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Beta test: MPFreaker 1.5 (with Lyrics!)

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:15 pm
by beastie
Edit: MPFreaker 1.5 has been released. This beta test has ended.

Download the latest release of MPFreaker here:
http://www.lairware.com/download/

Leon

So far sp good!

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:19 am
by Me
Slight problem with wrong lyrics showing up though....

And support planned for liner notes? Album credits and such?

Lyrics etc.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:13 am
by beastie
Incorrect lyrics seem to be a not-so-uncommon problem on a lot of lyrics web sites. There's not a lot I can do about this. :(

More bad news - this feature may be scuppered before it makes it to a release version! The actions of Warner records aren't heartening:
<http://www.pearworks.com/pages/pearLyrics.html>

beta expired

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:47 am
by hauser
The beta seems to have expired. Will a new beta be posted soon? Thanks.

MPFreaker 1.5 beta 3 now available

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:25 am
by beastie
Yes, there's a new beta available at the same address as before.

The most important change is that it is now a Universal Binary to run natively on Intel Macs when they are released. Lots of minor tweaks as well.

Leon

1.5 Beta

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:02 pm
by FreakerFreak
I will enjoy the addition of lyrics.

Expired

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:06 pm
by me
Looks like this has expired again. The download link above still contains a b3 version. Can you please post an updated version?

1.5b4 up now

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 4:19 pm
by beastie
Beta 4 of MPFreaker 1.5 is up now at the same URL.

No single dramatic change, but improved results overall.

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:02 pm
by Guest
Will 1.5 have ogg file format support?

MPFreaker 1.5 beta 5 available

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:02 pm
by beastie
Beta 5 is now up at the same URL as before (http://www.pixeltoy.com/mpfreaker-1.5beta.zip).

The most significant improvement over beta 4 is that many, many bugs have been fixed in the Intel code. Beta 5 now appears stable and trustworthy on Intel macs.

Lyrics gathering is out. Because of legal action against similar software, MPFreaker 1.5 will not have the ability to automatically find and add lyrics to songs. Warner/Chappell Music was wrong to demand that PearWorks cease distribution of their PearLyrics widget, but LairWare isn't big enough to fight Warner/Chappell Music in court either.
Will 1.5 have ogg file format support?
No.

Leon

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:01 pm
by Aric
So 1.5 will be just a small bugfix release compiled as a universal binary?

Fair enough... not your fault, I guess.

Here are a few suggestions for future versions.

MPFreaker still doesn't do as good a job as other tools at correctly identifying music and finding details/artwork.

It would be nice to have the option of higher quality artwork. Having a preference switch for MPFreaker to add higher quality artwork if multiple sources are available would be nice. Right now I've had MPFreaker assign smaller artwork even when larger artwork is available from places like Amazon.com.

Improving initial scanning time would be nice also.

The state of 1.5

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:33 am
by beastie
MPFreaker 1.5 will still have much nicer lyrics display and editing features than iTunes. I do accept that the automatic lyrics gathering capability was "the big feature" though, aside from being a Universal Binary. It's a crying shame indeed.

As for good quality art ... I unfortunately cannot have MPFreaker use art from Amazon.com without violating their terms of use. Other bits of software flaunt Amazon's terms and only manage to avoid legal action by not ending up on Amazon's radar because of being free and/or not heavily used. I want MPFreaker to always be 100% above board. Yet other pieces of software conform to Amazon's terms by only doing one song at a time, and offer a link to that item on Amazon -- which would be incompatible with MPFreaker's "batch" mentality. However, if anyone discovers a web site with a sizable library of high quality cover art, and which does not prohibit what MPFreaker does, I am always happy to include support for it.

I'm also always looking at speeding up the reading in of one's entire music library. Stay tuned on this one ...

Leon

1.5b

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:07 am
by dholaday
This request is probably way too late, but is there any way to get MPF to fetch composer info?

Thanks

MPFreaker 1.5 beta 6

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:19 am
by beastie
We've flip-flopped back to allowing lyrics gathering for 1.5.

Beta 6 also has a host of other minor improvements, and is also a testbed for a couple of new internal information-gathering ideas that may or may not make it into the final release.

Once again, it's at the same URL: http://www.pixeltoy.com/mpfreaker-1.5beta.zip
This request is probably way too late, but is there any way to get MPF to fetch composer info?
If we could get reliable access to such information, it would be possible. I know of no such source of information, however.

Leon

Beta 7 available

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:11 am
by beastie
Alright, we're coming in to the home stretch for 1.5. Beta 7 is now available for your poking and prodding.

New feature: The search field can now also instantaneously search all of your song lyrics for a word or phrase. The interface is supposed to be grokkable enough that I don't need to explain anything here.

Song info caching: This means that after MPFreaker looks at a directory or playlist, it'll be able to bring it up almost instantaneously every time after that.

Lots of minor tweaks and improvements, too.

As always, it's at the same URL: http://www.pixeltoy.com/mpfreaker-1.5beta.zip

Leon