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███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ Audio Player ███
Choosing the right player is the second most important thing in terms of efficiency: you just cannot use Mp3tag in a convenient way without a proper player. A good setup is a combination of Mp3tag and Winamp [v 5.666]. This audio / video player was dead for some time, but now is being resurrected. Winamp has a still working forum, which gives support to its users: http://forums.winamp.com. Aside from the player itself you would also need to have the PT Sans Narrow font installed in your system. You would also need to have the Winamp settings changed in a quite precised way. Those settings are available for download as the "EG-0003 Winamp Configuration Files.zip" archive at this address [just copy them to the folder where your Winamp is installed]: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=84799335028895950146
And here is a list of those changes; while below them is the description of them:
1] Options > Skins > Bento
2] Windows Settings > Scaling > 125%
3] Windows Settings > Docked Toolbar > Always On Top
4] Windows Settings > Docked Toolbar > Top
5] Options > Windows Sizing > Collapse Windows To Top
6] Options > Songticker > Modern Songticker Scrolling
7] Options > Preferences > Titles > Read Metadata When File(s) Are Played Or Viewed In The Playlist Editor
8] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Show playlist item numbers in Playlist Editor
9] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Zero pad item numbers
10] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Playlist Font Size In Pixels > 10
11] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Use Font > PT Sans Narrow
12] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Text > Force Left-To-Right Order
13] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Scroll Playlist Using Page up / Down > 3
14] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Playlist Editor Appearance > Mousewheel Scrolls Double The Above Number Of Lines
15] Double click than thin Winamp "ticket bar" [Winamp being in the Shade Mode], so that it will expand to around 1/7 of the screen vertical space
16] Look for the "Change the content this area holds" icon at the bottom right corner of the middle window. It contains the "File Info Components" list
17] Choose on the "File Info Components" list what other fields you want to be displayed, aside from default %TITLE%, %ARTIST% and %ALBUM%. Unfortunately the choice is limited and there is space for only two more positions. But do not worry with limited items, as this is not to be your default view but merely a more extended version of it [with intention to not use it all the time]
18] Adjust horizontally the three middle windows to your likening
19] Double click the top of Winamp, so that it can roll back into the form of that thin bar [the Shade Mode]
20] Options > Preferences > Playlist > Titles > Advanced Title Formatting > $if2(%TITLE%,$filepart(%FILENAME%))[ ##%YEAR%^^%PUBLISHER%^^## %ARTIST% %GENRE%]
These last values you can change to your own likening. But when doing this remember, that you can use some uncommon tag fields like PUBLISHER but filled in Mp3tag with some other data that you really need or want to see and not the supposed things [like in that case the name of a publishing company]. In the above example the PUBLISHER is intended to be used for storing the year of a first publication of a given song, so the ticker would display for example:
Title Of The Song ## 2010^^2000^^## The Name Of The Artist ROCK
where 2010 is the year when the album was released, while the 2000 is the year when the song was recorder originally by some other artist. And if a particular file would lack info about that second year [the file would have an empty PUBLISHER tag field], it would be shown in the Shade Mode as
Title Of The Song ## 2010^^^^## The Name Of The Artist ROCK<<
And so seeing ^^^^ would give you right away an information that you lack the info about hypothetical "original" year
Settings like these will result in a thin bar of Winamp residing on top of every other software, thus giving a constant display of tag fields of a currently played file. The kind of info displayed in the bar, the particular tag fields, can be adjusted under the Advanced Title Formatting
Also by double clicking this bar, Winamp will roll out itself to a "middle form" [Compact Mode], showing small Playlist but not wasting space for its large Media Library. This visually expanded version can be then reverted to a thin bar by another double clicking, or be expanded even further to the full view with the usage of the Expand Window button, which is at the bottom near the right side, revealing further items on the Playlist
And so, with these settings, you are sacrificing minimal space on your screen but and at the same time you are able to read right away tag fields of the file that is being played. And by a double click on a thin bar of a collapsed Winamp, you gain access to the playlist. And by pushing the Expand Window button, you can expand the playlist from just 6 to 39 positions. And then you can choose to collapse it back to the bar [Shade Mode] or make it smaller to around 1/7 size of the screen [Compact Mode]. But most important, it will be always glued to the top of your screen, no matter what new piece of software you will run [but will not show up when you are watching a movie in full screen mode in some other player]. And there should not be issues with such a combo, because certain bugs in Mp3tag have been dealt with somewhere in the middle of 2015. The only issue is the font: Arial is not perfect because small version of letters "L" and "I" look the same. But other fonts on the other hand simply take just too much of the more precious horizontal space
Depending on the size of the screen, what resolution it is set up to, and how good are eyes of the user, some sort of scaling option of the whole operating system may need to be adjusted- which in turn will most likely affect all of the other settings. [All of this here was written for a setup consisting of a 16:9 monitor, with 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, set to a 125% display of Windows 7 x64; with the intention of using Winamp only for audio purposes, disregarding it video playback capabilities]
Also tempering with the fonts in Winamp under the
Options > Preferences > Skins > Modern Skins > Font Rendering > Font > Font Mapper
can help further in making the characters more visible. But there are some serious issues and bugs with the Font Mapper options. It seems that unfortunately only the default Arial is the safe way to go in terms of both readability and space efficiency [with the exception of adopting the PT Sans Narrow font for Playlist]
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ Audio Player ███ External Display ███
There are keyboards on the market with LCD displays build in them. But right now, there are still being made for gamers and not for music listeners. So probably there are no ready to use audio tag configs for them, like there are for certain popular games. Most likely there would have to be some code to be written to make them display tags from your specific audio player
Alternatively you could build a LCD tag display, from an old cellular phone, using DIY guides available on the Internet. But that requires of course some electronic knowledge and skills plus extra time. And still this would end you up in having to have an additional piece of [a possibly fragile] hardware residing somewhere on a desk or attached to a monitor
Alternatively you could search for proper app for a smartphone. In this scenario, the external device would be in form of a phone
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ Audio Player ███ Audio Player Multiplication ███
Depending on your workflow, it can be handy to use two or more audio player instead of just one. For example when you want to compare two files by listening to different fragments of them without the need to constantly load up the same files over and over again
To do so, you can just simply install more software. But aside from other issues [financial costs, operating system resources, space on system hard drive, acquiring skin that you like to work with], there is the problem of choosing the default player and associating file types with it: if you were to compare two files with same extension [as mentioned above], you would still need to load up the second file to the second player. So you can either stick to this approach or work around it by using multiple instances of one and the same player. And the easiest way to do so is to:
1] Find .EXE file than launches your player
2] Drag it and create a shortcut from it
3] Right click on the shortcut
4] Go to the Properties > Shortcuts > Target
5] In there add a >>/new<< at the end [after the closing >>"<< sign]
6] Pin your shortcut to the Windows Taskbar
The Taskbar in Windows treats this shortcut as a different piece of software. So if you have already pinned original .EXE to it, this new shortcut will create a second icon. This can be both viewed as a disadvantage [because of the extra space taken on the Taskbar by the same software] and as an advantage [a second icon creates clear distinction between two instances]. But there is one additional limitation: you can use the second icon to open only a second instance and not a third one
Alternatively: you can also go to the
Properties > Shortcuts > Shortcut Key
and put in there a global keyboard shortcut for executing this shortcut. But you can use this shortcut key to open only a second instance and not a third one
Alternatively: you can set such a shortcut to that already made shortcut within Mp3tag itself, by using its Tools option
Alternatively: you can set such a shortcut for a new instance within Mp3tag itself, by using its Tools option. But that will work only when the Mp3tag window is the active one
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ Audio Player ███ Remote Control ███
Extra buttons on mouses and additional keys on some keyboards can be pre-programmed via the manufacturer software for execution of a sequence of key strokes. Or can be used for commandeering your audio player, just like remote control buttons for your stereo equipment
But there could be problems, like a common issue of a manufacturer assuming, that you will use as a popular player coming out from Microsoft. But that problem can be overcome by turning on within your audio player the option for global keys and then setting the same keys in the software configuring the devices. In such way even game pads and other wireless gadgets can be turned into remote controls. There is even a third party software available for configuration of PC game pads, which can be useful in case when the software provided by manufacturer is just plain bad or simply does not work
Alternatively: a similar thing can be achieved by using a software like AutoHotkey. But far more knowledge is required to do so and all in all a software is not a hardware. And as such, extra easy access buttons will not magically appear at your workstation; should you decide to choose the AutoHotkey approach- you would still need to use ordinary keys on keyboard