En:ClogAmp
From CloggingWiki
ClogAmp is a music player particularly tailored to the need of clogging instructors. It is widly used throughout germany and is well known for its easy installation, ease-of-use and speed.
Contents |
[edit] Quick Links
- Sourceforge Project Page
- Download
- Report Bugs
- Feature Requests
- How to compile ClogAmp
- Comparison with Commercial Products
[edit] Description
The project was started by Martin Rohrbach in 2002 as part of his bachelor thesis in Ireland because there was a lack of good software to be used by clogging instructors. The thesis was titled "Tempo- and Pitch-Manipulation of Music" and contained the theoretical basis to change the tempo of music in a very high quality. This, combined with a special GUI to be used on stage rather than in front of a desk, later became ClogAmp.
ClogAmp is Freeware and the source is available under the LGPL. The code is available from a Subversion repository hosted on Sourceforge or can be downloaded as a tar-ball from the download page. Look here for instructions on how to compile from scratch.
[edit] Features
Extend Me
- Plays MP3 and WAV Files
- Customizable one-key shortcuts
- Tempo- (-50%/+50%) and Pitchchange (-12HT/+12HT) on the fly
- Export the current song with changed tempo and pitch as WAV/MP3
- Create Positions in a song to jump to
- Create automatic jumps (or loops)
- Define levels for each song
- All info (positions, loops, levels etc.) are stored in the file
- An extended playlist with Stops and Pauses
- 10-band Equalizer with Presets
- Automatic or manual beat counter lets you set the tempo in BPM
- Export playlists as M3U
- SQL backend to keep statistics on songs played
[edit] Documentation
[edit] Miscellaneous
ClogAmp is written cross-platform. That means that in theory it should run on a number of platforms including but not limited to Microsoft Windows (all versions), Linux, Solaris or MacOS X. However, it is developed primarily on Microsoft Windows and due to the vast majority of users using Microsoft Windows as well, binaries are currently only available to download for that OS.
Users of other OSes are encouraged to have a look at the HowTo on how to compile ClogAmp on different platforms.
[edit] Requirements
The requirements to run ClogAmp are very modest. In short: it should run on any old hardware you can find as long as it has enough storage for your media files. Here's a bit more precise specification:
Recommended:
- Soundcard
- Screen size of at least 1024x768
- 10MB for the ClogAmp installation
- 30GB for your collection of files to be played
Minimal:
- Soundcard
- 2MB for the ClogAmp installation
[edit] Download and Installation
A binary distribution can be downloaded from Sourceforge. To install it, simply unzip the package to any folder on your PC.
ClogAmp is designed to have a very small footprint on any system and in fact does not touch any files outside of it's installation directory. On installation it is about 1MB in size but it uses a database that is growing depending on the amount of files you are using with it and how often it's used.
ClogAmp is started by running the main executable. It will create the files 'clogamp.ini' and 'clogamp.db' in the directory where the executable is located. Renaming those two files can solve potential problems (remember that, in case ClogAmp happens to not work when you really need it on stage) as it will reset all settings and clear the database (renaming the files rather than deleting them allows you to go back to them and more importantly to send them to the developers to see what went wrong).
When moving a ClogAmp installation, make sure you move the whole content of the installation folder, not just the executable.
[edit] General Things throughout the Application
[edit] Tables and column layout
There are two types of tables in ClogAmp which behave the same everywhere. It is therefore useful to know what you can do with them and how you can customize them.
The first type is a simple list, you cannot swap columns or sort items unless there's an option to do so next to the table. This type of table can be recognized from the "sunken"-style header which looks like this:
TODO: insert image
The only thing you can do is search for specific items, see below for an explanation. If you see a "raised" table header like this:
TODO: insert image
You can do a number of things with the table.
- Sorting
You can sort a table by clicking one of the column headers. This may of course take some time depending on the number of items in the list. Note that a subsequent sort of a different column will (by default) not preserve the order of the first sort by default. This behavior can be changed in the options though by turning on a so called "stable sort". Note that the stable sort is significantly slower which is the reason that it is turned off by default.
- Column Customization
You can change the order or the visibility of all columns in a table. To do is, right click on the table header and a dialog like this will appear:
TODO: insert image TODO: further explanation
- Searching
TODO: write me
[edit] One-key shortcuts
[edit] The magic ClogAmp-Key-Combo
Wherever you are and whatever you're doing on your PC, if ClogAmp is running and you need it fast, you can press Win-C to bring it to the foreground and start using it.
[edit] The Playlist
TODO: write me
