Computer Audio Asylum Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Computer Audio Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

zarir and anybody else who cares: how to make my foobar2000 (use as a launch pad)

Posted by Mark Tinordi (A) on March 22, 2007 at 08:30:23

It took me several months to build up this amount of knowledge; most of it is trial-and-error but HydrogenAudio is an invaluable resource. Don't say anything about AA if you ever post there because they don't like this forum. Also be sure to read the TOS: they're really anal people.

Here's the tutorial. I STRONGLY recommend dicking around with the configuration after you're done; you should have some idea of what the various things do and how to do them, so you can experiment at will. If you totally screw everything up, just delete your config and build it again.

To begin with, you need the version 0.9 of foobar2000 and the Columns UI interface. Go ahead and download the album list panel while you're there; I'm not using it in mine right now but you might. Set it as your interface in preferences. Put Columns in your foobar directory and the album panel in the [foobar directory]\components directory. You'll need the following panels:

Track Info Mod
Playlist Tree
Album Art Panel

Get Azrael. Go here for the documentation; the color-scheme codes there are essential if you don't like mine. Open up your preferences and go to Columns UI. Select "Import" from the Main tab and pick the Azrael file. We need a color scheme; I didn't like any of them so I made my own. Go to Playlist View under the Columns UI preferences and select Globals. You can make a few tweaks at the top if you so desire.

Under "// Choose the color scheme you like!", there is a list of color schemes. Below it is a line to use to pick one; choose "3". That is, $puts(color_scheme,3). Scroll down to the third color scheme -- the first line is $if($strcmp(3,$get(color_scheme)), -- and replace the whole thing with the following:

$if($strcmp(3,$get(color_scheme)),
// Backgrounds
$puts(design,000060)
$puts(info,000000)
$puts(selected,000060)
$puts(playing,000030)
$puts(normal,000000)
// Text
$puts(tekst,FFFFFF)
$puts(tplay,FFFFFF)
$puts(tselect,FFFFFF)
$puts(artistv,A0A0A0)
$puts(artistvs,C0C0C0)
$puts(title,FFFFFF)
$puts(bonus,404040)
// Numbers
$puts(dimmed,FFFFFF)
$puts(dimmeds,FFFFFF)
$puts(show,FFFFFF)
$puts(shows,0000A0)
$puts(elaps,C0C0C0))

Click "close" and your Azrael should now have color. Now you can build a skeleton of what it's all going to be like. Still in Preferences/Columns UI, go over to Layout, delete anything that's there, and do it like this (the hyphens represent levels; they won't let you use tab here):

Horizontal splitter
-Playlist Tree Panel
-Vertical splitter
--Playlist switcher
--Seekbar
--Buttons
--Menu
--Track info mod
--Track info mod
--Track info mod
-Vertical splitter
--Vertical splitter
---Columns Playlist
---Album Art

Take off the captions for everything and set all borders to "none". Stretch the windows as you please. The layout preferences are really easy to learn if you want to change panels or just experiment; play around for a minute or two and you should have it down.

We're ready to set up now. Import your media library folders if you haven't already because you need a database to work with.

PLAYLIST TREE:

1) Go to Preferences and pick Playlist Tree Panel under Media Library.
2) Disable bitmaps if they're not already. Put the following into "Default Query Format":

%artist%|%album%][$num(%tracknumber%,2) - ]%title% %length%

3) Set the colors:

Font: Bodoni MT Black, Bold, 7
Text Color: 0-255-0 (red-green-blue)
Line Color: 0-0-0
Back Color: 0-0-0

4) Click "hide root" if you don't plan on making any new folders right away. If you want to make a folder or subfolder, middle-click on the parent folder and select "New Query". The actual query commands are a bit weird and I still don't completely get them.

MAIN WINDOW:
1) Still in Preferences, change to "Playlist view" under Columns UI. We need to make a few changes.
2) Go to "Colours and Fonts". You'll almost certainly want to have a different font (I can read it fine but most people probably can't), but mine is Sydnie 6pt.
3) Now go to "Columns". Change the width of Artist to 135 and replace the display with:

//Album
$if($not($strcmp($get_global(is_single),1)),
$select($min(3,%tracknumber%),
$if($strcmp($get_global(is_various),1),Various Artists,
$if(%artist%,%artist%,$get_global(bonus)Unknown Artist))
$if(Úte%,$tab()Úte%),
$if(%album%,%album%,$get_global(bonus)Unknown Album)
,))

// Singletrack
$if($strcmp($get_global(is_single),1),
$if($strcmp($get_global(is_left),1),$tab())
$if(%artist%,%artist%,Unknown Artist)
$if($strcmp($get_global(showalbum),1),
$if(%album%,$if($strcmp($get_global(is_left),1), ,
$tab())$get_global(bonus)|$get_global(tselected)'['$abbr(%album%,21)']')),)

4) Make the width of Title to 135. Make Length 30; this is enough to cut off the left side and leave only the total track time. If you want, you can permanently excise the elapsed time by deleting everything in the second line after "$get_global(elaps)".

PLAYLIST SWITCHER:
1) Go to Playlist switcher (one up from Playlist view) in preferences and select "Colours and Fonts".

Playlist switcher: Old English Text MT 14pt
Playlist tabs: Tahoma 8pt

Text: 255-255-255
Selection text: 0-0-0
Background: 0-0-0
Selection background: 0-255-0
Inactive selection text: 0-0-0
Inactive selection background (no focus): 0-255-0
Active item frame: 255-255-255

2) ...and you can finally exit preferences.

TRACK INFO MOD:
1) This uses meat-and-potato TAGZ. Find a list of them here.
2) For mine: right-click on each panel, select "settings", and put this in the formatting strings:

Top:

$align(center,middle)
$font(Edwardian Script ITC,25,,255-0-0)%artist% $char(10)
$font(Edwardian Script ITC,25,,0-255-0)%title% $char(10)
$font(Edwardian Script ITC,25,,255-0-0)%album% $char(10)
$font(Edwardian Script ITC,25,,255-0-0)Úte% $char(10)

Middle (for this one, change the font to Papyrus 28pt):

$if(%isplaying%,
$align(center,middle)
$font(,,,0-255-0)Playing ,
$align(center,middle)
$font(,,,255-0-0)Stopped )

// PerSecond

$align(left,top)
$font(Bauhaus 93,12,,15-227-196)%playback_time%$char(10)
$align(right,top)
$font(Bauhaus 93,12,,15-227-196)-%playback_time_remaining%$char(10)
$align(left,bottom)
$font(Bauhaus 93,12,,255-255-255)Track %tracknumber%$char(10)
$align(right,bottom)
$font(Bauhaus 93,12,,125-125-125)%length%$char(10)

Bottom:

// PerSecond

$font(Arial,8,bold,0-255-0)%codec%, %bitrate%kbps / %samplerate%kHz - %channels%$char(10)
$font(Arial,8,bold,255-0-0)[Track: %__replaygain_track_gain% / Album: %__replaygain_album_gain%]$char(10)

3) Adjust sizes to fit.

ALBUM ART PANEL
1) Right-click on the album art panel and select "Preferences".
2) Under Behaviour, make sure "Cycle sources during playback" is deselected.
3) Under Display, make sure that every box above "Resizing quality" is checked. Make sure that "Background" is checked and change the color to black (0-0-0).
4) Now here comes the pain in the ass part: you need a cover image for every album. Save it in that album's folder as folder.jpg. RateYourMusic is an excellent resource; you don't need to join, just use the search engine.
5) Once you have your covers, select a perfectly square one (the length and width of the image should be the same). Stretch the panel until all of the black background disappears. You now have a perfectly square panel.
6) Right-click and choose "Preferences" and deselect "Maintain aspect ratio".

And we're all done! Enjoy. Let me know if I missed anything.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

The Cable Cooker

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---