ballroomdj.org

I have embarked on a complete rewrite of BallroomDJ, to be version 4.
I have decided that the Tcl/Tk platform is not viable for future use, and BallroomDJ will be rewritten, mostly in C.
This will take some time.
Most all of the current features of BallroomDJ will be supported, probably excepting the manual synchronization across computers.

If there are any features you would like to see added, removed, improved, changed, modified, reworked, etc.,
please reply to this topic.

Hi! Can't wait to see how BDJ 4 turns out. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents:

I use Windows 10 almost exclusively. During my dance parties, I'd use the following setup most often:

A Playlist based on a Sequence. Each song fades out at 2 minutes before going to the next. And the playlist ends at 10:30pm.

I also often export my playlists to mp3 for iPod or thumb drive, as a backup.

Once a playlist is set up, I generally leave it alone. Hit play and only Maybe add a requested song or dance into the mix.

My library is somewhere around 55k songs large (not that all of that is for Ballroom dancing), and based on a folder structure, i.e. foxtrot songs in the foxtrot folder.

I know BDJ has so many more features that had been on my bucket list to explore, But the Stop options definitely came in so handy!

I Think my wish list might include Drag and Drop Functionality.

PS- Sometimes I'd use Winamp or Aimp to create a song list and import into BDJ to set up a playlist.

Sequenced playlists and Maximum Play Time (global, per-playlist and per-playlist-dance) will be supported.
The export to .M3U will be supported.

I can look into drag and drop, but that would happen after I get everything working (Phase 2).

I still have a copy of one of your huge databases. You can be sure I will be testing with it. The database load is much
faster with BDJ4, I think it was maybe 5 seconds with your big database. I'll get better numbers later.

aarontheswinger wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:56 am Hi! Can't wait to see how BDJ 4 turns out. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents:

I use Windows 10 almost exclusively. During my dance parties, I'd use the following setup most often:

A Playlist based on a Sequence. Each song fades out at 2 minutes before going to the next. And the playlist ends at 10:30pm.

I also often export my playlists to mp3 for iPod or thumb drive, as a backup.

Once a playlist is set up, I generally leave it alone. Hit play and only Maybe add a requested song or dance into the mix.

My library is somewhere around 55k songs large (not that all of that is for Ballroom dancing), and based on a folder structure, i.e. foxtrot songs in the foxtrot folder.

I know BDJ has so many more features that had been on my bucket list to explore, But the Stop options definitely came in so handy!

I Think my wish list might include Drag and Drop Functionality.

PS- Sometimes I'd use Winamp or Aimp to create a song list and import into BDJ to set up a playlist.

I'm just working on the "Stop At" time configured in the playlist management.
The stop at time had bugs, the next alpha release will have the working version.

The way I implemented it in BDJ4 is not quite the same as in BallroomDJ 3.
A bit less dynamic.
For example, a playlist with a stop at time is queued. The queue is filled up with songs, enough to reach the stop at time.
During the dance, multiple requests are added to the music queue.
The playback would exceed the stop-at time due to the added requests.

It might be worthwhile to create a global "Stop At" setting. This would be very easy to implement
This would be saved on a per-profile basis, so alternate profiles could be set up without the stop-at time (for example, a New Year's Eve dance would need an alternate profile so it would not stop early).

Both methods have disadvantages.
When using per-playlist, you have to remember to set the stop-at time when a new playlist is created.
When using a global stop-at time, one might forget it is set, and a special dance (such as New Year's) might unexpectedly end early.

Advantage of a global stop-at time. I could use a profile with a stop-at time set to 11pm for one venue, and switch to a different profile with a stop-at time set to 12am for another venue and use the same playlist for both.

[ I'm just thinking out loud here, but comments and questions are always welcome. ]

aarontheswinger wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:56 am [...] And the playlist ends at 10:30pm.
[...]

aarontheswinger wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:56 am ...
I Think my wish list might include Drag and Drop Functionality.
...

I never use drag and drop for anything, so I don't know how people use it or want to use it.
I have thought of two situations so far:

• Player: Drag an audio file from the system's file manager on to the BDJ4 player.
  This would open the "external request" dialog using the selected file.
• Song List Editor: Drag a selection from the "easy song selection" to the "easy song list".

How do you envision drag and drop working within BDJ4?

I played around with drag and drop a little bit, trying to get the first item in the above list working, but I didn't get it right.
it will take a bit of work to figure out.
The second item in the above list should be easier than the first.