Built in spectrogram visualization has unfortunate grayscale colormap, IMHO for no reason as every decent spectrogram has reasonable colormap, be it "hot", or "spectrum" or any of freely available sensible colormaps. It resembles to Audacity bad decision of light background for spectrogram, but on different level.
The problem is that whenever I install new foobar instance, I get this gray spectrogram and have to manually add colormap, while there is no easy way to transfer existing settings to other instance.
Please have a look at musical spectrum component - that's the way foobar spectrum component should have it's colormap, instead following unrelated foobar color display scheme. More over to spectrogram.
Thanks for your consideration
I don't disagree that the default grey is boring and/or ugly, but if you save your theme, any changes you make to the spectrogram should carry over when you import the theme in another install. At least, all mine have the colors I saved..
The problem is that whenever I install new foobar instance, I get this gray spectrogram and have to manually add colormap, while there is no easy way to transfer existing settings to other instance.
Enable layout editing mode, right click on the spectrogram UI element, choose "Copy UI element". Then paste in Windows Explorer to create an FTH file. The file will be called "Spectrogram.fth" in foobar2000 v1.3.8 because it contains the spectrogram UI element. However the name does not matter. You can copy this file to another computer. Right click the file in Windows Explorer and choose "Copy". Now you can paste the spectrogram UI element with configured color map into foobar2000 if you enable layout editing mode. Right click the element you want to replace or an empty slot and choose "Paste UI element".
Thanks for your thoughts guys. Copying themes seems reasonable and perhaps I should make my basic layout accessible through http - that is a fact.
foosion, that's a nice tip that I wasn't aware of, thanks. But in this case it will only work if I have spectrogram as UI element in my layout, and the standalone window or fullscreen spectrogram has it's own colormap, huh... for whatever reason.
I try to make my foobar layouts as basic as I can - that is facets, playlist view, properties and album art:
(http://i.imgur.com/J43cFyCm.png) (http://i.imgur.com/J43cFyC.png)
with least interaction from my side. That's why I'm seeking for sensible defaults.
It's unclear why those visualization elements follow foobar display scheme as if they are some candies, instead colormap that will provide more information and will be more appropriate. I also read some posts about missing coordinates, but as in my opening post, musical spectrum component is delicate as foobar visualization elements should be - IMHO that's history of foobar - embrace intelligence in core. Or simply put, spectrum and spectrogram should have sensible and exchangeable colormaps.
"The problem is that whenever I install new foobar instance, I get this gray spectrogram"
I don't quite understand. Settings are all preserved if you install updates on top of the existing installation. Do you constantly reformat your PC or buy a new one?
A little help and printscreen with results:
http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=102273 (http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=102273)
Just open click on spectrogram, open "Color map", click on free space or on any coloured bar and choose "Add color".
All settings of your user interface are always stored in "theme.fth" file located in "C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000" (on Vista and later), and in "C:\Documents & Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\foobar2000" (on XP and earlier). You can move this file to any new installation, friend's computer, etc.