Using foobar at a party

2005-03-14 11:33:29

I want to use foobar to do the music for parties and need two features/plugins for that:

1. I want to prelisten to songs before putting them to the playlist at a party -- like a real DJ  So does anybody know a plugin which plays songs to a second soudcard (headphones)? Or what shall i do instead? I dont really want to take a second computer with me.

2. I coded many albums to mp3 and want to skip beginning or ending for some songs (just for parties). Is there a plugin which optionally lets me enter starting and/or ending time. Guess it would be great if plugin stores these information into mp3-tags like replay gain. It would be much better than edit and rewrite the songs.

TIA for any suggestion

Using foobar at a party

Reply #1 – 2005-03-14 12:16:09

I think you'd be better off with actual dj software like Traktor DJ Studio.

Using foobar at a party

Reply #2 – 2005-03-14 12:33:30

Actual DJ software is a useful suggestion, but the funny thing is that I actually DJ in a nightclub environment using foobar2000, believe it or not.  I used to use the very expensive BPM studio software, but there are things that I can do with foobar2000 that make it easier for me.

To prelisten to songs, as JJu wanted to do, what I've been doing is using the database plugin to search, and simply dropping the songs into another player (typically Winamp, but there's no reason a second instance of foobar2000 would not work).  You can right-drag the songs right from the foobar2000 playlist, as well.  The other player must have the alternate audio interface (soundcard) selected, and you can play the song in it to prelisten.

In terms of setting alternate cuepoints, that is tougher.  I use the continuator plugin set to something pretty low... -8 db or so, so that when the song playing gets quiet, it automatically crossfades into the next song.  If I'm playing something with an intro I want to cut off, I will drop the song into a second player (usually a more DJ oriented player like BPM Studio, or Traktor, as DDawg suggested, or even VirtualDJ, which is very good at auto-beatmixing).  At this point I can nicely cue up the song to where I need it, and then drop the mix in.

foobar works really nice for me to DJ when I need lounge background music, or a wedding DJ type scenario, but I think that club DJing and beatmixing is kind of beyond the scope of the software, and that would require something else.  The beauty of foobar is that it does interoperate very nicely with other applications, so I can drop songs from my foobar playlist into other applications very nicely.

Granted, if somebody is interested in developing some kind of a component for foobar kind of like Leo's DJ Helper for Winamp (http://members.tripod.com/to_skripto/dj-helper/), that allows a user to set cuepoints and save them in the database or something, and gives an interface for changing tempo, I sure wouldn't object, as I could possibly make use of it.  But really, I'd suggest getting real DJ software for that kind of stuff.

Hopefully my suggestions help, as I've been very much in your shoes several times a week!

Using foobar at a party

Reply #3 – 2005-03-18 15:08:23

ddawg, thx for the link. And, Supacon, for your detailed information. So far i didnt think about dj software but it sounds very interesting. Most software is far beyond my needs, but would be a very neat solution and fun to use. Now i have to decide how much money i would spend for it. It will not be too much because there wont be many parties i will do the music for (perhaps 3 up to 5 a year).
Smooth beatmixing is not necessary to me so far. Short fades would be enough. Mostly i am going to play rock/alternative rock/hardrock/seventies/eighties and no typical club music.
Thx again for your help and for pointing be to a new direction