Playlist - Play one track at a time

[Onetrackmind]

Hi I am organizing a playlist of songs to play during Mass (Church Services). The problem is that the playlists automatically plays the next song and if your not quick enough with the stop button, the next song plays when the priest has already started saying his bit. So it would be good to have a function where each track on the playlist is played and then stops, then you click the next one, when you need it.

I have looked at MEdiaplayer, no dice.
I have looked at VLC, good, but the playlists are too hard to organise for the 60 year old volunteers.
Musicbee is by far the best, but we need the ability to play one track at a time, the oldies can't cope with having to watch out for the track finishing and to manually click pause. I did see the 'stop after this track' option but we need that for each of the 15 tracks that get played.
Thank you kindly, Esther
 

[psychoadept]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Musicbee has a function called "stop after current", which you could trigger as soon as a piece starts.  It does exactly what it sounds like: stops at the end of the current track.  It also loads the next track, so when you're ready to play it you just have to hit play.

[Portus]

How do you turn that feature to be always on? I'm using this for backing tracks live and need each song to require me to manualy start it.
I need to pick out of the play list what song I want to play and have it always stop at the end of song. A global command to always stop after play.

[psychoadept]

To have an "always on" mode, you'd need to make a wishlist request.  But there is a hotkey you can configure to make it easier to set once a track starts.

[geofre]

Hi - I'm 66 years old, so please be gentle...

Since there doesn't seem to be a way to have MusicBee automatically stop after each song, more or less by default, you suggested creating a hotkey. How would I do that?

Sorry for such a novice question - and thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[Bizy]

@Geofre:

Psychoadept might reply.  
But already this:  go to Edit/Preferences/Hotkeys where you can select an action you can add a 'hotkey' to.
A hotkey is a (combination of) keyboard letter(s)/function(s) that you can use to quickly activate a command.  

@Onetrackmind & Portus:

When I here you rightly, the function 'stop after current' might suit your needs.  You don't have to watch out anymore to stop the song in time.  And so on, for every song you want to play:  play & 'stop after current'.
All you need to do is make a playlist with your preferred songs - in the right order, that would be even more easy - and use this command.

Have you found it?
If not: right click on the panel where you have your player controls - depending on your settings in 'Arrange panels' (probably at the top or at the bottom).

Greetz,
b.

[sveakul]

Since there doesn't seem to be a way to have MusicBee automatically stop after each song, more or less by default, you suggested creating a hotkey. How would I do that?

Unless I'm missing something about what you're looking for, the way to have MusicBee stop by default after playing one song in a playlist or library is by going to the setting Preferences->Now Playing->Playing Tracks List, and under "Play now action" check the choice "Clear list and play selected tracks only."  That's all!  Then you'll have to manually start the next one.

[Bizy]

@Sveakul:  most elegant solution!!

[geofre]

Unless I'm missing something about what you're looking for, the way to have MusicBee stop by default after playing one song in a playlist or library is by going to the setting Preferences->Now Playing->Playing Tracks List, and under "Play now action" check the choice "Clear list and play selected tracks only."  That's all!  Then you'll have to manually start the next one.

Well, I think I've done what you suggest, but it's not working. So please bear with me and I'll tell you exactly where I went and what I did:

1 - clicked on Edit (at the top, where there are links that say - after MusicBee - File, View, Edit, Controls, Tools and Help.) Then I chose the bottom choice, Edit Preferences.

2 - Clicked on Now Playing, and in the -playing tracks list- section chose the first 'Play Now' action, "clear list and play selected tracks only"

3 - Clicked Save at the bottom.

Made a three song playlist of random choices, played the first one, and when it finished the next track started to play immediately.

Now, in the area just above "clear list and play selected tracks only", there's a section that says
action when adding tracks using double click:
if playback is stopped:
when tracks are playing:
Both have a choice of Play Now, Queue Next, Queue Last

Does this have anything to do with this?

Thank you, all.

[Bizy]

Geofre:  are you sure only one file was selected?  (I reproduced exactly what Sveakul recommanded and whay you did, and for me it works.)

[psychoadept]

If you're doing it the way suggested, you should only see one track in the Playing Tracks list at a time. If there's more than one, MusicBee will play them all.

[geofre]

So the bottom line is: if I have a playlist of 30 songs, it's not possible to have MusicBee stop after each one unless I do Stop After Current Track each time I start a track, is that correct?

[redwing]

One big difference between MB and other players is that MB has playing tracks list which can be different from what's shown in the main panel even if it's a playlist. Playing sequence of MB solely follows the playing tracks list, not what's shown in the main panel. Probably you already have the list panel on your right sidebar, and if not, add the element from View> Arrange Panels.

Made a three song playlist of random choices, played the first one, and when it finished the next track started to play immediately.

Clear all songs from the playing tracks list. And try double clicking a song from the main panel, then you will see only one song is added to the list if you have selected "clear list and play selected tracks only" option in Now Playing settings.

[psychoadept]

So the bottom line is: if I have a playlist of 30 songs, it's not possible to have MusicBee stop after each one unless I do Stop After Current Track each time I start a track, is that correct?

That's not what we're saying at all. As redwing says, there's a difference between the Playlist and the Playing Tracks list. Maybe it would help if you gave us a screenshot of your settings, and of what MusicBee looks like after you double click on one track in the playlist. It may be that we're using slightly different words for things and that's causing confusion.

If you haven't done screenshots before, this might help: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Posting_Screenshots

[geofre]

First, thank you - all of you - for offering advice and help. I really do appreciate it.

I'm at work now, so I won't be able to send a screenshot (and luckily, I often have to send screenshots to people, so at least I know how.)

Perhaps I should explain: what I've used in the past is an old - and I mean OLD - version of Mixmeister. It's actually aimed ad DJs, but a friend (who gave it to me for free, since the version I have isn't even available anymore) pointed out that I could just use it to play my tracks and ignore all the "bells and whistles".

It works...ok. Kind of glitchy at times. BUT, it was very easy for me to understand and use, right from the beginning. Here's a screenshot I found via Google images. I had mine set a bit differently; I hid the Master Output (which is at the very bottom in the screenshot), and mine  shows only one track status at the bottom, not four, which allowed me to make both of the windows above that larger. The left window shows my entire library of tracks, the right window is the playlist.



When I tried MusicBee, I liked it much better, one of the main reasons being the ability to increase the font size. As I've said, I'm 66-years-old. I've had eye surgery on both eyes and, while I can see fine in normal circumstances, trying to read a font as small as Mixmeister's has been an issue.

Therefore, when I downloaded and installed MusicBee I was trying to more or less duplicate the way Mixmeister is set up but with a larger font size.

I was also trying to add my tracks to MusicBee's "library" (or whatever the correct term is), and then create a Playlist.

That's where things more or less fell apart. I couldn't seem to remove all of the album info, album art, etc. And, based on psychoadept explaining "...there's a difference between the Playlist and the Playing Tracks list" I now realize that I have no idea of what the heck I'm doing!

If there's a manual, or tutorial(s), etc. that could "take me by the hand" and walk me through the process of doing what I'm trying to do, I'd appreciate it more than I can express.

Again, thank you, all.