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Topic: How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks? (Read 4443 times) previous topic - next topic
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How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

OK I'm gonna keep this one simple as my last thread didn't get a single reply.

How do I use foobar? So I've imported my music folder, I'm amazed how quick foobar processes several thousand songs.

But many of these songs I don't know. How do I 'mark' the interesting ones? Do I create a new playlist, do I tag them, can I give them a 5 star rating. I mean, how do other people do it? I know this seems obvious, but I can't figure out an easy way to just drag a nice song into, say, a favourites folder.

I've experimented with playlists but I'm obviously doing something wrong as my playlists disappear after I close foobar.

Thanks for your help

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #1 –
You probably didn't get a single reply because you need to read the manual before asking questions.

Playlists don't disappear when you close fb2k, mine always stay there.....if you want to be sure you can always save them.

It's not difficult, you create a playlist then you can add it to the current playlist....

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #2 –
Keeping track of songs YOU find interesting is easily done with autoplaylists in foobar. Those autoplaylists check for paramaters, if a track is within these parameters, it will be in the playlist.
This is how I do it.

I use component Playback Statistics (check foobar components section on foobar2000.org). This one updates database (and/or tags) with timestamps and playcounts. This is a very cool thing, foobar learns this way what you played often/recently/never etc. It also can see when you added new songs to your library.

Now, you create autoplaylists with foobar2000's titleformatting. For that you have to understand how you can select songs based on their tags/database-entry's. Then all you have to do is a search, enter those titleformats and query-syntaxes, and save it as an autoplaylist.

For example a few much used autoplaylists (I think everyone has some playlists like this:

Most played songs:
%play_count% PRESENT SORT DESCENDING BY %play_count%

Recently added songs:
%added% DURING LAST x SECONDS/MINUTES/DAYS/WEEKS/YEARS
(x is a number)

Recently played songs:
%last_played% DURING LAST x SECONDS/MINUTES/DAYS/WEEKS/YEARS

Never played songs:
%first_played% MISSING

If you are playing a song and think, wow this one is so cool, you can rate it. Use a 1 to 5 rating, where 5 is the best you can give a song. Then you can create an autoplaylist with these o so cool songs simply:
%rating% PRESENT

The possibilitys are endless. You can even combine stuff like this:
%rating% IS 5 AND %play_count% PRESENT SORT DESCENDING BY %play_count%
This gives a list of songs you rated "oh my god what a cool song" and in order of times played. Something like your personal hits or charts!

That's why foobar2000 is godlike!

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #3 –
I keep track of good stuff with my mind, and I log Loved tracks with last.fm.

I think a larger collection (which many of you seem to have) warrants the slightly more automated approach that Mar describes above.

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #4 –
I use topdownjimmy's Hotness algorithm. Works brilliantly. There's also foo_DAR.

I quit ratings half a year ago. Found theme to be too subjective to my mood. Now I mostly go with what I feel like or what MusicIP Mixer suggests. I've also assembled some mood intentioned playlists as well as tag my music with a boolean favourite-tag.

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #5 –
OK thanks for the responses.

I don't have ratings installed, no doubt that's another fiddly component to be manually downloaded and put in the components folder. If it involves right clicking and navigating through two or three menus just to rate a song I'm not gonna bother.

I have a lot of music that I haven't even listened to yet, so some of the auto playlist algorithms might not be too great until I build up stats for the played files.

Once again, the compromise in foobar comes to the fore: it's such a small footprint, but such a hassle to learn to use properly. I can't even right click and add to an existing playlist - I have to open an existing playlist, and then drag the song into it. So many steps. If only the good bits of itunes, songbird etc could be imported into foobar. But no.

What is need is something like a picasa for mp3s. Foobar is great, but with its current philosophy its never gonna become mainstream, but maybe that's intentional.

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #6 –
With regard to your original query, you can create a playlist called Interesting and just drag 'interesting' tracks or albums from library view as you see fit. There's nothing too difficult about that. If you're worried about losing your playlist, save it.

Quote from: jt8823732743 on
I don't have ratings installed, no doubt that's another fiddly component to be manually downloaded and put in the components folder. If it involves right clicking and navigating through two or three menus just to rate a song I'm not gonna bother.


Well, yes. Or you can assign ratings to keys (Ctrl-1 for 1 star etc etc). That involves some setting up too, so you may not want to bother.

Quote from: jt8823732743 on
Once again, the compromise in foobar comes to the fore: it's such a small footprint, but such a hassle to learn to use properly. I can't even right click and add to an existing playlist - I have to open an existing playlist, and then drag the song into it. So many steps. If only the good bits of itunes, songbird etc could be imported into foobar. But no.


You leave the playlists that you use frequently open in foobar. That's pretty much the core of foobar's design philosophy as I understand it.

Hmmm. Try finding a music management program that isn't a compromise. Personally I'd like something that's 90% foobar and 10% mediamonkey. It's not going to happen. Managing/organising a large music collection is inherently a hassle. With foobar, the initial learning curve is more than balanced by efficiencies it brings to that process. That's been my experience anyway.

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: jt8823732743 on
I can't even right click and add to an existing playlist - I have to open an existing playlist, and then drag the song into it. So many steps.

Well you can get the foo_utils component: http://foosion.foobar2000.org/components/?...on=0.6.2+beta+6

It will add some general purpose commands to foobar, including the one that you're looking for:
- send tracks to a playlist chosen from the context menu

you can find it by right clicking>Edit Other>Add to Playlist>...

TIP: if you don't like to navigate through several context menus, you can go to Preferences>Display>Context Menu and re-arrange/customize the context menu!

For example, you can change the Add to Playlist command from:
Quote
right clicking>Edit Other>Add to Playlist>...

to:
Quote
right clicking>Add to Playlist>...


Most of the good bits of itunes, songbird etc are already in foobar2000! 

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #8 –
I think it's a fair point, though, that this is not a program for people who don't like to tinker with things, and probably never will be. Though the Default UI is a step in that direction.

How do I/you keep track of interesting tracks?

Reply #9 –
Depends. The default setup gives the user the most basic features without much effort. If you want more, you WILL need to put in effort learning how stuff works in foobar. The actual setup will with official components not be much effort (no, we're not talking about 3 mouseclicks. More like 20). But learning how to do that WILL require thant you spend some hours understanding foobar.

So in short, current foobar appeals to:
- users with basic needs.
- users with advanced but not exotic needs, willing to spend a *reasonable* amount of effort

If you want much, yet only willing to invest little, you will not be happy with this app. This is not an "unpack, launch, click, PLING wonder!"-app. It does not do anything unless you tell it to.
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.