Foobar2000 for the TangoDJ
About Foobar2000
Foobar2000 is a lightweight audio player that is excellent for the tangodj on Windows. Free as in beer and quite usable out of the box, the possibilities for customizations are endless.
Prelistening
For prelistening, install two instances of the player, and configure one for each sound device. If the sound from the internal sound card is good (which is often the case with recent laptops), you can use a usb headset, which is cheaper than buying an extra soundcard. If the internal soundcard is not good enough, buy an extra sound card.
Both options give you the possibility to install two players, and configuring them to play to different outputs. One for checking your tandas in advance, the other (with best quality) for the audience.
Installation
Download the installer from http://foobar2000.org
Select portable mode when you install, and install twice into two different directories, e.g. fb2k-prelisten and fb2k-live.
Basic configuration
I prefer a quite simple layout, for instance “Simple playlist + Tabs”, ”System Default” and “Default Playlist” in the Quick Appearance setup.
Next you have to setup your music library, as foobar2000 has a powerful database interface to your music collection, like most current audio players. Add your music folder under File->Preferences->Media Library->Music Folders Activate the Search media library viewer in the same settings pane.
For the player to use for the audience output (foobar-live), set the “Sort incoming files by” blank under File->Preferences->General.
This is really all you need to get going, compose your tandas in the prelisten player, and drag and drop to the live player. To add the new tanda at the end of the playlist, you can drop it at the end, or at the playlist tab.
Some tips for further customization follow below.
Trimming/adding silence
Tracks from different cds typically are spaced with variable amount of silence. For equal silence spacing, use the remove silence dsp that comes with foobar2000. Under File->Preferences->Playback->DSP Manager, add the dsp “Skip silence”. You have to set parameters for the plugin, a threshold of 54 dB and a minimum length of silence of 750ms works for me.
To add silence between tracks you need the additional plug-in Post-track silence. Configure it to add an apropriate amount of silence between tracks, 1-4 seconds. Not too short, not too long. I use 1250ms.
Volume adjustment with ReplayGain/EBU R128
With ReplayGain, you can reduce and almost eliminate the need to manually adjust volumes on individual tracks. You calculate an adjustment to each track, and this information is stored in tags with no modification to the file. Use foobar2000 to add gain information and enable track gain for playback under File->Preferences->Playback->ReplayGain.
Generally, ReplayGain reduces playback volume, so you may want to add a few dB of preamp, but be careful so you don’t add too much, as this may lead to clipping. I have used +2.0 dB without problems, but it depends on your music collection.
Also consider using the more recent EBU R128 specification for calculating the gain values.
Last.fm
To keep track of your statistics, create a user at last.fm, install the plugin for audioscrobbler and join the tangoDJ group at Last.fm
Tagging
I use separate tags for djing, to separate from my other music. For instance, I use my own genre tag, tdj_genre with categories IS_TANGO, IS_VALS and IS_MILONGA (etc) which makes it possible to search only the genre tag and not the title, removing false hits, eg. tangos with milonga in the title.
Example
I have used standard dark palettes in this example for use in the often dark environment of a milonga.
If you want to try (or improve) this setup, you can download the setupfiles below, install under File->Preferences->Display->Default User Interface->Import Theme:
Comments
Was this useful for you? Do you have suggestions for improvements? Please comment below.
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Hello!
At you many class articles about tango DJ how to adjust foobar2000. At me the request to you. Tell please on more detailed as better and as more conveniently with your point of view to change tandas, to search for music in process milonga. As it is more convenient to work with foobar200.
@Vlad: Thanks for your comment, I will look into writing a post or page on how I work before and during a milonga. Sometime.
Hi Simba,
What is your “standard” Foobar2000-equalizer settings?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Greetings from Buenos Aires, Mariano
Hola Mariano!
I often attenuate/roll of a little on the high frequencies, but it really depends a lot on the equipment you use, especially the speakers, and also the room acoustics. So you basically have to use your ears. If there is a mixer with eq, I usually use that rather than the foobar2000 equalizer as the physical buttons are more convenient and I generally try not to touch the setup of the live player more than I absolutely have to while playing for an audience of dancers.
It’s a wounderful and useful article!
Hi Simba,
I find this article really useful. I used to dj with Winamp, configuring it as you suggest, one instance live and another for pre-listening, but Winamp doesn’t allow drag and dropping from one instance to another, and so, I’m changing to Foobar with your interfaces.
There’s one improvement I’d like to have, and don’t really know how to implement it, or where to find what I wish to have. That is a big timer on the upper toolbar with the time played and the time left to play, either in the song or in a selection. This last option (which in winamp its almost automatic) is very useful to calculate which songs to put, for instance, to arrive to a given hour, normally closing hour.
Do you have any hints?
Right-click status bar (at the very bottom), toggle “Show total time of selection”.