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Sneak Peek - I shouldn't be showing this

DJ Stoyvo 3:21 AM - 27 May, 2016
This is a DJ Library app that I've been working on. Don't really want to share it in fear of being ripped off...

Thoughts so far?

i.imgur.com

I'm sure you can tell what features it has, and will have... Such as Serato crate syncing, tag editing, etc all in one spot.

Don't mind the duplicate songs, not done the library import part yet :(

I'm open to suggestions and features anyone wants to see!
ZackDaniels 9:14 AM - 27 May, 2016
Damn homie, looking dope man. Def would use
Taipanic 2:14 PM - 27 May, 2016
Cool, how far out to having a working, released version?
DJ Stoyvo 2:34 PM - 27 May, 2016
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Damn homie, looking dope man. Def would use

Thanks!

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Cool, how far out to having a working, released version?

A couple months before I can open up for testing/beta
PopRoXxX 2:43 PM - 27 May, 2016
Can't wait to try this bro!
Taipanic 2:46 PM - 27 May, 2016
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Damn homie, looking dope man. Def would use

Thanks!

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Cool, how far out to having a working, released version?

A couple months before I can open up for testing/beta

Awesome, put me on the list please.
AKIEM 7:46 PM - 27 May, 2016
Dope.
I can test that.
Laz219 12:04 AM - 28 May, 2016
Trending/Statistics looks good to me! Always wanted a way to be able to manage my library based on what I'm actually playing.
Papa Midnight 1:01 AM - 28 May, 2016
Quote:
This is a DJ Library app that I've been working on. Don't really want to share it in fear of being ripped off...

Thoughts so far?

i.imgur.com

I'm sure you can tell what features it has, and will have... Such as Serato crate syncing, tag editing, etc all in one spot.

Don't mind the duplicate songs, not done the library import part yet :(

I'm open to suggestions and features anyone wants to see!


Great effort! What language are you using? :)
Mr. Goodkat 1:50 AM - 28 May, 2016
just what i need, itunes just sht the bed on me
d:raf 1:57 AM - 28 May, 2016
I'm intrigued. I've been sticking with Itunes 11.2.2 just to avoid issues with the newer iterations, but this looks better.
DJ Stoyvo 5:02 AM - 28 May, 2016
Loving the feedback so far folks!

Any suggestions or features you feel would be useful?
AddamXavier 5:47 AM - 28 May, 2016
Here's 2 off the top of my head:

1. allow the ability to change the ID3v2 version tags in mp3's (like from 2.4 to 2.3, etc.). i was using iTunes to do this but apparently they took that away

2. allow the ability to copy information from the iTunes metadata into the mp3 tag. specifically i would love to copy the iTunes rating into the 'rating' tag within the mp3 so its actually stored in the file (and can be read by Window among other things)

if you have a windows machine, you might want to look at ID3TagIt: download.cnet.com. I've been using it forever and love it because of how much stuff you can edit in it.
Papa Midnight 7:43 AM - 28 May, 2016
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if you have a windows machine, you might want to look at ID3TagIt: download.cnet.com. I've been using it forever and love it because of how much stuff you can edit in it.


I've been using Mp3Tag (www.mp3tag.de) for several years, and would recommend it to Windows and Mac users alike.

As an aside, it wipes out ID3 2.4 and changes it to ID3 2.3 in the case of mp3s.

I started using it when I used Traktor for a while years ago and noticed that Traktor was changing tags to 2.4 and breaking my library.

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2. allow the ability to copy information from the iTunes metadata into the mp3 tag. specifically i would love to copy the iTunes rating into the 'rating' tag within the mp3 so its actually stored in the file (and can be read by Window among other things)


Last I knew, iTunes didn't store ratings directly in the files (specifically ratings). Has this changed?
DJ Stoyvo 12:31 PM - 28 May, 2016
The switch of ID3v2 versions is a good idea. Im surprised 2.4 still isn't widely accepted.


RE: Song Ratings. Apparently its considered bad practice to use the Rating tag. From an online source:

There is a loose de facto standard for implementation of song ratings. Most apps will display 0 to 5 stars for any given song, and how the stars are expressed can vary. For instance, when rating a song in iTunes, the rating is not embedded in the tag in the music file, but is instead stored in a separate database that contains all of the iTunes metadata.
AddamXavier 2:49 PM - 28 May, 2016
I got all gung ho about v2.4 forever ago. i want to say the length for the song title is shorter than v2.3 and it was truncating my titles to fit, so that was my primary reason for switching back. so its likely they changed stuff on v2.4 in a way that made it non-viable. i was was pretty surprised too when i found out about it.

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There is a loose de facto standard for implementation of song ratings. Most apps will display 0 to 5 stars for any given song, and how the stars are expressed can vary. For instance, when rating a song in iTunes, the rating is not embedded in the tag in the music file, but is instead stored in a separate database that contains all of the iTunes metadata.


what I'm suggesting would be a manual button click of migrating the star rating and translating it to the mp3 rating tag. i would prefer to at least hold the rating in the file for portability reasons. this would be my logic for any metadata that mp3's have a tag for but my not be in common use.

i've lost my itunes library file before and had to rebuild any of the data that wasn't held in the file. i was a little surprised itunes didn't save to the file when there was an option (even if not necessarily a common/standard use). Windows Media Player and the Windows Explorer windows use that ID tag. i have a mac (laptop, still on Windows for desktop) now so thats not as important, but at least it would allow easy sorting/management outside of itunes on Windows. It was always my hope Serato would just implement the file tag since it's already there.

While i understand what you quoted, i find it silly that that has become the case. I'm betting it has something to do with not reading/writing the files unless needed, which makes sense. but why not still store it in the file? i love that serato stores the cues/loops/etc. in files so you don't have to worry about the database screwing up all the hard work.

obviously, its not a highly needed feature, but its always been a "nice to have" type thing for me.

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I've been using Mp3Tag (www.mp3tag.de) for several years, and would recommend it to Windows and Mac users alike.

As an aside, it wipes out ID3 2.4 and changes it to ID3 2.3 in the case of mp3s.

I started using it when I used Traktor for a while years ago and noticed that Traktor was changing tags to 2.4 and breaking my library.


I'll look into it. I seem to remember it not being as robust with tag editing, but if it changes over the id3 versions, i could at least use it for that.

Now that you mention it, i really just need the ability to set a version in master settings and it always use that. I pretty much use v2.3 as much as i can. Just have it read the id3 version and if it's anything other than the master version, change versions and mark it to be saved

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Last I knew, iTunes didn't store ratings directly in the files (specifically ratings). Has this changed?


Correct, this has not changed. My suggestion would allow Windows users to see the ratings in an Explorer window as well as be a backup in case you iTunes library ever goes bad. it could also theoretically be used by Serato or any other programs. but as Stoyvo said, apparently the 'Rating' tag isnt seen as a standard container and people tend to avoid using it, which i think sucks.

in any case, keep up the good work Stoyvo and thank you for the consideration
Dj_Roger 4:12 PM - 28 May, 2016
Looks awesome, great work.
nik39 7:48 PM - 28 May, 2016
I'd like to have a tool to merge all the duplicates!
Or in other words.. replace media.
It happens quite often that I have a song in lower quality, then I tag and sort it.. now a better quality replacement files comes ... hunting down the lower quality file and transfer tags is so tedious!

Stovyo... If I can help you with this feature... please.. PLEASE let me know ;)
DJ Stoyvo 10:01 PM - 28 May, 2016
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Stovyo... If I can help you with this feature... please.. PLEASE let me know ;)

Actually... I have a duplicate checking tool partially built, but in a different language and with no real structure. Its based entirely on the file system. I want to build this one to have the option of file system and for libraries, but at the moment i have no idea how the serato database works. If you have any tools or suggestions ob reverse engineering it that would be super helpful :)
DJ Stoyvo 3:08 AM - 29 May, 2016
As a sign of appreciation, all those who have left a comment or have messaged me directly since posting this thread, up until this reply, will receive free copies of the app.

Thank you!
Marv Incredible 8:51 AM - 29 May, 2016
Meh. Late to the party as usual. Lol. Never mind. I'm more than happy to pay towards this project. But I would like to be considered for any beta-testing that you do before going public.

I can think of a ton of suggestions for this but if I had to pick one, there is without doubt a most powerful feature that my current Tag Editor of choice does, that hardly any others do - one that saves me hours and hours of time and allows the greatest flexibility of control without the need to have it built into the program. But, since it's a Tag Editor and not a library management tool, I can see ways that your program could help take it to the next level.

What I'd like to be able to do is to select one or more files or folders/crates and either through a right-click context menu or from a top-bar menu, have the ability to export all tag info to a .csv file. Ideally, it'd be a straight Excel doc, but a generic .csv will do. And then, once I've done whatever processing I want to do within my spreadsheet app, the ability to import that same data from the .csv file directly into (and overwriting) the tags for the chosen files.

This ability is like my secret weapon when it comes to tagging. I can harness all the power of Excel and bring to bear on my tags in ways that no Tag Editor ever made has been able to do (and I swear I've pretty much tested them all). And since it already exists, there's no need for them to either.

There are a few other things my current Tag Editor lacks that yours could include and that's aggregating the total playing time of all the selected tracks and having those appear in the spreadsheet as well as the GUI. Then, once Serato adds things like play count, we might finallly have the means to be able to extrapolate useful crate info that actually helps when planning out sets and routines or creating play lists for artwork and other mix-related data.

There is another downside to my current tool and that's the fact that it's PC-only. In fact it's pretty much the only reason I still have a PC to hand. You don't specify whether yours will be cross-platform but I truly hope it will be.

Anyway, I could go on but like I said, if I had to pick one feature request, it'd be this one. Props to you for what you're doing and all the best with it (also, bite Nik's hand off 'cos he's a freakin' genius when it comes to this stuff. :) ).

Peace
DJ Stoyvo 11:22 AM - 29 May, 2016
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have the ability to export all tag info to a .csv file

This could be useful. I'll add it to the list of tag editor features.

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You don't specify whether yours will be cross-platform but I truly hope it will be.

Yes, it is built for OSX and Windows. I'll provide more information regarding what specific versions at a later date.
Knockz 9:19 PM - 29 May, 2016
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What I'd like to be able to do is to select one or more files or folders/crates and either through a right-click context menu or from a top-bar menu, have the ability to export all tag info to a .csv file. Ideally, it'd be a straight Excel doc, but a generic .csv will do. And then, once I've done whatever processing I want to do within my spreadsheet app, the ability to import that same data from the .csv file directly into (and overwriting) the tags for the chosen files.


For now check out Tag Backup & Restore at www.kevesoft.com. Just skimmed over it and it looks like it may do what you are asking. Hopefully that does.
d:raf 5:28 AM - 31 May, 2016
I have a question; will this read from/write to the existing iTunes xml library file or is it something independent of that?
DJ Stoyvo 10:43 AM - 31 May, 2016
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I have a question; will this read from/write to the existing iTunes xml library file or is it something independent of that?


It will definitely read from iTunes, and would like it to write to iTunes, but I'm not sure if modifying the iTunes xml will cause issues
nik39 1:12 PM - 31 May, 2016
iTunes is a one way road. Changes to the XML will not have any effect on the files itself and the iTunes library itself :-/
DJ Stoyvo 1:32 PM - 31 May, 2016
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iTunes is a one way road. Changes to the XML will not have any effect on the files itself and the iTunes library itself :-/


I believe if you remove the ".itl" file, iTunes will rebuild the database from the XML file... This would require iTunes to close and re-open, and each time it would take a considerable amount of time to re-create that database (itl) file
nik39 6:22 PM - 31 May, 2016
Oh, wow. Didn't know that!
AKIEM 6:31 PM - 31 May, 2016
Just happy to see that Crate Path...

Better than anything Serato has done in years (joking kinda)
DJ Stoyvo 7:34 PM - 31 May, 2016
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Just happy to see that Crate Path...

Better than anything Serato has done in years (joking kinda)


Honestly, Serato created the best interface for crates in IMO. I plan to overhaul what's shown above. Everything is a proof of concept really
AKIEM 7:44 PM - 31 May, 2016
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Just happy to see that Crate Path...

Better than anything Serato has done in years (joking kinda)


Honestly, Serato created the best interface for crates in IMO. I plan to overhaul what's shown above. Everything is a proof of concept really


I agree. But they let it sit without making any improvements, forever.

Not being able to see what file a crate is in is a flaw imo.

So I'm not sure how just a path would work if the file is in multiple crates. But if they lit up, or a list is generated..... any way would be good.
DJ Stoyvo 7:56 PM - 31 May, 2016
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Not being able to see what file a crate is in is a flaw imo.

So I'm not sure how just a path would work if the file is in multiple crates. But if they lit up, or a list is generated..... any way would be good.


This app will display a ton of information in another window, such as total play time, play counts, and what crates it belongs to. As for list view, I'm still playing with ideas to best display it.
AKIEM 8:43 PM - 31 May, 2016
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Not being able to see what file a crate is in is a flaw imo.

So I'm not sure how just a path would work if the file is in multiple crates. But if they lit up, or a list is generated..... any way would be good.


This app will display a ton of information in another window, such as total play time, play counts, and what crates it belongs to. As for list view, I'm still playing with ideas to best display it.


Excellent.
tbone8 1:05 AM - 1 June, 2016
Damn it I'm always late!
The screenshot looks great and would be very handy.
I think for me the statistics would be important. I'd love to sort my library by what I play and then can use the dates of played to break them up into different gigs. Eg fri night commercial sat bounce etc
Also is it possible to know how long I play a song for? Not a necessity just inking out loud but would be interesting and help me to decide what song to make edits for

Keep up the great work and let us know if you need any help
Cheers
DJ Stoyvo 1:09 AM - 1 June, 2016
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Also is it possible to know how long I play a song for? Not a necessity just inking out loud but would be interesting and help me to decide what song to make edits for

Yes, after "analyzing" your dj library (serato), it will calculate an average playtime.
tbone8 2:07 AM - 1 June, 2016
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Also is it possible to know how long I play a song for? Not a necessity just inking out loud but would be interesting and help me to decide what song to make edits for

Yes, after "analyzing" your dj library (serato), it will calculate an average playtime.


Well there ya go. Great work. Let me know when it's available and I will happily purchase
Cheers
djaction 2:51 PM - 1 June, 2016
does it support MP4?

also pulling the correct year tag from a database somewhere is like the holy grail of tagging software for some of us
DJ Stoyvo 3:39 PM - 1 June, 2016
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does it support MP4?

Eventually, yes. It may be delayed from the initial launch. I find MP4 files are easily corrupted so I want to be careful around this file type.

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also pulling the correct year tag from a database somewhere is like the holy grail of tagging software for some of us

Yup! Using public APIs such as musicbrainz and discogs
Papa Midnight 10:42 PM - 1 June, 2016
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also pulling the correct year tag from a database somewhere is like the holy grail of tagging software for some of us

Yup! Using public APIs such as musicbrainz and discogs

I use Mp3tag a lot which allows for usage of discogs. One of the notes about discogs is that there are several versions of albums in many instances - sometimes with different years, especially with reissues, remasters, special editions, etc. Please be wary of this.

Additionally, iTunes provides a publicly accessible API that returns album art, and responses in JSON (affiliate.itunes.apple.com). I find this highly useful with Mp3tag, and thought I'd make note of it here. Here's a link to the Mp3Tag data source for comparison (forums.mp3tag.de).
The Return of Dj Sparky 10:57 PM - 1 June, 2016
you should add the conversion of tracktor/serato/pioneer cues and release it before rekordbuddy and you have a winner
DJ Stoyvo 1:04 AM - 2 June, 2016
Thanks Papa Midnight, ill keep this in mind.

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you should add the conversion of tracktor/serato/pioneer cues and release it before rekordbuddy and you have a winner

Rekordbuddy looks good! But will it ever exit beta? I'm just here to build something that's long overdue, and hopefully useful for others too
ZackDaniels 9:01 PM - 2 June, 2016
Soooo excited for this thing!!! Do you have an rough ETA Stoyvo?
DJ Stoyvo 12:37 AM - 3 June, 2016
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Soooo excited for this thing!!! Do you have an rough ETA Stoyvo?


I'm aiming for Fall this year...
AddamXavier 5:40 PM - 15 June, 2016
So i have another weird feature request.

I've been starting to do weddings and the latest couple requested karaoke. Since Serato Video reads MP3G's i figured why not. the issue i run into is the program i use that actually works in ripping the cdg to mp3g doesnt really allow me to customize the file names the way i would since i'm kind of particular (OCD) about my library.

So all i would ask is if you allow the ability to change the song's filename within the program, have it look for a ".cdg" file of the same name in the same folder and update that name too. I could see this making it take longer to batch rename so i think it would be good to be a settings toggle or something for UX reasons.
Taipanic 7:53 PM - 15 June, 2016
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So i have another weird feature request.

I've been starting to do weddings and the latest couple requested karaoke. Since Serato Video reads MP3G's i figured why not. the issue i run into is the program i use that actually works in ripping the cdg to mp3g doesnt really allow me to customize the file names the way i would since i'm kind of particular (OCD) about my library.

So all i would ask is if you allow the ability to change the song's filename within the program, have it look for a ".cdg" file of the same name in the same folder and update that name too. I could see this making it take longer to batch rename so i think it would be good to be a settings toggle or something for UX reasons.


My opinion would be no. There's probably about 17 people worldwide that use Serato for Karaoke and it seems like that would involve a considerable amount of programming logic for something that would actually benefit very few. VDJ and several other dedicated KJ programs work way better than Serato for Karaoke. It's a nice feature to have to use in a pinch though. Zip files with VDJ = way easier to manage a digital Karaoke collection.
AddamXavier 9:54 PM - 15 June, 2016
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So i have another weird feature request.

I've been starting to do weddings and the latest couple requested karaoke. Since Serato Video reads MP3G's i figured why not. the issue i run into is the program i use that actually works in ripping the cdg to mp3g doesnt really allow me to customize the file names the way i would since i'm kind of particular (OCD) about my library.

So all i would ask is if you allow the ability to change the song's filename within the program, have it look for a ".cdg" file of the same name in the same folder and update that name too. I could see this making it take longer to batch rename so i think it would be good to be a settings toggle or something for UX reasons.


My opinion would be no. There's probably about 17 people worldwide that use Serato for Karaoke and it seems like that would involve a considerable amount of programming logic for something that would actually benefit very few. VDJ and several other dedicated KJ programs work way better than Serato for Karaoke. It's a nice feature to have to use in a pinch though. Zip files with VDJ = way easier to manage a digital Karaoke collection.


i would argue about the programming logic. if he's already doing file rename, i would argue it would be about 4 extra lines of code the way it is in my head.

but yeah, just thought i would throw that out there. I bet most people that do karaoke and use mp3g's don't use serato and have them zipped (seems thats the most common way) which wouldn't work for what i'm asking. but i just see it as a value add or upsell in what i'm doing. hey it doesn't hurt to ask right?
DJ Stoyvo 1:20 AM - 16 June, 2016
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So all i would ask is if you allow the ability to change the song's filename within the program, have it look for a ".cdg" file of the same name in the same folder and update that name too. I could see this making it take longer to batch rename so i think it would be good to be a settings toggle or something for UX reasons.


I'll keep this in mind. Not specifically for ".cdg" files, but a handful of common metadata files. For example: Sony Sound Forge uses an "skd" (or something like that), or etc. Some apps take lyrics from an mp3 id3 tag and export to a .txt file. Would be useful to keep those in sync too.

What I'll do is detect other files with different extensions but same name, prompt the user if they'd like to rename those files as well.
AddamXavier 1:22 AM - 16 June, 2016
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So all i would ask is if you allow the ability to change the song's filename within the program, have it look for a ".cdg" file of the same name in the same folder and update that name too. I could see this making it take longer to batch rename so i think it would be good to be a settings toggle or something for UX reasons.


I'll keep this in mind. Not specifically for ".cdg" files, but a handful of common metadata files. For example: Sony Sound Forge uses an "skd" (or something like that), or etc. Some apps take lyrics from an mp3 id3 tag and export to a .txt file. Would be useful to keep those in sync too.

What I'll do is detect other files with different extensions but same name, prompt the user if they'd like to rename those files as well.


awesome that was pretty much what i was thinking. I've been a programmer for 8ish years now so i understand and appreciate keeping functions generic to handle multiple input types
Taipanic 2:28 PM - 16 June, 2016
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hey it doesn't hurt to ask right?


Definitely not, especially if it isn't a big deal to do.
I need mp4 support for my needs.
DJ Stoyvo 2:41 PM - 16 June, 2016
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hey it doesn't hurt to ask right?


Definitely not, especially if it isn't a big deal to do.
I need mp4 support for my needs.


I'm open to all requests, this thread is geared towards what users need. Mind you I need to prioritize items and introduce other features in later updates otherwise it'd never really be released.
DJ_X_Trodinaire 12:36 PM - 3 July, 2016
Tracking This Thread :)
DJ Stoyvo 3:23 AM - 4 July, 2016
Just an update: The name of this project is: spintools.io

Subscribe on the website to stay up-to-date with latest releases, news, etc.
DJ Stoyvo 3:37 AM - 4 July, 2016
Official Discussion: serato.com
Papa Midnight 2:50 PM - 4 July, 2016
It's getting real now!
DJ_Andre_905 4:42 PM - 4 July, 2016
This looks dope homey. By the way, I am a friend of your homies DJ Jay and DJ KW. This is great for DJs with large libraries. Not sure if you have experienced this issue but I had to stop using Scratch Live and was forced to switch to Serato DJ because of my large library. Scratch Live would crash since it could not handle large databases. I assume this would not affect Scratch Live or Serato DJ?
DJ Tracktion 8:36 PM - 5 July, 2016
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Trending/Statistics looks good to me! Always wanted a way to be able to manage my library based on what I'm actually playing.


This