Auto change an equalizer preset based on the genre info in the tag

[VX]

If you like listening to the tracks of different music genres in a playlists and don't want to manually change the equalizer settings every time the currently played track genre has changed you could just enable the option to auto-choose the equalizer preset using the genre info in the tag!

If the genre of playing track was not specified in the tag or there was no suitable preset in Equalizer, the track could be played with the Equalizer set to flat.

In other words: set it once, and forget it 

Simple and very comfortable, isn't it?

[VX]

Steven, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for making the feature available in MB 1.2.4048 

Let me ask a few questions about how it works. It is written in the changelog:
- new auto-select by genre equaliser - its a new predefined value "Auto-Select by Genre" in the list of equalisers. MusicBee tries to match the primary genre name of the playing track to an equaliser with the same name, and if no match then tries to match the genre category name, and if no match then no equaliser is applied.

1. When I choose "Auto Select by Genre" from the list of available equalizer presets and enable the equalizer, the GUI of the equalizer remains flat no matter the genre of currently played track has changed.  Why it doesn't show currently used presets for every played track 

2. a) What if a track has more than one genre specified and all of the genres have their own presets (eg. Pop, Rock) Which preset is used in that situation: 1st one, 2nd one, none (flat)
b) Supposing there were two genres assigned: Metal, Rock (there is no preset for metal currently available in MB), which one would be used: rock or flat 
c) For one song I have the following genres: British Invasion (displayed), Pop Rock (individual) - which preset is used with it 

3. There are no equalizer presets for many popular genres in MB. Before the missing presets are created by users maybe we should find a way to take advantage of the existing ones 
I know that assigning a track to the genre is rather conventional but there are some attempts to assign the genres to the categories. As an example we could use the list of electronic music genres from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres
That would simplify the process of creating new equalizer presets for MB, because first of all only the 'main' genre categories should have its own preset and all the derivative sub-genres would use it.

To make the feature complete, the long MP3Tag list of genres could be used to compare with the one form Wikipedia and every genre could be assigned to the preset (some of them eg. Audiobook should use flat, or maybe the Spoken Word would be better in this case ).

**********************************************************
There are following Equalizer presets currently available in MB:

1.Acoustic.sde      2. Bass Booster.sde        3. Bass Reducer.sde
4. Classical.sde     5. Club.sde     6. Dance.sde        7.Deep.sde
8. Electronic.sde    9. Hip-Hop.sde     10. Jazz.sde   11. Latin.sde
12. Live.sde    13. Loudness.sde     14. Lounge.sde   15. Piano.sde
16. Pop.sde 17.    Reggae.sde      18. RnB.sde          19. Rock.sde   
20. Ska.sde      21. Small Speakers.sde              22. Soft Rock.sde   
23. Soft.sde      24. Spoken Word.sde              25. Techno.sde
26. Treble Booster.sde    27. Treble Reducer.sde     28.Vocal Booster.sde.
***********************************************************

That's quite impressive and long list  but it definitely could be enlarged. I'm going to create and share few more presets, but I need some time to test it and I want to know what you think about these suggestions for improvements in Equalizer  .

5. What about using the genres list from Wikipedia compared with the MP3Tag list as a first step in enhancing MB Equalizer presets 

6. Different spelling and similarity issues should also be taken into consideration (eg. Powerpop vs Power Pop, Chanson vs Chanson Francaise, Easy Listening vs Chillout - although it's not always the same).

7. Consider adding a hotkey: Ctrl  + Q or Ctrl + G  - to run Equalizer 

Thank you for reading.

NOTE:
Creating new Equalizer presets for MB is very easy. You could have a look at the http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ to find different Equalizer presets and make it usable with MB.

[VX]

I made one experimental preset for Metal (especially ballads) fans. IMHO, it sounds quite good in my 2.0 Logitech speakers, but I can't tell you if you like it.
Feel free to check, use, modify, enhance and share: http://www.mediafire.com/?jayte52h57o3vsj

After downloading the file, copy it to C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Equaliser\  launch Equaliser, find the preset, enable and E N J O Y 

BTW. Creating and sharing the Equaliser presets for MB is even simpler than for Foobar 

[Steven]

1. When I choose "Auto Select by Genre" from the list of available equalizer presets and enable the equalizer, the GUI of the equalizer remains flat no matter the genre of currently played track has changed.  Why it doesn't show currently used presets for every played track 

that is intentional - it could be confusing for people to see the values changing each time they open it

2. a) What if a track has more than one genre specified and all of the genres have their own presets (eg. Pop, Rock) Which preset is used in that situation: 1st one, 2nd one, none (flat)
b) Supposing there were two genres assigned: Metal, Rock (there is no preset for metal currently available in MB), which one would be used: rock or flat 
c) For one song I have the following genres: British Invasion (displayed), Pop Rock (individual) - which preset is used with it 

it uses the first genre only (and if not matched, then the genre category)

3. There are no equalizer presets for many popular genres in MB. Before the missing presets are created by users maybe we should find a way to take advantage of the existing ones 
I know that assigning a track to the genre is rather conventional but there are some attempts to assign the genres to the categories. As an example we could use the list of electronic music genres from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres
That would simplify the process of creating new equalizer presets for MB, because first of all only the 'main' genre categories should have its own preset and all the derivative sub-genres would use it.

i am hoping someone can build up a set of equaliser settings that i can distribute - at least for the main genre categories. In case you arent aware, genre categories are like a general genre for a bunch of genres eg. Alternative Rock, Alternative, Metal might be mapped to genre category "Rock" - the mappings are defined in the Tags(2) preferences

5. What about using the genres list from Wikipedia compared with the MP3Tag list as a first step in enhancing MB Equalizer presets 

my thinking has been to get the genre categories all set up with an equaliser and then people can define specific equalisers for particular genres if they want. That way its all very simple

6. Different spelling and similarity issues should also be taken into consideration (eg. Powerpop vs Power Pop, Chanson vs Chanson Francaise, Easy Listening vs Chillout - although it's not always the same).

see 5

7. Consider adding a hotkey: Ctrl  + Q or Ctrl + G  - to run Equalizer 

there is a command already in the hotkeys - View: Show Equaliser
although i thought there was one to toggle the equaliser on and off and i cant see it, so will add it

[Xolo]

Quote from: VX on February 03, 2011, 11:47:01 AM
1. When I choose "Auto Select by Genre" from the list of available equalizer presets and enable the equalizer, the GUI of the equalizer remains flat no matter the genre of currently played track has changed.  Why it doesn't show currently used presets for every played track 

Answer: that is intentional - it could be confusing for people to see the values changing each time they open it

Reply: Not really confusing, what's confusing is not seeing it change. I want to see that eq working and not have to log onto a subdirectory in a forum that I'm constantly on because there are so many unecessary things happening with MB... that I can't help but wonder if the EQ's actually doing anything when it appeared not to be. This is a suggestion.