MacBPM 3.0.1 is a package of two applications: MacBPM Counter and MacBPM Manager. MacBPM Counter is a simple interactive beats-per-minute counter . This program was called MacBPM in previous versions. MacBPM Manager is a complete bpm database management system. With this program, you can store all your bpms together with the music track's artist, title, version... at a bpm database. So MacBPM may be very usefull for DJ's who want to time their music mixes exactly.
MacBPM Counter
MacBPM Counter offers two different ways to find out the bpm rate of a song:
BPM Time-Recording (BPM Counter...)
The user has to enter the beats for a certain period of time, while the computer is couting them. During this process, the program permanently determines the actual bpm rate. The stabilization factor, which is expressed as a percentage, shows how much the last few calculated BPM rates differ from each other. The bigger the factor is, the smaller are the differences between the last bpm rates. However the stabilization factor does nothing say about the precision of the bpm rate at all, because only the last five bpm rates, which have been determined by the program, are taken into account for the calculation of this factor.
BPM Beat-Recording (Quick BPM Counter...)
In this mode, the user has to enter a certain number of beats. The program calculates the bpm rate using the number of beats and the time, which is used for entering these beats. As in the time-recording mode, the program determines for each calculated bpm rate an own stabilization factor.
In the preferences dialog, the user can select, wether the beats are entered by mouse or by a key. The user can also define the period of time, a time-recording process takes, or he can enter the number of beats used in a beat-recording session.
MacBPM Manager
BPM Databases
New bpm databases can be created with the 'New' command of the File menu. The content of a bpm database is shown in windows, the "views" of the database. Within a view, bpm data records are displayed as a list. The underlined column title in the header of the list determines the data field, which is used to sort the records of the list. Each bpm database has got a main view in which all known bpm entries, that are not filtered out, are displayed. With the 'Find All' button of the Find-dialog, new views, that only contain entries which satisfy certain search criteria, can be opened. On the contrary to the main view, these windows do not represent a bpm database, they only show a special selection of data records of the parent bpm database. That views can be distiguished, each view except the main view, has an unique view number. It is displayed in the window title.
BPM Data Records
Bpm data records contain a music track's bpm rate, artist, title and version. Additionally to this data, you can define the medium and the owner of the song. At last, it is possible to set a permanent mark for the record.
A new data record can be added to a bpm database with the 'New Entry' menu item of the Database menu. In the 'New Entry'-dialog you can enter the artist, the title and the version of a song. You can use the 'Cout BPM'-button, or alternatively the F14-key, to open the bpm counter described in the chapter "MacBPM Counter". After the bpms have been determined, they can be automatically inserted into the bpm field of the 'New Entry'-dialog by pressing the OK button of the counter. If bpms should not be truncated to integers, the 'Truncate BPM values' checkbox of the preferences must not be checked.
The medium and the owner of the song can be selected out of popup-menus.
An entry of a bpm database can be edited if the entry is selected in a view of the database and the 'Edit Entry...' item of the Database menu is chosen. It is also possible to double-click a bpm data record.
Mediums And Owners
The mediums and owners of a song can only be defined, if the appropriate mediums and owners are known to the system. They can be declared by using the 'Owners...' and 'Mediums...' command of the BPM menu. After choosing one of these menu items, you can edit the present owner or medium list.
You can also define a set of default owners and mediums in the preferences. These default lists are used to initialize the medium and owner list at MacBPM's startup.
Filters
MacBPM provides an import and an export filter for a bpm database. Only entries that are not filtered out are displayed in the views of the database. The filters are turned on if the 'Use Filters' menu item is checked.
A filter definition consists of a bpm range and substrings for artist, title and version. Optionally it is possible to declare a medium, an owner and a mark.
An entry matches to a filter if the bpm rate of the entry lies between the lower and the upper bound of the filter's bpm range, if the substrings of the filter can be found in the corresponding strings (artist, title and version) of the entry and if the optional values of the filter are equal to the entry's values.
Searching For Data Records
By choosing the 'Find...' menu item of the Database menu, MacBPM Manager will present the 'Find'-dialog with several options. A search pattern, which defines the criteria that are used to find certain entries, can now be declared the same way as a filter is declared.
If the 'Find' button is clicked, the first entry of the last view, that matches the search pattern, is highlighted. The last view is the window, that was active before the 'Find'-dialog became the front window. The next entry that matches the search pattern can now be found, by selecting the 'Find Again' command of the Database menu.
If the 'Find All' button of the Find-dialog is pressed, a new view is opened and all entries that satisfy the search criteria are displayed in this new view.
Configuring BPM Databases
The database name and additional information about the database can be entered in the Information-dialog (choose the 'Information...' item of the Database menu and MacBPM Manager will bringt up the Information-dialog). If the checkbox 'Database names = filenames' of the preferences is checked, the database name is always set to the corresponding file name.
MacBPM Manager allows the definition of an entry preset. This is a default pattern for new bpm data records. The fields of the 'New Entry'-dialog are always initialized to the values of the entry preset.
To change the aligment of columns in database views, or to hide some columns, the 'Column'-dialog has to be used. The settings that are made here only concern the parent window. They are also used if this window is printed.
Input/Output Of BPM Databases
Normally bpm databases are saved in an own format. It is also possible to save a database as a text file, so that databases can be exchanged with other database programs.
In text files, the fields of data records are seperated by TABs and records are seperated by carriage returns (ascii-code: 13).
If a text file is imported in MacBPM Manager, make sure, that either all mediums and owners are known, or that the checkboxes 'Accept new mediums' and 'Accept new owners' of the preferences are checked. Otherwise MacBPM Manager will ignore new mediums and owners.
Remember, the maximum number of owners and mediums is currently restricted to 63 different entries.
If some bpms of a text file are floating point numbers, and MacBPM Manager should not convert them to integers, it is also necessary, that the 'Truncate BPM values' checkbox is not checked.
Printing Views Of A BPM Database
To print the contents of the frontmost database view, choose 'Print...' from the 'File' menu. MacBPM Manager will present the standard Print-dialog for your printer.
The File menu also has got a 'Page Setup...' and a 'Print Options...' command, that let you customize the print characteristics, like page size, font, font size and other options.
Miscellaneous
If the 'Smooth Scrolling' checkbox of the preferences dialog is checked, MacBPM will use offscreen drawing for each window that is opened after the checkbox has been selected. Offscreen drawing needs more memory but hasn't got the problems that direct output has with floating windows and screen borders.
Here's a short desciption of menu commands, that have not been mentioned before.
The 'Count BPMs...' command of the BPM menu (you can press the F14-key instead) opens the standard BPM counter, described in the MacBPM Counter section. The timing method that is used, can be determined by radio-buttons within the preferences dialog.
'Edit Entry...' of the Database menu opens an Edit-dialog for each highlighted bpm entry.
Currently 'Edit Entry...' only opens a maximum of eight dialogs at the same call of 'Edit Entry...', but generally you are free to have as many Edit-dialogs open, as you like.
By choosing the 'Remove Marks' menu item, you can remove the marks of the mark-column of the frontmost database view.
There are several usefull keyboard shortcuts:
<F14> brings the BPM Counter to front
<Return> opens an Edit-dialog for the selected bpm data records
<Ins/Help> opens a 'New Entry'-dialog for a new data record
<Del> deletes all selected data records, after the user
confirmed the action
<Shift>+<Del> deletes the selected records without asking the user for
confirmation
<Crs-Up/Down> scrolls one line up or down
<PageUp/Down> scrolls one page up or down
<Enter> alternatively to the OK button of the BPM Counter,
you can use the <Enter> key
Distribution
MacBPM is distributed as freeware. So you are welcome to use and distribute unmodified copies of MacBPM for non-commercial purposes.
Disclaimer
The author makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding MacBPM. Use the programs of MacBPM at your own risk. The author claims no liability for any problems caused directly or indirectly by MacBPM.
For questions, suggestions or any bug reports just send me an e-mail. If you like to support our World-Wide-Web BPM-List, send your bpms to un0k@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de.
Here's the URL of our homepage, the "INFINITY disco zone": http://rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~un0k/Infinity.html
