How to automatically populate/replace queue when selecting/tapping a song?

[ObjectiveExpression]

TL;DR

First of all, although my account is created almost a year ago, I'm very new to using the app , and I must say no other app excels at functional gapless playing and minute calibrations of audio.

However, there's an issue I'm having: queues and "now playing". The app's behavior regarding this is very different from all other music players I've encountered, including Windows and Android. From here on out, let's refer to folders, albums, artist, playlist, etc as song groups.

 

Please consider the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: Queue is empty

Action: play any 1 song/tap play button in a song group

Expected result: queue is populated with the song group, and the now playing song is the one selected from the action.

Actual result: the now playing song is the selected, but the queue remains empty?!

 

Scenario 2: Queue not empty

Action: play any 1 song/tap play button in a song group

Expected result: replace (meaning clear, then add) queue with the song group, and the now playing song is the one selected from the action.

Actual result: the now playing song is the selected, but the queue remains (e.g. previously playing 2/10, now 0/10)?!

 

Scenario 3: Clearing queue (of course queue is not empty)

Precondition:

-When queue is empty, play a song/tap play button in a song group. Let's call this group 1.

-Then "start a queue" by tapping "Queue" in a song group. Queue is now being played.

Action: Go to library → Queue → Clear queue

Expected result: Queue is cleared, there is no song in "now playing"

Actual result: Queue is cleared, but group 1 resumes playing?!

 

For me, this is a bug in a music player, especially if there isn't any setting you can tweak that can fix the said issues.

 

Example of said players: (just installed most of these just now)

1. Windows Media Player

2. Groove Music

3. Winamp

4. Google Play Music

5. Spotify (I didn't find any "clear queue/now playing" action though)

6. Samsung Music Player

7. Shuttle+

8. BlackPlayer EX

9. Retro Music Player

10. Musixmatch

 

Please do tell if I need to provide anymore names of other music players (as I'm sure there is a lot, if not all) aside from the mentioned list, if these 10 players are not enough.

I'm just curious why is this the design? That is, this behavior is very different from every other music player.

I hope you can help me out on my issues with the app and what setting should fix this bugs. Thank you.

 

Summary:

1. Queue should not be different from "now playing".

2. Playing a song/group should replace the queue, unless deliberately adding to queue which will then append it.

3. When clearing queue, there should of course be no more songs playing, hence the word clear.

 

App version: v3-build-830-play

[blaubär]

59 minutes ago, ObjectiveExpression said:

Queue should not be different from "now playing".

Well, it IS different. See the following tutorial :

 

[andrewilley]

4 hours ago, ObjectiveExpression said:

However, there's an issue I'm having: queues and "now playing". The app's behavior regarding this is very different from all other music players I've encountered, including Windows and Android.

Correct, you need to understand how Poweramp's Queue works. It is NOT designed to be a normal playback mode (such as Albums, Artists, Folders, etc) but instead it is designed to temporarily pause regular playback to allow you to listen to a song (or songs) of your choice before returning you to normal playback afterwards.

Andre

[ObjectiveExpression]

Is there a setting to change this behavior? I only need 2 of what the app does different from all other players:

1. Auto populate/replace the queue with the song/group that was selected, which is again the default of all other players.

2. Whenever the queue is cleared, stop playing songs - ANY songs, that's why it's called clear

 

It's good that Poweramp let's you pause regular playback or whatever (I think there should be only 1 playback, it's so confusing), but I think it's not good to be imposed on a behavior that you don't like. At least a setting of these 2 above would be great, when you will consider the words all other players. So that users will at least have an option, instead of something like this that has been changed from the default, meaning again, the behavior of all other players.

[blaubär]

2 hours ago, ObjectiveExpression said:

Is there a setting to change this behavior? I only need 2 of what the app does different from all other players:

1. Auto populate/replace the queue with the song/group that was selected, which is again the default of all other players.

2. Whenever the queue is cleared, stop playing songs - ANY songs, that's why it's called clear

 

It's good that Poweramp let's you pause regular playback or whatever (I think there should be only 1 playback, it's so confusing), but I think it's not good to be imposed on a behavior that you don't like. At least a setting of these 2 above would be great, when you will consider the words all other players. So that users will at least have an option, instead of something like this that has been changed from the default, meaning again, the behavior of all other players.

The Poweramp "Queue" is NOT the queue that you are used to. It is something different. The queue that you want to access isn't accessible to the Poweramp user, if it exists at all.

Did you read the manual mentioned above ?

[andrewilley]

4 hours ago, blaubär said:

The Poweramp "Queue" is NOT the queue that you are used to

Agreed, the PA Queue is not meant for regular playback, it there there to enqueue a few specific songs that you want to listen to away from your normal playback. 'Normal' playback categories in this case would be listening to an Album, on an Artist, or a Folder - or for user-defined sequences, a Playlist. That is how Poweramp is designed to work; other players may work differently of course, and that's their prerogative too.

You can however adjust some of the Queue's behaviour in Settings > Library > Queue. One option that might prove useful here is the 'On Queue End' feature, which can be set to stop/repeat the current Queue rather than automatically returning to the previous (regular) playback category. Whether PA then repeats the same Queue or just stops completely at the end is then controlled by how you set the Repeat mode icon in the main player screen. That option would also have the effect of stopping playback (after the current track) if you clear the Queue completely, as PA will handle that as a queue-end scenario.

Andre

[ObjectiveExpression]

I see, "On queue end" is really helpful in one of my issues. This has been very informative thank you very much.

I guess we just have to put up with this unique PA behavior. Thank you all for your input.

[andrewilley]

16 hours ago, ObjectiveExpression said:

I guess we just have to put up with this unique PA behavior. 

Or embrace it, it's a very powerful feature if you use it right. You just need to remember that it is designed to be a temporary interruption to your normal listening, not your regular playback mode.

Andre

[w3wilkes]

Using the "Normal" PA method of playing music how would you select 3 or 4 albums to play in sequence for a road trip and then at a rest stop decide you want to add 2 more albums to play when the current 3 or 4 are done?

[andrewilley]

5 hours ago, w3wilkes said:

Using the "Normal" PA method of playing music how would you select 3 or 4 albums to play in sequence for a road trip and then at a rest stop decide you want to add 2 more albums to play when the current 3 or 4 are done?

As these are one-off playback requirements, I'd just add all of the tracks from the albums to the Queue (long-press on each album title in turn and tap "+ Queue") and just let them all play. Then at the rest stop, add the 2 extra albums to the Queue in the same way (the tracks will be added at the end, so they will play after the currently queued items are finished). You can remove or re-order the tracks after adding if you wish.

If you want that sequence of songs to be more permanent and available again in the future, add them to a Playlist instead.

Andre