Columns UI is a user interface for the foobar2000 audio player. Some features include:. Playlist view with columns, grouping and artwork. In-line metadata editing.
Customisable layout through interchangeable panel and toolbar components. Built-in panels: playlist view, artwork view, filter, item details, item properties, playlist list, playlist tabs, tab stack. Built-in toolbars: menu, buttons, seekbar, playback order, volume, spectrum analyser. Extensible through official and third-party panel and toolbar components.
Foobar2000 music player for Windows is not for the faint hearted. It’s for the tinkerers, the curious and the patient. If you get the hang of it, it’s.
Don’t believe it?. Foobar2000 is like Lego for music players. It’s built with bricks (referred to as panels and components interchangeably, in layman’s terms) and you’re free to arrange the bricks however you please. But this also brings a challenge because an empty canvas is overwhelming. We’ve already talked about the best ways to build a UI suitable to your needs in the linked article above, so today let’s focus on adding functionality and components. How To Install Components (Plugins) All the supported components are listed but you’re free to download it from anywhere.
Once downloaded, to a destination you remember Open Foobar2000, go to Library - Configure and select Components from the left menu. Ninja batman online. You can either select the Install button and browse to the location of the downloaded file or just drag and drop the file to the components list. Select Apply to install the components, you should know that it will require restarting the app.
How To Configure Plugins In The Default Interface So you downloaded some plugins to and other stuff. How do you add them to the UI? Let me show you. Go to View - Layout and click Enable Layout Mode. This means you’re now free to move the Lego bricks around. Now go to any panel you want to switch out or add stuff to, and right-click on it.
Click on Replace UI Element and you’ll get a list of app level functions and at the end will be your downloaded components under the Utility banner. Select the one you want, click OK and the panel will be replaced. If don’t want to replace it, select Splitter from the list. It will split the panel into half and give you a blank panel.
From there right-click and add a new component just like you did above. The Best Plugins For Foobar2000 1. Columns UI The first recommended plugin for any Foobar2000 beginner is the one that brings a different take on the UI. Heavy metal midi files download. Takes a columnar approach to the layout and makes it much easier to swap out or add new components.
After you’ve installed the plugin, go to Layout and select Live Editing. Now right-click on any component and you get options to switch out panels, add separators and new components directly in this menu, as you can see in the screenshot below. It’s much easier this way. Lyrics Show Panel No power user’s music player is complete without a lyrics plugin and is the best option for Foobar2000. Audioscrobbler Use and discover new music? For Foobar2000.
Graphic Equalizer Every sound system can use a bit of customization, especially the computer speakers. Get the audio output just the way to want with.
Podcatcher is an easy way to download and listen to the latest episodes from. You’ll have to input the RSS feed manually but once you’ve done that, you’re all set. Discogs Tagger The last thing you want in a superbly customized music player is songs without proper metadata. Uses the website’s generous repository of song metadata to bring your song collection up to date with data and album art. Playlist Organizer Organize your playlists in a branched tree fashion (like folders) for easy navigation with. Your Foobar2000 What does your Foobar2000 look like? Out of this world?
Show us in the comments below.
Foobar2000 is an extremely customizable and lightweight media player. You can customize it in any way you want. It can be far more powerful than iTunes, Winamp and MediaMonkey if you know how to use it. The problem is that it is fucking difficult to learn how to use. The learning curve is pretty much like a brick wall.
This thread will hopefully introduce you to many of the basics. They best way to explain foobar's possibilities is with a demonstration of my own foobar set up. Take a look: Warning Foobar is not easy to use. It is unlike other media players that will work out the box. It will take some learning. This tutorial will take 20 minutes+ to complete, think of it as a cool project.
The pay-off however is worth it; you will soon learn how awesome foobar actually is! THE BASICS STAGE 1 INTRODUCTION. Step 1: Download foobar: Go to. I am using v1.1.6. Step 2: Install foobar: Make sure you check standard rather than portable instillation and that all the optional features are selected (some are unselected by default).
Step 3: Open foobar. A 'Quick Appearance Setup' window will open, select 'Album List + Properties'. This is a very basic layout. Step 4: Importing your music: Click, FilePreferencesMedia LibraryAdd, then select your media folder. It may take a few minutes for all the files to be added (depends how much music you have). Once it has finished you should be left with something looking like this: Over the next few stages you will learn how to customize things how you like and how to make the most of the software's awesome features.
STAGE 2 CREATING A LAYOUT - THE HARD PART Foobar comes with its own set up customization tools. These are fine, although they are a little basic and many find them quite complicated to use. Nowadays most foobar uses opt instead to use a different customization system known a Columns UI. This system is far simpler to understand and has much greater support.
We will be using Columns UI today. Installing Columns UI. Step 1: ColumnsUI is a foobar component (you will hear more about these later).
Download the component here:. I am using v0.3.8.8. Step 2: Unrar and save 'foouicolumns.dll' anywhere on your PC (saving to desktop is easiest). Step 3: In foobar open Preferences (hint: press Ctrl-P), click ComponentsInstall, then find and select 'foouicolumns.dll'. Press Apply and then Restart.
Step 4: When foobar reopens select Columns UI from the list that appears. Step 5: When asked if you want to choose a premade layout click Cancel. Learning how to make your own is important. I don't want to make things too easy. Step 6: Open Preferences (Ctrl-P), click Columns UI. Step 7: Under the tab 'Main', unselect 'Show Toolbars'. Under the 'Status Bar' tab unselect 'Show Status Pane'.
Your foobar should now look something like this: Creating a layout After each of the following steps make sure you observe the changes taking place (and click Apply if possible). Columns UI creates a layout by using horizontal and vertical splitters to divide up the window and then allows you to add panels (ie.
Playlists, filters, artwork so on) within each section you create. Step 8: Select the 'Layout' tab. Click 'New', and title the layout what ever you like. Step 9: You will find within the 'Layout' tab a box containing the words NG Playlist.
It is within the box that we will create our layout. Step 10: Right click 'NG Playlist' and select 'Change Base'. From the menu select 'Vertical Splitter'. Step 11: Right click on 'Vertical Splitter' and select 'Insert Panel'. From the menu select 'Horizontal Splitter'. Do this three times to add three 'Horizontal Splitters' under the 'Vertical Splitter'. Step 12: Right click on the first 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert 'Buttons', then 'Volume', then a 'Seekbar'.
Step 13: Right click on the second 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert three 'Filters'. Step 14: Right click on the third 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert an 'NG Playlist'. Step 15: Individually select each panel and splitter and ensure the box 'Show Caption' is unticked. You have created a basic foobar layout. Your layout settings should look like this: And foobar should look like this: EXPERIMENT!
Take some time and mess around with the settings. See if you can make your own layouts. If you are still having trouble then skip to the section below titled 'Layout Examples and Advice'. Try some of those out. Understanding how this works is by far the hardest part configuring foobar. See what you can make then move on to the next section. You have done well to come this far!!
It gets more fun from here:D STAGE 3 COMPONENTS This is where it gets really cool. Out the box foobar is a very basic media player. Components are basically add ons that can add new functions to the player. There are some very cool components out there.
Some components act as new panels that can be added using Columns UI, whilst others add more general functions. You install components in the same way we installed Columns UI - through the PreferencesComponents. I will list some of my favourite components, what they do and links to download. Quick Search Toolbar - fooquicksearch - This basically search box that can be added as a panel allowing you to search your library.
Ipod Manager - foodop - This allows you to sync foobar with your ipod/iphone/ipad. Lyrics Grabber - foouielyrics2 - This will automatically pull lyrics down from the internet and display them in a panel as you play your music. Biography Grabber - foouiebiography - This will automatically pull down the artists biography from last.fm and display it in a panel. Discogs Tagger - foodiscogs - This allows pulls down song and album tags from the internet. I find this very useful. Once installed right click on the songs you want to tag and select TaggingDiscogs. More on this later.
Windows 7 Shell Integration - foow7shell - Click the link for details. This adds a cool effect when you hover over foobar in the W7 taskbar. Audioscrobbler - fooaudioscrobbler - Adds your plays to your Last.fm.
Goto PreferencesToolsAudioscrobbler to set it up once installed. Waveform Seekbar - foowaveseek - This is the seekbar I use (see my setup at the top of this post). It looks good and is pretty useful as well. EXPERIMENT - See what you like and try things out. There are literally thousands of Components available.
These are just some of my favourites. A great source for Components is this link here: EXTRAS LAYOUT EXAMPLES AND ADVICE If you are having trouble with making a layout then give one of these examples a go.
None of these examples use any components and are still rather basic. Try and understand what is happening as you put these together. General Guidance Remember that splitters divide the window. The higher something is on the layout list the further to the left/or to the top of the screen it will be depending on the splitter that that is dividing it. MESS AROUND WITH THESE LAYOUTS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!
Long Columns Layout. Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this:. Step 2: To change the filter types right click on the filter headers (ie. Album, artist, genre) and select the filters you want from the drop down list.
When complete it should look something like this: Itunes Layout. Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this:. Step 2: Goto Columns UI Playlist View. Tick the box 'Display Artwork In Groups'. When complete it should look something like this: Mr Lex's Custom Spectacular. Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this:.
Step 2: As shown in the above image, click on the final Horizontal Splitter and choose to rename it 'Filters'. Step 3: To change the filter types right click on the filter headers (ie. Album, artist, genre) and select the filters you want from the drop down list. When complete it should look something like this: If you are still having trouble then ask in the comments and perhaps I or someone else can help you out. HELPFUL LINKS Foobar is great because of the community that uses it.
Foobar2000 Custom Columns
Never feel shy asking for help, even the most advanced users are learning and putting together new stuff by constantly asking for help and working with others. Here are some useful links to get you started: Official Forums Components Lists I originally made this guide for another forum I used to visit. I myself am still a beginner really and I am sure there are many mistakes in this guide. Hopefully it can help some people get over that first hurdle though and start using this awesome media player! If people have any other questions feel free to ask. Hopefully we can use the comments as a general help topic for beginners.
Foobar2000 Ui Hacks
I am sure there will be lots more experienced people out there who will tell you otherwise but as far as I can tell the recent changes have been pretty small (not something a beginner or even the average user is going to notice). Like you say 1.2 may be the most stable version but there is a 1.2.1 beta some people may be using. I just realised my guide says 1.6.1 but that is only because I wrote the guide about a year ago (only just posted it on Reddit though). If I were you just go for 1.2 the guide will all still make sense.