What's new in MusiCHI Suite Lite 6.1.02
Jul 13, 2018
- DSF Support:
- We have added a this new format (DSF) across the entire MusiCHI Suite, the tagging model is the same as the mp3’s (Id3v2). As in all other MusiCHI formats, the meta-data will be stored 100% inside the audio file.
- As DSD is a bit of a hack, when a PC is used as a source, you will have to see with your DAC, what settings are the most appropriate for listening. Our tests showed that either “on the fly DSD-to-PCM conversion” or the DSD-over-PCM (05/FA markers) with WASAPI and RAM playing was the best way to go; Depending on the DAC driver one can play DSD64, DSD128.
- To configure: Menu > Settings > Output > DSF >
- Note: If you are just upgrading, you should run C:Program Files (x86)MusiCHISuitebinAddDSF.exe, it will add the dsf format to the list of scan-able extensions.
- New display modes:
- We decided to add 2 GUI modes to the player,
- Simple player mode:
- Some people like to use the file system mainly to select their music, or let’s assume a friend gave you a disk full of music and you want to explore it. In both cases there is no need to scan the meta-data into a library, therefore the whole screen space dedicated to searching is useless, hence you can shrink the player to the playing queue only. Menu > File > Mode > Player
- Tablet mode:
- Because we have a client/server edition of MusiCHI, we decided to modify the client so it can be 100% used with fingers (stylus or mouse) but no keyboard. But if you have a laptop, 2-1 with a touch screen or want to use the mouse only, why not? So we ported all these features from the client version to the local version. Menu > File > Mode > Tablet:
- In tablet mode automatically, the ruler will pop out on the left. The slider will go, on any column, to the 1st entry of a word starting with the clicked letter. You can use that ruler, also in normal mode. Menu > View > abcdefg….
- Improved views:
- Views were introduced in Sep. 2015 in version 5.0.2, you can read here what they do and how they work:
- https://musichieu.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/musichi-new-version-5-0-20-views-and-generic-support-for-external-players/
- A power user wanted us to complete the exercise, so we did listen to him: we saved the positions of the playing queue, the font sizes and also the positions and widths of the lower central grid (i.e. the one with the songs). Basically pretty much, ALL screen parameters are saved and retrieved. If you copy your library around on different devices with various screen definitions, you can re-arrange your desktop in no time; or a particular screen arrangement for a special genre or artist.
- Disk insomnia:
- Sometime you want to prevent a disk to fall asleep, else the music might have a hick-up on the next track, so this little application, that you can use as a stand alone as well, and can be freely distributed, does just that. Yet it is integrated in the player. Menu > Settings > Disk insomnia and run the configuration. Insomnia will write an empty file to the disks/folders of your choice very 1-15 minutes. Just fill up the list and check the ones to be active. Then start dskon, an icon will appear on the OS tray. Right-click “exit” will stop it. You can configure the player to have this utility start/stop each time you load the player, Menu > Settings > Disk insomnia check the option Run at startup.
New in MusiCHI Suite Lite 5.0.20 (Sep 22, 2015)
- What are “views”?:
- With this version you can save and retrieve cascading order of the columns with optionally a filter on it. An example will make obvious why it is a nice feature. First here is a screenshot of my most used columns arrangement for the MusiCHI player [aka the Default].
- Let’s assume I want to have every week-end a breakfast with baroque oboe concertos as a musical background. To make the best selection I would have to move my columns around this way (this picture) and then decide on the composer(s) I want for the event (Note that I switched to composition view).
- I can save this view by clicking the monitor icon, pick “Save current view” and fill up a short description, so next week-end I can get to my favorite breakfast selection right away.
- And because, I did the same for my default screen I can get back to it in 3 clicks. The monitor icon, “Recover view”, select item I want by moving the bar on the list [NOT the check box, see below] and click “Select”.
- Needless to say, you can save as many columns arrangement as you want: Being a J.S Bach piano fan, I have this as a saved view.
- To delete unused views, then check the line you want out and and click “Delete”.
- You can also see the available views if you click on the “Saved views” button before saving a new one.
- External players:
- Before we did support only foobar, now you can pretty much use any players you want as long as they can load a playlist upon opening.
New in MusiCHI Suite Lite 5.0.01 (Jun 5, 2015)
- Player:
- We added a skinning engine to the player and added thumbnails to the the playing queue. There are 20 skins available, sure you will find your favorite…Light or dark.
- Also some new icons, to toggle between Compositions/Album views and Tabular/Cover views.
- Now the player has a great look and is faster to navigate.
- Tagger, Ripper & Library manager:
- To make it “smaller screens friendly”, we added some scroll boxes in the manual edit forms and the text processor form, so if the form needs to be re-sized, you can still visit any area of the display.
- In the library manager (Tool tab) you can reconcile you composers and performers data with our MusiCHI Clean reference database, useful for checking work in progress or past mistakes.
- This upgrade is easy, there is no need to re-do the libraries, just install over the existing version, hence do not hesitate to do it.
New in MusiCHI Suite Lite 3.6.00 (Jun 14, 2013)
- Across the suite:
- The possibility to map any fields you want into the different tags available in MusiCHI suite. It allows you to preserve your metadata if you come from other software or to be compatible with different music stores (both for custom and standards fields). Click to read more…
- Support for multiple values fields:
- in Flac (for standards and our custom fields) which allows a better compatibility with other players/rippers.
- in ID3v2 for artist, genre and composer (mp3, wav, aiff). Click to read more…
- MusiCHI Player:
- Possibility to randomize by tracks only for the non classical libraries.
- Increase the height of the track panel via menu, when you change screen resolution.
- MusiCHI Tagger & Ripper:
- 2 new functions in the “text processing “utility:
- Translates tonalities from one language to another (Italian, German, French, and English). Sometimes the metadata is not in your favorite language, the other part of the text is much easier to deal with.
- Sequentially number the movement field, in roman or decimal.
- Improved: the function reversing First and last name in the “text processing “, works now for any fields which could have multiples performers (just pick the delimiter).
- MusiCHI Ripper:
- A better functionality to (un)select the tracks to be ripped.
- MusiCHI Tagger:
- One can modify the font size on the grid which can be handy, if you misplaced your glasses