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[LennyM]

Simple question, maybe.  Did a search and came up empty.

My classical CD rips are organized as albums.  For example: album with 2 concertos three movements each, so six files.  As of now MC will play the two concertos and then stop.  But can I tell MC to automatically stop playing after file 3, that is after the first concerto?

Thanks in advance.

[JimH]

Select those tracks and press play.

[LennyM]

Thank you for responding, but perhaps you didn't understand my question. 

I know I can select the tracks I want each time.  My question is whether there's a way to set it up in advance so that whenever I tell it to play from track 1, it will play just tracks 1-3.

Then to play the second concerto I would play from track 4.

[JimH]

I don't think so.  Are you starting playback from Explorer?  If so, try starting from with MC.

There's another possibility you could try.  You can select tracks and "link" them, so they always play together. 

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Tools

[LennyM]

I tried the "link" them route, and If I am using that option correctly, it doesn't seem to do what I have in mind.  It still goes on to play track 4 after track 3. 

I might note that what I would like to do is probably a very common use when listening to classical music, one which we all do manually.  I have a CD, and then a MC album with 2 concertos on it.  I would like to listen to just the first of them and then have MC stop.  IMO it would be very useful of there could be a stop code on a selected file.  One work-around is just to have me go to what I use to control the system and press stop.  But it is a work-around.  Perhaps you would consider a stop code at the end of a file in a future MC version.

Another work-around that you suggested is just to select files 1-3 for play.  Most of my listening is controlled on my phone using Eos.  Since you probably do not support Eos, I will ask as though I was using Gizmo, which I also have on my phone.  So referring to your suggestion above, is it possible and how do I select tracks 1-3 in Gizmo?

Thanks.

[JimH]

Have you considered making playlists?

Linked tracks should work.  You would just play the first track.

[LennyM]

Thanks for trying to help.  But I do not want to go through the steps to make playlists.  It should not be necessary for my application.

I tried linked tracks again.  I selected tracks 1-3 and linked them.  Then I played something else.  Came back to track 1 and when track 3 finished it went on, as usual, to track 4.  Linking seems simple enough, but it didn't work for this application, at least not for me.

Again, this would seem to be the kind of thing that classical music users would find valuable.  For example if in a future MC version one could replace "Track #" 3 with 3x and have play stopped after 3, that would be a very simple and very useful adjustment to make to our albums. 

Meanwhile I would ask again if it is possible to select tracks 1-3 in Gizmo (or eos)?  Is it possible in JRemote?

Thank you.

[DJLegba]

I don't think it's possible to tell the system to stop playing after any track other than the current track. However, if you have a lot of classical music in your collection you would probably find it very useful to add a "Work" tag and spend some time editing your library. I did it - it took a while, but now I use it a lot and I'm very happy I put in the effort.

[LennyM]

I'm getting that message, to wit, that it's impossible to tell the system to stop playing after a track, and so break up a classical album into its component sections. 

I don't believe Gizmo (or eos) allows for id by "work".  So I can't see how your solution might apply to my application.  Would JRemote allow for id by "work"?  I also don't understand how I can ask Gizmo (or eos) direct MC "to stop playing after  . . .  the current track."  Is that possible?

From my point of view a better solution would be to simply organize albums by "work", that is, have my single album with 2 concertos simply be 2 albums.  A lot to do, of course, when you have upward of 700 albums.

Since you have organized by "work" I can see that I'm not alone in wanting my music to behave the same way.  Allowing a "stop after play" code for a track would be a far simpler and much more elegant solution than what you suggest.

Does MC never take user suggestions into account for later revisions?

[JimH]

Meanwhile I would ask again if it is possible to select tracks 1-3 in Gizmo (or eos)?  Is it possible in JRemote?

I don't see a way with Gizmo.  It can be done with Panel. 

Press on track 1, choose play file
Press on track 2, choose add to end
Press on track 3, choose add to end

Not pretty, but it works.

[LennyM]

Eos (or Gizmo) is just too convenient as I have it set up.  I really like it. I'll stick with it.

There are presently no solutions for the problem I raised, only very cumbersome work-arounds that will not even work with your own remotes, Gizmo and JRemote.  I already use the easiest work-around, and that is to press the stop button on my phone's eos (or Gizmo) after the concerto (file 3)  is over.

i'll keep watching. Perhaps others, especilly lovers of classical music, will see this and request the simple solution in a forthcoming version, to wit, just allow a "stop after play" code in the "Track #" column. 

[DJLegba]

You do the work in MC (tag the files and set up a new view) and then JRemote or EOS or Gizmo will see the view and do exactly what you want. Try it first with just a few works, things that you have several different performances of in your collection. Or perhaps with string quartets, which often come in sets and a particular quartet might be split over two discs. You'll quickly see how incredibly useful it is.

[RoderickGI]

Actually, there is a partial solution now, just not in any remote that I have access to. But in MC or a MC Client I think, it can be done using the Track Link functionality.

To Link three movements in a concerto, select the three files, then right-click on the first movement, and select "Library Tools > Link Tracks". That will set the order and make the first movement the first track to play.
EDIT: Oops. With a bit more testing, it seems to be the sort order of the selected tracks that sets the first track and the overall order. I thought I had read otherwise. Check for yourself.

Now make sure that Playing Now is cleared (put a "Clear Playing Now" button on the toolbar to make this easy to do), then right-click on any of the three linked tracks and select "Add to Playing Now". That will add the three tracks and only those tracks to Playing Now, so no more tracks will play. In fact many of the "Add" type options under "More Play Options" will also work as above, as long as Playing Now is clear.

If you are happy with what is in Playing Now, switch to Playing Now and select Play and away you go. Only the selected Concerto will play. Do not hit Play while still in the Album (concerto) View, as the whole Album will be added to Playing Now and begin playback. Same if you hit the Spacebar. Some of that is controlled by settings, such as "Options > General > Behaviour > Start playing when files added to Playing Now", which should not be selected.


Now I tried to replicate the same functionality in Gizmo, MO 4Media, and Panel, and none of them allows you to just add tracks to Playing Now and at the same time respects the Track Links.

Panel only adds tracks individually and doesn't respect Track Links. When you select the first file and add it to Playing Now by selecting "Add file (play next)" or "Add file (to end)" it will start to play, which it shouldn't I think. That is what the "Play file" selection is for. But anyway, it does. You can then add the second and third tracks to Playing Now using the "Add file (to end)" selection. So if Panel could be made to respect the Track Links and work like a MC Client, you have a solution.

Gizmo works as Jim describes, but there is no way to clear whatever is in Playing Now so stuff just gets added. A single press plays the track. A long press gives you the opportunity to add the track to Playing Now. It also gets added at the current position in the Playing Now list, after the playing track, rather than the end. Or sometimes just in an apparently random position, possibly related to track number?!

MO 4Media allows you to add tracks to Playing Now, one at a time, and doesn't start playback immediately, so that is a start. I think the developer may be receptive to a request to respect Track Links and work in the same fashion and a MC Client, so that may be the easiest path forward. Ask: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,119879.0.html

I don't have JRemote so I can't comment on that.


Anyway, there is a solution using a MC Client, and it wouldn't take to much to get Panel to respect Track Links, I'm sure. Don't hold your breath for Gizmo to do it. Maybe JRemote already does?

References:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114201.0.html
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116096.0.html  (It seems Panel was supposed to respect Track Links. It didn't for me. But it was only when using a Smartlist, or an MWCS call to a Smartlist.)

[LennyM]

Thank you for all the comments.  I'm not a sophisticated user of MC.  I prefer simple solutions rather than complicated ones.  Most of what I do is to rip CDs, SACDs and other high rez classical music to a NAS and play them back on a nice music system using EOS on my Android phone.  I like EOS better than Gizmo.  To bad it is no longer supported.  At the time I looked into JRemote, but it was impossible for me to find phone-size screen shots and get some idea about it.  EOS seems perfect for what I do.  I will not consider using any other front end for my listening. 

As I wrote, the simplest work-around is to press "stop" at the end of a work.  The next simple work-around IMO is just to tag the movements of each work as a separate album.  Actually I have done that for many of my SACD rips.  That works perfectly in EOS (and Gizmo) and, I suspect, in JRemote.

But I would be remiss if I did not lobby again for a future "stop after play" function for a file either as a tag for the file or as I suggested above for a code in the "Track #" column.   MC does a lot for listeners to popular music (such as scramble the order of files and making complicated play lists).  I suspect many classical listeners do what I do, that is, a CD is kept intact as an album and played, more or less, in the order as on the original CD.  It would not take any complicated programming to add a "stop after play" to a file in some way.  It would be an option that I think wold be appreciated by classical collectors.