ltjBPM 1.2
7.27.2006
Development on the next version will commence upon my acquisition of an
intel-based mac. It shall (I decree) have a far less ghetto
UI layout, with an even lower screen profile, and will reflect some degree of
outright cunning (or at least research and diligence) with respect to further
de-paining of the BPM tagging process. Cuz when I rock the warez mic, I rock
the mic right.
some ideas:
- auto-conforming the target BPM to a predefined range, regardless
of whether the user prefers to tap at full, half, or double time
- some smart analytic behavior, either with respect to audio or the iTunes
database (learning a rule set for auto-assigning genre, for example)
- starting song playback somewhere other than the beginning of the song
(typically, the tempo of a track is more evident about a minute in, and if
a track is less than a minute long, you probably don't care what its BPM is
and would prefer to skip it...ooh, that's a neat idea:
- auto skip-over for library tracks below some length threshold, or
tagged with a non-music genre like "audiobook"
3.21.2005
There's been some confusion about the UI of late. I'm not sure what brought
this on, but it's certainly my fault, as the following workflow example has
proved illuminating:
- start a track in iTunes
- switch to ltjBPM and hit 'return' to start counting
- tap the period key until the BPM readout stabilizes
- hit 'return' again to enable the semicolon feature
- hit semicolon to save the BPM info in iTunes
- hit singlequote to go to the next track in iTunes
Also, while I'm here in the editor, I'd like to thank the 3 people who
paypal'd me for this thing over the past couple years or so. (When did I
write this?)
Anyway, it was nice to get your notes of encouragement and your collective
14 bucks. To the huddled massive, big up and respect
for needing a beat counter in the first place.
Current version: 1.2
Features: small, fast, usable, free, and useful BPM solution, now with
iTunes integration.
Author: jared@oatbit.com
Changes since 1.1:
- one-handed, mouse-free workflow via new hotkeys:
; (semicolon) - set BPM in iTunes
' (singlequote) - goto next track in iTunes
Changes since 1.0:
- one-click setting of BPM ID3 tag for currently playing iTunes track
Changes since 0.9b:
- ignores key repeats during beat capture
- quits when main window closes
- new icon with alpha channel
Known bugs:
- no automated beat detection of entire iTunes(tm) library
- no CDDB-type web service for quick posting/retrieval of known tempos
- no win32, linux, playstation, iSeries, or z/OS versions available
- icon frightens young children and some adults
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