New Feature Idea - Plausible?

[bazokajoe_2k]

The newest version of winamp has me thinking.

The newest Winamp contains an implementation of MusicMix software, it automatically analyzes the acoustics of your audio files and creates a categorized database.  You can then select any song in your library and click a "mix" button and it will create a 20 song playlist filled with songs similar to the song you selected.

Now, I'm assuming it would most likely be illegal to write a program to read the database that winamp creates, but would it be possible to write a program that would analyze the acoustics of your tracks, and store the database on the iRiver.  Then, have an option to "Mix" a track and have it look up similar tracks in the database to create a playlist?

I'm not entirely sure how difficult this would be to do...I have no programming skills unfortunately.  What I'm doing now is mixing tracks in winamp and just copying the playlist over, but sometimes you just want to hear songs like one song that you didn't plan for earlier.

So, possible reality or far fetched idea?

[vecta]

I don't know if I'm missing something, but I can't find a "mix" button, or any mention of MusicMix in my version (5.091 pro) - It sounds like some functionality I'd love to play with if you could give me a pointer as to where to find it.

Ric.

[shotofadds]

You need Winamp 5.1 for this...

[nobby]

no, using winamp's DB wouldnt be illegal, why would it?

[bazokajoe_2k]

It's in Winamp 5.1 in the music library.  The main selection for it is at the very bottom, called Prodixis MusicMagic.  You run the analysis through there.  You select any song in your library and there's a mix button.

And as for legality, as far as I'm aware Predixis wrote the plugin for Winamp, and it keeps a separate database.  I'm sure they've copyrighted their technology too.  But it's such an awesome feature it would be very neat to see an implementation of it in Rockbox.

EDIT: Here's the link to the site of the people who lent the technology to winamp: http://www.predixis.biz/

[vecta]

Oh yeah,  and there I was thinking my Winamp was up-to-date.  Thanks.

[SRGilbert]

You can then select any song in your library and click a "mix" button and it will create a 20 song playlist filled with songs similar to the song you selected.

Can you save this playlist in M3U format?  If nothing else, maybe you could use winamp to make them and play them back on the iHP like usual.

[kenshin]

This sounds like a cool idea but I'm having difficulty believing Rob Zombie is accoustically similar to Weezer. Maybe a little bit on the base end...

[bazokajoe_2k]

This sounds like a cool idea but I'm having difficulty believing Rob Zombie is accoustically similar to Weezer. Maybe a little bit on the base end...

It's sketchy until it completely catalogues your library.  After that it still has it's misses, but more or less is really good.

Also, I have been saving the playlists and just playing htem on my iRiver.  I just think it would be neat to be able to do it on the fly on the MP3 player.

[meowsqueak]

And as for legality, as far as I'm aware Predixis wrote the plugin for Winamp, and it keeps a separate database.  I'm sure they've copyrighted their technology too.  But it's such an awesome feature it would be very neat to see an implementation of it in Rockbox.

Since when was reverse engineering an electronic file to extract info from it illegal?

Oh, wait, do you live in the USA?

I am continually dismayed at how messed up the copyright/patent/IP situation is becoming worldwide. It's been approached badly and the snowball is too large to stop now. Intellectually, I find the burden of it really hard to bear sometimes, and it makes me cry inside.   :'(

Perhaps I just need to harden up and start suing people.

[bazokajoe_2k]

I'm in Canada, and I'm not sure of the legality of it.

Anywho...still wondering if anything like this might be possible.  I think it would be a fantastic feature, and I mean all the processing would be done on your computer, so it would just be pulling from categories on a database in the player which I'm sure it's more than capable of doing.