User Settings
There are a number of settings you can change that affects how SnackAmp
operates. All of them have balloon help which describes in detail what they do.
They are also summarized below

The Play Settings affect how SnackAmp reacts to songs and overall GUI
settings. You can adjust fading of song volume, fading options, display options, and initial window
sizes. Each of the settings has bubble help to explain what the setting does.
Play Mode
The play mode settings determine what happens after a playing track is
complete.
Notes
- Buffer Time is the amount of time, in milliseconds, that the snack
engine queues in the operating system output buffers. If you find your music
stutters from time to time you can increase this value. Typical values are
from 1000.0 to 3000.0.
- Font Size Factor sets the overall scaling of fonts. You should
typically leave this at 1 and just change the individual fonts as you
desire.
Sort Mode
The sort mode settings determine how the tracks are sorted or shuffled in the
playlist. You can also access these settings by the menu the drops down when
selecting the
icon on the main
interface.
Display Info
The Display Info determine how much track information is shown on the main
interface. The choices are:

All Information

Title, Artist, Album, Track, Rate and Genre

Title, Artist and Album

Title Only
Note: In the Title Only view, the main menu can be accessed by
pressing the right mouse button over the track info display.
Auto Playlist
The Auto Playlist settings adjust the Auto Playlist window including
automatic syncing of tracks to the playing track and display options for the
track list.
ID3 Tags
The ID3 Tags settings adjust capability and format for ID3 tagging.
Note: It is recommended to keep the Preserve Time Stamp on Edit off
when using the table view to allow the Auto Playlist window to detect when
changes have been made to a track.
Notes
- Preserve Time Stamp on Edit should typically be left off since if
enabled, the auto-playlist file manager won't detect changes in the file and
automatically refresh the display.
Folders
The folders tag allows you to manage the various folders (also available from
the File and Settings menus directly), and whether to monitor folders and
catalogs.
Notes
- Monitor Catalogs for Changes is useful in a shared environment, if
other users re-catalog media folders that you are also using, SnackAmp will
detect the changes and read them in. The check is done every few minutes.
- Monitor Folders for New Files is useful if you want to
automatically detect new files added to some specific folders, and have the
files added to the playlist. This is useful when ripping or downloading
music to specific folders.
- Inhibit File Modifications is used to prohibit users from moving,
deleting or renaming files or folders. Obviously, if they know enough they
can disable this, but for kids it works great.
Fonts
The Fonts tab allows you to choose various fonts and sizes for different
SnackAmp displays.
Colors
The Colors tab allows you to adjust the various colors to suit your taste.
Web/Browser
From the Web/Browser tab of the settings form you can enable/disable the
remote control, set the port number to use and adjust the refresh rate client
browsers will use to get play updates. There is also additional information
shown such as URL and file locations.
Notes
- Browser Control File Name is the name of the default file used when
a users specifies the host:port url without specifying a file. The file
extension should end in html, even though you may be using a Tcl Markup
Language (tml) file. The built in server will always use a tml file rather
than the html file if one exists.
- Local Folder to map /local to can be used to create a virtual web
site that you can add html or tml files to and requests to host:port/local/...
will be mapped to it. This allows you to add a custom remote control,
jukebox, home automation or whatever.
Diagnostic
The Diagnostic Tab has some settings to help out when problems occur or
adjustments to tweak your particular system. You won't
normally have to enable or set any of these options. They can be helpful in
finding problems with your configuration.
Notes
- Enable Diagnostic Output sends detail SnackAmp activity to the
built-in console, including web activity. You should not leave this on
unless you are troubleshooting a problem.
- Fast Catalog Scan decreases the time required to catalog the files
dramatically. However, it relies on file extensions to determine if the a
file found is a music file. Therefore if you have folders ending in music
file extensions, they won't be recognized as folders. This typically won't
be a problem.
- Use Clear Text Settings File can be enabled if you don't need
compatibility for pre version 2.0.1 SnackAmp. Enabling this makes it easier
to directly modify the settings file
located in your home folder.
Auto Level
The Auto Level tab provides some settings to adjust the amount of auto level
compensation and level of analysis performed. There are also buttons to pre
compute or reset auto level data. The default settings should work fine, however
you can adjust these to your liking.
Notes
- Max Gain (in dB) determines the maximum gain that will be applied
to a track. If this value is set too high, there is a possibility the output
will be clipped. I recommend you keep this under 4dB to prevent clipping.
- Reference Level Offset (dB) should typically left at 0. It applies
an offset to all tracks equally.
- Auto Level Control Factor determines the amount of equalization
applied, the larger the number the less effect the leveling has. I have
found a value of ~33 works well. Typical values are from 20 to 40.
File Association (Windows only)
The File Association tab allows you to associate various file types (those
set in the Supported File Extensions on the Folders tab).
Associating a file type directs a double-click or run operation to SnackAmp and
installs a context menu to play or add the track the the playlist.