Giocoso Version 3.30 Released - Welcome to Pro!

Posted on 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. [...] 

Continue Reading

Listening Room complete, at last!

Posted on by hjr

It's been almost two years since we moved into our Lincolnshire home. It was intended to be a 'move in and don't spend anything' kind of place, but before four months were out, we'd added solar panels to the main roof. Another three months and we'd fitted a new, insulated roof to the sunroom/conservatory. At the start of the second year, we replaced the floors in the kitchen, sunroom, laundry and boot room. After that came floor replacement in the second study and repainting of every room in the house. So, it ended up not being the 'move-in-ready' kind of place we'd hoped for!

My listening room was next, but it's been a long haul! There was a fireplace which had to be removed and total re-plastering of the wall where it had once been, together with embedding power and speaker cables in the brickwork. I wanted a panel of vertical wooden slats for no particular reason I can remember or think of: I'm told they are currently fashionable, but I wouldn't know and I asked for them two years ago! That panel went in just before Christmas, after which ...crickets! The English workman likes his New Year break and after that their diary was full, so they couldn't squeeze us in to replace the floors until this past week. The week thus began with me moving all my books out for the umpteenth time, all my glass, all my comfy seats... and my computers. Which means I've been offline since Tuesday, kicking my heels: it turns out that a laptop doesn't really replace a desktop PC you're comfortable with 🙂 [...] 

Continue Reading

Delay :-(

Posted on 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. [...] 

Continue Reading

Progress Report & Merch!

Posted on 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: [...] 

Continue Reading

Pre-announcing Giocoso Pro

Posted on 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! [...] 

Continue Reading

Giocoso Version 3.20 Released

Posted on 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. [...] 

Continue Reading

News from Nowhere

Posted on by hjr

We bought our current house in April/May 2023. It's been a slow slog since then: solar panels, new roof on the conservatory, new flooring throughout. One room remains to be tackled downstairs (upstairs gets dealt with next March!): the music listening room, otherwise known as the Holy of Holies, my Utopia, and Sanctuary!!

This week the plasterer was due, and then cancelled, and is now due next week (typical Lincolnshire, really). Which meant the listening equipment was removed from the room, then moved back, though not necessarily to the same places from whence they had come 🙂 Hopefully, next week (sometime) will be the charm... [...] 

Continue Reading

Giocoso Changes Afoot...

Posted on 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. [...] 

Continue Reading

Happy Benjamin Britten Day ...in advance!

Posted on by hjr

It being the 22nd November tomorrow, I would usually spend all day listening to nothing but the music of Benjamin Britten, who was born on that day in 1913. It's something of an annual tradition in these parts, faithfully observed since at least 2007.

Unfortunately, family matters have intervened this year and instead of sitting down and enjoying the delights of Paul Bunyan, Peter Grimes or the Cello Symphony, I shall instead be driving towards the nearest airport and picking up a relative for a couple of days of home cooking and more alcohol than is probably good for you. Which isn't, of course, unfortunate in the least ...but does rather mean Britten has, for once, to go on the back-burner this year. No doubt I will squeeze in as much of his music as I can next week. And there is always December 4th, for example, which is the anniversary of his death. [...] 

Continue Reading

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

Posted on 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 [...] 

Continue Reading