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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Uninstaller - Option needed to preserve user settings
« on: June 27, 2014, 10:24:38 PM »
I run regular filesystem backups. For me, this is just an annoyance; for others, it might be more.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Uninstaller - Option needed to preserve user settings
« on: June 27, 2014, 09:55:28 AM »
I'm still unable to make the switch to MusicBee full-time (because of this, this, this, and this), but I test the latest build every so often to see if any of my issues have been addressed. When I uninstall, I often forget that the uninstaller removes user settings unconditionally, which, because I intend to come back to MusicBee at some point, isn't what I want. I recommend either providing an option to preserve user settings in the uninstaller or just not removing them at all.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Scripting - Additional functions needed
« on: July 20, 2013, 07:35:53 AM »
Sorry -- to clarify, by "virtual tags", I meant custom columns, which is a problem this plugin doesn't seem to solve. I'm not quite ready to migrate to MusicBee full-time as of yet, but I'm trying to at least migrate to its nomenclature.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: foobar2000/Winamp-style queue system
« on: July 20, 2013, 07:35:07 AM »The Now Playing Assistant will do the same thing. Alt+J by default.
Yep, but that's only one small piece of the puzzle.
I don't imagine a lot are turning away because of that, quite the opposite in fact.
Well, we'll see how this thread turns out in the long-term, I guess. One way or the other, it should be damn near trivial to offer what I'm suggesting as an option, but if no further action is to be taken until a sufficient number of complainers come out of the woodwork, I look forward to their inevitable arrival.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Scripting - Additional functions needed
« on: July 20, 2013, 06:35:00 AM »
Aside from migrating the rest of my "virtual tags" from fb2k, just off the top of my head, $lower/$upper/$stricmp for case-insensitive string comparisons, $lower or $upper for display flourishes, $len would be useful for comparisons on <Bitrate> (where you currently have to strip the trailing "k" manually, but can't test the length of the value to know how much to trim with $Left), $substr could also be useful for <Bitrate> trimming if it supported negative offsets like Python, and $strchr/$strrchr are mandatory for finding $substr offsets.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: foobar2000/Winamp-style queue system
« on: July 20, 2013, 06:32:22 AM »In MusicBee, the Now Playing list is your playlist. Looking at Foobar again now, I see it has a library where tracks are selected and a playlist to send them to for playback. How is that any different?
You can achieve the behavior I'm describing by creating an auto-playlist of your library, loading the foo_queuecontents plugin, and adding its panel to your layout.
That's why you wouldn't really load your entire library into the Now Playing list (unless you actually wanted to listen to every single song you have).
I do, in fact, want to listen to every single song I have.
In fb2k (and previously, in Winamp), I create an auto-playlist from my library, enable shuffle, and begin playback. When I want to listen to a specific song, I use a hotkey to load Media Library Search (or JTFE in Winamp), hammer out the song title, and hit enter. When I want to queue a specific song, I do the same thing, but hit "queue" instead rather than restoring the application and rooting around through my library. When I want to listen to the rest of the current album, I use a hotkey to disable shuffle. When I want to skip three tracks ahead in an album while shuffle is enabled, I use a hotkey that disables shuffle, skips to the next track, and re-enables shuffle -- three taps, and I'm on the song I want. Predictable behavior enables rapid-fire workflows like this, while the current MusicBee queuing paradigm will only slow me down.
When I'm not managing my library, I want my library management program out of the way. Again, there are many, many reasons I'd like to migrate over from fb2k, but I don't believe I should have to spend my day looking at MusicBee to accomplish simple playback tasks.
I'd suggest spending more time using MusicBee to get used to its way of doing things before asking for such a major change just because it's slightly different to how other programs do things.
Actually, as ma_t14 points out, all the requisite functionality is already present -- all that would be needed is an "Enable Now Playing?" checkbox, which, when unchecked, would move the queue numbers from "Now Playing" to playlist views and replace "Now Playing" with a queue contents editor (as in foo_queuecontents or JTFE).
I think the important thing to consider here is not the audacity of my request, but rather, how many potential users are being turned away from MusicBee every day because of this and *don't* come to the forum to complain or suggest a better way. By simply including an option for what I'm suggesting, that's one less barrier to entry. Surely that has to be a good thing?
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Better skip silence funtion?
« on: July 19, 2013, 11:12:03 PM »I don't quite understand why you guys don't just edit these files properly in Audacity?
There are those who prefer their music be preserved exactly how it was on the disc -- anal retentives, lazy bastards, scene release collectors...
For instance, even if Steven fixed this feature, if you export the file to your mp3 player
or a SD-card/USB-stick for another device, surely the silence will still be there?
Valid, but preserving the integrity of my library is more important to me than missing a hidden track while I'm driving, and it seems I'm not the only one.
Also, wasn't this 'secret song' idiocy something that died out in the nineties?
Seems like it, but there are enough of them in my library to warrant taking the time to make my case.
As in my queue system thread, I appreciate that some people prefer to work in a certain way and can't fathom why the rest of us don't, but why not include an option to satisfy both parties?
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Scripting - Additional functions needed
« on: July 19, 2013, 11:09:44 PM »
Thanks, but I've already come across the wiki and gotten what I can out of what little the scripting language currently offers. What I'm requesting here is a number of functions for which no workaround exists and a simplification of the $If function.
Here's one more for the request list: $Trim should accept an optional second parameter which would trim the specified text rather than spaces. For example, $Trim($Trim(<Title>,"("),")") would remove parentheses. Without $len or $substr, as far as I can tell, this is currently impossible.
Here's one more for the request list: $Trim should accept an optional second parameter which would trim the specified text rather than spaces. For example, $Trim($Trim(<Title>,"("),")") would remove parentheses. Without $len or $substr, as far as I can tell, this is currently impossible.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: foobar2000/Winamp-style queue system
« on: July 19, 2013, 11:06:51 PM »What you describe is exactly how the now playing list works. So if you queue tracks from inside the now playing list you will get the exact same behaviour you describe.
Perhaps, but again, why can't my playlist just be my playlist? Isn't that why they exist?
If I attempt to play files straight from Library > Music, so be it -- stick them in a "Now Playing" playlist. If I create an auto-playlist for my library, though, why can't that playlist simply behave as "Now Playing" currently does?
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: foobar2000/Winamp-style queue system
« on: July 19, 2013, 11:29:27 AM »If you are used to and like the foobar approach why not just keep using it?
There are many, many things I don't like about foobar and many, many reasons I'd switch to MusicBee if but a few requests were filled.
Truth be told, I don't even use foobar the "right" way -- I added my monitored folders, created an auto-playlist from them, and have been ignoring playlists ever since (for everything but files loaded from explorer, at least). Essentially, my configuration is an ugly MusicBee with a tenth of the features. It's not the playlist-oriented approach I want brought to MusicBee -- just the queue system, which seems to be the standard for media players (and for good reason).
Hopefully some of the others here share my view.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Overwriting view preset should propagate changes
« on: July 19, 2013, 11:14:57 AM »
Interesting. I can reproduce this by simply adding or removing a column. Between this and the other thread, it's clear there's something seriously, seriously wrong with either my view or my settings.
Question is, how did they get that way in the first place?
Question is, how did they get that way in the first place?
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: foobar2000/Winamp-style queue system
« on: July 19, 2013, 10:26:26 AM »
Almost forgot to mention: This would need to be supplemented with either a "send files loaded from explorer to the following playlist" setting or an undeletable default playlist for the very same purpose.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Re: Better skip silence funtion?
« on: July 19, 2013, 10:08:18 AM »
+1. As Nick notes, this is an essential feature for hidden tracks. If you'd prefer not to add extra settings, Steven, fb2k's defaults of 5000ms and -60dB are sane ones. Even at 1000ms and -40dB, I don't get any false positives whatsoever.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Scripting - Additional functions needed
« on: July 19, 2013, 10:07:09 AM »
Clearly, the goal of the MusicBee scripting language is to be less messy than that of competing players. To that end, I'd like to suggest inline "and", "or", and "not" operators.
For example:
$If(<Bitrate> != "320k" && <Bitrate> != "256k" || $Right(<Encoding Quality>,1) > 2,Low Quality,High Quality)
vs.
$If(<Bitrate> = "320k",High Quality,$If(<Bitrate> = "256k",High Quality,$If($Right(<Encoding Quality>,1) > 2,Low Quality,High Quality)))
As in most languages, "and" would take precedence, thereby negating the need for additional parentheses.
Though I'm sure this has been raised a million times, I'd also like to note that MusicBee simply doesn't contain enough functions. There are a number of kludgy workarounds that can be used to fill in some of the gaps, but at minimum, I'd like to see the following irreplicable functions added: $len, $lower, $upper, $substr, $stricmp, $strchr, and $strrchr.
One last thing: I don't expect this one to happen, but if I were in charge, I'd replace $IsNull with [] (or something like $NotNull). How many times do you want to display something if the value *is* null? It's just one extra comma, I know, but all the same, it's a baffling design decision.
For example:
$If(<Bitrate> != "320k" && <Bitrate> != "256k" || $Right(<Encoding Quality>,1) > 2,Low Quality,High Quality)
vs.
$If(<Bitrate> = "320k",High Quality,$If(<Bitrate> = "256k",High Quality,$If($Right(<Encoding Quality>,1) > 2,Low Quality,High Quality)))
As in most languages, "and" would take precedence, thereby negating the need for additional parentheses.
Though I'm sure this has been raised a million times, I'd also like to note that MusicBee simply doesn't contain enough functions. There are a number of kludgy workarounds that can be used to fill in some of the gaps, but at minimum, I'd like to see the following irreplicable functions added: $len, $lower, $upper, $substr, $stricmp, $strchr, and $strrchr.
One last thing: I don't expect this one to happen, but if I were in charge, I'd replace $IsNull with [] (or something like $NotNull). How many times do you want to display something if the value *is* null? It's just one extra comma, I know, but all the same, it's a baffling design decision.
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MusicBee Wishlist / Winamp API - Additional functions needed
« on: July 19, 2013, 10:04:36 AM »
To make the switch to MusicBee, I need the following items added to its Winamp API support:
In addition, the "Stop After Current" API function is supposed to be a toggle. Currently, MusicBee will only set the value -- it won't clear it.
- Get Repeat (WM_USER 251)
- Get Repeat Track (WM_USER 634)
- Get Shuffle (WM_USER 250)
- Set Repeat (WM_USER 253)
- Set Repeat Track (WM_USER 635)
- Set Shuffle (WM_USER 252)
- Jump to File (WM_COMMAND 40194)
- Seek Back (WM_COMMAND 40144)
- Seek Forward (WM_COMMAND 40148)
In addition, the "Stop After Current" API function is supposed to be a toggle. Currently, MusicBee will only set the value -- it won't clear it.