I'm trying to make the switch from iTunes to Foobar and I love what I see. I knew going into this that it would take some work to get it to look/act the way I wanted. I am running into a few roadblocks so I will just put them in order of importance:

Just for reference I have downloaded the most resecent Foobar available as of 12/8/2005. I have added two main plugins (Columns_ui and some kind of database search).

Problem #1: Can't load .wma's into my main folder, at all. Even though the database set to input files with the .wma format and it simply will not allow me to see those files. I've done extensive searching and see that this is a common problem. Is there anyway to fix it? I tried using foo_wma.dll that I found but it registered an error when I tried to implement it.

Problem #2: I cannot get my ratings to work. I haven't looked much into this, but I used somebody elses theme (itunes made by somebody on this board) and it has just black boxes and no way of changing them or accessing them. Would love to be able to rate my songs like with iTunes.

Problem #3: I do not know how to get my album list to stick to the side panel where I can access my albums seperatly from the all-inclusive playlist. I see alot of people with this type of setup but I'm not yet sure how to get mine like that myself.

Problem #4: I'm looking for a plug-in that will allow me to search my database and as I type remove items that don't match the search criteria to be removed (just like iTunes or Winamp). Don't know if that's clear.

My main concern are these wma files because this is cutting out nearly half of my music collection. Thanks for the help. I know it's long but I did alot of searching and am still really new to foobar so thanks in advance for the help.

Well sounds like your using the 0.9 betas. No WMA support for it at the moment... try sticking with the 0.8.3 version.

0.8 needs also foo_wma (and it might require installing wmfdist.exe)

#2: You'll have to add RATING tags to your files. You can do in many ways, for example from the file's properties or with foo_quicktag (for 0.8 only).

#3: Install foo_uie_albumlist

#4: Isn't that just what foo_dbsearch (which you already have) is for?

Okay I uninstalled the beta version I had and I downloaded the v.0.8.3 special.

#1 Still cannot find the foo_wma (anyone have a link they can give me for this ).

#2 I am still working on the ratings and trying to figure it out on my own.

#3 Solved! (thanks!)

#4 Still working on getting foo_dbsearch.dll to work. I have it available and am trying to figure out how to get it as a box in the sidebar that i can type into it and it update in realtime (like if i type J it will remove anything without a J in it, and then when i type an A after that it will filter out all the results that don't have a JA in it...just like iTunes). Is this possible, if so how? Thanks for the help guys!

A plugin has to be specificly designed to be a panel in columns ui, foo_dbsearch is not. You will have to wait (and hope) a developer decides to take this task on, and that would be more likely when 0.9 SDK goes public.

For 0.8.3, get the plugin foo_quicktag - it makes adding ratings much easier (you can then just rightclick a track, open the quicktag menu, and choose a rating. For foobar 0.9, it has a "kinda" quicktag already builtin: you may already know the masstagger of foobar - in 0.9, the masstagger-scripts(i.e. set RATING to "4") which one saves, appear in the contextmenu when rightclicking a song under "scripts".

In the long run, the following thread may also be interesting to you:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=31530

- Lyx

Its included with the installer you used. If you unchecked it during reinstall, you could just run the installer again, and this time check it.

thanks everyone.

#1 I reinstalled the Special package and enabled the wma option. It seems to have worked but there is still one main problem. When i go to Preferences->Database->Restrict Directories to (My music)->Scan it finds the new wma's but doesn't display them in the database. If, however, I physically drag-n-drop the wma albums into the playlist of all my music it will load them into there. I don't know if something isn't enabled correctly or what. I also get a few DRM errors which I'll have to read up on.

#2 Got my ratings to work, thanks lyx

#3 Already solved

#4 Looks like i'll just have to settle with opening up the search and using that to find my songs. Will work okay though.

regarding #1...

not sure if I'm seeing exactly what your doing... but adding files to the DB will not make them show up in the playlist... those are two distinct lists...

i.e. If you add something to a playlist (and the path is not restricted in the DB) then it will appear in the playlist and the DB will also have the songs added...

if you use the "scan" function of the DB... it will add you entries to the DB (but NOT to a playlist as you never specified one).... you could in this instance search the DB and choose to add the found music files to a playlist...

or maybe just add your root music directory to a playlist... this way any files on non-restricted paths will be added to the DB and you'll have a playlist which you can either get rid of or use as a giant jukebox).... if you get rid of the playlist your songs (if not moved) will still be in the DB and you could search it and add them to another playlist as you like...

I hope I was being clear enough... good luck

Peace
Ross