results (no "balanced" results are shown). It probably took less than 10 minutes to program the entry settings and generate this 67 track 3 hour Tidal playlist.
I remember hearing the band Asleep At The Wheel (formed 1970) performing in a small room at my university in 1971 to about 20 of us sitting around on the floor carpet. Looks like some fun awaits me when get the chance to listen - and of course Tidal gives me unlimited skips if I should want to pass on any songs.
I remember hearing the band Asleep At The Wheel (formed 1970) performing in a small room at my university in 1971 to about 20 of us sitting around on the floor carpet. Looks like some fun awaits me when get the chance to listen - and of course Tidal gives me unlimited skips if I should want to pass on any songs.
OP
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@Soandso
Sorry for the late reply but I have been working on a fix for this
Glad western swing is landing now. The Edmond Hall clarinet set sounds like a perfect use of The Vault. Deep-cut discovery working as intended. The uneven artist counts across decades for a niche like western swing are expected. You read it right.
On "jazz flute" and "jazz violin" returning nothing: those aren't recognized as genres yet, which is why the browse comes up empty. But you've put your finger on something I want to do. Letting genre browse understand instruments, not styles alone. It's on my list. No timeline to promise but it's the kind of upgrade I want to make.
Something that might scratch the itch today: if you seed an individual clarinettist, violinist, or flautist by name on Essential, you get instrument-matched results. Seed Edmond Hall and you get other clarinettists. Seed Herbie Mann and you get other flute players. The engine understands the instrument even where genre browse doesn't yet.
Thanks again. This was useful.
Alessandro
Sorry for the late reply but I have been working on a fix for this
Glad western swing is landing now. The Edmond Hall clarinet set sounds like a perfect use of The Vault. Deep-cut discovery working as intended. The uneven artist counts across decades for a niche like western swing are expected. You read it right.
On "jazz flute" and "jazz violin" returning nothing: those aren't recognized as genres yet, which is why the browse comes up empty. But you've put your finger on something I want to do. Letting genre browse understand instruments, not styles alone. It's on my list. No timeline to promise but it's the kind of upgrade I want to make.
Something that might scratch the itch today: if you seed an individual clarinettist, violinist, or flautist by name on Essential, you get instrument-matched results. Seed Edmond Hall and you get other clarinettists. Seed Herbie Mann and you get other flute players. The engine understands the instrument even where genre browse doesn't yet.
Thanks again. This was useful.
Alessandro
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