ballroomdj.org

BallroomDJ could allow a single song to have any number of "Alias" or "Shortcuts".
A alias could look and be treated exactly the same as any other song.

The difference between a "Song" and a "Alias" is simple, they both point to the same physical file, BUT - all ballroomDJ masterfile information can be be different (except song path)
I have been playing around with manually editing the masterfile.txt and duplicating songs within this file. I can change some masterfile info and when running ballroomDJ the songs appears in the Music Manager just fine and I can edit it. BallroomDJ player does not like the alias and aborts.

I think ? - The masterfile.txt has two different fields that contain the songs path::

{V:/BallroomMusic/Cha_Cha/Capone.mp3} {
hasBeenQueued {false}
FILE {V:/BallroomMusic/Cha_Cha/Capone.mp3}
TITLE {Capone}
SPEEDADJUSTMENT {}
......

I think?? - the first song "file path" is probably the used as the database "KEY", and the second "file path" is listed under "FILE".
I duplicated this song, and changed some fields, BUT not the "FILE"
{V:/BallroomMusic/Cha_Cha/CaponeSlow.mp3} {
hasBeenQueued {false}
FILE {V:/BallroomMusic/Cha_Cha/Capone.mp3}
TITLE {CaponeSlow}
SPEEDADJUSTMENT {-5}
....

If something like this was to be allowed, it could solve many of the problems I have while trying to DJ different types of ballroom dances.
Type = newcomer- where persons are all newcomers to ballroom and I need slower music and only songs that is easy to count the beat.
Type = practice - where persons are just practicing their technique or a routine they are just starting to work on.
Type = dance - evening of ballroom dance
Type = completion practice rounds- where the playlist limits all songs to around 1:30 minutes.

All the above requires that the selected songs need to be adjusted in some way. (well we can assume the "evening of ballroom dance" just uses the default.)
Adjustments are manly song playback control.

Example: to practice Viennese waltz technique and for newcommers, it is preferred to slow down the tempo of a Viennese waltz song(s), however, all waltz songs do not need to be slowed down.
I would use keywords to select the proper song/vs/Alias.

An idea of how this could be implemented:
in the configuration have a advanced setting - Yes or No. default to No.
Once advance=yes,
1- ballroomDJ Music Editor shows and allows the modification of the "database" key independent of the song file path.
2-add create alias button on ballroomDJ Music Editor. This duplicates the songs record and changes the "database" key and the song title to "oldsongtitle-alias"
3-fix player to play alias.

What do you think?

A bit of an overkill. This would complicate things a lot due to all the duplicate songs. It would make the user interface very complicated.

That said, there are other ways. I think your 'competition' is just a new playlist

'newcomer' can generally be handled by tags. You could have two tags: newcomer-basic and newcomer. newcomer-basic is not good for the social dances, newcomer is good for newcomers and for social dances. You just have to remember to put 'newcomer' in the 'allowed tags' entry for the social dance playlist.

Your basic idea would be better handled by "song profiles", where everything in the song playback control section is associated with a particular profile. Then the playlist can have a profile selected, and the playback controls would be set from the chosen profile. Playlists would also need to be filtered based on whether a certain profile exists for the song.

Ah! - yes I see - profile!

In fact it may be even simpler, just add everything in the song playback control section associated with a particular Keyword!
You could then have a configuration screen for keywords.
However, for backward compatibility this may be a problem and Profile may be easier for you
I suspect in Profile usage will will need the same logic as keywords - allowed - required.
I think if you can figure a way to make the new keywords backward compatibility, it may be overall better?

Yes I think, once again you got it!!