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Topic: How to get two different Libraries in Foobar? (Read 11464 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Hey guys, i'm new to Fb2k and absolutely love it - sound is great, and its so much lighter than that clunky piece of sh!t that Apple makes

My question is hard to explain but here goes - I have two Libraries or large music folders, one E:\media\music and the other F:\oldies\music, Now i want to add both into FB2k. I know that I can monitor both folder for changes in the preferences section. I'm using the simple Columns UI - so i can see the browsing pane - Genre-Artist-Album.

But here's the thing - for every playlist, i want a separate "browsing pane" with Genre-Artist-Album.

So when I can click on the E:\ folder playlist, and Genre-Artist-Album shows me the albums there.

then I want to click on the F:\ playlist and Genre-Artist-Album will change to show me different albums.

Can it be done???????

For the moment everything is under "default"

The operation is similar to the playlist in itunes!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #1
I've tried to search for solutions for this before (I want my classical collection separate from the rest), but I haven't come up with a very good solution, so I'd also be interested if anyone has ideas.

One thing that works, albeit not as you want, is to have two different foobar applications. Rerun the installer, and this time choose a portable install with a different install location. Then the portable foobar can monitor F:\oldies\music, while your standard install monitors E:\media\music. Two downsides being that
1) switching back and forth requires starting the other foobar, not just a simple button click. However, you can actually run both instances simultaneously if you want.
2) settings are not synchronized. So if you want to install a new component, you need to install it to both foobars. If you want to change your preferences, you need to change both. This can actually be a bonus: with classical, I have fields like %composer% %performer% %conductor% etc, which would otherwise be empty cluttering columns in my 'standard music' setup.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #2
My question is hard to explain but here goes - I have two Libraries or large music folders, one E:\media\music and the other F:\oldies\music, Now i want to add both into FB2k. I know that I can monitor both folder for changes in the preferences section. I'm using the simple Columns UI - so i can see the browsing pane - Genre-Artist-Album.


You can use foobar whatever you like, but it's almost always bad idea to try to bring experience from your previous player in it.

I don't use Columns UI, but I guess it would be easy enough even for noobs to insert another filter panel before genre filter that will filter on drive path, i.e. in you example simply "$left(%path%,2)" title formatting or similar. Documentation seems lacking, but searching the forum hopefully will reveal many possibilities.

In general case, media library components are there to present your library in many different ways, and foobar has it plenty. As said I don't know about CUI filters but Library Tree sure can, or in DUI Facets can parse your current playlist, if that's what you want.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #3
in DUI Facets can parse your current playlist, if that's what you want.


I'm no really sure what Parse the playlist means?

Yeh basically I want two Filters "views", it really cant be that hard, can't there simply be a seperate filter view for each playlist, similar to emmm ***cough** iTunes!! 

But yeh imMaw, your in the same boat as me. I like your solution. I like to keep my Library of old, never changing, perfectly tagged music seperate from my new music thats always coming and going and contantly changing!!!

Any more inputs - somebody must know a solution?

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #4
the following should work
facets > source = playlist, filter_1 = %path% HAS media\music, filter_2 %path% HAS oldies\music
just use the filter when ever needed

however, this solution seems to be very sluggish, at least on my setup changing the filter/playlist is accompanied by a very noticable delay
furthermore, depending on why you need to/how often you look up the source, there might be better ways

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #5
In CUI you could have at least two seperate folders in an album list panel so you can access both folders easily and files do not mix up in the playlist view. Would that help?
I'm not sure what you mean by Genre-Artist-Album: are you talking about the filters?

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #6
In CUI you could have at least two seperate folders in an album list panel so you can access both folders easily and files do not mix up in the playlist view. Would that help?
I'm not sure what you mean by Genre-Artist-Album: are you talking about the filters?


Yes, by Genre-Artist-Album I mean filters, i just didnt know the term

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #7
Sorry reube, i'm really new to Foobar, i have Facets installed but I cant seem to do what your talking about.

For me I click Library > Facets > .... i then make a selection of music, but it simply adds it to a playlist called Library - The filters at the top of the CUI still show my default playlist.

Grrrr    this is annoying!!

You know the way Foobar can monitor a folder for changes? Can I at least designate a monitoring service to each seperate playlist.

For example:

Default Playlist - Foobar monitoring E:\media\music  (This has the filters)

Oldies Playlist - Foobar monitoring F:\oldies\music (filters dont change when playlist is selected)


How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #8
What exactly is a "browsing pane" in CUI? Could someone screenshot me?

If I were doing this in Album List or Facets, I'd simply have the two drives listed at the top level, like this:

Code: [Select]
$left(%path%,1)|%genre%|%artist%|%album%


This is not the two-playlist solution, but this is how I'd do it.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #9
prefernces > media library > facets > filters > set up filters
create a playlist
open facets, or just add it to your layout
in the facets pane > source > playlist
and also in the same pane: filter > enabled and then choose the filter of your liking

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #10
What exactly is a "browsing pane" in CUI? Could someone screenshot me?

If I were doing this in Album List or Facets, I'd simply have the two drives listed at the top level, like this:

Code: [Select]
$left(%path%,1)|%genre%|%artist%|%album%


This is not the two-playlist solution, but this is how I'd do it.


Sorry for the poor vocabulary - by "browsing pane" i meant the filters at the top.

I want the filters to change everytime you click on a different playlist!!

-----

Can anyone comment on how to set monitoring to a specific playlist??

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #11
Just an observation. You seem to be trying to have Foobar2000 be iTunes. You do not need to use playlists as a library and 2 playlists are not 2 media libraries. Playlist play files. The library and any number of library viewers are used in Foobar2000 to monitor files. As you are new to foobar2000, I wonder why you are using Columns user interface. What in the default interface is limiting?

By the way, facets can be called from CUI, but it can not be 'pane' in your layout as it is a element designed for the Default user interface.

The 'filters' are library filters. They filter your entire library and present the result as a playable playlist. They do not work the other way. With all do respect, I suggest to work within the default user interface - at least until you get a handle on the programs methods and terminology. Adding Facets to your default layout would also be a good step. There is quite a bit of documentation regarding facets.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #12
Go to 'Preferences/Display/Columns UI/Filter' tab. Add a new field next to what you have (Genre/Artist/Album). Name it as whatever you want and use this code as query: '$left(%path%,1)'. Make sure to move it above the other fields and change Filter precedence to 'By field list above'.

Switch to the 'Layout' tab. You will see three 'Filter' elements in the tree view and a 'Horizontal/Vertical Splitter' as their node. Right click on the latter and use 'Insert Panels/Panel/Filter'. Optionally highlight the newly created element and uncheck the 'Show caption' checkbox. Click apply.

You should have a fourth Filter panel visible now. Right click on its header and select the filter query you created earlier. It should show the first letter of your partitions, highlighting one will limit the other panels to only show hits from there.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #13
Daeron, I also find your hints very helpful as I had been struggling with the filters setup - the columns UI wiki is missing the page for the filters setup and I am more accustomed to title tag usage together with album list panel.
Your above code works well as long as the two sources are on different drives; unfortunately I have a setup where I'd need to seperate root folders on the same drive (eg. C-Music, C-Audiobooks).

In album list panel I get this done using $replace($directory_path(%path%) but I failed to adapt this for the filter panels. Is there another documentation page on more detailed title tags with the filter panels?

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #14
There are probably a gazillion ways to do this. The simplest and cleanest I can think of at the moment would be:

Quote
$if($strstr(%path%,X:\Path),Name,)
$if($strstr(%path%,E:\Music),Music,)
$if($strstr(%path%,F:\Audiobooks),Audiobooks,)
...

I have recently switched to Filter panel myself as the Album list panel is much slower at rebuilding its hits to the point where adding multiple files to my library just freezes foobar indefinitely.

You can either use clean field names by themselves, specifying remappings separated with semicolon ('Field;Alternative Field') or use the usual titleformatting scripts ('%field%'). Problem is that only the former handles multivalue fields (no '%<field>%') which is probably the only reason I haven't touched it for a long time (I use a multivalue genre field and used to be able to rearrange my hits with $replace, like 'Score\Game', 'Score\Movie' etc. without literally tagging the files like that. Now everything is all over the place as the panel sorts by alphabetical order, while I have values like 'Movie Score' and 'Game Score').

Note that while the input field only shows one line at the time it can handle multiline codes (if copy-pasted). At the very beginning I kept wasting my time compiling scripts into one line before I realized that.

 

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #15
I've tried to search for solutions for this before (I want my classical collection separate from the rest), but I haven't come up with a very good solution, so I'd also be interested if anyone has ideas.
...
If you want to change your preferences, you need to change both. This can actually be a bonus: with classical, I have fields like %composer% %performer% %conductor% etc, which would otherwise be empty cluttering columns in my 'standard music' setup.

I have never used iTunes myself and I'm still kinda unsure whether you just want to be able to distinguish between files from the two main folders, but if you want to get completely different setups within one foobar install (the way your library browsers show the files and custom grouping/different columns attached to the generated playlist view of each), it's possible with Album list panels (but not Filter panels), although it is fairly complicated to set up. I previously used that but dropped the idea due performance issues and the fact that with some clever titleformatting/tagging and a few additional Filter panels I can get a unified setup which is be able to serve most of my needs fairly well. I can show you how to set it up though, if that is what you want.

(If a mod is around, please merge my posts. I'd also prefer unlimited edit time, but I guess you have your own reasons not to.)

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #16
Daeron thank you so much! Will play around with these TFs now. I am certain they get me exactly where I want.

PS: Just tried - works like a charm! Geez, I knew it was either stringsearch or string compare, but I just did not realize you can have multiple lines.
I'm very happy for today

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #17
Even if you had one line to work with you could just make a really long one by deleting any end of the line characters to keep the functionality intact.

I just prefer a nicely formatted code over something that looks like you hammered your head to the keyboard for five minutes while the textarea was highlighted.

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #18
"$if($strstr(%path%,D:\Audio\Music\Albums)" doesn't seem to work for me in Album List or Facets filters. Any ideas?

How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #19
Your if-statement is missing the then part.

Quote
$if(cond,then)

If cond evaluates to true, the then part is evaluated and its value returned. Otherwise, false is returned.
Title Formatting - Wiki



You could try $if($strstr(%path%,D:\Audio\Music\Albums),%album%) - whereas %album% should be replaced to the format you want the results to be displayed (e.g. %album%[ '['%album artist%']']|[[%discnumber%.]%tracknumber%. ][%track artist% - ]%title%).


How to get two different Libraries in Foobar?

Reply #20
the following should work
facets > source = playlist, filter_1 = %path% HAS media\music, filter_2 %path% HAS oldies\music
just use the filter when ever needed

however, this solution seems to be very sluggish, at least on my setup changing the filter/playlist is accompanied by a very noticable delay
furthermore, depending on why you need to/how often you look up the source, there might be better ways


I have an external drive at home E:\MusicArchive\ and E:\MusicHDArchive\
I also have an external drive mobile Z:\MusicArchive\ and Z:\MusicHDArchive\
Each drive is kept in sync using a product called AllwaySync'n'Go so I have a backup of all my flacrips.
Following is the query syntax I use with Facets.

%samplerate% GREATER 50000
%path% HAS "E:\Music"
%path% HAS "Z:\Music"

If I use the combined queries (samplerate) and (path) I get all Hi Resolution albums from the specified drive. If I just select one of the %path% filters I get both MusicArchive and MusicHDArchive albums.
Hope this helps.