Can TC autoplay audio files when clicking on them?

[Dazzer]

Hi folks,

I'm a music producer and TC could be an extremely useful browser when searching for audio files (often known as "samples").

What i need it to do is to play a sample when i click on it in the list.

So just to be clear, i don't mean to double click it and open it in Windows Media Player or whatever, i mean just the action of clicking or selecting with the up / down arrow will play it.This is sometimes called "autoplay".

This may sound weird, but it's actually a very common feature that's built into browsers that are integrated into DAWs (digital audio workstations).

Problem with using these internal DAW browsers is that they lack the advanced features of TC.

What also would be nice would be a volume slider, because often when browsing for a sample, the volume may be too loud or quiet, but you don't want to change your monitor volume because it's set correctly for what's coming out of your DAW.

Thanks in advance!

[ghisler(Author)]

Try Ctrl+Q (quick view). It should auto play when you move from file to file.

[Dazzer]

Amazing!

A couple of questions:

Why does the ctrl+Q toolbar appear in the opposite pane? So we loose the handy left/ right nature of TC. Why doesn't it appear at the bottom of the active pane, then we could audition files in two separate locations?

Is there a hotkey (or a way to assign one) to stop the sample once it's playing?
I see the little play / pause icon at the bottom left, but it would be nice to have a hotkey to stop playback.

There's quite a big delay between selecting a file and it playing (i guess around 750ms), is there some technical reason for this latency?

[petermad]

2Dazzer

Why does the ctrl+Q toolbar appear in the opposite pane? So we loose the handy left/ right nature of TC. Why doesn't it appear at the bottom of the active pane, then we could audition files in two separate locations?

You can open the QuickView in a separate window instead of the file panel by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Q

There's quite a big delay between selecting a file and it playing (i guess around 750ms), is there some technical reason for this latency?

Nothing I experience. Are you opening the files with the build in player, or are they opened with a plugin?

Is there a hotkey (or a way to assign one) to stop the sample once it's playing?

You can use the Space key to pause the playback, but you have to set focus on the QuickView panel/window first.

[Dazzer]

OK, thanks!

You said: Nothing I experience. Are you opening the files with the build in player, or are they opened with a plugin?

I don't understand what you mean! I'm not opening them, i'm just clicking on them and they're playing thanks to the ctrl + Q or ctrl + shift + Q functionality. Could you explain what you mean by opening with a plugin?

You said: You can use the Space key to pause the playback, but you have to set focus on the QuickView panel/window first.

Ah-ha, that's not really handing because you don't want to have to click the QuickView panel to stop play, then you might as well just click the play / pause button in the Quickview panel. And that doesn't work anyway when you just do ctrl+Q and have it on the opposite side.

[petermad]

don't understand what you mean! I'm not opening them, i'm just clicking on them and they're playing thanks to the ctrl + Q or ctrl + shift + Q functionality. Could you explain what you mean by opening with a plugin?

When you press Ctrl+Q and click on a file, the file is opened in TC's internal viewer called Lister, but it is displayed in the opposite panel. Lister can either use it's internal player, or it can use a plugin that can play/show the file type, that depends on the configuration. But since you ask the question I must assume that you haven't installed any Lister plugins, otherwise you would know what I was referring to. I asked because playing with a plugin can be slower than playing with the built-in player.

then you might as well just click the play / pause button in the Quickview panel.

You don't have to click the little button, you can just click in the middle of the panel to stop pause the playback (when using Ctrl+Q.,

[Dazzer]

Thanks for the clarification!

Correct, i don't have any installed plugins. The latency is more than can be explained by the windows driver (which would normally be maybe 100-150ms).

You're right, clicking the middle of the panel to stop works, that's an improvement. It's a shame spacebar doesn't stop play, that would be ideal.

What would be wonderful (but i understand highly unlikely) would be if one could select your ASIO driver for audio output, that would bring the latency right down to almost nothing.

[petermad]

2Dazzer

I have made a couple of videos showing playback of wav files - is the latency shorter or longer than what you experience?
https://tcmd.madsenworld.dk/quickview.mp4
https://tcmd.madsenworld.dk/quickviewseparate.mp4

[Dazzer]

Thanks, your video shows the same latency i'm getting, around half a second. It's not a big deal though.

But here's a vid of me auditioning (via the arrow up / down) in the browser of a DAW (which admittedly is using ASIO drivers):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuO9-adEGJ8

This was really fast, just to prove the point.

It's just that when you want to flip very quickly through samples with the arrow keys, the latency slow you down a bit.

[petermad]

2Dazzer
Well I can move the cursor faster and still get little blips of the sounds - like here: https://tcmd.madsenworld.dk/quickview2.mp4 - but what this wideo shows is the fastest I can move the cursor, if I go faster no sound is heard.

[Fla$her]

Why doesn't it appear at the bottom of the active pane, then we could audition files in two separate locations?

There is such an old request, I also want it for a long time.
There is a file manager (forgot the name) that displays the trackbar near the audio file and plays it in the background, even if you leave the folder. It looks cool, but it’s still better to have a bottom panel with a playlist.

This was really fast, just to prove the point.

It's just that when you want to flip very quickly through samples with the arrow keys, the latency slow you down a bit.

The fastest of the options is the TotalAmp plugin, with almost no delay.

Add the detect string to wincmd.ini after installation and restart TC:

[ListerPlugins]
№=%COMMANDER_PATH%\Plugins\wlx\TotalAmp\TotalAmp.wlx
№_detect="MULTIMEDIA & (EXT="AAC" | EXT="AC3" | EXT="ADX" | EXT="AIF" | EXT="AIX" | EXT="ALAC" | EXT="APE" | EXT="CDA" | EXT="DFF" | EXT="DSF" | EXT="FLA" | EXT="FLAC" | EXT="IT" | EXT="KAR" | EXT="M4A" | EXT="M4B" | EXT="MAC" | EXT="MIDI" | EXT="MKA" | EXT="MO3" | EXT="MOD" | EXT="MP+" | EXT="MP1" | EXT="MP2" | EXT="MP3" | EXT="MPC" | EXT="MPP" | EXT="MTM" | EXT="OFR" | EXT="OFS" | EXT="OGA" | EXT="OGG" | EXT="OPUS" | EXT="RMI" | EXT="S3M" | EXT="SPX" | EXT="TTA" | EXT="UMX" | EXT="WAV" | EXT="WEBM" | EXT="WMA" | EXT="WV" | EXT="XM")"

Unfortunately, it doesn't have hotkeys, it only perceives mouse clicks, but instead of stopping, there is only a change of the spectrogram.

[Dazzer]

Thanks, i installed the Totalamp plugin, but now what? How do i use it? It has no instructions, no webpage, no youtube tutorials, nothing!

[Gral]

Just use it with QuickView or separate QuickView

[Fla$her]

2Dazzer
These are the same Ctrl+Q or F3 as discussed above. A bonus is the ability to turn on and switch the spectrogram type by LMB and disable by RMB on a black background.
Also keep in mind that you can switch between files using the n/p (next/previous) keys, and unlike F3, you don't need to select files for Quickview, just activate the panel with it.