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Topic: Foobar2000 101 (Read 3001 times) previous topic - next topic
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Foobar2000 101

I have had Foobar2000 installed on my Windows 10 desktop and - how do you use Foobar2000? I can't even figure out how to pick tracks from multiple albums for playback, etc. Just the simplest tasks. I have tinkered with Foobar2000 and it does not seem intuitive. I have checked out many Foobar2000 videos on YouTube, and they are usually on themes, skinning, streaming, etc. I just want to learn the basic stuff. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #1
Media Library (If you like iTunes for example)
1. Click on File.
2. Click on Preference.  [Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+P]
3. Click on Media Library.
4. Click on Add and choose a folder containing your music.
5. Click apply and wait for it to finishing scanning your files.  It should say "Monitoring" when it's done.
6. Click on Album list from the "library" menu and highlight what you want to play and press enter on your keyboard.

Alternate Method:
1. Click on "Library"
2. Click on "Configure"
3. Follow steps 4 through 6 from above.

File Tree Browsing
Open a file or playlist to play (plays immediately) [Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+O]
1. Click file and choose open, browse to what you want to play.

Add a file / folder to the current playlist:
1. Click file and choose either "Add files..." (you can add multiple files) or choose "Add folders..."

Remove a track from the current playlist:
1. Highlight the song you which to remove from the playlist and hit delete on your keyboard or just right click and choose "Remove".  This function doesn't delete any files from your hard drive.

Highlighting is is done by clicking once on an item or using up & down arrow keys on your keyboard.

The basic stuff is pretty intuitive to me.  It's the other stuff that has more of a learning curve to it, such as customizing the look for example.  This player is not anymore difficult to use than Winamp or Windows Media Player or iTunes is on a basic level.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #2
You can also drag and drop items on the current playlist.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #3
Thanks. I can setup the library. So, that's not the problem. The problem is how to select tracks for playing, and how to play them. I use the column browser to select which tracks to play. Now, when I click on tracks in the browser, they automatically appear on the box that is labeled with "playing, artist/album, track. What exactly is that box for? When I click on other tracks in that column browser, the new tracks do not add to that box, which is what I want to do. Rather, the new tracks just replace the old tracks in that box.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #4
Reading your post, I am thinking that I should select tracks to the current playlist, and then play the playlist. Is that correct?

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #5
Reading your post, I am thinking that I should select tracks to the current playlist, and then play the playlist. Is that correct?

You can do it that way.

Media Library Commands:
  • Hitting Enter on any item will cause it to play immediately and show up in the current playlist.  You can choose whole albums or individual tracks.
  • Shift + Enter will add items to the current playlist.
  • CTRL + Enter creates a new a playlist inside of foobar2000 and immediately plays it.
  • You can highlight a range of items by holding Shift and pressing the the left mouse button at the start of the range and while still holding shift press the left button again at the end or use the up and down arrow keys (a common Windows highlighting command).
  • CTRL + Left mouse button will let chose whatever items you want to highlight (another common Windows highlighting command)
  • ALT + Enter will let you edit metadata such as song titles.

You can also right click on anything and see a range of commands and options.

Playlist commands:
  • Select All  CTRL + A (highlights all items)
  • Copy CTRL + C (copies highlighted item(s) to clipboard)
  • Cut CTRL + X (removes highlighted item(s) and copies to clipboard)
  • Paste CTRL + V (adds highlighted item(s) from clipboard)
  • DEL / Delete key (removes highlighted items from playlist)
  • Right-Click and choose "crop" to remove all items except for the highlighted ones.
  • CTRL + N (creates a new playlist, click on name to change name).
  • CTRL + S (opens a save dialog box and allows you to exports playlist to file, options are .m3u, .m3u8, .fpl the first two are compatible with other players where's the last one only works with foobar2000).
  • Right-click on the empty part of any of tab for playlists to see a menu of commands, such as adding a new playlist..
  • Right-click on any playlist tab to see a menu of commands such as deleting the current playlist.
  • Left click on the name of playlist tab to switch between different playlists.
  • CTRL + Left mouse button will let chose what playlist items you want to highlight.
  • Holding Shift and pressing the left mouse button at the start of the range and then pressing the left mouse again while still holding shift at the end or using the up and down arrow keys while holding shift will let you highlight a range of playlist items.
  • Under the Edit menu by File and View or ALT + E, you can choose clear to remove all playlist items without having to highlight anything
  • Alt+Enter will let you edit on any highlighted items in the current playlist

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #6
Now, when I click on tracks in the browser, they automatically appear on the box that is labeled with "playing, artist/album, track. What exactly is that box for? When I click on other tracks in that column browser, the new tracks do not add to that box, which is what I want to do. Rather, the new tracks just replace the old tracks in that box.
That box (panel) is most likely the default playlist viewer. Also this might apply ~ http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Preferences:Media_Library#Library_Viewer_Selection_Playlist
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #7
First, it's important to understand that you can create any number of playlists and play from them. Many players have a single playlist. I think that's the main confusion with new users.

I think some an example might help. It's not how everyone uses Foobar2000, but hopefully you can learn and adapt.

As an anchor, I've created a playlist called Play. In general, I add tracks to it and play from there. So the basic question becomes: how do I add the tracks I want to play?

One tip is that I like to use foosion's foo_utils. Among other things, it adds a context menu to highlighted tracks under 'Legacy Commands (unsorted)'. Typically I use it to add or insert tracks into Play.

Now, it's useful to enable File > Preferences > Media Library and enable 'Enabled' and 'Activate when changed.' After that, when you  click on Album List (the default library viewer), the results create a playlist. I tend to use that playlist to populate Play.

From that playlist you can select the tracks what you want to play and right-click 'Legacy Commands (unsorted)' and choose to Add/Send To/Insert to Play. "Add" puts the tracks to the end of Play. "Send to" replaces the playlist. "Insert" inserts the tracks where you've last placed focus.

If the context menus for foo_utils seem too much work, you can assign hotkeys to the various commands with File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. For myself, I've assigned adding highlighted tracks to Play with CTRL + SHIFT + N.




That's so plausible, I can't believe it.


Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #9
View>layout>Enable layout editing mode.

Right click on any foobar2000 window and you will be told the element / component name

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #10
Thanks, when I select an album in the Column Browser, the album's tracks appear in this lower right box.  When I right click on this box's menu, I get that this is the Playlist View. These tracks are also included in the Playlist Library, and highlighted in blue as the  "Library Selection". When I right click on this lower right box's menu and then on groups/more, the dialog box has it that this is the Playlist View. When I select another album in the column browser, the new album's tracks replace the previous tracks in this lower right box, and the new tracks are updated in the Playlist Library "Library Selection". I get that this is how I can play all the tracks on an album. But, what I want is to play the tracks on both albums. Sorry if I seem like an idiot.  But, I can seem to tell how this lower right box is related to the playlist. This is the screenshot. Thanks.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6FjC70FxDwhcVZrM3hfaHp1VVk

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #11
Quote
Is there a name for this lower right box with all these tracks?
That's literally the playlist. ^_^

This is a really weird layout, how did you get that?
There are playlist tabs on top of nothing, a single lonely playlist in the bottom right and the playlist manager is front and center, and you have *both* popular media library browsers visible at the same time for some reason (top and left). None of this makes any sense.

No wonder you can't figure out foobar, to you it looks like a puzzle with all the pieces in the wrong place :D

I recommend starting over with one of the simpler default layouts.

For reference, this is my layout:

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #12
>This is a really weird layout, how did you get that?<

Is this why I have been going nut trying to use Foobar2000?! I downloaded Foobar2000 and opt for a dark theme.  Then I added Facets. I think that is all that I did! I have since then tried to figure out how to use Foobar2000, to no avail.  Okay, it seems that I should just start from scratch instead of tearing my hair out!!

Before I do that, tho. I need the column browser. Should I install Facets or Column UI? From what I have read, they are mutually exclusive.


Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #14
If in reference to dhromed image above, Selection Properties element .
In this case, it lives in it's own container window.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #15
@ darkflame23. I added a component called Tagbox .

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #16
>This is a really weird layout, how did you get that?<

Is this why I have been going nut trying to use Foobar2000?! I downloaded Foobar2000 and opt for a dark theme.  Then I added Facets. I think that is all that I did! I have since then tried to figure out how to use Foobar2000, to no avail.  Okay, it seems that I should just start from scratch instead of tearing my hair out!!

Before I do that, tho. I need the column browser. Should I install Facets or Column UI? From what I have read, they are mutually exclusive.

IMO, best to stay with the default user interface, not columns....At least until you have a better idea how to use Foobar2000.
If you think you may want to return to your setup, export to save it before you:

Go to View>Layout>Quick setup
Select Album list and properties [tabbed]   you can always adjust later. Just select right over your current setup. It will retain all the important info such as where your music is stored.

This will give you a tabbed container on the left. It has 2 tabs, one of which is the default library viewer.
When in layout edit mode, you can add more tabs .  For example, add a new tab and place Facets [another library viewer]in it.
This way you can experiment with added elements in tabs that do not show 100% of the time. Helps to keep interface clean and helps you to learn the functionality of the elements. AND importantly it gives you a lot of horizontal room for playlists to actually see enough text to know what you are playing!

On the right you have a playlist element inside a tabbed playlist container. This will help in understanding that Foobar 2000 is playlist based and you can have as many of them as you want.  That should give you a good start.

You view your music and make selections in a library viewer and send to one [ many] playlists to play.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #17
One good thing to do.
Right click on the top toolbar.
Add the layout editing toggle.

Will let you quickly go into and out of edit mode so you can see what you are doing and make adjustments to your foobar 2000 as you see fit.

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #18
Hello everyone...  OK, I’m simple man with even simpler needs.  I’m in the process of digitizing my 40+year’s analog music collection.  I’ve been using the wav file format (44.1 khz/16bit) because that’s CD quality and that’s enough for me.  I recently found out that flac files do the same thing more or less, at a 50% reduction in file size, so I’ll be going that route from now on.  My problem: WMP does not wav or flac, so friends suggested FOOBAR2000.  My question: Is foobar2000 a good thing for me? Bear in mind that my music consists of either 2 or 3 hour long song compilations I originally composed on either cassette or reel/reel format (I still have the vinyl LPs they came from so trying to reproduce them digitally is being a slow but very enjoyable pastime). 
I really have an in-depth knowledge of each and every one of my musical compositions (rock/blues/folk/pop mixes from late fifties to early eighties).  All my mixes are well cataloged, by numbers, in written/paper libraries and digital files.  It’s the music I grew up with and still love today; I’m very happy with it and it satisfies me completely.  I rarely, if ever, listen to individual songs anymore, just my compilations.  So, again, do I need foobar2000?  Or is there a much simpler program that would serve my purposes better?      

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #19
I would suggest you start a new topic.  Posting questions to a random thread whose substance is completely different than your question will not be very productive

 

Re: Foobar2000 101

Reply #20
I uninstalled Foobar2000 and then reinstalled it, choosing "default" in all the options. I can now select the files to play without a hitch.  I have no idea what I did that led to that confusing layout. I feel like an idiot, but am glad that the problem was resolved. Thanks, everyone!