QuickTunes v1.2 beta
Copyright © 2004 by Noumenal Software. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Starting QuickTunes
3. How to Configure QuickTunes' Hotkey
4. Using QuickTunes
5. Release Notes
6. Future Plans
7. Contacting the Author
8. License Agreement/Registration

INTRODUCTION
If you're anything like me, when it comes time to pick songs for your playlist, you tend to pick the same songs over and over. This is okay, since they're your favourites, right? But sometimes you get a little tired of the same songs and would like to listen to some of the lesser-known works in your library.

QuickTunes can help! Simply put, QuickTunes allows you to randomly select songs based on the criteria you select. The idea is simple -- imagine telling Winamp that you want to listen to "The Beatles" for an hour. To do this, simply tick off "The Beatles" under "Artists" and select 60 minutes -- QuickTunes will then randomly select Beatles tunes to get as close to one hour as it can.

STARTING QUICKTUNES
Once you have started Winamp, there are a couple of ways to activate QuickTunes:

You can double click on the icon which appears in your system tray.

You can right click on the icon in your system tray, then select "Choose Tunes", or

You can press a hotkey.

HOW TO CONFIGURE QUICKTUNES' HOTKEY
Hotkeys are not enabled by default in Winamp. This is done by opening the preferences window (from the Winamp menu or by pressing Control-P). Three steps are required to set up the hotkey:

Click on the "Global Hotkeys" entry in the list at left (item 1). Click the "Enabled" checkbox at the top (2). Click on "General: QuickTunes Select Songs" (3) and enter a hotkey for this. If you don't see this entry in the list, then find it in the "Action" list (4).

USING QUICKTUNES
The main window (pictured below) may appear complicated, but it's really quite simple.

Options

1. Total Playing Time: how long would you like the list of songs to be, in minutes. Note that QuickTunes attempts to get as close as it can to this time, but it almost never gets exactly the requested time. In general, it is within ±90 seconds.
2. Start Playing: Check off this box if you would like Winamp to start playing immediately after loading the list of songs.
3. Clear Playlist: If you check this box, QuickTunes will clear whatever playlist you have loaded in Winamp before adding files. Leave it unchecked if you simply wish to add files to an existing playlist.
4. Generate New Playlist After Playing: This instructs QuickTunes to watch for the end of the playlist and to generate a new playlist with the same parameters at that time. Note that if you select this, you must also select "Start Playing" and "Clear Playlist".
5. Allow Duplicates: Check this box if you don't mind if QuickTunes includes duplicate songs in the list.

In the body of the window there are four (almost) identical sets of controls which you use to tell QuickTunes which songs to select. The drop-down box (6) allows you to select the type of song characteristic you would like to choose. The options are Artist, Title, Album, Genre, or Rating. This drop-down box controls what appears in the check list (7) below. For example, if you select "Title", the check list will change to show the titles of tunes in your library. Tick off the items you would like to include. Beneath the check list is a set of three buttons (8) which you can use to quickly make changes to the checked items in the list. Use "All" to select everything or "None" to select none of the items. Use the "Reverse" button to switch all the unchecked boxes to checked and the checked to unchecked. This is useful for quickly excluding this. For example, if you want to listen to anything but Britney Spears, check off Britney Spears and click "Reverse". If you do not select anything in a particular list, that list is ignored.

The Or/And radio buttons (9) are used to combine multiple criteria together. For an idea of how they work, imagine that you click on "The Beatles" under Artist and "Disco" under Genre. If you select "Or", QuickTunes will select from songs that are either by The Beatles OR are disco, so you might get a playlist with a bunch of Beatles tunes mixed in with Donna Summer, ABBA, and the Bee Gees. If, on the other hand, you select "And", QuickTunes will select only songs that are both by The Beatles AND disco. Since The Beatles recorded very few disco tunes, QuickTunes will probably not be able to find any tunes (and will tell you so).

A note to any logicians out there: QuickTunes evaluates these criteria in a strict left-to-right order. No attempt is made to prioritize "and" over "or" (as is standard). This may lead to cases where you expect QuickTunes to find some tunes, but it complains that there are none that meet the criteria. The solution (at present) is to adjust your criteria (Sorry!) -- this may be changed in the future, but for now, QuickTunes evaluates these things unintelligently.

Once you have selected your criteria, you can either click "Find Songs" (10) to create the playlist or "Cancel" (13) to discard your choices and return to Winamp. Click "About" (11) to see a fancy splash screen and "Help" (12)to read some help (this file).

RELEASE NOTES

FUTURE PLANS

Things that would be nice:

1. Skinning the window
2. Inserting a button somewhere into the Winamp window to activate QuickTunes
3. Tidy up the main window a bit.
4. Correct the evaluation order of the logical connectives used in the criteria (low priority).
5. Suggestions?

CONTACTING THE AUTHOR

You can reach the author of this software by emailing noumenalsoftware@yahoo.com. Bug reports and concerns are requested. In addition, any ideas for additional features will also be welcome.

You can register the software by sending a contribution (USD20.00 is recommended) via PayPal at the email address above.