Operational issues on 0.9y-1d

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Being new to XX, I needed some help on the operational issues of XX.
How does one automatically play random tracks from the playlist?
How does one change tracks? I can see only play/pause/stop buttons.
Is there a method to select a track or album to be played other than scrolling down the playlist?

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Hi again Arvind,

Playing tracks randomly from the Playlist is not possible.
Playlist : the area that shows when the Playlist tab is selected (this is thee default what shows). This is not to be confused with Saved Playlists which also don't allow for random playback, but could (see below).

Random playback is possible, but it works different opposed what you may be used to. This has good reasons with a technical source, although I must admit that nowadays I think I could let it work normally.
Anyway, the means used is always one of obtaining tracks randomly from a source, and put that in the Playlist Area.
If you look at the picture below, you see that I have selected the Library Area and I have selected two albums from Tangerine Dream. Rightclick on an album brings forward the menu you see, and the rest will be self explanatory. One thing : whatever you choose from the menu, will be let loose on the selection you applied at first. So, in the end it is about a selection within a selection (you will see what I mean by that), but the most important is that this is the general means to get whatever it is in the Playlist Area (so, not only random).
Btw, selection of the albums is by normal Windows means (like ctrl-click etc.).

Note that *above* the means of selecting albums, there are several other means again to select first, and this starts with the Gallery you chose. So, although Saved Playlists exist (meaning : save the contents of the Playlist Area and save that in order to get that back by means of the drop down in the main screen), this is not the means "we" use for something you will call "playlists". Galleries can contain anything you like, and they show up in the Library Area when you select it (generally at the left (Embedded Explorer) but other means exist). Now, a next (sub) selection you can apply is e.g. enter Tangerine Dream in the text box (to the right of Search) under the Library Area. Then only Tangerine Dream albums show up. Or enter (FLAC) in there, and all the FLACed albums appear from the Gallery you chose.
Also note that a good Gallery structure has a root Gallery, and if you choose that, well, you will have everything you own, independed of the drives it resides on.
More means of selections exist like rip date and more. You will find them.
A selection at the other end again, is select (Windows means) tracks in the Playlist Area, and when you click Play, only that selection will play. Note that you can drag tracks to change the sequence.
Lastly, note that Library Items can just be tracks (try filling a T in the small box that shows A by default, to the right of search), as Galleries can contain tracks (opposed to full albums).

How do you change tracks ?
There's the Prev button and the Nt button (Previous and Next). But generally it is a matter of clicking the one you want to hear, and click Play.
For Remote Commands things like using "3" for choosing track 3 is not working yet. But it will in near future.

Is there a method to select a track or album to be played other than scrolling down the playlist?

Maybe I don't understand the question in full, but hopefully this is partly answered by the above ?
Anyway notice that various means can be used to get tracks in the Playlist Area to begin with. You can drag from Explorer, use the Embedded Explorer, use the Explore button, use "Load Individual Tracks in the Playlist Area" from the menu as shown below, use the various "Explore ..." options you will find in menus like the below, and drag from there onto the Playlist Area. You can used Saved Playlists, one of them containing what you ever played (it is named !Played), you can drag from other players (if they permit).
There's also a special one "Next Album" which done via the small Nal button (to the right of Prev) which jumps to the next album found in the Playlist Area. This is merely used with Unattended and a Remote command (Alt-L). This works more or less in conjunction with Alt-F (which is only available as Remote Command) which loads the next album from the current Gallery. Thus, this is meant for Remote Control (and Unattended Playback) really, and it only works when nothing is filled in the textbox next to Search. Thus, you are playing Unattendely (no GUI and nothing shows) and this command (Alt-F) loads a next album in the Playlist Area without notice. *Now* you can use Alt-L for actually playing that next album, or any other "different from the current one playing".

Hope this gets you on the tracks a bit,
Peter (and sorry for typos)


PS: The Random functions my not work (all) at this moment, which I only say because I didn't try them a long time, and things tend to get destroyed because of changes elsewhere.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

My audio files are constructed & stored in my external hard drive (Z:) as follows:
Z:\My Music\Artist\Album\Track. The library on XX shows the list Artist wise with subfolder for each Album & within the Album are the individual tracks. To get the tracks randomly in the Playlist, I highlighted all the Albums/right clicked & loaded the playlist giving random command. Now the playlist has the tracks in a random order.  However when I play with this playlist it will always play the tracks in the order as it is in the Playlist. But it always much more fun listening if the programme picks up the tracks randomly (check out this facility on Foobar or I Tunes). Are you going to be working on this soon?

Have I created the Playlist correctly or is there a better way?

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Hi Arvind,

You did it the correct way. But if you really have fun in not seeing in advance what is going to be played, tick Unattended, do as you did before, never choose the Playlist Area anymore so you don't see it, and press Play. The GUI will disappear now and everything will be a surprise.
Don't forget a glass of good wine.

Don't load too much in the Playlist Area at using Unattended, because the tracks have to be prepared, and depending on what files they are, it may take some minutes. One FLAC album loads within 10 seconds or so (a bit depending on your system).

I hope this is workable for you ?



PS: Also tick the Coverart and OSD checkboxes (Settings Area).
PPS: Set your Music Root to Z:\MyMusic\ if not done already. That shows better (you will see what I mean).

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the encouragement... getting used to XX more & more as I use it. What I meant by fun was that you didnt know which track would play next, but even if I check unattended & didnt see the GUI; by memory I would eventually know which track will play next. This makes you lose the element of surprise.

Which is the best way to locate a particular track to be played from the Playlist?

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Arvind,

I must have misunderstood something;

Now the playlist has the tracks in a random order.

This is what you said, and this is how it should work. So how can you know which track comes next if you have never seen it ?
Sidenote : you can combine the Randomizing functions. So e.g. if you first select "Each 40th track" and next Random, you won't even know which albums have been selected in the first place.

However when I play with this playlist it will always play the tracks in the order as it is in the Playlist.

So this is true, but they are there in random order, and you never saw it ...
Where do we go wrong ?

Which is the best way to locate a particular track to be played from the Playlist?

I am sorry, but I don't understand this question. The track playing will be the topmost highlighted (if you didn't make a selection in there it will be one only, so that one). But I think you don't mean that. Sorry ...

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Assuming I have a playlist containing 2000 tracks. Now I need to play a particular track from this playlist; how do I locate this particular track in the Playlist.

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Aha ... not. I think something will emerge for that though, because I need it too often myself not to have.

Sidenote : If you have 2000 tracks in the Playlist Area it is my feeling you are doing something "wrong".

Peter

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

All my audio files (about 2000+ tracks) are Wav 16/44.1 (ripped from my CD's) using dBpoweramp. These are loaded in the Library & the same are loaded on a single Playlist. Hence practically my Library & Playlist are the same.
What am I doing wrong? I just love all the tracks that I have ripped!!!

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Hi Arvind,

This is not going to be easy I think; I have to understand how you want to work, and you have to understand how things have been setup in general, and how to utilize that to your needs. For now (but that can change per your later responses) I tend to explain what you might be doing "wrong", where no such thing as wrong might exist. So, awaitening your responses on this ...

First of all it lookes like you operate on the "track level'. Or IOW, you ripped the tracks you like most, and let the remainder be on the original CDs. This *is* a way of working of course, and I think many coming from an iPod world may have this as a base. I don't say you have this iPod base, but I imagine it to be the same ("problem"). So :

These people (including you) obtained a list of nice tracks, and you are used to pick from this list and play. This day this, tomorrow that.
Let me call this The iPods, and it includes you for now, although you may not even have an iPod. "Track based" it is.

Opposed to this we have the group that tends to shift the physical CD collection to the PC to start with (so, rip them all), and from there on continue with the new media. Thus, the CDs are ripped regardless, and when all is done everything is under your fingertips, and the CDs actually can be sold. Or at least the cabinet(s) can go to the garage. Let's call this group "The Librarians".

Now, XXHighEnd was created for The Librarians, and what they do is pick a collection of nice tracks from the complete library, stuff them into a Library in XXHighEnd, and name it "Nice Stuff". This is at track level, and thus the same The iPods would be working, with one difference :  The iPods don't have any complete albums to draw the nice tracks from, because they have nice tracks only and they are in one large pile on disk.

The latter is important, because The Librarians do not have such a large pile. They have it organized in the exact same manner they had it with the physical CDs, and they behave the same. They pick an album, and run it as a whole, or some nice tracks only.
The iPods play nice tracks only just the same, but they are not album oriented. They live by playlists, love that, and don't know otherwise.

Now here is Arvind. Arvind has ripped 200CDs, and possibly he has ripped them in full afterall, but although he never had an iPod, he want to behave as an iPod. Dump all the available tracks in something called a Playlist, and, well, start somewhere to play. He saw that tracks in the Playlist can be highlighted for selection and playback, so that is the way to go.
Sadly he misses some functionalities (like where the heck is that Steelers Wheel track and btw how was it called), and actually it does not work at all. A Librarian who behaves like an iPod ...
Now what ?

In attempt to solve the problem, an ICT guru was consulted, and he started off with telling The Librarians to go back to their cave, and the iPods to carry an iPod. Problem solved. Well, he didn't get payd for stupid solutions, so he sat down and approached the problem by "normalization";

An iPod was called and asked how many tracks he carried on his iPod. "Well", he said, "I have a 16GB and all 320 MP3s so figure yourself". Aha, that was something to work with, and he figured that should be well over 200,000 tracks. Then the ICT man asked how he managed that, and the answer was "well, not pretty good. Btw, I think I have 100,000 tracks but it really is too much; it needs some organization". The ICT man responded that this can be done with an iPod, but the iPod answered that this was too much hussle. "But I'm ok, never mind".

Then a Librarian was called, and he too received the question. "Tracks ? I don't know. All I know is that I have 4TB full and I think that is some 13,000 albums". Aha, that must be 200,000 tracks, but how do you organize that ? "I organize nothing because in fact it goes automatically. I can do many things additionally, and it is all not a big deal.

One way or the the other, the ICT man came to the conclusion that audiophiles are mad man, and they have too many albums and tracks to ever listen to, and one thing was clear to him : this all had to be able to deal with infinit amounts of data. His advise was like this :

- When you have 200,000 tracks or more, you will never load them into something called a "Playlist". A Playlist contains the tracks you are going to play, and if that are 200 tracks it's already too much for a day of listening.

- When you have 200,000 tracks or more, you have to organize them first, or otherwise you will not be able to find them. Use a structure for that, and make it independent of the physical copies of the original CDs. Thus, store them how you like, but create a strcuture over it, and name that a Gallery. Create one for Jazz and appoint the albums which fit that. Do the same for heavy metal -may you have it - and hiphop and classical and everything. If you want to split jazz into old school jazz and modern jazz, decide whether you have a structure that starts with Jazz and under that the other two, or don't have a main jazz and see all at the same level.

- When you are going to play, decide what type of music you want to hear. Is that modern jazz tonight ? choose that Gallery. From there pick the album you want to listen to, or pick more at once. Pick 20 if you are not sure and use the Next Album button when you encounter one you don't like. Do you see any tracks you don't want to listen to in the first place ? throw them out of the playlist (rightclick - delete).

- During listening you may find some tracks to sound extremely well. Go to the Playlist and save them in your Gallery "good recordings" (rightclick ...). You also may find a whole album very good. Save that one instantly in your "Nice Stuff" Gallery (rightclick on the coverart at the left).

- After a few months of listening you will have grown new Galleries, which just as well can be called playlists. Officially they aren't, but what is the difference when a Gallery is named "Nice Stuff". So, load it in the Library Area, pick all of them, or only those you want to listen to now, randomize them if wanted, and press play.

- And keep in mind : the Playlist is to contain what you are going to play, although you may always stop underway.


blahblahblahblah.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Let me explain the reason I wish to shift from CD's to Computer Audio.

First & foremost the sound quality should not be inferior in any way to original CD. With Foobar I wasnt entirely happy but I realised the potential of this concept & wanted to progress with better software's, like XX for example.

Secondly the convenience factor of not having to listen to a complete CD but tracks from a CD which I like (rarely a CD has all good tracks).

Thirdly the convenience of listening to any track, of my choice, simply by clicking a few buttons, rather than getting up every now & then & changing CD's. Hence my earlier question on "how to locate a particular track".

Now with this in mind I bought the Empirical Audio Off Ramp to be an interface between the Laptop & my EMM DAC. The EMM does not have USB input. Incidentally I have trial ordered the Empirical NOS DAC... more about it later.
Secondly I ripped tracks from my CD's which I liked & would like to listen to & created them as my library & Playlist too.
Thirdly I wanted them in random order so I can listen to random Artist's rather than tracks from one Artist at a time. You could call it personal preference.

I agree with you that one cannot listen to 2000 tracks in a day...probably not even in a month. But when I sit to listen to music, which is everyday, I like to put on my system, click on play, pour a glass of single malt & hear tracks which I like & in a random order. Repeat this the next day & the software should take care of playing different tracks (preferably not ones played yesterday).

You may think this is coming from an I Pod world, but in no way I want IPod quality of sound... I couldnt stand it.

Am I really being too demanding??? I really dont know!!

Arvind

[Eric]

Sounds like you want a Radio playing, and your happen to have all the tracks they are playing somewhere in your CD collection?
Ore, a little bit more sophisticated, you want to able to switch to a Radiostation that only plays e.g. Jazz music....
Cheers,
Eric 

[AUDIODIDAKT]

I like to be in control,
This hour I want Reagae and later on I would like to hear Zappa.

I am the DJ here (finaly).

And I do have lots of albums that must be heard from beginning till end
I dont do in tracks (thats Ipod mp3 blehhh, community) just get yourself some good albums.
Respect the artist and listen the album as ment to be.(alan parsons mix of pink floyds DSOTM for eq.)

Or just use "explorer" to select your tracks and maintain folder structure.

Roy

[PeterSt]

Hey Arvind,

No, nothing wrong with what you want. But I guess at least "something" wrong with how you do it.

A. There is no reason to load 2000 tracks when you agree you wouldn't listen to them anyway;
B. So you load less but do that randomly.

(perform B. every day without the same from earlier days will be a small problem I think).

Now, I feel it goes wrong at B. You still didn't respond back about my proposition other than you know by heart what the next track will be, which is IMPOSSIBLE. So let's work out this firt (with the hint that I don't think you have seen tracks in a random order (from, say, 20 albums) in the Playlist Area).

... or I must be missing something completely ...

?

[SeVeReD]

Hey Arvind,

No, nothing wrong with what you want. But I guess at least "something" wrong with how you do it.

A. There is no reason to load 2000 tracks when you agree you wouldn't listen to them anyway;
B. So you load less but do that randomly.

(perform B. every day without the same from earlier days will be a small problem I think).

Now, I feel it goes wrong at B. You still didn't respond back about my proposition other than you know by heart what the next track will be, which is IMPOSSIBLE. So let's work out this firt (with the hint that I don't think you have seen tracks in a random order (from, say, 20 albums) in the Playlist Area).

... or I must be missing something completely ...

?

You know me... I play albums.  And I don't want you to ever add features that take away from SQ... but,,,
What if you used the 'D' date button to load tracks that haven't been played in X number of days?? so you have a gallery of X number of songs... oh I'm getting lost now, but if you can make use of this starter idea... gl.
rule number one though...
Do No Harm