I'm on my lunch break right now so I took the time to swap out some of the things on my player, but I was wondering how often does anyone else do this? I usually leave the same music on mine for a few weeks and then switch to something else - but it's more out of lazyness than anything (that and a 256MB capacity).

Also, what are you listening to? Here's what I have cocked and loaded:

Mega Man 7 SNES Game Rip (getting ready for the official soundtracks)
Mega Man 8 Saturn Game Rip (some of the songs sound crunchier on the Saturn)
Bruce Dickinson: Skunkworks (damn you Zane!)
Luca Turilli's Dreamquest: Lost Horizons (a combination of euro metal with techno-ish synth and operatic vocals)
Heavenly: Virus (true blue, stereotypical european speed metal)
Def Leppard: On Through the Night (I love how aged the production sounds, adds to the overall feel)

Never. The lovely thing about the big capacity players is that I can have my entire collection (or pretty much) with me the whole time. Sure, most might not need or want that but I love it. Was on the bus the other day and suddenly the sunny day song from Vib Ribbon came into my head. A couple of flicks later, I'm listening to it.

You love it!

Edit: just read the "Also, what are you listening to?" part.

I've been listening to the Chrono Cross OST every night before bed for the past couple of weeks, so that's been near the top of my "now playing" list. I've also been blasting some tunes from GTA Vice City during my ride home from work and enjoying kt2's disc of LC infinia.

I'm swapping stuff out right now, for work tomorrow. I have 300MB free on my 30GB (a rarity) and I need to take out about 20 songs I didn't like today at work and I have a million different ways to fill that extra space. Think I'll work in some Dio, some Whitesnake, some Stratovarius, the rest of Cinderella, some Gamadelic arranges and for whatever reason, I didn't have Snatcher Battle in there...Odd, but that flaw's been fixed. My iPod's selection just got even more awesome.

Currently listening:

Motley Crue: (80's discography) - The more I hear Mick Mars play, the more I want to hear. Even songs I didn't like a few months ago on their earlier albums, I'm loving now. Even the ballads. Which scares even me.

Alice Cooper - I have to give these guys more respect...All they do is just deliver, song after song. I already knew "School's Out", but line up "Spark in the Dark", "Stoopid", "Hurricane Years" and "Might As Well Be on Mars"...I yield to greatness.

Dragonforce - ...Holy damn! Do they give speeding tickets for playing this fast? Not bad for a bunch of guys inspired by classic VGM.

Salamander 2 - THE quintessential shmup score, IMO. After Lords of Thunder and maybe Gradius III/Viper Phase 1/Ibara. "Sensation"al stuff.

Final Fantasy IV - Yeah, it's rusty, but it still works better than the newer ones for the most part. I know most of the score, so I just keep 20 or so of the "killer" tracks on my pod. Woohoo for looped SPC's!

Cotton 100% Arrange - Lively little arranged thing that complements the actual SPC rip very nicely with upgraded drum samples and synth. Very gamey, very fun, just what the original score called for.

Actually, right now, I'm just messing around with random shuffle and not staying in one place for too long...Removing most of the dead weight over time makes it seem like the iPod gives me something I want everytime a new song comes up. A few months ago, I'd have to hit skip every 2-3 songs...I never had a streak of more than 7 good songs in a row. I chained 22 together today before a dud came up.

Scary thing: Three days in a row, it's given me Robot #28 from Ibara on total random shuffle. The odds are 1 in 8000 I'd get a song once, what are the odds I'd get it three days in a row? And that was the only song that duplicated over a three day period too.

You know who Strat is!? Frickin' awesome, I have a few of their albums myself... I like the pre-kotipelto era (1989-1994) with Tolkki at singer the most. I seriously would never give up my copy of 94's Dreamspace - Tolkki's scream on "Shattered" give me chills! 92's Twilight Time is another favorite.

Edit:

I got the chance to see them live in Cleveland back in 2005. I almost got Jorg's drum stick after he broke one but I got a warm beer down the back from the guy behind me instead, lol.

If you know who Strat are you familar with Sonata Arctica?

Yeah, someone nominated "Cold Winter Nights" over at one of the  Gamingforce contests and I really liked their style, so I gave them a serious look. I'm not an expert on them, but I'm most familiar with their self-titled album and Forth Dimension and some of "Destiny" (CWN, Anthem of the World). Can't say I like every song they do, but when they hit the sweet spot, they hit the sweet spot. I'm surprised their marathons keep me as entertained as they do.

But yeah...Helloween, Dragonforce, Stratovarius, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, desperately trying to like Sinergy...I can eat this kind of power metal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I still need to pick up that new Helloween album from this year.

Edit: I've heard the name Sonata Arctica, but I haven't checked out any of their stuff yet. Recommendations?

I don't know where to begin... I'd recommend everything outside their most recent album, I just couldn't get into it. I'd also recommend checking out older Stratovarius as well - it's not as "metal" as Fourth Dimension and beyond but considering the other bands/music you're mentioning I think you'd enjoy their rock-like roots.

To be honest though I'm just getting back into metal myself... there was about a nine month gap where I gave most of these records a rest... ever so slightly they've been making back onto to my mp3 player.

Not to big on Helloween's new stuff, I haven't been happy with their output since 2000's Dark Ride

Sinergy is really hit and miss with me as well, like some stuff but not enough to make a purchase

I swap out music every other day or so but it's mostly incremental and automatic, done through smart playlists in J River Media Center.  Anytime I add new music to my collection it automatically gets loaded into my nano, as do favorite tracks that have gone a long time without being listened to.

Looking forward to upgrading to a 16GB player so (almost) all my 4 and 5-star tracks can fit on it

Yeah, my problem is this stuff is completely new to me...As in, back in April, the only non-VGM related bands I knew about or had anything of were Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. So right now, I'm trying to keep between 50-100 bands from different eras and their (sometimes massive) discographies and band members straight while still taking in others...So every recommendation helps put music with names (although sometimes it works the opposite way too...I wanted to see for myself why hair bands were always so ridiculed -outside of how they looked- and I ended up enjoying quite a few of them).

I'm going through the same thing. Since I've been cleaning house, my shuffle has been less of a curse and more something I really enjoy without skipping through it.

That's not scary, that's awesome. Robot #28 is a great tune.

Awesome!  I should've expected this from the same person who loves Edguy.  Their newest album, "Unia" is just great, and I can't wait to discover their back catalogue. 

There are a few essential albums that stay on the ipod no matter what, Soilwork's discography, Our Lady Peace, Meshuggah, Opeth, and a few others, but other than that, there's about 3-5 Gigs that are in constant rotation. 

Lately I've been listening to:

Sybreed - Antares (Welcome back boys!)
Amoral - Reptile Ride
Hacride - Amoeba
Soilwork - Sworn to a Great Divide
Sekaiju no MeiQ  (please forgive the spelling)
Wangang Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (I must be on a Yuzo Koshiro kick, and it's weird:  I don't really like this style of music in general, but this is one of the must-own soundtracks of this year)

I'm just getting into some MintJam, giving killer7 a shot (thanks Zane!) and trying to rediscover Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- and Seiken Densetsu 4 -sanctuary-.