v4 Preview (pre-release)

THIS "PREVIEW" VERSION CONTAINS BUGS AND INCOMPLETE FEATURES (DEVELOPMENT IS IN PROGRESS)

IF YOU WANT A STABLE VERSION, PLEASE DOWNLOAD AN EARLIER V3.X RELEASE 😄

Last update: preview22 - Sun Dec 22 (Gapless playback + other bug fixes)

Overview

This is a pre-release of v4. Most core features work, some do not, some new features are missing (Library / Tune Browser), there are some bugs, and the app may occasionally crash unpredictably.

Generally, the app is usable and stable, and is intended to give the user a taste of v4.

Notes

1. (Updates) This build will be updated, in place, over time, with names like "preview2", "preview3", etc. You can check back periodically to see if the build has been updated.

2. (App settings) - An app setup wizard will launch upon startup (only the first time), and if you have used v3 before, most of your settings will be migrated over (some will be lost, as they are now irrelevant). This means that once you launch v4, you cannot retain your old settings if you go back to v3, unless you store a copy of your ~/Music/aural folder before you launch v4.

3. (v3) - The latest v3 releases continue to be available.

Modular Mode

Unified Mode

Compact Mode

#72 - Fixed playlist bug

Thanks to @sirlaurie for reporting this bug!

The Playlist would cause a freeze when dragging in a folder containing a CUE file. This bug has been fixed.

NOTE - CUE Sheets are not currently supported, but will probably be supported in a future version.

#70 - Fixed Last.fm scrobbling bugs

Measuring playback time

The way Aural measures how long a track was played back for, has been improved.

Character encoding

Previously, track metadata with Unicode characters having symbols such as accents or umlauts was not encoded properly, resulting in failed scrobbling requests.

Last.fm Scrobbling

Thanks to Erik Jälevik for requesting this feature!

Aural can now scrobble tracks you play to your Last.fm account!

Love/Unlove tracks

In addition to scrobbling, Aural can also "love" or "unlove" tracks that you add to / remove from the Aural "Favorites" list.

One-time authentication / setup

In order to use these features, go to Aural > Preferences > Metadata, and first follow the instructions on the preferences panel to authenticate with Last.fm and provide permission to Aural to use Last.fm's web services (in your web browser). This is a one-time setup process. Then, simply check the relevant checkboxes to enable scrobbling and the love/unlove feature.

Instructions for 2-step authentication on preferences panel

Browser setup (before granting permission)

NOTE - When Last.fm opens in your web browser, you will need to log into your Last.fm account if you are not already logged in. Then proceed as shown in the images below.

Browser setup (after granting permission)

The rules for a valid scrobble

In order to consider playback of a track a "valid scrobble", certain conditions must be met in terms of track duration and playback duration.

See https://www.last.fm/api/scrobbling#when-is-a-scrobble-a-scrobble for details.

Caching and retrying of failed scrobble attempts

If / when scrobble attempts fail due to loss of network connectivity or any other reasons, Aural will cache the failed attempts and try to scrobble 4 more times per track (for a total of 5 attempts), upon subsequent app launches. Any failed scrobbles more than 2 weeks old will automatically be invalidated.

Re-authenticating to refresh the Session Key

When Aural authenticates with Last.fm, it obtains a Session Key that is persisted and reused indefinitely. In the unlikely scenario that the Session Key no longer works (you notice that scrobbling no longer occurs), it is recommended to re-authenticate and obtain a fresh Session Key, using the "Re-Authenticate" button in the relevant preferences panel. This will allow you to repeat the one-time setup you did earlier.

Bug fix for #69

#69 - "Start with empty playlist" user preference when launching from Finder with "Open With"

Thanks to @LesterJitsi for the bug report!

The playlist will now behave correctly based on the user preference when launching from Finder with "Open With", and the History > Recently Added list will now correctly display the appropriate (newly added) items.

Bug fixes and performance improvements

Visualizer uses no CPU when inactive

The Visualizer now does not perform any computations or graphical rendering when the player is either paused or stopped. This eliminates unnecessary CPU usage.

#67 - Fixed app icon (menu bar mode)

Thanks to @BillGoldenWater for the bug report!

Window snapping behavior improvement

The way that the separate app windows snap to each other has been improved, eliminating some of the awkward (jerky) snapping behavior when the main window is dragged.

Updated Copyright year in source code and license

Bug Fixes

#65 - FFmpeg seeking causes crash (arm64)

Previously, seeking with FFmpeg (within non-native tracks) would cause a crash on arm64 systems. This has been fixed.

#64 - Spectrogram visualization shows no activity in first band

The first band of the Spectrogram visualizer view would, in some cases, not show any activity / movement. A workaround for this bug has been implemented.

#66 - Seek interval stepper controls (preferences)

In the preferences window, under the Playback tab, the seek interval stepper controls showed the wrong kind of formatting on newer macOS systems. The stepper controls have been simplified to solve this problem.

Autoplay enhancement + new app icon

#58 - Autoplay enhancement

Many thanks to @LesterJitsi for requesting this enhancement!

Some users would prefer the app to quietly append files to the playlist when files are opened from Finder with the "Open With" action (equivalent to double-clicking files in Finder), without immediately starting playback of the opened files. So, a new option has been added under Preferences > Playback, to allow for this behavior.

NOTE - The default behavior will continue to be that the app begins playback of files opened with "Open With", but this can now be overriden.

#63 - New app icon

Many thanks to @VisualisationExpo for requesting this enhancement, and for providing the new icon!

Aural has a new app icon ... can't you see ;)

Bug fix - Playlist scroll bar on Intel Macs

On Intel Macs, the playlist scroll bar would not show up (it would be auto-hidden). This bug has been fixed, so the scroll bar is always visible.

Tracker Module formats support

#62 - Support for tracker module formats

Many thanks to @skillt3ch for requesting this feature!

Aural Player can now play "tracker module" formats: .it, .xm, .mod, and .s3m.