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Topic: Help With Setting Up (Read 6144 times) previous topic - next topic
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Help With Setting Up

Having seen the light and ditched VLC (at least for audio), I am revelling in the customisability of FB2K.  However, I am still mystified by some things, and have features for a personal wish list if they are not already available – there is a great deal to digest and if anyone can point me in the right direction I will be grateful.

I hesitate to add to the pinned wish list topic, in case things are already implemented.  If they are not, I'll add them there.

  • I note the Playback >> Stop after current menu option.  I would really like there to be another option to make this persistent instead of it clearing itself after one event.  For example: in the Musicolet app (Android) there is a radio button control for when a song (AKA track) ends to "just stop there", "load the next song and pause", "play next song", and "repeat the same song".  The queue (playlist) controls are "just stop there", "jump to next queue", and "repeat the same queue" (with an option to re-shuffle).

  • Transport controls (stop play pause etc) in a separate UI panel which can be sized and placed as required.

  • A more informative progress bar in a separate UI panel...

  • Much longer timebase options on the Oscilloscope visualisation.  I want to see the dynamic over the whole track, not just some squiggly lines for the current play point.

  • I would prefer the cover art displayed didn't hop around with the cursor and displays the currently playing track regardless.  Maybe that could be an option, and then have two UI panels for cover art - one for each.

  • I love the DSP speed/pitch/tempo control, but now I have discovered tempo alteration doesn't cause any unwanted glitches (how does it do that???) I have no use for speed and pitch control, so it would be good to have a UI panel which only shows a tempo slider.  Maybe the existing panel could have options to turn off unwanted controls?  Some configurable presets would be nice too.

Maybe some of these ideas can be implemented through the SDK if I try hard enough.  Pointers?
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #1 –
Quote from: fooball on
  • I note the Playback >> Stop after current menu option.  I would really like there to be another option to make this persistent instead of it clearing itself after one event.
Go to Preferences/Playback/Other and UN-check the choice "Reset the above when stopping";  keep "Stop playback after current track" checked.

Quote from: fooball on
  • Transport controls (stop play pause etc) in a separate UI panel which can be sized and placed as required.
Read up on Layout Editing Mode  which can do all that and more.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #2 –
Great!  Thanks.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #3 –
Quote from: fooball on
  • I note the Playback >> Stop after current menu option.  I would really like there to be another option to make this persistent instead of it clearing itself after one event.  For example: in the Musicolet app (Android) there is a radio button control for when a song (AKA track) ends to "just stop there", "load the next song and pause", "play next song", and "repeat the same song".  The queue (playlist) controls are "just stop there", "jump to next queue", and "repeat the same queue" (with an option to re-shuffle).

Add some toolbar buttons for some of these - Playback > Next, Playback > Order > Repeat (track) (etc), File > Next Playlist (etc). Playlist Attributes can make Stop After Current work per playlist, and adds Stop After Selected Track - can also be buttons. There is Stop After Queue.

Hold SHIFT key when clicking a menu to see hidden commands - all menu commands can be set as buttons / keys.

Quote
  • Transport controls (stop play pause etc) in a separate UI panel which can be sized and placed as required.

Add a Toolbar Header anywhere and put some buttons on it. (Wiki: Layout Editing Mode for DUI)

Default UI is limited to toolbar -sized buttons (ICO icons), but Columns UI can have larger buttons (PNG icons). You can visit somewhere like Icons8 to download tons of PNG icons and use ICO converter if needed. (This last site is not the one I've used before, but sometimes ICO conversion can come out fuzzy when placed on a toolbar - if so, maybe try an image editor to convert)

Note: Columns UI is a completely different interface that offers more customization options, but is mutually exclusive to Default UI (can only use one or the other) where not all components work on both. I'd recommend learning the basics on DUI and see if that satisfies your needs before jumping into the deep end with CUI, but whatever...

Otherwise, there is a basic script-based controls with JScript Panel / Spider Monkey Panel - Playback Controls & Current Track Info sample script. You can possibly steal a script from other themes but that is getting to a pretty advanced (javascript) level of theming.

Quote
  • A more informative progress bar in a separate UI panel...
  • Much longer timebase options on the Oscilloscope visualisation.  I want to see the dynamic over the whole track, not just some squiggly lines for the current play point.

Waveform Seekbar (which can be made to look like Soundcloud), or the newer Waveform Minibar, or JScript Panel with a Spectrogram Seekbar (screenshots).

Quote
  • I would prefer the cover art displayed didn't hop around with the cursor and displays the currently playing track regardless.  Maybe that could be an option, and then have two UI panels for cover art - one for each.
Preferences > Display > under Selection Viewers > Prefer currently playing track.

Columns UI can have two Artwork View panels for each - playing / selected track. Default UI would need another artwork component. Funnily enough I just answered a similar question over on reddit - add a secondary / pop-up cover art panel.

Cheers

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #4 –
Quote from: fooball on
I would prefer the cover art displayed didn't hop around with the cursor and displays the currently playing track regardless. 

OK, I've figured out how to do that (Preferences >> Display >> Selection Viewers >> Prefer currently playing track)
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #5 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
<snip>

Many thanks for all that.  I discovered the "Prefer currently playing track" for myself simultaneous with your posting (as above).

It's all looking very good and I will report progress.  Thank you for your (and others) interest.

Meanwhile, I'm looking for a way to display a clock.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #6 –
Question: is there a way to try out alternative UIs without ripping up my current configuration (which is useable, if not entirely perfect)?  I presume there some kind of set of config files, which could be archived and restored?
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #7 –
If you are installing themes, better to install a new portable foobar (select "portable" during installation) into a new folder. This is self contained and can have several installed at once.

Otherwise, Preferences > Display > Default UI / Columns UI (whichever one you are using!) > Export... button. This saves a backup file of the current layout. Then use Import... button to restore.

(Just note this is not a complete backup - does not save components or preferences that you might change later, besides the color/font options, etc)

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #8 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Otherwise, Preferences > Display > Default UI / Columns UI (whichever one you are using!) > Export... button. This saves a backup file of the current layout. Then use Import... button to restore.
This sounds like what I need at the moment.

Thanks for the help.  I know it's a pain nursing a newbie.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #9 –
Disclosure: I present music for ballroom dancing, using a personal library of CDs ripped to MP3 using Exact Audio Copy, then classified, indexed, etc using MP3Tag.  I have been using MP3Tag as the front end, with .mp3 file association starting up VLC and/or dragging items from MP3Tag into the VLC playlist.

Features which are important to me may not be important to other people, but the "tailoring process" might be, so I'll record the ride...

Vital:
  • Speed control, with at least 1% resolution

Important:
  • Pause between tracks
  • Load a playlist, modify playlist on-the-fly, save playlist
  • Display of track details from tags (MP3/ID3v2)
  • Track playback progress

So far, VLC does everything on that list except pause between tracks – which I had to work-around using a silence track between actual tracks, which really cluttered up the playlist.

Nice to have:
  • Display of MP3-embedded cover art (VLC caches it and refuses to display updated cover art)
  • Automatic volume control to even out the differences in recorded volume between individual tracks
  • Automatic BPM extraction

Progress so far:

Quote from: fooball on
  • I note the Playback >> Stop after current menu option.  I would really like there to be another option to make this persistent instead of it clearing itself after one event.  For example: in the Musicolet app (Android) there is a radio button control for when a song (AKA track) ends to "just stop there", "load the next song and pause", "play next song", and "repeat the same song".  The queue (playlist) controls are "just stop there", "jump to next queue", and "repeat the same queue" (with an option to re-shuffle).
This has been fixed by a setting in Preferences to make the "stop after current" menu control persistent.  Lovely.
Quote from: sveakul on
Go to Preferences/Playback/Other and UN-check the choice "Reset the above when stopping";  keep "Stop playback after current track" checked.

Quote from: fooball on
  • Transport controls (stop play pause etc) in a separate UI panel which can be sized and placed as required.
Quote from: anamorphic on
Add a Toolbar Header anywhere and put some buttons on it. (Wiki: Layout Editing Mode for DUI)

Default UI is limited to toolbar -sized buttons (ICO icons), but Columns UI can have larger buttons (PNG icons).
I haven't got on very well with the Columns UI (see below), and as noted above (in the Default UI) the transport controls are only available as part of a toolbar, and within a toolbar their size is fixed.  I can live with it.

Quote from: fooball on
  • A more informative progress bar in a separate UI panel [which can be sized and placed as required].
  • Much longer timebase options on the Oscilloscope visualisation.  I want to see the dynamic over the whole track, not just some squiggly lines for the current play point.
Quote from: anamorphic on
Waveform Seekbar (which can be made to look like Soundcloud), or the newer Waveform Minibar, or JScript Panel with a Spectrogram Seekbar (screenshots).
Two birds killed with one stone by installing the Waveform Minibar add-on and adding it to the UI.  What I am still lacking is a time display (in figures) of play position / time remaining.

Quote from: fooball on
  • I would prefer the cover art displayed didn't hop around with the cursor and displays the currently playing track regardless.  Maybe that could be an option, and then have two UI panels for cover art - one for each.
Quote from: anamorphic on
Preferences > Display > under Selection Viewers > Prefer currently playing track.

Columns UI can have two Artwork View panels for each - playing / selected track.
The preferences change stabilised the display, and again I will live with the single display rather than switch to Columns UI (see below).

Quote from: fooball on
  • I love the DSP speed/pitch/tempo control, but now I have discovered tempo alteration doesn't cause any unwanted glitches (how does it do that???) I have no use for speed and pitch control, so it would be good to have a UI panel which only shows a tempo slider.  Maybe the existing panel could have options to turn off unwanted controls?  Some configurable presets would be nice too.
This remains on the wish list, but not critical.  It's only an annoyance that screen estate has to be given up to controls which won't be used, although removing unnecessary controls should always be an aim to remove the possibility of user confusion.

Essentially, I now have the top toolbar (menus, transport control [without the random option!], spectrogram, volume slider, seekbar) and two columns each with three panels.  On the left: a tabbed DSP speed/tempo/pitch and equaliser (the latter not needed but what the hell); cover art; VU.  On the right: library search; playlist; waveform minibar.

I have discovered how to add custom columns for Genre (%Genre%) and Rating ([%Rating%]), in another thread it was explained that using the square brackets suppresses the "?" which a non-existent tag would otherwise throw up.  (Incidentally, my rating tags are the "Windows Media Player Series 9" type, and FB2K displays these perfectly.  I don't know what would happen with other rating systems, whether FB2K auto-detects.)  I use Genre to classify the tracks by dance style.

I carefully tested the Replay Gain scanner on a small selection of real and artificially-adjusted tracks, and found the results excellent.  I have it set to apply a tag and not re-write the MP3 data with embedded volume adjustments, and I examined the files to confirm this was the case.  Letting it loose on my entire (currently) 3,800 tracks took about half an hour to analyse... and then three hours to write the tags!  However, now no more need to tweak the volume on a track by track basis when playing music for dancing (I have the playback set to use the track setting not the album setting, and the scan worked on a track basis, because album consistency is of no interest).  What I would like though, is for the Waveform Minibar to display the adjusted volume rather than the original volume.

To Do

  • I was annoyed to find I couldn't just drag an item from the search results to the playlist, until I discovered I had to use click&drag in combination with Alt.  Click&drag on its own just highlights a selection.  That is not intuitive, the normal Windows way is to hold shift to highlight a selection.  I presume this can be altered somewhere, I just haven't spent any time looking yet.
  • This may be more difficult to cure, but the right-click menu for a track does not include "add to playlist", only "add to play queue" and I don't understand what the difference is, only that whatever is on the play queue does not appear to be listed anywhere (not that I have really searched for it yet).

Problems

  • Columns UI does not appear to support the DSP speed/pitch/tempo control, so that makes it a non-starter so far as my use-case goes (yes, know I could use it as a separate floating window... I'll have to think about that but I like things all together).  I got confused when I had a play with Columns UI though, it was less obvious to customise than the default UI (which in itself takes a bit of getting into).
  • I tested the BPM scanner, but found it does not work well on ballroom tracks.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #10 –
Quote from: fooball on
What I am still lacking is a time display (in figures) of play position / time remaining.
Now discovered in the status bar along the bottom, with options in Preferences.  It's a bit small though, which may be why I didn't spot it initially.

Quote from: fooball on
What I would like though, is for the Waveform Minibar to display the adjusted volume rather than the original volume.
Have also discovered the "normalise" option in the Preferences for Waveform Minibar, along with options to set the database index string appropriately for my library.  I shall have to think about that.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.
 

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #11 –
So, I'll just briefly mention some stuff that you've maybe already discovered by now...

Quote from: fooball on
which I had to work-around using a silence track between actual tracks, which really cluttered up the playlist.
Affix Silence DSP might do the trick.

Quote
Nice to have:
  • Display of MP3-embedded cover art (VLC caches it and refuses to display updated cover art)
Relevant: Preferences > Advanced > Display > Album Art > Embedded vs External

Quote
  • Automatic volume control to even out the differences in recorded volume between individual tracks
You've done ReplayGain now, but there is also R128 Normalizer DSP.

Quote
Two birds killed with one stone by installing the Waveform Minibar add-on and adding it to the UI.  What I am still lacking is a time display (in figures) of play position / time remaining.
Text Display (DUI) or Item Details (CUI) - which can be used to display track information. (See Help menu > Title Formatting Help / Reference Wiki for the field names)

I typically put one on either side of the seekbar to look something like this -

X

Left -
Code: [Select]
[%playback_time%]
Right -
Code: [Select]
[$if(%isplaying%,-%playback_time_remaining%,%length%)]

(One of the most essential components for mind, I really think a Text Display type of element should be part of the foobar core at this point)

Quote
The preferences change stabilised the display, and again I will live with the single display rather than switch to Columns UI (see below).
No need to live with that though since (as I said somewhere), you could pop a JScript Panel album art viewer anywhere in DUI.

Quote
Quote from: fooball on
I love the DSP speed/pitch/tempo control [...] so it would be good to have a UI panel which only shows a tempo slider.  Maybe the existing panel could have options to turn off unwanted controls?  Some configurable presets would be nice too.
This remains on the wish list, but not critical.  It's only an annoyance that screen estate has to be given up to controls which won't be used, although removing unnecessary controls should always be an aim to remove the possibility of user confusion.
I'm not super familiar with the Effects DSP, but I believe you could always save each speed as a DSP preset (Preferences > Playback > DSP Manager) and set that preset as a toolbar button ([main] > Playback menu > DSP Settings). Not as useful as a slider though I guess. The problem with that being if you need to switch between other DSPs, you quickly end up with too many combinations of presets to maintain.

Quote
I carefully tested the Replay Gain scanner [...] Letting it loose on my entire (currently) 3,800 tracks took about half an hour to analyse... and then three hours to write the tags!
That seems a bit excessive. Usually the scanning part takes longer and the tag writing is quick. Are your tracks on a network drive?

Quote
I was annoyed to find I couldn't just drag an item from the search results to the playlist, until I discovered I had to use click&drag in combination with Alt.  Click&drag on its own just highlights a selection.
I think you can just select tracks with click+drag, release the button for a second, and then click+drag to destination.

Quote
This may be more difficult to cure, but the right-click menu for a track does not include "add to playlist", only "add to play queue" and I don't understand what the difference is, only that whatever is on the play queue does not appear to be listed anywhere (not that I have really searched for it yet).
Tracks added to the queue are played next, overriding the playback order. The only built-in indication of a queued track, is if you use the default "Playing" column (in the playlist it shows playing symbol), the queued track(s) are numbered - (1) is played next, etc. The %queue_index% field.

You would normally right-click albums / tracks in the library viewer to add to playlist. For tracks already in a playlist, you can right-click copy/paste or click+drag to other playlists. If you really must have a right-click playlist viewer menu, there is a very old component Utilities (foo_utils) that still works.

Cheers

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #12 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
So, I'll just briefly mention some stuff that you've maybe already discovered by now...
Once more, many thanks.  I've not gone cold, I'm just busy fighting other fires.

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote from: fooball on
which I had to work-around using a silence track between actual tracks, which really cluttered up the playlist.
Affix Silence DSP might do the trick.
Not really, my silence guard tracks were only a stop-gap measure.  I really do want playback to stop or pause until told to start again, and the options I need are in the Preferences as previously noted.  I don't just DJ for ballroom dancing, I participate too, so have to scuttle off the floor to introduce the next dance, and there is an indeterminate time for a breather.

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
Nice to have:
  • Display of MP3-embedded cover art (VLC caches it and refuses to display updated cover art)
Relevant: Preferences > Advanced > Display > Album Art > Embedded vs External
Yep.

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
  • Automatic volume control to even out the differences in recorded volume between individual tracks
You've done ReplayGain now, but there is also R128 Normalizer DSP.
Noted, but ReplayGain is fine.  I presume R128 Normaliser must either do the same as RG and generate a setting ahead of time, or will delay the start of the track (which I wouldn't want).

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
Two birds killed with one stone by installing the Waveform Minibar add-on and adding it to the UI.  What I am still lacking is a time display (in figures) of play position / time remaining.
Text Display (DUI) or Item Details (CUI) - which can be used to display track information. (See Help menu > Title Formatting Help / Reference Wiki for the field names)

I typically put one on either side of the seekbar to look something like this -

[attach type=image]22835[/attach]

Left -
Code: [Select]
[%playback_time%]
Right -
Code: [Select]
[$if(%isplaying%,-%playback_time_remaining%,%length%)]

(One of the most essential components for mind, I really think a Text Display type of element should be part of the foobar core at this point)
That's superb!

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
The preferences change stabilised the display, and again I will live with the single display rather than switch to Columns UI (see below).
No need to live with that though since (as I said somewhere), you could pop a JScript Panel album art viewer anywhere in DUI.
I have started looking at JScript, but it is rather obtuse (for me).

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
Quote from: fooball on
I love the DSP speed/pitch/tempo control [...] so it would be good to have a UI panel which only shows a tempo slider.  Maybe the existing panel could have options to turn off unwanted controls?  Some configurable presets would be nice too.
This remains on the wish list, but not critical.  It's only an annoyance that screen estate has to be given up to controls which won't be used, although removing unnecessary controls should always be an aim to remove the possibility of user confusion.
I'm not super familiar with the Effects DSP, but I believe you could always save each speed as a DSP preset (Preferences > Playback > DSP Manager) and set that preset as a toolbar button ([main] > Playback menu > DSP Settings). Not as useful as a slider though I guess. The problem with that being if you need to switch between other DSPs, you quickly end up with too many combinations of presets to maintain.
Worth looking into.

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
I carefully tested the Replay Gain scanner [...] Letting it loose on my entire (currently) 3,800 tracks took about half an hour to analyse... and then three hours to write the tags!
That seems a bit excessive. Usually the scanning part takes longer and the tag writing is quick. Are your tracks on a network drive?
It is/was on a SD card.  I guess the mismatch is due to the speed differential for writes vs. reads.

Quote from: anamorphic on
Quote
I was annoyed to find I couldn't just drag an item from the search results to the playlist, until I discovered I had to use click&drag in combination with Alt.  Click&drag on its own just highlights a selection.
I think you can just select tracks with click+drag, release the button for a second, and then click+drag to destination.

Quote
This may be more difficult to cure, but the right-click menu for a track does not include "add to playlist", only "add to play queue" and I don't understand what the difference is, only that whatever is on the play queue does not appear to be listed anywhere (not that I have really searched for it yet).
Tracks added to the queue are played next, overriding the playback order. The only built-in indication of a queued track, is if you use the default "Playing" column (in the playlist it shows playing symbol), the queued track(s) are numbered - (1) is played next, etc. The %queue_index% field.

You would normally right-click albums / tracks in the library viewer to add to playlist. For tracks already in a playlist, you can right-click copy/paste or click+drag to other playlists. If you really must have a right-click playlist viewer menu, there is a very old component Utilities (foo_utils) that still works.

Cheers
Again, bears further examination when I get a chance.

It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #13 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
No need to live with that though since (as I said somewhere), you could pop a JScript Panel album art viewer anywhere in DUI.
I don't remember that, I was under the impression it was a Columns thing... but I was very fresh to this at the time so the detail may have escaped me.  However, with more experience of using FB2K under live conditions, I no longer regard multiple cover art panels as a need or even a desire.

Quote from: anamorphic on
I think you can just select tracks with click+drag, release the button for a second, and then click+drag to destination.
That works, thanks.  I just have to get used to click-and-release to select a single track, and then click-and-drag to add the track into the playlist.  On the right hand side of my screen I have tabs for playlist (Playlist View), play queue (Queue Contents Editor), Playlist Manager, library browser (Album List), and library search (Media Library Search).  I'm able to create a playlist very quickly by picking tracks from the library browser or the library search (mostly I would use library search).

Quote from: anamorphic on
Tracks added to the queue are played next, overriding the playback order.
I don't really want to work with a play queue; I've added a tab for it so that I can monitor/intervene when circumstances demand.

Quote from: anamorphic on
If you really must have a right-click playlist viewer menu, there is a very old component Utilities (foo_utils) that still works.
On my to-do list to investigate.  It would streamline things if the was a right-click option in the library browser and library search tabs to add the selected item(s) to the current playlist, instead of click... click&drag to playlist tab... hover while the tab opens... drag to bottom of list & release... select library search tab.  (It would be a slight improvement if I built the playlist in reverse, so that I only had to drop each track at the top instead of scrolling to the bottom.)

This might only be an interim way of working (although "interim" tends to become "long term" if it works well enough), because there's no reason I can't compile a playlist elsewhere and then import it... which brings me to another niggle:

The Playlist Manager tab only displays and selects from the list of imported playlists, it won't import a playlist.  To import a playlist I have to go to Menu > File > Load Playlist.  Why?!!  Why isn't the Load Playlist function available on the right-click context menu in Playlist Manager, when Rename, Remove, and Create are available?  This seems like a glaring omission, and you might tell me it's a configurable option somewhere I haven't found yet (yes, I have looked!!!).  "Save" would be good too.

Overall I'm very happy with the way things are going, and (as currently configured) FB2K is eminently usable, but still a work-in-progress.  I'll bung up a few screenshots at some point.  Incidentally, is the configuration entirely encapsulated in ...\Roaming\foobar2000\theme.fth, so that if I were to copy (or publish) that file to another installation my UI configuration would be reproduced?

Something I need to investigate is why the Waveform Minibar seems to re-create the display for a track from time to time instead of being almost instantly displayed from the minibar.db cache.  I deliberately ran a sync so it should have every track in the cache, and I set %filename% as the key (I use a unique ID as the filename for each track in my library).  Investigation involves exporting minibar.db to a different PC where I can run a database file viewer to see what's going on.

<thinking_aloud> Some tracks were delayed starting due to this reload*, which might not matter if the next track was cued up (but not started) when the previous track in the playlist ends.  I think I've seen a component/setting so that the stop occurs at the start of the next track rather than the end of the current one...</thinking_aloud>

* My library is now on HDD rather than SD, and I intend to substitute an SDD, but that's not the point.

Wish List
  • Right-click "add to playlist" in library views (as above);
  • Right-click "load' & "save" functions in Playlist Manager tab (as above);
  • Set tempo shift as a tag in the track (much like Replay Gain) and automatically apply that to the Pitch/Tempo/Speed DSP;
  • Display key operating system stats, particularly battery time remaining.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #14 –
Quote from: fooball on
Some tracks were delayed starting due to this reload*, which might not matter if the next track was cued up (but not started) when the previous track in the playlist ends.  I think I've seen a component/setting so that the stop occurs at the start of the next track rather than the end of the current one...
The "component" I was thinking of actually holds the current track at the end rather than let the cursor move on to the next track, but I have solved this problem in settings: File > Preferences > Tools > Waveform Minibar > Track to prefer when showing waveform = Playing, selected when stopped, with cursor follows playback enabled.  Excellent.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #15 –
Quote from: fooball on
Wish List
  • Right-click "add to playlist" in library views (as above)
Quote from: anamorphic on
If you really must have a right-click playlist viewer menu, there is a very old component Utilities (foo_utils) that still works.
On my to-do list to investigate.
That works.  "Add to Current Playlist" is now a right-click option in the library browser, and as a Legacy Commands right-click sub-menu in library search.  Being able to configure the menus so that commands are where I want them would be icing on the cake.

I'm not clear what the difference between "add to playlist" and "send to playlist" is, but perhaps time will tell.

Incidentally, Playlist Tools (foo_utils) doesn't seem to be listed in the Components repository (foobar2000.org/components), so how does one find out about these things?

Update:
Quote from: fooball on
I'm not clear what the difference between "add to playlist" and "send to playlist" is, but perhaps time will tell.
Aha!  "Send" replaces the whole playlist.  I definitely don't want that!
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #16 –
More Wishlist

I have a "Track Details" tab, which is the Selection Properties panel, but there is very limited control over what it displays and apparently no customisation by way of a fields editor - you either get all the metadata (for instance) or none of it.  Would the Text Display panel provide a solution?

Answer: yes, I think it will when I work out the formatting details.  I might have to have a left-right split so I can put a legend in the left pane and field contents in the right.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #17 –
Quote from: fooball on
Wish List
  • Set tempo shift as a tag in the track (much like Replay Gain) and automatically apply that to the Pitch/Tempo/Speed DSP
It looks like this is already possible:
Quote from: fooball on
I've just found this in the release notes:
Quote
0.47 current version, released on: 2021-03-20
Added "tempo_amt" metadata parsing for Tempo Shift. Enables setting the tempo per file through tags. Tempo Shift needs to be in the DSP chain before using. Values from -95.0 to 95.0 are acceptable.
I will experiment!
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #18 –
I found the version of Effect DSP I downloaded on 6th July was v0.44, so I updated to 0.47 and indeed I now have tempo preset in the MP3 tags.  Brill!
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #19 –
It's driving me mad that I somehow had v0.44 of Effect DSP installed when v0.47 has been available since last year.  My memory is vague, but all this started at the beginning of July with my initial explorations of FB2K, and I was driven by playback speed control being essential to my use-case.  Maybe, at that stage, I hadn't found the formal repo and used an old download link in a forum post or elsewhere.

Meanwhile, TagBox provides an alternative to Selection Properties and is configurable, and provides the means to edit tags (which I wasn't too concerned about, but now I need edit access to the tempo_amt tag).

However, I have found a fatal problem with the tempo_amt tag: if set, it cannot be overridden (only turned on and off).  That's a no-no for me, so unless and until fixed, I'm back to manual adjustment.

Nonetheless, all this in less than four weeks!
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #20 –
Quote from: fooball on
I have found a fatal problem with the tempo_amt tag: if set, it cannot be overridden (only turned on and off).  That's a no-no for me, so unless and until fixed, I'm back to manual adjustment.

I have a work-around: the Playback Rate can still be adjusted, so if I need to tweak the "tempo" away from my preset I still can (with the commensurate pitch shift, which could also be compensated for but that's getting complicated).  I'll still back an update to Effect DSP to make live tempo adjustment possible with a tempo tag set though.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #21 –
As promised, and now I have unraveled imgur, here are screenshots of my FB2K installation.  It's running a maximised window on an Asus EeePC with a 1024x600 screen, under Win7 Starter on an SSD.

The top left of the screen and most of the right hand side are tabbed panels, so the successive screenshots show each of the tabs opened (except Play Queue, which is mostly irrelevant to me, but I included it in case a track turns up in there).

X

The size of the left tab panel is fixed by the Pitch/Tempo/Playback Rate UI panel (with that installed, the boundaries of the enclosing region become fixed), so the remaining space is used for a VU meter and spectrogram, which are just decoration really (the VU would be useful, except I'm using ReplayGain so the output is always close to -20dB):
X

I don't really need the graphic equalizer, but it's built-in and I have room for a tab...
X

By prefixing my title tags with a code, I can use an alpha sort to classify tracks by dance type and tempo.  Thus, if I want a samba track at 52 bars per minute, all I have to do is put "sb52" in the search box (but in fact I've used Tempo Adjustment to knock it back to 50 BPM - see screenshot 1, Playlist tab "-3.80"):
X
It looks like I screwed up in the image editor for the fourth screenshot, but you get the idea!

Looking at the above, I've just spotted something wrong: the tempo_adj tag is editable in the bottom part of the left tab (top part is Text Display, bottom part is Tag Box).  Maybe it's disappeared because I have a track selected in Library Search.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #22 –
Looking nice! (Ahhh, Windows 7)

Just to recap even though you found other solutions ...

Quote from: fooball on
I have a "Track Details" tab, which is the Selection Properties panel, but there is very limited control over what it displays and apparently no customisation by way of a fields editor
It displays "Standard Fields" which can be set in Preferences > Advanced > Display > Properties Dialog > Standard Fields in the format -

Code: [Select]
Field Name=FIELD;

Adding a field there makes it always appear in right-click tracks > Properties > Metadata tab, for easy tagging without having to Add New and type field names everytime. (You can also change the order fields appear)

Quote from: fooball on
Incidentally, Playlist Tools (foo_utils) doesn't seem to be listed in the Components repository (foobar2000.org/components), so how does one find out about these things?
From too many years reading these forums :D

There is a list on the wiki which has probably quite a few outdated components.

(By the way, no need for image hosts on these forums, you can attach/embed images to your post directly under the reply text box. Edit: Can also edit posts within the hour)

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #23 –
Quote from: anamorphic on
Looking nice!

Thanks  :D

Quote from: anamorphic on
By the way, no need for image hosts on these forums, you an attach/embed images to your post directly under the reply text box)

Oh.  I tried that some time ago and failed, so assumed the upload was restricted to specific data types.  A recent reply to my queries contained a screenshot hosted on imgur, so I assumed...

It would be good if I could go back and edit in the images, but it seems no editing is available beyond a short time after posting.... but not yet (maybe I've had my privileges upgraded now?)... done!
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Help With Setting Up

Reply #24 –
My new Track Details tab, using a fixed-pitch font (Consolas) so everything lines up, and using string manipulation functions to separate the actual track title from my classification code string:

X

Quote from: fooball on
Looking at the above, I've just spotted something wrong: the tempo_adj tag is editable in the bottom part of the left tab (top part is Text Display, bottom part is Tag Box).  Maybe it's disappeared because I have a track selected in Library Search.

It was another typo, having had to reinstate the TagBox panel (forgot it should be "tempo_amt" not "tempo_adj").  Now, I wonder if I can stop fiddling...
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.