Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Album Art

« on: April 24, 2025, 05:01:45 PM »

Hi garotapi,

I see above that dro finally had time to respond to this thread. He is usually very good at quickly responding to most posted messages (and things he is told about via other ways). He is doing this (developing WACUP and managing this website) all by himself. He is a former developer for Winamp and is fully devoted to improving WACUP.

Yes, as you noted, help files are often not very helpful. Trial and error working with apps is often the best way to learn what they do. But you must be careful and make good notes, because "trial and error" can really screw things up! I suggest you don't stop with the first thing that seems to work. Keep looking for other, and maybe better, ways to handle things.  I'm retired with plenty of time to "play" with stuff and using this approach is fun for me.   

WACUP users use different ways handle album cover images. This is why dro has provided so many ways to provide support. Having multiple options is both the "good and bad" of working with WACUP. I like doing things "my way", instead of being forced to use a single "so called" standard. You will eventually find a method that works well for you.

Have a great weekend.

FUN FACTS:
When using WACUP, right-click on everything. This will often result in a pop-up menu providing additional commands associated with the thing clicked on.

dro likes using the keyboard instead of "point & click" with a mouse. So, there are keyboard shortcuts provided for most commands. Don't ask me what they all are, someone else will have to provide that info. I'm mostly a "point & click" type user. dro has also provided a way for users to create their own custom keyboard shortcuts.   

Similar to Winamp, the things WACUP can do can be expanded by using plug-ins. Many of the plug-ins developed for Winamp will work with WACUP. dro is often willing to work with the popular ones that don't (when possible), to get them working.

2

General Discussion / Re: Album Art - call for help

« on: April 23, 2025, 08:31:38 PM »

With MP3tag, indeed, I did not realize that I had "integrated" files since the software finds and displays them without problem. Well, I don’t have a lot. But I was recently surprised when I found this folder without cover that I used for my last image of the previous post. It is thanks to you that I understood how this was done. On the other hand, I still do not understand how we can technically make it "integrated", perhaps by editing directly the tab "Album Art" of "Info File"? The obvious advantage is not to risk separating the album cover from the songs. But that’s another story.

Here I am with something to keep me busy for next winter.
In any case, I am reassured about the operation of my Wacup

I'm happy I was able to help you.

I'm not sure what you mean by "integrated". I assume you're referring to embedded.

When you have separate image files, you can use the album art tab in WACUP's Info File dialog to embed them in audio files that support this kind of tag.

Read the help information in Mp3tag, if you want to use Mp3tag to do this for image files you already have. Or, if you want to use Mp3tag to search the internet for image files and embed them.

Working slowly and carefully, it did take me a few months to find and embed images in all my mp3 files. For variety, I did not always use album cover images. Sometimes I used pictures of the artist or other things related to the song.

This (https://www.albumartexchange.com/) is a great site for finding good quality album cover image files. The files are free and without an overprint ad on the images, if you register with a valid email address

Have fun!   

3

General Discussion / Re: Album Art - call for help

« on: April 23, 2025, 11:45:46 AM »

Sorry that I can not write in French.

The format of mp3 and flac audio files use internal metadata tags within the files themselves to provide information about the files. For example, there maybe a title tag containing the name of the song, an artist tag containing the name of the artist performing the song, an album tag containing the name of the album the song is on, and so on. There can be a cover art tag that contains an image of the album cover. This is the tag used when a cover art image is embedded in the file. These metadata tags must be added manually or by tagging apps (such as Mp3tag) which can look for information on the internet and add them automatically.

WACUP is able to read this cover art tag from within the audio file itself. If you use the tag panel in Mp3tag, it can show the embedded cover art in a selected file, if it has one.

It appears that most of your files do not have (internal) cover art images embedded within the files themselves.

WACUP is also able to use cover art image files that are separate (external) from the audio files. These separate files must have a name and format that WACUP will recognize. The WACUP Preferences General - Album Art - Reading tab options lists the various ways these files may be named. I suggest you use the jpg format and the same naming option (such as "cover" or "folder") for these files. Disable the naming options that are not being used (especially the option for "Embedded art ...), to keep WACUP from wasting time looking for names (and embedded cover art images) that would not be available. From your screenshot, you have all the options enabled. That will cause WACUP to waste time and may cause confusion if you have multiple files with valid names in the same folder.

WACUP assumes that the album folder structure is being used to store audio files (meaning that all the audio files in a folder came from the same album). Therefore, you should use 1 cover art image file per folder of audio files. All the audio files in the folder will use this same cover art image. Do not put these "cover.jpg" or "folder.jpg" files in WACUP monitored folders that do not contain audio files.

I hope you understand what I wrote above. As I stated earlier, all the files in my library currently contain embedded cover art, so I do not have recent direct experience using external cover art image files. Also, since all my audio files contain their own cover art images, I do not use the album folder structure to store my audio files.

4

General Discussion / Re: Album Art

« on: April 22, 2025, 04:53:16 PM »

Maybe your album art cache is partially corrupted and the previously saved covers can no longer be read. There are 2 more things you can try.

In the WACUP Preferences General - Album Art - Reading tab select the "Less aggressive ..." option in the "Caching Options" box. In the WACUP Preferences Media Library - Local Library - Maintenance tab select the "Clear views album art cache..." command. Due to the size of your library, this will take some time to repopulate your album art cache. If you play files for less than 2 hours at a time, it will probably take several sessions.

Good luck.

How do you associate your covers with your files, internal (embed) or external (separate image files)? I have a relatively small library (6693) of mp3s. I embed my covers in each file. I sometimes use the same cover in more than one file. Mp3tag can be used for this.

5

General Discussion / Re: Album Art

« on: April 22, 2025, 07:19:02 AM »

You can try refreshing the metadata in your library. There is a button (with 3 lines on it) to the right of the Search bar. Click on this button to get a menu of options. One of them is the option to "Refresh metadata for all view item(s)".

6

General Discussion / Re: save rating to file metadata

« on: April 22, 2025, 06:41:10 AM »

Go to the WACUP Preferences Media Library tab of options. Look in the Advanced Library Preferences for the "Save ratings to file for compatible formats (default: off)" option.

I don't use ratings, so I don't know if this actually works. I don't bother to save files in my library that would be less than four or five stars.

7

General Discussion / Re: Procrustes question

« on: April 18, 2025, 06:34:17 AM »

Hi Glamrlama,

Where is the default location of the speed control UI when behind other windows? Top, bottom, left, right, middle, or other screen location? When visible are you able to move it to where it is least likely to be completely covered by another window? If so, does it keep the new location between sessions?

Last question. 

Where can I download Procrustes v1.20a from? All the links I'm able to find are no longer working.

8

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 17, 2025, 01:56:02 AM »

That appears to work! As I've said before, you're the man!

Thank you for your research and figuring this out.

9

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 16, 2025, 01:14:12 AM »

Yeah, PeterK. is not happy with dro or the moderator at Winamp. I can quickly reposition the cover flow window if it changes, so I'll live with it for now.

10

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 15, 2025, 03:48:15 AM »

Hi ariszlo,

Thank you for the info.

I had already installed Quinto Black CT v4.4 for Winamp after deleting the v4.3 folders. I still have Winamp installed, mostly for nostalgia. I deleted the Winamp studio.xnf file before running v4.4 for the first time.

I installed v4.4 for WACUP today after deleting the v4.3 folders. I did not remove the WACUP studio.xnf file, but I did delete it's skin section for v4.3 before running v4.4 for the first time.

So far the v4.4 skin works fine on Winamp and WACUP. I do see one difference from v4.3. I use the album cover flow feature. If I position the feature's window with it's background visible and then hide the background when switching skins or ending a session, the window returns to it's default position when switching back or starting a new session. If I leave the background visible, the position I put the window in stays the same. I was able to hide the window's background in v4.3 when switching skins or starting a new session without affecting the position I put in window in. I don't know if this is a bug or a  change in the way the feature works. Either way, it's a minor thing.

I prefer to run Milkdrop in a window behind the album cover flow albumart instead of it's normal background.

11

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 11, 2025, 02:26:09 AM »

Do I also have to remove the studio.xnf file?

I don't know but as far as I can judge probably not.

Hi ariszlo,

As dro stated, it has been a long standing requirement to remove the studio.xnf file and let it be re-built when updating Quinto Black CT. It would be nice if that was no longer needed.

Do you have a way of directly contacting Peter? I tried via the last email address I have for him. No reply as far.

12

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 10, 2025, 05:14:01 PM »

Hi dro,

Studio.xnf without the previous line breaks has been working normally. Thank you for responding to this thread and the text editor suggestion. I've been using notepad for my manual editing of studio.xnf, when needed. I can use another text editor to deal with the change of line breaks.

I removed the studio.xnf.backup file between WACUP sessions. It was recreated after the next session. As you know, studio.xnf is updated after a session if needed, like if the modern skin was changed during the session. Both studio.xnf and the backup file now appear to have no line breaks. Without the line breaks, it takes longer to find sections in the file when I need to edit stuff. I seldom need to edit stuff (since I seldom change the modern skins I'm using), so having to take more time was not a problem, more of a minor nuisance.

It is best not to manually edit the file anyway. I have learned over the years that if not very careful, it is easy to mess it up.

13

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 10, 2025, 12:21:15 AM »

Eh? I've not changed the format of that file afaict since it's still being written out by the gen_ff plug-in (which is the part I hook into to be able to make a backup of the file but it's format shouldn't be different otherwise things wouldn't be able to be read back in correctly).

...

A few beta versions ago, the line breaks in the file in my configuration changed. I assumed you were responsible for it. This is another reason why it is never good to assume. I think I can find around the date it happened if you want to know. I think it was when the backup copy first appeared. I made a copy of the file with the old line breaks format. I can post a copy of both, if it would help you see what I'm talking about.

14

Skins / Re: Quinto Black CT

« on: April 09, 2025, 04:41:05 PM »

Hi,

Do I also have to remove the studio.xnf file?

Dro has changed the format of the studio.xnf file. This makes it much harder to manually enter the configuration info for other modern skins that have not changed. I really like Quinto Black CT, but I use other modern skins and it is very inconvenient to have to reconfiguration the arrangements of these skins every time Quinto Black CT is updated.

15

Wishlist / Feature Requests / Re: Options for the Lyrics Plug-in

« on: March 27, 2025, 04:37:56 AM »

Ok, I better understand why you have things implemented the way you have. If you decide to add the options mentioned, they could be a useful addition instead of what I asked for. After I add or correct the metadata in my files, I make them read-only to prevent inadvertent changes. So, a mode to store lyrics in the files themselves would not be useful for me.  I don't need to prune the entire cache, I just wanted to prevent the empty files. What would be considered too large a cache?

Sometime I use playlists that only contain instrumental songs. It would be just as fast to disable the lyrics plug-in in this case, than enabling an option to not create text files. Those that mix file files with and without lyrics in the same playlist will have to find their own solutions for not wasting directory name space on intentional empty files.

I have been deleting the empty files to force re-querying for lyrics in case they may be found later, when the same files are played again. I understand why you don't want to trigger multiple online look-ups. I think it would be worth the resources used if lyrics are found later. I will stop deleting the empty files, if you think the re-querying will lead to crashes or other processing errors in WACUP. Wasting directory name space is worth it if it prevents WACUP processing errors, imo.

During a session, I have been adding the song titles above the start of the lyrics in the text files, after they finish playing. From time to time, there are errors in the lyrics found online that I have been correcting manually. During a session, I make notes of which files need corrections and these titles help me find these files faster in between sessions, when I make the corrections.

Reasonable people can always disagree on the best way to handle things. Whether I agree with your design decisions or not, I want you to know that I appreciate all you have done and continue to do that makes WACUP better than Winamp was, imo. I don't expect WACUP to do everything the way I would like things done. Expect for real bugs, I learn to work with the ways things are done in WACUP and the skins. In case of skins, I sometimes make small changes in some of their image and script files, when possible, to have them look and work more to my liking, for my personal use.