Pi music server and MoOde

[mpearce38]

Thanks all for helpful advice have been trying for a couple years to get a stable streaming setup for Raspberry. Persistent with Voliumo for some time but constant dropouts and difficult configured. Mood is simple to install, good interface and most important stable!!

[PicoWattson]

@mpearce38 Welcome to the The Clan Of The Cave Gear bruddah. Two years is some penance in the pursuit of audio satience.

If only we'd  known your anguish we could have sent M Houston, for a small donation to SNA, to ease your  pain and molify your decision to embrace mOode and join the brethren of the enlightened.

[bob_m_54]

On 15/02/2020 at 11:41 PM, PicoWattson said:

@mpearce38 Welcome to the The Clan Of The Cave Gear bruddah. Two years is some penance in the pursuit of audio satience.

If only we'd  known your anguish we could have sent M Houston, for a small donation to SNA, to ease your  pain and molify your decision to embrace mOode and join the brethren of the enlightened.

Even he took a little convincing at first though....

 

On 27/08/2017 at 8:59 PM, mwhouston said:

I'm about to purchase MoOde for $10. Is it really worth it. Better than Rune and Volumio???

Edited February 16, 2020 by bob_m_54

[PicoWattson]

... but he now sprouts the mantra, is usually the first kid on the block to install the latest upgrade, and could be considered a fully committed moody.

[turnthetable]

Have been using Volumio and thought I'd give MoOde another try, had it way back when it was more of an "enthusiasts" software and difficult for a pleb like me to get working.

 

I've been downloading 6.4.2 for the past hour and a half and it's still showing 6+ hours to go even though my internet speed shows 20/5.

 

Is this normal? it's only 1.4gig file and looks like I'll have to download overnight.

 

 

[RankStranger]

29 minutes ago, turnthetable said:

Have been using Volumio and thought I'd give MoOde another try, had it way back when it was more of an "enthusiasts" software and difficult for a pleb like me to get working.

 

I've been downloading 6.4.2 for the past hour and a half and it's still showing 6+ hours to go even though my internet speed shows 20/5.

 

Is this normal? it's only 1.4gig file and looks like I'll have to download overnight.

 

 

I think my download a couple of weeks ago only took about 15-20 mins on a 50mbps connection. 
 

maybe stop and restart it?

Edited April 13, 2020 by RankStranger

[turnthetable]

3 minutes ago, RankStranger said:

only took about 15-20 mins on a 50mbps connection. 

Yeah stopped and tried again but still showing 6 hours (50 kB/sec download speed)

 

Maybe me, maybe them.

 

I'll just let it run overnight

 

Thanks for the reply

[herehear!]

On 29/11/2019 at 12:36 PM, Rrobot said:

wow @mwhouston! Are you running a HAT or a USB dac out of interest? To my great shame I'm using a pifi 2.0 Chinese clone. I had thought it sounded rather good and was reassured by the quality of the PCM5122 chip but have just read some more objective tests over at audiosciencereview and it's actually not that great, perhaps because it doesn't have an external clock... much of the audio science goes over my head to be honest. I'm not even sure where one would find DSD source material - intrigued that you're playing DSD128 and higher!

So, @Rrobot, no shame in using a pifi so don't worry about that. But, if you're like me, what's the next HAT you're thinking about? or even an external DAC? I'm trying for ye olde 'hifiberry dac+ pro' but if that doesn't work out, i'd very much consider a Topping E30, if I were more reassured about the build quality of SMSL sanskrit MK II, I wouldn't mind it either. Anyhow, what are *you* going to do?

[Rrobot]

1 hour ago, herehear! said:

So, @Rrobot, no shame in using a pifi so don't worry about that. But, if you're like me, what's the next HAT you're thinking about? or even an external DAC? I'm trying for ye olde 'hifiberry dac+ pro' but if that doesn't work out, i'd very much consider a Topping E30, if I were more reassured about the build quality of SMSL sanskrit MK II, I wouldn't mind it either. Anyhow, what are *you* going to do?

funny you mention the sanskrit 10th Mk II...I have one of those now! It's actually great, although android (mi box 3) doesn't seem to play perfectly with it...at least volume control wise - get a few glitches when raising and lowering volume level. Pretty flawless with moode however and it looks very well built.  

 

As for the Pi Fi 2.0 i actually went and did all the mods recommended - sent myself crosseyed trying to solder SMDs but it all worked out and now i have the reassurance that it's as good as it can be without the apparent flaws of some bad design. Can I hear the difference? Not sure I can to be honest. lol

[WINEDS]

Does MoOde support DRC eg: via BruteFIR or similar?

[Rrobot]

Don't think so at this stage. Volumio does however ?https://volumio.github.io/docs/Plugins_User_Manuals/brutefir/Drc_with_Volumio.html

[MTsoul]

Hi All, 

 

With Google Music discontinued, I've decided to go the pi server route. It's all a wonderful new world to explore and learn, however I'm keen to get some shortcuts from you wise chaps. 

 

I'd like to set up a pi4 at my work desk. With a DAC, remote, and maybe a touchscreen. 

 

Any circuit boards/HATs/cases that would be recommended here? 

[Rrobot]

1 hour ago, MTsoul said:

Hi All, 

 

With Google Music discontinued, I've decided to go the pi server route. It's all a wonderful new world to explore and learn, however I'm keen to get some shortcuts from you wise chaps. 

 

I'd like to set up a pi4 at my work desk. With a DAC, remote, and maybe a touchscreen. 

 

Any circuit boards/HATs/cases that would be recommended here? 

You know what, depending if you're willing to give type d amplification a go and don't mind experimenting... I'd maybe give this a whirl...

 

https://a.aliexpress.com/_dSvYPF6

 

There's a few suptronics offerings:

 

http://www.suptronics.com/AV_Products.html

 

I know it doesn't tick the remote or the screen boxes but if you're at the pc anyway... Is it needed? 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Rrobot

[gwurb]

10 hours ago, MTsoul said:

Any circuit boards/HATs/cases that would be recommended here? 

I am using SmartiPi Touch case + back cover + official touchscreen. I cut out a portion of the cover to provide airflow and access to HAT connectors if needed. The cover provides extra protection for any possible HATs.

 

I prefer an external USB DACs, but SmartiPi bigger cover can fit a lot of HAT height. A smaller cover can still fit  HATs or no cover could be used.

Edited July 10, 2020 by gwurb

[MTsoul]

20 hours ago, Rrobot said:

There's a few suptronics offerings:

 

http://www.suptronics.com/AV_Products.html

Cheers, some nice kits in there to play with! 

[Rrobot]

18 minutes ago, MTsoul said:

Cheers, some nice kits in there to play with! 

Hard to know what the quality of circuit implementation is or how they would measure objectively, but the chipsets are the well known chifi standards you see in little smsl, topping, breeze audio amps, dacs and the like. I had the x400 in my kitchen on the fridge  connected to a couple of little bookshelf speakers and it sounded  decent enough. Audiophile? Perhaps not. All in one package, with one power brick is an advantage to me tho.

 

One thing I've never cracked is Bluetooth on moode or volumio. Always seems to crash.

Edited July 11, 2020 by Rrobot

[gwurb]

29 minutes ago, Rrobot said:

One thing I've never cracked is Bluetooth on moode or volumio. Always seems to crash.

I bought a USB Bluetooth dongle. I found too many dropouts with the Raspberry Pi Bluetooth.

Something like

https://www.amazon.com.au/Plugable-Bluetooth-Adapter-Raspberry-Compatible/dp/B009ZIILLI/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&keywords=Bluetooth+Adapter+USB&qid=1594462729&s=computers&sr=1-18

 

[bob_m_54]

Recently I've been having a problem with MoOde Player. All my Flac albums list tracks twice, but it doesn't happen with MP3 albums. I haven't used it for a few weeks, so the other day I switched it on, and updated it. Then, because I had added a lot more music, I deleted the library tag cache, Re-generated the database, and the album art cache, and rebooted it.

 

That's when I noticed the problem. Even when selecting a Flac album to play, it adds all the tracks twice. Has anyone else noticed this happening?

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by bob_m_54
pics

[Rrobot]

45 minutes ago, bob_m_54 said:

Recently I've been having a problem with MoOde Player. All my Flac albums list tracks twice, but it doesn't happen with MP3 albums. I haven't used it for a few weeks, so the other day I switched it on, and updated it. Then, because I had added a lot more music, I deleted the library tag cache, Re-generated the database, and the album art cache, and rebooted it.

 

That's when I noticed the problem. Even when selecting a Flac album to play, it adds all the tracks twice. Has anyone else noticed this happening?

 

Not that specifically, but recently found library management a bit crap. Like not handling various artists albums properly, picking up only part of an album. Assumed id stuffed something up? 

[bob_m_54]

2 hours ago, Rrobot said:

Not that specifically, but recently found library management a bit crap. Like not handling various artists albums properly, picking up only part of an album. Assumed id stuffed something up? 

Yeah, I have never had a lot of success listing compilation albums, but I get around it by having all compilation albums with album artist listed as "Various Artists", then just select that in the artists list.

 

This other fault is bugging me though, and it didn't used to operate this way. It's only since I recently updated the software.

[Rrobot]

I must admit I'm finding the whole Pi streamer experience a bit less enjoyable than before. Now I've moved to a subsonic/airsonic server arrangement I try and stream to the moode via UPNP and frankly it's very hit and miss with constant dropouts. I suspect the issue may be my network, or the protocol, or something else. 

 

Your dupes issue is curious ...can't really explain that one! Depending on how customised your installation is, I often just reinstall a fresh image when I have trouble. 

[bob_m_54]

OK I have made some progress, even though it was sort of two steps forward and one step back.. I checked out the MoOde Audio forum, and got some hints there, and also on the Synology NAS forum. This is what my day has been like, and as I posted on the MoOde forum:

 

Quote

 

I have sorted out my problem. I think...
When I updated my music on my NAS (Synology DS218J) the other day, I renamed one of the folders in my shared music folder from Flac to FLAC, to make things easier when copying files from my USB HDD to the NAS. It appears that was when I started having the doubled track listings.

 

What I found, when I tried to stream music from my NAS to my Yamaha RX-V1071, was that when I selected to browse by Folders, I could see both Flac and FLAC folders listed, even though only the FLAC folder was visible using a file browser on my Linux laptop, and Synology File App. It seems to have been caused by renaming the folder via a file browser on the laptop, instead of using the Synology Web Interface.

 

I moved my 3 music folders (FLAC, MP3 and Comedy) from the shared music folder on the NAS to the photos folder on the NAS temporarily, and then deleted the MoOde Library Tag Cache, Updated the MPD database and Re-Booted MoOde (which cleared my library). Then I moved the 3 music folders back to the NAS Shared music folder, and re-generated the MPD database.

 

MoOde is now only showing each track listed singly, as it should, and only populates the play list with one instance of each track. The Yamaha receiver is still showing the "ghost" folder, unfortunately.

 

So the fault is in the way "Ghost" folders are persistent on the NAS. I am currently trying to resolve this. One suggestion on the Synology forum was to re-create the "Ghost" folders on the NAS using the web interface file app, then delete them, again using the web interface app. I have done this, but the NAS is currently re-indexing the media files, so I can't tell if this worked until re-indexing is finished.

 

I'll report back tomorrow and let you know how it pans out.

 

There is probably an easier way to do it, but this is what I did after trying a few different approaches.

Edited September 7, 2020 by bob_m_54

[pwstereo]

8 hours ago, bob_m_54 said:

...Flac to FLAC...

A bit weird, but Linux/UNIX would see that as two different directories, but you renamed, not created or copied.

You'd have to think that Moode had its database of the music under /Flac that it was working from, then when you renamed the directory, it leapt into action and created a new (or updated the existing) database of the music collection under /FLAC, hence the double entries.

Under Volumio, you can force a rescan of storage locations to create a fresh database and artwork cache. I suspect Moode would have something similar.

[bob_m_54]

OK, update on my weird "Ghost Folder" NAS problem. This morning, after the media file re-indexing on the NAS, everything is back to normal again.

 

It appears that MoOde was happy with just the MoOde MPD database flush, by updating to an empty NAS Shared Folder, then re-generating the database again, once the NAS Shared Folder was repopulated. But The Yamaha RX-V wasn't happy till after the NAS had finished re-indexing the media files in it's shared folders.

 

I think that because the NAS folders were changed via a file browser on a laptop, instead of via the NAS's web interface file app, media directories and files weren't re-indexed, causing the ghost folder to still be visible on the Yammy RX-V. I don't know for sure, but now after re-indexing, only the real folders are visible.

 

What I forgot to check was whether the ghost folder showed up in MoOde, under the Sources window.

[bob_m_54]

29 minutes ago, pwstereo said:

A bit weird, but Linux/UNIX would see that as two different directories, but you renamed, not created or copied.

You'd have to think that Moode had its database of the music under /Flac that it was working from, then when you renamed the directory, it leapt into action and created a new (or updated the existing) database of the music collection under /FLAC, hence the double entries.

Under Volumio, you can force a rescan of storage locations to create a fresh database and artwork cache. I suspect Moode would have something similar.

Yes MoOde has a MPD database Update, and a Re-Gen function. The update only scans for changed files, the Re-Gen is supposed to completely re-generate a new database. But neither of these worked while there was a copy of the music files in the NAS Shared Music folder, even thought the folder name was changed. As above, it wasn't till I re-generated to an empty folder, that the database appeared to be flushed, and it was able to regenerate a proper new database. Sounds weird I know, but that's basically the way it worked.

 

Also, when browsing through a file browser on a Linux laptop, or browsing using the web interface file app on the NAS, only one folder was visible on the NAS, and that was the renamed folder. The original "FLAC" folder wasn't there. That's why I think re-indexing was the key.