Setting up BpmDj
Werner Van Belle

BpmDj can work with two soundcards or with one soundcard. These soundcards can be either located local or remote. In case two soundcards are used an external mixing desk is required, otherwise the bpmdj mini mixing desk will help you out. Below we will go through the different steps. Be sure to read everything carefully because some important program designs are explained.

First off you should have installed the software through specific packages or from source.

Setting Up

BpmDj requires extra information (meta-information) to be present for every song. This information includes title, author, tempo, sound color and other information that might be useful. Normally, ID3 tags can be used for this. However, because not all mp3's can be modified (because they are on cdrom or are located on a shared medium), BpmDj will store this extra information in separate files. These files are stored in a directory ./index. The music files must be stored in a directory ./music.  Once a song has been indexed and a meta-file exists in the index directory, then the song must not move any more within the music directory. Of course the music directory can contain soft links to other locations within the filesystem. Also, when a meta-description of a song is available that is not within the music directory, the program will silently ignore the index file. At the moment the song is again available, it can be used again.

To summarise, create at some place in your filesystem two directories.

./music
./index

A First Start

Find some Mp3's

The program is centered around the use of Mp3's, hence without Mp3's there is nothing too demonstrate. Therefore, find some songs and move them to the music directory.  Beware, once a song is known to bpmdj, it should not move anymore within the music directory. Thus, if you have multiple cdrom filled with songs, you might use a convention to create cd<xyz> directories within the music directory:

music/cd001
music/cd002
music/cd003

Start The Program

Now, go to the directory where the music and index directories are located. Start bpmdj by typing

bpmdj

The program will open and verify that all necessary components are available. (this should go smooth). Now, the file selector will pop up and we can start with importing the unknown songs.

Import Mp3's

To import new mp3's go to the SongManagement|Import MP3's. Now a box will pop up which will scan all the directories within the music directory. For every unknown mp3 file a  new index file will be created and the song will pop up in the main listbox.

Choosing the decoder software

Bpmplay routes all songs through a script, called bpmdjraw, which is responsible for generating a 44100 Hz wave file. So, if something is an ogg file it might select a diferent decoder than if it were for instance a flac or mp3 file. To achieve this the program relies on different decoders, including mpg123, mpg321, ogg123, mplayer and potentially others. This of course brings a problem with it.

1. First - not all files are playable by the same decoder. E.g; some mpg3 files can be played by mpg123 but nog by mpg321, or other files can be played with mplayer but not with ogg123 and so on.
2. Secondly - since multiple machines can be used, it might be possible that not all decoder programs are available at every host.

To deal with such annoyances each player configuarion knows what it can play and each song knows which decoders does not work for itself

To modify the usable capabilities per machine: click on the preference box of a player (or analyzer) found in bpmdj Program|Preferences. When the player opens, click on the 'Setup' tab and then on 'Decoding'. There you need to select which decoder programs you don't want to use.

To prohibit using a specific decoder for a specific song: start the song, click on the Information tab and select the decoders that should NOT be used.

Once, the parameters are correct, you can continue with setting up the sound driver