simpleplay 1.8.2

simpleplay 1.8.2: fixes and minor adjustments: the “–” button, playlist saving and list details.

Fixed

• The "–" button (and "Remove from the list" in the right-click menu) did nothing since 1.8; it now removes the selected tracks.
• The floppy-disk button no longer overwrites an old playlist without asking. A playlist is only "the open one" while the
  list still comes from it: loading a folder or files into an empty list forgets it, and so does a playlist file that no
  longer exists. The first save asks where and under what name (proposing the folder's name).

Changed

• "Music and playlists" shows which playlist is open (or "not saved"), the save button names it, and there is a new
  "Save as…" button. Saving always says where it saved.
• The track that is playing is marked with a dot in the list; the list scrollbar is slim and rounded; list rows light up
  under the mouse; dropdowns in the side panels have their own arrow.

Everything in 1.8 and 1.8.1 is included: see the 1.8 notes.

simpleplay 1.8.1

simpleplay 1.8.1: a cover that moves with the music.

Changed

• A cover that moves with the music. When a track has no cover art, the card shows soft, glowing bubbles of light
  floating over a background that slowly changes colour, instead of the plain orange gradient. Each bubble follows a band
  of the spectrum: the big ones breathe with the bass, the small ones flicker with the treble. It uses no CPU as soon as a
  cover is shown.

Everything in 1.8 is included: see the 1.8 notes.

simpleplay 1.8

simpleplay 1.8: parametric equalizer, crossfeed and balance, a music and playlists panel, a new Mosquito panel, a simpler Sound menu and a duplicate finder.

Added

• Parametric equalizer, a second equalizer next to the graphic one (they are separate, not two views of the same
  curve). Five free bands, each with its own frequency (20 Hz to 20 kHz), gain (±12 dB) and width (Q), a live curve, and
  the same minimum-phase filter as the graphic one. Sound > Equalizer… opens it, with a Graphic | Parametric switch at
  the top. Only one of the two is active at a time: choosing "Parametric" in the preset list turns the graphic preset
  off, and the other way round. Switching tabs does not convert one curve into the other, and named presets are saved
  from the graphic equalizer only.

• Crossfeed for headphones (off, soft, medium, strong). Each ear hears a little of the low frequencies of the other
  side, as with speakers, so the sound stops feeling stuck to your ears. What is the same in both channels (mono) is not touched.

• Balance from left (-100) to right (100). Sound menu > Balance and space.

• Duplicate finder by sound. The cleaning engine now lives in limpieza.py (no Qt, no player needed) and, besides
  artist and title, compares the acoustic fingerprint (Chromaprint fpcalc) of each track. It finds the same song under
  different names, formats or bitrates, even with no tags, and still keeps remixes and live versions apart. Fingerprints
  are cached in ~/.cache/simpleplay/huellas.json. Quality is judged by what the audio really reaches, not only by the bitrate in the tag: a "192 kbps"
  mp3 that is cut off at 16 kHz counts as a 128, and a FLAC cut off there is flagged as a converted mp3. tools/quitar_duplicados.py gets --solo-nombre and --solo-sonido.

• Find my sound (replaces "Tune by ear"). A guided search in three
  rounds: you hear four versions of the sound, pick the one you like, and it narrows down. At the end you get four controls
  (Bass, Body, Voices, Brightness) to fine-tune and a name to save it.

• Named presets. Your own equalizer settings can be saved with a name and chosen from the Sound menu.

• Recognize tracks by their sound (the broom, still switched off). When the text search finds nothing, the track is
  fingerprinted with Chromaprint (fpcalc) and looked up on AcoustID; the edition is then chosen with the same rules as
  before (studio albums only, never compilations or live versions). Needs your own AcoustID key in
  ~/.config/simpleplay/acoustid.key (or SIMPLEPLAY_ACOUSTID) and fpcalc installed.

• Remove duplicate tracks (tools/quitar_duplicados.py, or tools/limpiar_biblioteca.py --duplicados). Finds the same
  track in several files and keeps the one with the best audio quality (lossless first, then bitrate); the others go to the
  trash. It only shows what it would do unless --aplicar is given. Remixes and live versions are not treated as duplicates.

Changed

• A simpler Sound menu. The Sound menu keeps what you reach for often (normalize, presets, a Crossfeed switch that
  remembers its level, Balance and space, Headphones) and a single "Equalizer…" entry. The equalizer is one panel with a
  Graphic | Parametric switch; Find my sound, save preset and delete preset live inside it.
• Ctrl+F and Ctrl+Alt+M toggle: pressed again, the search closes and the Mosquito panel closes. Mosquito's shortcut is
  now Ctrl+Alt+M (some desktops keep Ctrl+Shift+M, which still works where it is free).
• Music and playlists panel (the + menu > Music and playlists…). Saved folders and saved playlists as big rows you can
  tap, a switch between replacing the list and adding to it, "Empty list" (asks twice) and "Save list". Opening a
  playlist now replaces the current list even when only one row can be selected.
• Mosquito panel redesigned. The QR on its own card, two short steps, a live "phone connected" indicator, a copy
  button for the link and a switch for "Remember this phone".
• Better cover art. Cover Art Archive at 1200 px first, then 500 px; if the album has none or only a small one
  (under 600 px), Deezer (1000 px, matched by artist and album, never a compilation) and the larger one is kept.

simpleplay 1.7

simpleplay 1.7: Mosquito, a remote control for your phone.

Added

• Mosquito. Right click > Mosquito (or Ctrl+Shift+M) shows a QR next to the player. Scan it with your phone (same wifi) and the browser becomes a remote: cover with a blurred background, a seek bar you can drag, play/pause, previous/next, system volume and the track list, which you pull up from the bottom with a finger. Remember this phone keeps the link, so there is nothing to scan again.
• Mute that only touches the player. Double tap (or press and hold) the volume button on the remote: the player goes silent at once, the rest of your computer keeps its sound.
• A connection light on the remote (green, amber, red) and soft animations on the buttons.
• It only works on your private network: no internet, no accounts, nothing leaves your home. Devices outside your network are refused and the key in the link is compared in constant time. Turn it off with SIMPLEPLAY_MOSQUITO=0.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.7-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.7-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.7-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway).

macOS

The Mac version is built and being tested, so it is not part of this release yet. Follow the repository to know when it is out.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.6

simpleplay 1.6: the graphic equalizer, better sound, and a cleaner window.

Added

• Controls that hide by themselves. While a track plays and the mouse stays still for 4 seconds, the time, the progress bar and the buttons fade out and only the cover (and the top pill) is left. Move the mouse and they come back. They stay visible when paused, with the list open, in compact mode and over a control. Right click > Hide controls automatically turns it off.
• Graphic equalizer (ten bands, ±12 dB) and Tune by ear are now on by default, as side panels next to the player.
• Accent color. Right click > Accent color: orange or five more solid colors.

Better sound

• Files that are not 44.1 kHz (48, 88.2, 96, 192 kHz: very common in FLAC) now go through a proper linear-phase resampler. Before, a 10 kHz tone came out 1.3 dB low, 18 kHz 4.2 dB low, and an alias sat only 13 dB under the tone. Now the response is flat to 20 kHz and the alias is rejected by more than 90 dB. Files at 44.1 kHz are untouched.
• Equalizer bass accuracy. Asking +6 dB at 31 Hz gave +4.8 dB, and the boost leaked into the neighbouring bands. The filter is now minimum-phase: +5.8 dB in the worst case, presets within 0.05 dB of the requested curve, and headphone profiles within 0.15 dB. It also removes the 23 ms delay of the old filter.
• Look-ahead limiter. Normalization can raise a quiet track by up to 9 dB, and the old limiter distorted any loud peak and treated each channel on its own. The new one looks 5 ms ahead, lowers the gain smoothly before each peak (the same on both channels) and never passes -0.9 dBFS.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.6-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.6-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.6-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway). It has not been tried on many machines yet: if something fails, please open an issue.

macOS

The Mac version is built and being tested, so it is not part of this release yet. Follow the repository to know when it is out.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.5.3

simpleplay 1.5.3: softer stop, pause and close, a track counter in the list, and no more volume jump with shuffle.

Fixed

• Volume jump with shuffle. The next track is measured for normalization while the current one plays, but with shuffle on it was skipped because the next track was only picked when you pressed next, so it started at its own level and jumped when the measurement finished. Now the next track is picked in advance, measured, and that is the one that plays. Turning shuffle on also measures the upcoming track right away.

Changed

• Soft stop, pause and close. Pause used to cut the sound in 5 ms and Stop cut it to zero at once. Now the volume goes down over about 250 ms when you pause, stop or close the player (closing hides the window right away and lets the sound fade out), and goes back up over about 150 ms when you resume. A track that starts, a skip and a track change keep the short fade so the attack of the first note is not lost.
• Track counter in the list. The list panel shows how many tracks it has ("12 tracks"), and "3 of 12" while a search filter is active.
• The small cover in the pill cross-fades too when the track changes (the big cover already did), and fades in instead of popping up when the track has a cover and the previous one had none.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.5.3-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.5.3-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.5.3-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway). It has not been tried on many machines yet: if something fails, please open an issue.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.5.2

simpleplay 1.5.2: shuffle that no longer repeats tracks, and a new icon.

Fixed

• Shuffle no longer repeats tracks. It used to pick any track at random each time, so with a long list some came up again and again before others played even once. Now every track plays once per round, and a new round starts only when all of them have played (the last track of a round never opens the next one). It keeps working if you add, remove, sort or drag tracks in the middle of a round, and the round is saved with the session. Previous in shuffle now goes back to the track that played before.
• Imported ParametricEQ headphone profiles written with a decimal comma (Gain 2,2 dB) are now accepted.

Changed

• New icon: a vinyl record with an orange label and a play button.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.5.2-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.5.2-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.5.2-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway). It has not been tried on many machines yet: if something fails, please open an issue.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.5.1

simpleplay 1.5.1: playlists, FLAC, headphone profiles, a volume normalizer and lower CPU use. This release also covers 1.4.1 and 1.5, which were not published on their own.

New

• Playlists. Open and save plain M3U8 files (VLC, mpv and Navidrome read them too) with paths relative to the list, so it keeps working if you move it together with the music. Right click tracks > Add to playlist to build lists, or use the new floppy-disk button next to the list to save it in one click. Dragging a .m3u/.m3u8 onto the window adds its tracks.
• FLAC next to mp3: tags, cover art, ReplayGain and seeking. Tested up to 24-bit / 96 kHz.
• Headphone profiles from the AutoEq database (about 800 models, searched from inside the player), or import your own GraphicEQ.txt / ParametricEQ.txt. Right click > Sound > Headphones.
• Volume normalizer and an equalizer with presets (right click > Sound). A late loudness measurement is reached with a gentle ramp, and the next track is measured while the current one plays, so it starts already normalized.
• A transition between the track name and the spectrum bars, rounded pop-up menus, and tools/convertir.sh to turn the audio of videos into mp3 or FLAC.

Changed

• About a third less CPU with the spectrum bars on.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.5.1-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.5.1-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.5.1-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway). It has not been tried on many machines yet: if something fails, please open an issue.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.4

simpleplay 1.4: a new audio engine, instant seeking in long mixes, and a smoother window.

New

• Its own audio engine (no more pygame or SDL): exact position, no clicks when you pause or seek, and the spectrum bars follow exactly what you hear because they read the same audio that goes to the speakers.
• Instant seeking inside long files. Jumping into an hour-long mix used to take over a second; now it takes a fraction of a millisecond.
• Animated transition between the card and the compact bar, and a soft shadow around the window (turn it off with SIMPLEPLAY_SOMBRA=0).
• It recovers from a lost sound device: unplug a USB or Bluetooth speaker, or wake the computer from suspend, and the track goes on where it was.
• Tracks that cannot be played (missing, empty, corrupted) are skipped with a notice instead of getting stuck.
• Media widgets (KDE, GNOME) update right after a seek. --diagnose now also checks the sound device.
• A support link, for anyone who wants to buy me a beer. Entirely optional.

Changed

• Lighter download (75 MB, 6 MB less): SDL, pygame and ffmpeg are gone. Nothing else needs to be installed.
• If there is no working sound system, it now says so instead of playing silently.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.4-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.4-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.4-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway). Audio on Windows goes through WASAPI and has not been tried on a real machine yet: if something sounds wrong, please open an issue.

Full list in the changelog.

simpleplay 1.3

simpleplay 1.3: compact mode.

New

• Compact mode: the same pill shrunk to a 380x56 bar with a small cover, the scrolling title, and previous, play and next buttons. Toggle it with the new button next to the playlist one, the M key, or the right-click menu. The music keeps playing when you switch, and the mode is remembered between sessions.

Run it (Linux)

chmod +x simpleplay-1.3-x86_64.AppImage
./simpleplay-1.3-x86_64.AppImage

Windows

simpleplay-1.3-windows-x64.zip is attached automatically a few minutes after this release is published. Unzip and run simpleplay.exe (SmartScreen: More info > Run anyway).