INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!  (Read 2888 times)

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« on: September 27, 2002, 12:46:17 pm »

Hi!
IN the beta-stage of v8 I requested two features, but they were left besides because JimH told me that they want to finalize v8, perhaps in v8.1 or 9, he said.

Well, now it's time to bring these feature-requests up, again:

1.) Tag Nr. 32 Problem : All files with that number get number 0 on import, surely not a tag-problem, even MJ-tagger doesn't help, after re-import again 0.

2.) "Volume Name" from View Scheme should be available as column, it's nice to have music sorted by your MP3-CDs in the tree, but it's even more nicer to have music sorted by "what-you-want - genre - artist" and after having found desired song just have a look in the column named "Volume Name" > indicates the correct CD. Voila!

Another thing I would like to ask if it#s possible is an enhanced cross-fader. Should be on the main-page, not in the options, so that it can be changed all the time (like in BPM Studio), therfore it is of course required that these settings can be modified without having to restart playback. Wouldn't this be nice. You would have a complete party-solution with great cross-fading like in BPM, but an unbeatable database, the so-called database of BPm is really crap, only a list, no tagreading at all.

I would really love to see this features in MJ, oh I mean MC :) 9! (Media Center)

Thanks
Raist
Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42323
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2002, 03:03:31 pm »

1) I'm not even sure we still do track #32 conversion anymore.  If we do, we can make it optionan and add it the "Advanced" options section we're building.

2) Every field will be able to be shown in the list in MJ 9.  There are still some exceptions, but we're working on it.  If you can't do this within a couple of weeks, please remind us again.

3) About cross-fading, what you're asking for is easy from the technology side.  However, we force playback restarts so that we can use as little playback buffer memory as possible.  So, it's a feature vs. memory usage.  Let us think about it.

Thanks for you patience and ideas Raist.
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2002, 12:02:28 am »

Thanks for your quick reply!

1.) In beta-stage of v8, also was said that "32" would be in optional, that's ok, so nobody is forced to use it.

2.) OK, I'll observe next releases and call back.

3.) Hope you decide to enhance cross-fade. By the way, I think you can remove "gapless", all you need would be to set time to "0" in "Gap" or "crossfade". Best would be to have a display like in BPM where you can define speed of fade-out & fade-in individually, with an overall time for fading below graphical display. So it would be possible to define gapless & gap within the graphic, no need for several pages like it is now in MJ 8 playback options.

Thanks
Raist
Logged

Quisp

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 330
  • Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2002, 07:10:33 am »

Not sure if this is what Raist is getting at, but one thing that has always frustrated me about most current mp3 software playback features is the inability to change the crossfade, or lack thereof, on a track by track basis.

I figured there must be a technical or ease of programming reason for this inability considering how basic this need is for a good (dynamic) mix.

Currently I have to resort to separate software to create my mixes. It would be nice to select two tracks and enter a crossfade value in a property field--select another two tracks and enter gapless--select 10 fields and enter 1s, etc. Of course a cross fade preview button with selectible time before/time after fields would, SEAL the DEAL! :)
Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42323
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2002, 08:33:05 pm »

Quisp, think of the logistics of an interface to allow what you're talking about -- especially if per-track-pair cross-fade settings could somehow be saved.  It'd be hard to not make it overwhelming for the 99% of people that are happy with one fade duration. (and I think I'm in that 99%)

Still, if people can present a simple solution, maybe we could work something out.

Thanks.
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

RemyJ

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1249
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2002, 09:11:27 pm »

"Burn Lists"

Like a play list but also captures track by track settings like cross-fade, DSP settings, etc.  

Maybe a way to get rid of the "diskwriter" thing.
Logged
Fedora 40 x86_64 Xfce

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2002, 12:18:04 am »

There is no need to save the cross-fade-settings for each track, it should just be possible to change the cross-fade-time during playback.
For example, last cross-fade was 8 secs, next one should be 10, only requirement, MJ can change the time without restart playback.

That's why I want this crossfade on main-page, so that it can be changed, but not for each song an extra-setting, but only for the currently playing.

Think of the graphical solution in BPM Studio, I think it's the most powerul crossfader around, and even very easy to setup. You can define complete-crossfade-time, the percental length of last & new track in this cross-fade, even the fade-speed can be easily controlled, eg fade-out rapidly , but fqde-in smooth etc..

Don't you think it would be a good idea to transform your cross-fader-setting into such a graphical solution?

Thanks
Raist

P.S. Settings for Seeking & Stop can be left in the options, I guess, no need to change them so often.
Logged

RemyJ

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1249
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2002, 06:55:36 am »

Quote
There is no need to save the cross-fade-settings for each track


Yes there is (for me anyway).  I've created a ton of compilation CDs most of which have a mix of some tracks that require crossfading and some that definitely shouldn't be crossfaded.  I have to use Nero to burn these.  The nice thing there is that Nero allows you to save the burn parameters so you can easily re-burn a CD without have  to set the parameters again.  Playing them is just as problematic.
Logged
Fedora 40 x86_64 Xfce

sekim

  • Guest
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2002, 07:17:45 am »

Quote
"Burn Lists"

Like a play list but also captures track by track settings like cross-fade, DSP settings, etc.  

Maybe a way to get rid of the "diskwriter" thing.

And make it a 'static' list. At least for data cds. MJ still has the nasty habit of alphabetically ordering a playlist sent to the burner. Make it so it burns exactly what is in the list. And the order of files in the list. Diskwriter should not have to be used for something this simple. It is a multi-step, long winded operation just to make a data cd the way I'd like.
Logged

Quisp

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 330
  • Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2002, 08:00:57 am »

Matt,

Check out MixMeister. They have a simple, but eloquent interface for creating crossfades. I think this software has been mentioned before in other threads related to possible DJ features. What I personally am NOT expecting is auto beat matching, waveform presentation, volume curves, etc. Hey, it would be great, but I certainly understand what is involved with developing software for a wide audience.

I guess it would be cool to do all of this live for some people, but I'm not a live DJ. I do however create lots of mix CD's and when I host a "party" I'd like for the mix to be working so that I can relax and help with the drinkin'  :)

Maybe you are responding to technical issues, I can't address those.

Unfortunately, the best way to do crossfading from a musical standpoint (not just creating dance mixes) is the way that Get it on CD, MixMeister, and Sonic Foundry approach it. Show the waveforms similar to Media Editor; move track B over track A and an editble crossfade is automatically created. If they don't overlap, there is no crossfade. Showing the waveforms let you immediately see the pattern of the music which allows you to match "beats" and other volume/musical shifts, visually and without needing a stop watch.

The hard part, as I see it, is to come up with a way to not do it the "best" way and yet still have a useful feature that won't drive everyone nuts while they are using it (Take a look at early versions of JAM, you'll know what I mean...)

If you want to go for the gold, here is an off-hand possible workflow.

I create a mix playlist. I've selected my songs in the order I think they will go; now it is time to mix. I go to the tools menu and select the new Mix Editor. (Or maybe you always start with the Mix Editor and the first question you are asked is what, if any, playlist you wish to mix). A new "window" pops up with a listing of my playlist at the bottom. At the top would be the waveforms that could be dragged around creating crossfades with editible volume curves. I could use the playlist to move the tracks around in the mix. I should also have access to my entire collection so I can add/delete easily...

This would be ideal for me. I don't know how many problems it would solve for others.
Logged

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2002, 08:26:32 am »

Sorry RemyJ & Quisp!

Of course, all your feature ideas are good, but don't forget that someone has to realize them. (For sure not me, the people @ jriver :D)

So I think it would be a good way to start with enhanced cross-fading (as I mentioned) for us beta-testers & add additinonal functions like cross-fading on burning & keeping settings for each track later on.

Since features are somehow dependent on each other, dev. history should be:
1.) enhanced cross-fading (fade-in & fade-out independent of each other)
2.) Keep settings for pairs of files (since I don't know how this shall be done? what if you combine one of the files with another for another compilation)
3.) Cross-fading on burning (would be really cool!)

Thanks
Raist
Logged

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
one more feature from 8beta & 3 skin-engine bugs
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2002, 02:29:59 am »

Another "feature" left out in beta-stage of v8:
MULTI-USER Support.

In "old times of 8beta" I already demonstrates an easy way to support multi-user-os like xp without having to reinstall for each user:
If setup is started by an user with administrative rights reg-entries of MJ get not only written into HKCU, but also HKLM. If another user starts MJ, keys get copied from HKLM to HKCU.
This should be possible without any problems, since all user have read-access on HKLM.

I also posted a "bug" in MJ8, since there is no reply, I guess, it will not be changed for mj8, but perhaps for MC9?
Quote
I have several classic compilations I want to split up, so that I have different folders for each artist.

That for I renumbered for example tracks 5-8 to 1-4, since they are from a different composer than real tracks 1-4 (I have already ripped)  

AND NOW THE BUG: MJ rips not tracks 5-8, although highlighted, but tracks 1-4!! Even deleting track-numbers in tracks 1-4 didn't help. I think MJ rips here depending on tag numbers, which it shouldn't do!!


Moreover I found three bugs in mega-skinning-engine:
1.) Skin is cut-off on top in maximize-mode (just 2 lines, I guess)
2.) Three buttons in right of titlebar are not offering a "mouseover"-effect, although skins have pics for that.
3.) The middle button of these 3, maximize, should be changing like Play/Pause-button whether it's offering "maximize" or "windows mode".
4.)Slide-bars are in tree & content view don't use MJ-skin, but StyleXP-skin.

Thanks
Raist
Logged

Raistlin2000

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 112
  • cross-fade-mani ac
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2002, 12:28:14 am »

OK, now I can see the volume-name in column "filename", but only together with full-path :'(

HOW can I make it that it shows only the volume-name?
´

Thanks
Raist
Logged

nila

  • Guest
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2002, 04:23:15 am »

Another feature I've seen in some Jukeboxes programs it the ability to save in the mp3, the DSP settings to use.

So I could have all my Hip-Hop songs saved to use the equaliser present of Hip-Hop, RnB use RnB preset etc.

It'd be even nicer if it could be saved per song and ALSO have a smart DSP that could look at the genre, then use a matching DSP setting for that genre. Optional obviously.

Logged

Doof

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 5908
  • Farm Animal Stupid
Re: 2 features from beta stage of v8!!
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2002, 07:48:47 am »

MJ used to have that feature, Nila. It was removed, IIRC, because of interface issues with the new DSP studio.

Another feature that was asked about for MJ8 was a way to "club" a group of songs together so that if the playlist was shuffled, these songs would stick together. Conversely, I also wanted a way to insure that a group of songs stayed as far apart as possible during a shuffle.

Just to throw that out there.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up