Software – Absolutely Baching

Semplice Version 2.09 Released

Posted on 2nd April 2025 by hjr

Somewhat delayed from the original plans, but I've just released Semplice Version 2.09 to production. You can upgrade to it in the usual manner: the Miscellaneous menu, Option 3 will walk you through the process. Fresh installations can also be performed in the standard way: wget doco.absolutelybaching.com/seminst and then bash seminst.

The new release contains a number of visual and work-flow enhancements, all very helpfully suggested by reader/user Scott, which were much appreciated. The changelog has the full details, as usual: perhaps the key one is that when converting between audio formats, Semplice now only shows you 'from' formats that physically exist within your current working folder, so you can't accidentally select to convert from a format that you don't possess. Another little enhancement makes the auto-tagging process clearer as to what it's doing at various points and what modified data gets saved or lost when you click 'Cancel' half-way through the process. [...]

Volume Boosting in Bulk

Posted on 12th March 2025 by hjr

My attention has recently been turning to Niente, which hasn't had a new release in something like 5 months. I'm planning a new release for it at the start of April, though there are a few new floors being fitted throughout the house in the meantime, so that schedule might slip!

Anyway: I couldn't but help notice the more than 3000 folders of music in my collection that Niente thought could do with a volume boost. Since I've only got about 17,000 recordings in total, that's quite a sizeable chunk that is, in some way, less than ideal. It arises from the fact that I was ripping CDs in 1999 and only got round to writing volume-boosting technology into Semplice in around 2019! Short of going to each sub-volume-boosted folder, one by one, and running Semplice there to apply a retroactive volume boost, this wasn't going to be fixed any time soon: thirty or forty would have been fine; three thousand or more, less so! [...]

Giocoso Version 3.30 Released - Welcome to Pro!

Posted on 7th March 20257th March 2025 by hjr

After a bit of a delay, but slightly ahead of the previously-advised revised schedule, I've today released Giocoso Version 3.30. The changelog, as usual, details all the fixes and enhancements and changes that have gone into the new release.

The short version is, however: Giocoso Pro. This is Giocoso's new-found ability to communicate with a remote database and thereby share its play history with other devices. That also allows one device to make a note about a recording and an entirely different device to read that note later (a feature called 'Global Notes'). There's also 'Global Pause', which allows one device to pause playback and another device to resume it: a feature I find incredibly handy when I listen to music at night on the laptop then want to resume it in the main listening room the next morning. Less obvious, but equally as significant: the default music search algorithm underwent a significant re-write, making it more efficient, but potentially leading to new outcomes that would have been impossible in earlier releases. [...]

Semplice Version 2.08 Released

Posted on 4th March 20254th March 2025 by hjr

As promised, Version 2.08 of Semplice has just been released. It is a relatively minor release, containing a few bug fixes, some minor enhancements and the ability to work with AIFF audio files. The Changelog has the details, as usual.

These improvements were made possible by a huge amount of input and bug-hunting on the part of one of my readers: thank you, again, Scott! [...]

Delay :-(

Posted on 23rd February 202524th February 2025 by hjr

I'm sad to report that the release of Giocoso 3.30 is on-hold for a few more days and the hoped-for release date of 27th February will be missed. It's mostly pointless to propose another date at this stage, since it depends on my floor getting done and walls re-painted, so it's in the hands of others, not me. But I'd guess I will be able to release no later than 10th March. We'll see, anyway.

The issues triggering the delay are not serious: it's really just a late round of testing that has revealed the need for a little more 'polish' and a decision by me to rebuild my virtual server farm onto new hardware in order to do that testing ...and rebuilding virtual machines for all the distros I need handy takes a lot of time. [...]

Progress Report & Merch!

Posted on 16th February 202517th February 2025 by hjr

Anyone wanting a Giocoso-themed coffeee/tea cup is now welcome to get one. Every mug purchase made by clicking that link yields me a £1 commission, which helps pay this web server's electricity bills! It's just a bit of fun, really; but if enough people asked, I can get organised to do t-shirts, too. The mug is a typical size, fits in the hand nicely and has the new Giocoso logo all over it! It's been tested in the microwave and dishwasher, so it's pretty robust. Make of it what you will, anyway!

Perhaps more importantly, Giocoso 3.30 itself moves ever-closer to release. In particular: [...]

Pre-announcing Giocoso Pro

Posted on 27th January 2025 by hjr

I'm going to be releasing a new version of Giocoso soon(ish): sometime in February 2025, I think. The new version will be yet another 'version number leap' ahead of its predecessor. From Version 3.20 we will be jumping straight to Version 3.30 ...and I don't do version number leaps without a good reason!

The good reason this time is the introduction of Giocoso Pro, which is not a separate product, nor something you have to pay for. It's simply the new ability of Giocoso to use a remote database to work out what to play next and to record details about what it has played. I've called it 'pro' only because doing remote database connections requires the installation, configuration and use of a 'proper' relational database: in this case, MySQL (or MariaDB: the two names essentially describe much the same product), and 'doing' proper relational database work can be ...er, tricky! [...]

Giocoso Version 3.20 Released

Posted on 10th December 202410th December 2024 by hjr

Today, a few days earlier than planned, I'm releasing Version 3.20 of Giocoso. It's a very significant release and the version number has therefore jumped from 3.1x to 3.2x (specifically, from 3.12 to 3.20), as previously explained.

The two (relatively!) huge changes that have occurred are: 1) Ability to control a play (pause, resume, terminate, repeat etc) from within the playing Giocoso session's main play screen; and 2) Accurate timing information is now displayed (i.e., 'played X minutes of a piece that lasts Y minutes, therefore ending at Z clock time'). These were canvassed in some detail in an earlier blog piece. [...]

Giocoso Changes Afoot...

Posted on 27th November 20241st December 2024 by hjr

Note: I've updated this post since originally written. The next release of Giocoso was due to be 3.13. I've subsequently decided to make it 3.20. I've therefore mentioned that version number in the update.

Giocoso Version 3.20 promises to be a really big version bump (so big, in fact, that I was thinking of calling it Version 4.0, but ultimately decided against it). It is currently scheduled for release in mid-December (after I've dog-fooded it for another few weeks). For anyone interested, the list of changes that are in the pipeline for the next release of Giocoso is visible in the program's changelog. [...]

Behold! I tell you a mystery... Adventures with ffmpeg

Posted on 20th November 2024 by hjr

The tool which my Giocoso classical music player uses to actually produce audio output is called ffmpeg, a command line audio and video de-coder and player. It is something of a truism to say that it is an absolute nightmare to use! It's command structure is truly ghastly, with a typical example looking like this:

ffmpeg -i example.mp4 -i LM_logo.png -filter_complex "[1:v] scale=150:-1 [ol], [0:v] [ol] overlay=W-w-10:H-h-10" -codec:a copy example_marked.mp4 [...]

Giocoso Version 3.12 Released

Posted on 11th November 202411th November 2024 by hjr

Today, I've released Giocoso Version 3.12. It is a major release, with full details available in the Changelog, as usual.

The most significant changes have occurred with Mgiocoso, the subsidiary 'control panel' application that is used to pause/resume/terminate/etc other Giocoso sessions. It's had a complete makeover as far as aesthetics and functionality goes. [...]

New PC, New Semplice Bug, New Semplice Version!

Posted on 1st November 20241st November 2024 by hjr

Three days ago, I treated myself to a new PC (a Beelink SER 5, using an AMD Ryzen CPU that's a lot more modern than the 2017-vintage i7 I was using before). I took the opportunity to install a fresh copy of EndeavourOS, an Arch derivative that I've used before and which tends to ship with a lot more up-to-date software than my previous distro, Debian 12. It's all working extremely well and is pretty much silent, which is essential given its location within my music listening room (though I do need to get a quieter keyboard: a previous choice for a mechanical keyboard with Cherry Blue switches means mine currently sounds like a thousand typists are at work!)

Anyway, the point is that everything I need to work worked well ...until I tried to tag up a new CD rip using my own Semplice program. The tagging bit itself was fine, but trying to embed album art within the FLACs produced this weird error: [...]