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Topic: new user is lost (Read 3081 times) previous topic - next topic
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new user is lost

in the past 2 years i have been switching music players quite a bit (winamp -> amarok -> mediamonkey and a few more) and every player had some aspects/features/plugins that i really enjoyed but not one of them had everything i wanted and was stable/fast enough.
now from what i read about and saw from fb2k it seems like its just what i need, fast and highly customizable and some screenshots of what users did with fb2k looked really promising.

now i realize that customizing takes a lot of time and i am willing to invest an hour or two, but i have no idea where to start. i have been looking around in the wiki and this forum and i am just lost. so many abbreviations, plugins and ways to do things. what i need is an overview about the structure of fb2k and its extensions and a list of commonly used stuff... basically, a place to start building my personal version

new user is lost

Reply #1 –
Well the forums are a pretty good place to start, but not as good as the program itself.

Maybe what you should do is use foobar2000 out-of-the-box and when you come across a short-coming of some sort or point of confusion, you can:
1. Check the FAQ
2. forum/wiki search for the key terms in your question
3. And if you can't find an answer there then start a thread and ask.

elevatorladylevitateme

new user is lost

Reply #2 –
From the official foobar2000 web site:

Quote
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform.......


For users who are not totally used to foobar2000's features really need  spend time learning how to use it. I believe peaple who are in the forum had the same problem, confusion, question etc. as you today when they used foobar2000 for the first time.

What shakey_snake said is correct. The official foobar2000 web site contains basical information to help. You could always read title formatting help, FAQ and do search in this forum. You are wellcome to post questions here, and will not get ignored unless they are so professional that only the developers can answer. It is the best forum I have ever seen. That's why I love here.

By the way, In my opinion, new users don't need any 3rd party component except for Facets (foo_facets).

new user is lost

Reply #3 –
Don't worry, it will (probably) come to you. Personally I have always wanted a player and manager like foobar2000, but the switch from Winamp to foobar2000 were REALLY hard for me. I tried 4 or 5 times and didn't really get far bayond the initial install.

First of all, don't get blinded by all the nice looking configs. Making foobar2000 look nice is a "nice-to-have"-feature (in contrary to "need-to-have"). It's great to have a player that looks nice, but in order to get there, you need to figure out how the different components work, which ones you need etc etc. When you have decided which one to stick to, you can put them together using panelsplitter, but that requires a lot of time investment, unless you can find a "skin" that fits your needs or would be easy to modify.

Personally I have given up on the graphical side. I just use columnsui to easily move around panels and add/remove new ones when they are developed. foobar2000 is more of a powerful control player/organizer than a nice looking gadget.
Can't wait for a HD-AAC encoder :P

new user is lost

Reply #4 –
Wow it´s really a lot, from what my experience has been F2K is one of the applications with higher learning curve I´ve stumbled with, because it´s highly customizable  it depends on what you want from F2K.

I first started as recommended above looking at the FAQ, The Wiki, Title formatting syntax & Query to get an idea of how F2K works; the components stuff like DUI, Media Library and third party ones, the layout editing mode, etc while playing with the UI and taking ideas from this thread and from here

I also used several online guides From Winamp to Foobar2000 http://eolindel.free.fr/foobar2000/ and Foobar Manual and most importantly the forum.
If you want themes look here and here. For getting an idea on the available third party components look here, here, another here and the forum section of third party components.

Hope it helps.
 

new user is lost

Reply #5 –
Quote from: shakey_snake on
Maybe what you should do is use foobar2000 out-of-the-box and when you come across a short-coming of some sort or point of confusion, you can [things]


I second this whole-heartedly. Don't construct a house of cards before you've even played a hand.

Quote from: Wooops on
my experience has been F2K is one of the applications with higher learning curve I´ve stumbled with, because it´s highly customizable


It's highly customizable, but I don't think that grants it a high learning curve. I reserve that term for programs like Cinema4D and Adobe Premiere. .  When I first got it, I dragged my music folder into it, and played. That's not a learning curve, that's a learning-underscore.

The layout is a bit quirky to get a grip on, but there's a scratchbox in which you can mess about. I still don't think it's optimal, but it's an excellent solution given the interface problem presented.

Components are legion, but the idea is undoubtedly familiar.