DJing competition ballroom dancing has some unique challenges. The best way we’ve found to address the demands of the venue is by having a custom field with encoded number detailing their set, heat, track number within the heat and other important information that allows us to track where we are and quickly change as needed. Since the same piece of music could be used across multiple competitions or even multiple heats in the same competition, this field cannot be stored in the music header or database because it must be unique. In other DJ software we are able to have this field reside in the playlist. Is this possible with VDJ?
Simply put, is there any field that can be pulled from a playlist, virtual folder, or any stored collection of music and flow through to the interface as a sortable column (either the default or a custom skin)?
Simply put, is there any field that can be pulled from a playlist, virtual folder, or any stored collection of music and flow through to the interface as a sortable column (either the default or a custom skin)?
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 1:42 pm
locoDog
I don't get the ins and outs of what you're after, but won't the "singer" field be suitable?
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 1:50 pm
As far as I know - Singer cannot be used. I tried adding a singer property to a line in an m3u and it does not populate the singer field in the interface.
As noted, this filed cannot be stored in the DB or the mp3 header. It must have a way of storing different values per venue, so it can't be tracked by the piece of music itself. A playlist or virtual folder in the only construct I imagine would work. But as far as I can tell, both only track the "path" and the "idx" (index for sort order) and then the path is used to match "FilePath" to the database to associate the properties as well pull the id3 tags from the actual file. All other fields in a playlist appear to be ignored.
As noted, this filed cannot be stored in the DB or the mp3 header. It must have a way of storing different values per venue, so it can't be tracked by the piece of music itself. A playlist or virtual folder in the only construct I imagine would work. But as far as I can tell, both only track the "path" and the "idx" (index for sort order) and then the path is used to match "FilePath" to the database to associate the properties as well pull the id3 tags from the actual file. All other fields in a playlist appear to be ignored.
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 2:04 pm
locoDog
Adding singer field to a playlist, appears to work here, the info is only stored in the one playlist.
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 2:10 pm
Apologies, you are right! I tried it, and this works. I was editing a virtual folder file, not an m3u. So this does work.
I will keep experimenting with this. Thanks :)
I will keep experimenting with this. Thanks :)
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 2:15 pm
Follow-on question if I may...
Is it possible to grab the Singer information and display it on a deck via a custom skin element?
Looking here, I don't see a variable for singer:
https://virtualdj.com/wiki/Skin%20SDK%20Textzone.html
Nor do I see a command to get the singer (something like get_singer would be good):
https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/VDJscript_verbs_v8.html
UPDATE: Feeling foolish after reading a bit more....
action='get_next_karaoke_song "Singer" ' does the trick. The documentation provides an example of the next singer with a +1. By dropping the +1 you get the current singer.
Is it possible to grab the Singer information and display it on a deck via a custom skin element?
Looking here, I don't see a variable for singer:
https://virtualdj.com/wiki/Skin%20SDK%20Textzone.html
Nor do I see a command to get the singer (something like get_singer would be good):
https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/VDJscript_verbs_v8.html
UPDATE: Feeling foolish after reading a bit more....
action='get_next_karaoke_song "Singer" ' does the trick. The documentation provides an example of the next singer with a +1. By dropping the +1 you get the current singer.
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 2:34 pm
locoDog
Work from the karaoke sidelist that way you can use
get_next_karaoke_song 'singer'
You could even display this info on video out a few ways, a video skin or something like this
deck master effect_active 'text' & repeat_start 'rsTextImport' 1000ms & get_next_karaoke_song 'singer' & param_cast 'text' & effect_string 'text' 2
get_next_karaoke_song 'singer'
You could even display this info on video out a few ways, a video skin or something like this
deck master effect_active 'text' & repeat_start 'rsTextImport' 1000ms & get_next_karaoke_song 'singer' & param_cast 'text' & effect_string 'text' 2
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 3:04 pm
Alright, played with this for a few more hours. The karaoke sidelist is not a workable solution for my needs. I cannot get access to the Singer unless the attribute is shown in the sidelist (and therefore written to karaoke.m3u). If the same track is in 2 different playlists with 2 different singers, unless it's fist moved to the karaoke sidelist, the get_next_karaoke_song "Singer" code will not function.
What I really need is a get_singer verb, or better yet to use the more recent get_loaded_song and pass 'Singer' as a property. This would avoid having to work with the sidelist and would allow a user defined parameter to flow from a playlist, to a sortable item in the UI, and also be displayed on a custom skin in any manner the user desired.
Wishful thinking to get this property added to an exiting verb?
What I really need is a get_singer verb, or better yet to use the more recent get_loaded_song and pass 'Singer' as a property. This would avoid having to work with the sidelist and would allow a user defined parameter to flow from a playlist, to a sortable item in the UI, and also be displayed on a custom skin in any manner the user desired.
Wishful thinking to get this property added to an exiting verb?
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 6:37 pm
locoDog
won't work with get_loaded_song, singer is not a song property [you stated you don't want it to follow the track] and singer is the only disposable field available.
I don't see the problem with switching what's in the karaoke list, but honestly I've no interest, I'm just telling you what you can do.
It's not like having copies of playlists costs anything. It's up to you to figure out something workable or put a wish in [that may or may not be acted on.]
Finally to use vdj in a professional setting you should have a pro licence or subscription.
I don't see the problem with switching what's in the karaoke list, but honestly I've no interest, I'm just telling you what you can do.
It's not like having copies of playlists costs anything. It's up to you to figure out something workable or put a wish in [that may or may not be acted on.]
Finally to use vdj in a professional setting you should have a pro licence or subscription.
发表时间 Sun 17 Nov 19 @ 7:28 pm
philadisco
Can you not use folder or crates for this purpose? Just A Thought.
Also think about using the tag editor for the extra info on your performer if you must. lots of unused space in it.
I also See At Lease 10 Fields In Side List that you could use to make this happen.
And you could still use the browser to search and sort that info. Not Many Other Soft ware Programs are going to do this with ease. Just My Opinion.
Also think about using the tag editor for the extra info on your performer if you must. lots of unused space in it.
I also See At Lease 10 Fields In Side List that you could use to make this happen.
And you could still use the browser to search and sort that info. Not Many Other Soft ware Programs are going to do this with ease. Just My Opinion.
发表时间 Mon 18 Nov 19 @ 12:17 am
@locodog - understood on the license. This is all testing at home prior to deciding if I should switch my setup to VDJ. I'm first vetting that it can meet my needs. If it does, I will happily purchase a pro license.
@philadisco - I would love to use virtual folders, but I can't pass unique information from the .vdjfolder file to the browser. All information (except Singer which doesn't work in a virtual folder but does in a playlist as noted by locodog) is either stored in the database or the music id3 header. The challenge with that is, 1 piece of music could reside in multiple competitions or even in the same competition in multiple heats. Therefore, unique information needs to be associated to a track and stored outside of the DB or the audio file that way the values could differ and exist simultaneously. Ideally this would be stored in a playlist or a virtual folder. But it seems that VDJ only looks up the path of the file in the playlist / virtual folder, then uses that path to cross reference properties in the DB as well as tags in the music file. In this way, you can't have unique values for a single track. Singer is really close to what I need in that it can be stored exclusively in the m3u and populated in the browser, but it is encumbered by some restrictions I am having a hard time working around. In particular I'd like to be able to address the Singer property as a verb without the requirement of using the Karaoke panel and workflow.
@philadisco - I would love to use virtual folders, but I can't pass unique information from the .vdjfolder file to the browser. All information (except Singer which doesn't work in a virtual folder but does in a playlist as noted by locodog) is either stored in the database or the music id3 header. The challenge with that is, 1 piece of music could reside in multiple competitions or even in the same competition in multiple heats. Therefore, unique information needs to be associated to a track and stored outside of the DB or the audio file that way the values could differ and exist simultaneously. Ideally this would be stored in a playlist or a virtual folder. But it seems that VDJ only looks up the path of the file in the playlist / virtual folder, then uses that path to cross reference properties in the DB as well as tags in the music file. In this way, you can't have unique values for a single track. Singer is really close to what I need in that it can be stored exclusively in the m3u and populated in the browser, but it is encumbered by some restrictions I am having a hard time working around. In particular I'd like to be able to address the Singer property as a verb without the requirement of using the Karaoke panel and workflow.
发表时间 Mon 18 Nov 19 @ 5:32 pm
philadisco
So How Are you doing this now? If you Can show Me A Photo. So i can get the right idea .
发表时间 Mon 18 Nov 19 @ 11:20 pm
I don't think a screenshot would help much. In (an older version of) PCDJ, you can drive everything with INI files - there is no database. In this manner I can create collections of playlists (as tabs across the bottom of browser interface). The INI file allows me to specify the path to the music file, but also allows me to overload the Title of the music as a field. With my current workflow I use excel to write out the INI files and prepend the uniquely encoded number scheme to the front of the track Title. This achieves the desired result as the music and the associated tags can be managed separately from playlists and an identifier. In the case of PCDJ I'm using Title, but with VDJ I'm looking to us Singer (with the restrictions noted above). If there's a better way, I'm all ears.
发表时间 Tue 19 Nov 19 @ 4:14 pm
locoDog
explain why using karaoke side list is problematic.
explain in length your desired work flow.
I think a modified karaoke skin, listing who's next dancing, to what track, would be a nice subtle visual without diverting attention from the dancers.
explain in length your desired work flow.
I think a modified karaoke skin, listing who's next dancing, to what track, would be a nice subtle visual without diverting attention from the dancers.
发表时间 Tue 19 Nov 19 @ 4:29 pm
@locodog: Thanks for your persistence in sticking with my use case. It will be quite lengthly so will try and carve out some time to type this up in full later tonight.
There are a few issues with using Karaoke mode which I will also attempt to detail the full post. The foremost issue is that Automix does not work from the Karaoke panel. Dance competitions go immediately from track to track with cross fading from deck to deck. Automix panel does this just fine. However the Singer field in an m3u does not populate to the Automix panel.
There are a few issues with using Karaoke mode which I will also attempt to detail the full post. The foremost issue is that Automix does not work from the Karaoke panel. Dance competitions go immediately from track to track with cross fading from deck to deck. Automix panel does this just fine. However the Singer field in an m3u does not populate to the Automix panel.
发表时间 Tue 19 Nov 19 @ 7:46 pm