Music file structure
MusicManager© respects the structure of the music files on your hard drive. So you have to check whether your format is correct and usable and change it if necessary. Make sure you always make a good backup before making any changes yourself.
The structure goes in three steps: (1) artist, (2) albums and (3) tracks. The structure of your folders must therefore have this structure. When going through your music files and populating the database we keep it's structure. So you build that all by yourself!
MusicManager© settings
By clicking on the gear in the main screen you go to the screen where you can set the program. This is also the screen where you can insert your (new) music into the database.
When you move the mouse over the settings, you get brief extra information about that rule. Let's go through the settings in order from top to bottom.
Read music files
Click the "Start" button and browse to the root folder where your music files are stored. In the top image on this page it's "c:\music manager".
Click "OK" once you have selected the correct folder.
The existing information will now be deleted (with the message "Clear existing data...") and all music files will be read again. If you have added, changed or renamed music files, they will now be read in as they were stored. Under the "Start" button you will see the downloaded albums (or folders) flash across the screen.
When this is done, it says "Reading ready" under the "Start" button.
Playback default in random order
Checking this box will play albums and playlists in random order. The setting is saved in the database for next time. If you want to temporarily change the setting, change the setting on the main screen.
Make screen objects temporarily moveable
You can largely organize the main screen yourself. We have therefore provided this with 10 so-called screen objects, which you can move per element. You can also turn some screen objects on/off for display on the main screen (see below). This setting itself is not stored in the database, since making it moveable is a temporary setting.
How does it work? First, in the "settings" screen, check the "Make screen objects temporarily moveable". Then click "OK" to close the "settings" screen. As soon as you land on a screen object with the mouse pointer, a checkbox will appear with the text "Activate move". Check the box to activate moving this screen object. Then use the cursor keys (left, right, up, down) to move the screen object and place it where you want it.
The selection screen, the playlist, the album art and the media player are also among the screen objects. Click the corresponding buttons to display them, play some music and arrange the screen as you wish. You always move the screen objects one by one. It is not possible to check more than one screen object. If you move from one screen object to another and check a new object, the previous object is automatically deactivated for moving.
We recommend that you uncheck the box once you have finished moving screen objects. If you have checked the "Save screen objects position" setting, we will save the (changed) positions of all screen objects in the database. When starting MusicManager© the program retrieves the screen positions from the database and puts them directly in the right place.
Note: You can only move the screen objects with the cursor keys, not with the mouse!
Save screen objects position
With this setting we save the settings for the main screen. The screen position is saved for all elements and read again the next time MusicManager© is used.
Show MediaPlayer in MusicManager
During music playback, this allows you to display a graphical representation of the music player in the main screen. This is one of the screen elements mentioned above. This consists of a square black area, with a green line representing the amplitude of the music. At the bottom of this screen element we display a slider for the track position. So you see how long the song (still) lasts and you can use this to go forward and backward in the music view. This setting is saved in the database.
Show album cover in MusicManager
When you place an image (for example an image of the album cover) in the "album" folder (for example "1975 - Curved Air Live" in the top image on this page), MusicManager© can display image with each song you play from that album. So the image is in the same folder as the music tracks of that album. The image must meet the following requirements:
- file name: front.jpg
- format: 360 x 360 pixels
With a different format, MusicManager© will optimize the image as best as possible to still fit within the available space. An uneven aspect ratio can cause the image to be distorted. So try to find an image with the same height and width or edit the image. Images with a different file name (and/or extension) are ignored. This setting is also saved in the database.
Default audio listening volume
Here you can set the default audio listening volume with which MusicManager will start. You can enter values from 1 to 60. This setting is saved in the database.
Show logo
When you display the MusicManager logo on the main screen, you can click on the logo or on the text next to it to go to this website. This way you always have musicmanager.net within reach! Because it is a screen element, you can decide where you want it to appear on the screen.
Screen resolution
You cannot set anything about this yourself. Here you can easily see what the resolution of your screen is. This is again useful for selecting and/or creating background images (see below).
Language
Here you can choose Dutch or English as the language in MusicManager©. As soon as you change the language, all texts are immediately adjusted accordingly. We store the chosen language in our database. We now have a choice of two languages, but if someone can translate all texts into another language, we are always willing to see if we can also include that language in the program; our program is ready!
Background image
On the main screen we can display a background image, for example beautiful photos of live concerts, album covers or artworks used for albums. On the internet you can find many so-called "wallpaper" images and you may also have photos that are suitable for this. And maybe you don't want to set a music theme at all, but want to use a beautiful nature photo or something completely different. Everything is possible!
To make this possible, the image must be saved in the folder "..\musicmanager\images", i.e. in the folder "images" located in the folder with the program "musicmanager.exe". You can put as many images as you want in this folder. For example, you can easily choose a different image by hovering the mouse pointer over the ascending or descending arrow to the right of the preview. You will then automatically scroll through the images and when you have found the right image, move the mouse to next to the arrow. At the bottom of the "settings" screen you see the currently selected (but not yet active) background display in a reduced size. Click on the image and it will immediately be used as the background for the main screen. Click on "Close" at the bottom of the screen to set the chosen background image and save it in the database for next time.
Change background image after xx seconds
If you don't always want to choose an image yourself and you have made a nice collection of backgrounds, you can also switch backgrounds automatically. Then check this box and enter the number of seconds, after which the program will show another image in the background.
Stretch background image to fullscreen
The better the original photo, the better the rendering. A full hd screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. If your image is exactly the same in terms of dimensions, then that is of course perfect. If you have an image or photo with a different size, you can resize it.
In practice - at least ours - many images are not always available exactly in the screen size. Resizing and/or cropping a large photo is a good solution. But sometimes you have a great photo that is just too small. When the aspect ratios are correct, you can check this option to make the image neatly fill the screen. This also works well with an image that is too large such as a 4K image. With a different aspect ratio, MusicManager© will adjust the image accordingly, which entails a distortion of the image. So try to find an image with the right size or at least the right aspect ratio.
OK?
When you change settings, they become active as soon as possible. Confirm your choices with the "Close" button. If you still want to go back to the original settings, click "Cancel" to revert the changes.
Finally...
Last but not least, Musicmanager© will never, ever make any changes to your music files and/or folder structure; neither when installing nor when uninstalling the program. And the same goes for your images, both for the album covers and the background images. MusicManager© will display them as best as possible, but will not make any changes to them.
