Auto-Playlists

What sets SnackAmp apart from most music players and playlist managers is its ease of use. If you have hundreds to thousands of music files, and get tired of managing individual playlists or organizing files by genre, the auto-playlist feature is for you. You use the auto-playlist manger to organize your files within a directory structure in you media library as you see fit - typically music type, artist, then album. You can then select individual folders (or folder trees) and save those settings under a name. Applying that auo-playlist will create a playlist with all of the files sorted per the sorting option in effect.

Launching the Auto-Playlist GUI

The Auto-playlist manager is launched (or closed) by toggling the button on the main user interface, or selecting the Auto-Playlists/Manage Auto-Playlists menu selection.

Creating Auto-playlists

The Auto-playlist directory tree has checkboxes next to each directory. You may check each box to enable that folder for auto-playlist inclusion. You may also set an entire folder from the pop-up menu or Ctrl/Alt-S key combination. After you have the desired folders checked, save this as a new auto-playlist file. You can also apply it send tracks contained in any of the selected folders to the active play list. You can then use the sort/shuffle feature to play in the order you choose. Different Auto-playlist files are retrieved form the Auto-Playlists menu pulldowns. Below is the Auto-playlist manager.

With the Auto-playlist feature, you can save settings that reflect your musical preference rather than specific songs. For instance Classical, Hard Rock, Dance, Relaxation would all be appropriate names.  Each file you save will show up in the Auto-playlists menu to allow you to apply it easily.

Setting Auto-playlists

Each Auto-playlist you save can be applied from either the SnackAmp or Auto-Playlist GUI using the AutoPlaylist menus. If you have the Play Settings -> Save Playlist when changing Auto-Playlists settings on, a regular playlist will be saved containing the current playlist using the base Auto-Playlist name. This allows you to switch between different Auto-Playlists and still have the ability to recall a prior playlist.

Finding Files

At the top of the Auto Playlist window you will find a search entry box. You may search for folders by entering some of the text and pressing Enter or selecting the Search icon. If you hit Ctrl-Enter or the Search File icon, you will locate the next matching file instead. You may also use the search icons to the left of the search entry box.

Filtering Files

You may enter text into the filter entry box (next to the find entry box) and select the filter icon. This will restrict displayed files to those that contain the text you entered.

Showing Multiple Levels

At the top of the GUI you can select the number of subfolders to use to display tracks, . This allows you to view an entire directory tree of tracks, say for instance of an entire Artist. The ID3 Tag functions that can be applied to nodes will also apply subfolders down to the level you have selected.

Table Cell Editing

Selecting the Cell Editing icon allows you to edit many of the track attributes (ID3 tags, file name, gain) in-place, like a spreadsheet. Pressing Escape while editing a cell will lose the current changes but stay in cell editing mode. Pressing Enter will commit any changes to disk. You can hit Escape twice, or press the icon again to exit the cell editing mode.

Folder History

At the top of Auto Playlist selecting the History menu (or down arrow) will show a history of the recently visited folders. You also have navigation buttons to go through the history list. These are useful when you are moving files around.

Tree Mouse Shortcuts