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Topic: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems (Read 2134 times) previous topic - next topic
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Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Hello,
I'm trying to make a transition from Winamp to Foobar. I managed to set up my layout by using the Facets plugin, although I can't get over a few problems.

This is what my Winamp looked like: http://i66.tinypic.com/2r5vme1.jpg
These are my foobar plugins: http://i64.tinypic.com/2yyr348.jpg
This is my foobar atm: http://i63.tinypic.com/ad0v3n.jpg

I'm new to this and I really need your help guys to make this program functional enough for me. I'm pretty demanding when it comes to music players. So far I really like foobar, but these few problems prevent me from fully enjoing it and I have no clue how to solve them.

Major problems:
1. How do I make the first position (All) dissapear from my album view? I'd like to only see actual albums once I select an Artist/Genre. Its artwork refreshes so slowly...
http://pl.tinypic.com/r/2uggahg/9

EDIT: I got rid of it by right clicking > Display > unchecked Summary item.

2. Can someone explain to me how do the playlists work? They seem to make no sense to me.
http://pl.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=k36io3&s=9#.V8IYyq1u1fA
The only thing that changes when using my Facets plugin is Library selection - and it displays whatever's playing now (which I believe should be in Library selection (playing)?). All of the other playlists seem random to me. How do I see the contents of an album without playing it (like in Winamp)?

3. I keep track of when I discover certain album by keeping a date in Comment tag. That way, I could sort all tracks by Comment and Refresh by "Read metadata..." in Winamp:
http://pl.tinypic.com/r/2whfgb9/9

Then, I'd sort by Last Updated in the albums view:
http://i68.tinypic.com/f3dwlg.jpg

That way, all of the album covers were sorted by the date that I first listened to them - from the most recent to least. Is there a way to perform such an action in Foobar?

4. How do I only see the albums that are rated 5 stars? Once I click on Filter > Top Rated, it shows nothing (even though several albums are rated 5 stars):
http://i65.tinypic.com/qojbmg.jpg

Side-note problems:

5. How do I make e.g. two albums named 'Greatest Hits' appear as two seperate elements on the albums view, as opposed to seeing one blank artwork (two put it simply: make it behave like in Winamp... right now it's just retarded)


6. How do I make columns' contents not case-sensitive, like in Winamp? E.g If I'd like to merge 'Alternative rap' with 'Alternative Rap' without actually changing the tags?

7. If the album has no title, can I still make it appear in the Album section as, for example, "(no title)"? Right now it displays nothing in such situations.

I would greatly appreciate any help. Thank you all in advance.

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #1 –
Hi, and welcome.
Here's a few suggestions to some of your questions, which by the way not belong to the Support section of this board.
First of all: Facets documentation.

Quote
(2) The only thing that changes when using my Facets plugin is Library selection - and it displays whatever's playing now (which I believe should be in Library selection (playing)?). All of the other playlists seem random to me. How do I see the contents of an album without playing it (like in Winamp)?
In Facets' toolbar be sure the drop-down list is set to Library.
In Facets' preferences in the Library part set 'Selection action:' to None. See screenshot.

Quote
4. How do I only see the albums that are rated 5 stars? Once I click on Filter > Top Rated, it shows nothing (even though several albums are rated 5 stars)
You already have the Playback Statistics (PS) component installed. It also handles ratings, but the component uses it's own database; it doesn't read|write these metadata from|to the audio files. When you install the component, it's literally day 0. I don't know how Winamp handles and formats ratings, but if they are kept in a tag, for example named rating, you might have luck with this:
Code: [Select]
$meta(rating) IS 5
as a Facets filter for the highest rating. See also: Playback Statistics, Common sources of confusion.
The PS component is able to import (rating) data in XML format. But even if Winamp has XML export functions (via an add-on maybe) this will probably be of no use. Internally PS uses these proprietary values for ratings 1-5:
Code: [Select]
<PlaybackStatistics Version="3.0" Mapping="C653739F-14B3-4EF2-819B-A3E2883230AE">
  <Entry ID="aee1a66f1378eb4f" Rating="63" />
  <Entry ID="acc3139f8873aeb9" Rating="106" />
  <Entry ID="8a18fa9adcbe9bad" Rating="149" />
  <Entry ID="16b2f3ec89bd5823" Rating="191" />
  <Entry ID="b09bb29137bd4b80" Rating="234" />
</PlaybackStatistics>

Quote
6. How do I make columns' contents not case-sensitive, like in Winamp? E.g If I'd like to merge 'Alternative rap' with 'Alternative Rap' without actually changing the tags?
Code: [Select]
$caps(%genre%)
'AlterNative rap' -> 'Alternative Rap'

Code: [Select]
$caps2(%genre%)
'AlterNative rap' -> 'AlterNative Rap'

Code: [Select]
$lower(%genre%)
'AlterNative rap' -> 'alternative rap'

Code: [Select]
$upper(%genre%)
'AlterNative rap' -> 'ALTERNATIVE RAP'

See Titleformat Reference string functions.

Quote
7. If the album has no title, can I still make it appear in the Album section as, for example, "(no title)"? Right now it displays nothing in such situations.
Try
Code: [Select]
$if2(%album%,'('no title')')
being the same but shorter than
Code: [Select]
$if(%album%,%album%,'('no title')')

See Titleformat Reference control flow functions and Facets doc on Missing fields.

Good luck with the transition from Winamp to foobar2000.

Addendum
If Winamp saves rating values in a metadata field, it's not named rating. From Facets' documentation:
Quote
Checks playback statistics %rating% first, then metadata field rating.
 

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #2 –
Thank you a lot for your response, PeteG.

2. Actually, once it's set to Send to selection, keep playing playlist it does exactly what I wanted - once I unfocus the current playing album, Library selection shows contents of a selected album, while Library selection (playing) shows current playing album playlist. It's just confusing that I have to unfocus for it to make change, but that's not that bad.
I guess the Default playlist is created for users who don't use a library and want to fill it in?
The Filter playlists turned out to be some leftover - I deleted them and they didn't reappear.

3. I managed to get it working by adding a Column with a pattern %comment% in the Facets section. Then, I added that column to the Album view and it worked like a charm! It's even better than in Winamp, since I don't have to refresh the order once i re-tag something:


4. I eventually got it working. Most of the ratings were recognized by Facets, but they still didn't appear in Top Rated filter. I re-wrote the ratings via right-click and voila. Thankfully, it was easier than I thought. I wonder if it can save ratings to tags (there is an option to do it manually, but what about automatically)?

5. Still looking for a workaround if there's any.

6. I guess it was easier to just rewrite the tags via Properties (it's much easier than in Winamp, the mass-tagging is crazy good). Still, thank you.

7. Could you tell me where exactly do I put these scripts? I'm still a noob at this :D

Quote from: PeteG
If Winamp saves rating values in a metadata field, it's not named rating. From Facets' documentation:
Winamp saves ratings as RATING WINAMP in tags. But, as I mentioned, that's solved.

One more: Is there a way to make the playlist managing any easier? I mean, if I want to create a playlist from current selection, I have to drag to another playlist tab, than come back to the selection tab if I want to add anything else. In Winamp, you could just drag from library contents to playlist on the same screen. See what I mean below:
http://pl.tinypic.com/r/10p34og/9

It was just one drag. Now, it's more difficult (also, the dragging is a little tricky - even a Send to > Playlist option would be better I believe).

I already love my foobar! It's much faster than Winamp in use, no more mini-freezes! It's really functional and clean looking - I don't even feel the need for any fancy skins. It's really great. A good transition indeed (though I was really sceptic, I tried foobar years ago and by then it was a nightmare to set for me, lol)

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #3 –
Quote from: eagors93 on
5. Still looking for a workaround if there's any.

You can customize how albums (or anything) is sorted/grouped in Facets using the columns formatting. For albums that share the same name you could add %year% to distinguish them, for example. I personally further distinguish albums by label number.

Quote from: eagors93 on
One more: Is there a way to make the playlist managing any easier? I mean, if I want to create a playlist from current selection, I have to drag to another playlist tab, than come back to the selection tab if I want to add anything else. In Winamp, you could just drag from library contents to playlist on the same screen. See what I mean below:
http://pl.tinypic.com/r/10p34og/9

You can split UI panels into sections as you might have seen in the layout editing mode (View>Layout). This way you could have playlist panels side by side, or in a different area of the layout altogether, allowing both the current selection and other playlists to be viewed simultaneously.

Or just use something like JSPlaylist which uses JScript Panel to provide a slicker experience for the Default UI. Tracks can either be dragged to the right of the panel to trigger an auto slide-out menu of playlists, or right-clicked and sent directly to the desired playlist.

I use it for the Now Playlist playlist, current selection playlist, and playlist manager rolled into one. The Tab key also opens the slide-out playlist manager.

Demo:

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Coreda
You can customize how albums (or anything) is sorted/grouped in Facets using the columns formatting. For albums that share the same name you could add %year% to distinguish them, for example. I personally further distinguish albums by label number.
You are totally right! I didn't even notice, but I actually solved this problem accidentally by adding a few columns earlier. Thanks.

As for the playlist, I like your idea of adding another UI panel. I added a playlist manager that I keep hidden under the Selection Info panel. When I need it, I can expand it and easily drag and drop. Think I can do without that plugin, it looks nice though. Thank you.

PeteG, you were right about the code:
Code: [Select]
$if2(%album%,'('no title')')

I finally figured out I had to put it in the Facets Columns section (silly me lol) and it works great.

I think I've solved all of my problems! I'm really happy about it. Thank you guys for your amazing thorough help.


EDIT: What's the best way to backup all of my settings now?
EDIT2: There's a button "Send to selection playlist" that is grayed out. It only works once I turn a filter on. Is there a way to make it always active? If not, can I hide it (can't see an option to do so)?
http://pl.tinypic.com/r/vra712/9

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #6 –
Quote from: eagors93 on
EDIT2: There's a button "Send to selection playlist" that is grayed out. It only works once I turn a filter on. Is there a way to make it always active? If not, can I hide it (can't see an option to do so)?
That's on purpose. It is only active, when you have a search result or, as you remark, use a filter!
RightClick the button in the toolbar and disable 'Search results'(!)
It should not be necessary to enable layout editing mode.
See doc: Facets toolbar.

Re: Winamp to Foobar transition - problems

Reply #7 –
OK, thank you guys again. You're right PeteG, don't know how, but I have checked all the other options in that menu except Search results O_o Thank you for your patience.