Feature request - bookmarking.. reappear repeating A to B

[Wishvam]

I use to hear specific  time interval in a long sound track... Bookmarking and repeat between those bookmarks helps a lot.

[maxmp]

Bookmarks are there (see List Options in Library header menu). Thanks!

[andrewilley]

I think the request was for dual bookmarking, and repeat between the two positions - aka 'A-B Repeat'.

Andre

[haddy]

Please Max and Andre. I would happily pay for AB repeat support (incl AB to Playlists).

https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/462-a-b-repeat-feature/
https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/11352-feature-requests-a-b-repeat/

[maxmp]

Thanks for the request! This is in the backlog and I will raise priority of the item.

[andrewilley]

Thanks Max, I think A-B Repeat is one of those relatively minor requests that keeps sliding down the list as other things take priority. I suspect it dates back about 10 years.

By the way, when you do implement it, could you maybe also implement my own earlier requests for a change to the wording of the 'Repeat' icon modes, to make it easier for both new and existing users to understand - especially because 'Advance Category' still seems to confuse people when all it really means is 'Play All'. What I was asking for was something simple, logical, and elegant like:

     Play One Song | Play Category | Play All | Repeat Song | Repeat Category | Repeat All | A-B Repeat

Nothing much to change in terms of functionality really, just the wording.

 

Andre

[haddy]

11 hours ago, andrewilley said:

Thanks Max, I think A-B Repeat is one of those relatively minor requests that keeps sliding down the list as other things take priority. I suspect it dates back about 10 years.

A slight cheeky correction there...10 years and 1 month haha 😄

Thanks Max, finally you've acknowledged this request and us users should hopefully get this feature in a nearby release.

Please Max keep in mind Playlist support for A-B as explained in page 3 of this topic link: https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/462-a-b-repeat-feature/page/3/

The reason for Playlist support is for the maximum convenience of preserving a users desired A-B selection. This helps with long podcasts or downloaded mp3 radio mixes / mixtapes.

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Dare I say that I now also feel that the Cross-fade support (as a Settings option for A-B) would be really nice for A-B too which would help 'smoother' the abrupt endless start and end points of the A-B. It would be as simple as using Poweramp's existing Cross-fade mechanism which I think is excellent.

---------------------------

Andre, as a suggestion - once A-B gets implemented perhaps you can merge all posts under a single topic (my topic link above). This ia just a suggestion.

 

[andrewilley]

@haddy I agree that an extra option in the Crossfade/Fade/Gapless menu would be a good idea. Alongside "Fade Play/Pause/Stop" and "Fade on Seek" it would be useful to have "Fade on A/B Repeat" available. Or at the very least have A-B Repeat follow the same selection as for automatic track changes.

Regarding your extra suggestions in https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/462-a-b-repeat-feature/page/3/:

Saving A-B Repeats in the database sounds like a good idea - effectively rather like automatic bookmarks. Take for example an album track like Meatloaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", which commences with 30 seconds of motorbike starting/revving-up sounds. It might be nice to save that 30-second point as the position at which you would always like to start listening to that track in order to go straight to the music itself. I would envisage having an extra option in the song's pop-up context menu for "Save A-B Positions" which would only show up once you had created a start 'A' (and optionally end, 'B') position in the new A-B system. And if such positions have been saved, the menu option for that track should subsequently show as "Remove saved A-B positions".

I don't see much point in making A-B repeat sections for Playlists though, just create a new playlist with the required subset of tracks. Quick selection of ranges in long lists (requested elsewhere) would help with that idea.

Andre

[haddy]

  

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

@haddy I agree that an extra option in the Crossfade/Fade/Gapless menu would be a good idea. Alongside "Fade Play/Pause/Stop" and "Fade on Seek" it would be useful to have "Fade on A/B Repeat" available. Or at the very least have A-B Repeat follow the same selection as for automatic track changes.

Yes precisely  😀😄 and all under this same option window.

Just a single checkbox in the same Crossfade/Fade/Gapless menu named as "Apply all selected to A-B selections". If checkbox is enabled it would then allow all of your chosen fading, crossfading etc to be applied to the A-B. An experimental feature at first.

 

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

@haddy

Regarding your suggestions in https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/462-a-b-repeat-feature/page/3/Take for example an album track like Meatloaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", which commences with 30 seconds of motorbike starting/revving-up sounds. It might be nice to save the 30-second point as the position at which you would always like to start that track in order to go straight to the music itself. I would envisage having an extra option in the song's pop-up context menu for "Save A-B positions" which would only show up once you had created a start 'A' (and optionally end, 'B') position in the new A-B system. And if positions have been saved, the menu option for that track should show as "Remove saved A-B positions".

I don't see much point in making A-B repeat sections for Playlists though, just create a new playlist with the required subset of tracks.

Andre

Yes the Meatloaf example is great one. Additionally "Pale Shelter" (long version) by Tears for Fears, has a long 21 second intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F7XxC0GqqU 

- This is also where A-B would be a great use-case scenario. Many 90s Hip Hop tracks have long gratuitous song intros before the main song kicks in. Yes true, people could say "well, why don't you trim the song to your liking in Audacity" or "just source a shortened version of that same song". For this, it's just about on-the-fly time convenience and avoiding fiddly editing on a PC, it's about keeping that same 'long version' audio file on your device while creating an A-B point on the fly for quick listening.

I didn't before think of A-B being used in the fashion of an image "crop" tool. Thank you Andre

 

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

@haddy

I don't see much point in making A-B repeat sections for Playlists though, just create a new playlist with the required subset of tracks.

Andre

No, no sir. I mean the simple ability to Add to Playlist during playing the A-B. Instead of the full song being added to a chosen playlist, the A-B looped segment only of that song would be added to playlist. This is what I mean by Playlist support.

Very doable and would allow a way for users to preserve/save their chosen A-B without having to alter the original audio file.

[andrewilley]

Another in-position example would be The Carpenters "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", where the full version of the song commences with a 52-second 'radio station chat show' phone call segment.
 

16 minutes ago, haddy said:

I mean the simple ability to Add to Playlist during playing the A-B. Instead of the full song being added to a chosen playlist, the A-B looped segment only of that song would be added to playlist. This is what I mean by Playlist support.

Ah, I see what you mean, yes that would make sense. So if you had an A-B Repeat enabled, and then you use the contextual pop-up "+ Playlist" feature, the start and finish offsets for that song should be saved along with the Playlist - but without having to apply the change to the original track itself (so you can still listen to it in full in album mode). There are existing M3U extensions which already support that sort of thing anyway, such #EXT-X-START:TIME-OFFSET, so I guess it ought to be easy enough to implement in a compatible way.

Andre 

[haddy]

  

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

Another in-position example would be The Carpenters "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", where the full version of the song commences with a 52-second 'radio station chat show' phone call segment.

There are literally tons examples out there of Album songs that do this. All in the spirits of build up momentum and overall artistic creativity.

For my personal listening habits it depends on my mood. If playing Poweramp through a loudspeaker to group of friends at a dinner party then long intros are fine. If I'm doing a personal fitness exercise with headphones then I'm more likely to desire to go straight to the main song, therefor A-B and multiple saved A-B would be great for that.

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

Ah, I see what you mean, yes that would make sense. So if you had an A-B Repeat enabled, and then you use the contextual pop-up "+ Playlist" feature, the start and finish offsets for that song should be saved along with the Playlist - but without having to apply the change to the original track itself (so you can still listen to it in full in album mode). There are existing M3U extensions which already support that sort of thing anyway, such #EXT-X-START:TIME-OFFSET, so I guess it ought to be easy enough to implement in a compatible way.

Andre 

Yes precisely

[haddy]

Additionally alongside Playlist support, A-B could also have some involvement with the Bookmarks list option. So saved A-B could also show up in Bookmarks. Just a thought.

[AB Guy]

This is my absolute number 1 feature request for PA. We've been waiting so many years..

But what I would like to shine a light on is the gapless aspect of it. 

When, if ever, A-B repeat gets implemented, please by all means make it gapless so creating  perfect music loops becomes possible.

My old Sony DAP (prior to their Android shift), implemented gapless AB repeat almost 2 decades ago.. it was a real pleasure:

Press button -> Set A, Press button -> set B, Press button -> Cancel

I miss that feature very much.

Thank you for considering.

[haddy]

Max, said on this thread 2 years ago (in 2021) that he would raise priority.

The Bookmarks feature is already there which marks a Point A, therefore A-B support should be very straightforward to code up since all it would be doing is allowing the user to mark a Point B.

Neutron player (copycat of Poweramp) and video player apps such as MX Player and VLC all have A-B Repeat from years ago.

 

Another important feature request attachment to A-B Repeat would be the ability to save each A-B selection, save it to either Bookmarks or custom playlist.

 

Perhaps each A-B saved could have it's custom EQ and custom Tempo saved along with it. This would be ideal.

 

As Andre said above with The Carpenters example, songs with lengthy 'creative' intros before the actual song starts OR music that are part of long 2+ hour radio mixes are just some of the justifications for A-B repeat feature.

 

It could even be added right now, today, as an experimental feature.

 

I think Max has secret hatred of A-B?? I hope not.

[MotleyG]

10 hours ago, haddy said:

Neutron player (copycat of Poweramp)

A bit of a stretch for an app that has hardly any UI resemblance to Poweramp. But it does do hi-res better.