Chapter 16. Playing and Managing Your Music with Helix Banshee¶
Contents
Helix* Banshee™ is a GNOME music management and playback application that lets you import CDs, sync your music collection to an iPod* or other digital audio player, play music directly from an iPod (or other digital audio player), create playlists with songs from your library, create audio and MP3 CDs from subsets of your library, and subscribe to, download, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Helix Banshee also supports streaming audio through its Internet Radio plug-in.
To open Helix Banshee, click +.
The first time you open Helix Banshee, you are prompted to accept a license agreement, after which you are prompted to import music. Choose an import source, such as your home directory, a local folder, or a local file, then click .
After successfully importing your music, your library is displayed.
16.1. Listening to Music¶
To listen to music, Helix Banshee needs to know what is available to listen to. You can listen to music in your library, which means that you will need to import music from an external source such as a file, folder, or CD, or you can listen to music directly off a CD. You can also listen to music on Internet radio stations, podcasts, and your digital audio player (see Section 16.3, “Using Helix Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player” for more information).
16.1.1. Importing Music¶
Helix Banshee can import music from a file, folder, or CD.
Helix Banshee can automatically query MusicBrainz for extra information about tracks that you import, and fetch cover art for display when you play a song. To enable this feature, click +, then select .
16.1.2. Playing Your Music¶
To play a song, simply select the song in the library and click the play button in the upper left corner. Use the other buttons to pause a song or play the next or previous song. Use the loudspeaker button on the right to adjust the volume. You can also use the items on the menu to repeat or shuffle songs.
Helix Banshee also has an integrated CD player. When you insert a music CD, your CD title appears in the left panel. Select the title and click the play button to play your full CD.
16.1.2.1. Notification Area Icon¶
You can keep Helix Banshee hidden in the notification area when you are not interacting with it by minimizing the Helix Banshee window. You will only see pop-up bubbles identifying the current song when track changes happen.
If you do not want to see the pop-ups, click +++, then deselect .
16.1.2.2. Mini Mode¶
You can also use the Mini Mode feature to condense the interface and free up valuable desktop space. You can switch between your library, playlists, and music devices while in Mini Mode. To activate Mini Mode, click +.
16.1.2.3. Music Recommendations¶
Helix Banshee automatically recommends music that you might like, based on the currently playing song. It finds artists and popular songs that people with similar musical tastes enjoy.
If you do not want to receive recommendations, click +, then deselect .
16.1.3. Ripping Your Music¶
To rip music from a CD and add it to your library:
16.1.4. Listening to Internet Radio¶
You can use Helix Banshee to listen to Internet radio stations and streaming audio. The Radio view in Helix Banshee automatically lists several common Internet radio stations maintained on banshee-project.org. You can also add your own stations.
16.1.4.1. Listening to an Internet Radio Station¶
To listen to Internet radio stations, select in the source list on the left, then double-click the station you want to listen to.
16.1.4.2. Adding a New Internet Radio Station¶
16.1.5. Listening to Podcasts¶
Helix Banshee lets you subscribe, download, and listen to your favorite Podcasts. Podcasting is a form of audio blogging where users subscribe to a feed of shows and the shows’s episodes are downloaded and managed for offline listening.
16.1.5.1. Subscribing to a Podcast¶
16.2. Managing Your Music Library¶
Helix Banshee give you several ways to organize your music. You can create playlists, which allow you to put similar songs together, and you can sort and rate songs. You can also view a variety of information about your music collection, including playback statistics (when a song was last played and how many times).
16.2.1. Organizing Your Music¶
To create a new playlist, click + (or press Ctrl+N). A new playlist is displayed below in the left panel. To rename it, right-click the playlist, select and enter the name you want. To fill the new playlist, drag songs from the right-hand side of the window to the respective playlist entry and drop them, or use the options on the menu to remove or delete songs and rename or delete playlists. You can sort a playlist by clicking the title of the column. Click the column again to reverse the sort. You can also right-click , then click .
You can edit the name of the artist, album, and title, as well as the track number and track count. Simply select a song, then click +. You can also rate your music, which gives you the ability to play only songs with a certain rating. To rate a song, select the number of stars you want to assign in the field.
If you want to set all fields in a group to the same value, select multiple songs in a playlist, then click +. Make the changes you want, then click . You can also use the and buttons to cycle through the selected songs.
Click the tab to view detailed information about the selected song, including the bit rate, the sample rate, when a song was last played, when it was imported, how long the song is, and how many times the song has been played.
16.2.2. Creating Smart Playlists¶
You can create playlists that automatically add and remove songs based on criteria you specify. For example, a smart playlist can contain songs you rated as five stars but that you have not listened to for six months. Another smart playlist can contain all songs published in 2006 that you have labeled with the genre.
Helix Banshee automatically updates all smart playlists when a change is made to your music library. If you import new songs, Helix Banshee checks to see if they match any of your available smart playlists. When applicable, Helix Banshee also updates your smart playlists if you just listened to a song or updated a song’s metadata.
16.2.2.1. Creating a Smart Playlist¶
In Helix Banshee, click +.
Specify a name for the smart playlist, then select the criteria for songs in this playlist to match.
Use the plus and minus symbols to add or remove criteria. To use an already defined smart playlist, click , then select the playlist you want.
Click . The smart playlist is added to your music library.
16.2.2.2. Creating a Smart Playlist from a Search¶
You can create a smart playlist based on search criteria. For example, if you search for all songs in your music library by a certain artist, Helix Banshee can create a smart playlist in which all songs by that artist are selected.
16.3. Using Helix Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player¶
Helix Banshee supports several digital audio players, including Apple iPods, Creative Nomads, and almost any other generic USB Mass Storage player. Instead of having to use separate applications to get support for your audio devices, Helix Banshee gives you easy, integrated support and lets you copy your music to or from your device, no matter what format the music is in.
16.3.1. Playing Music from your Digital Audio Player¶
To play music from your digital audio player, simply plug your player into your system. After your system recognizes your device, an icon is displayed in the left panel in Helix Banshee.
Select the icon to display the music on your device in the right panel. Double-click the song you want to listen to.
To view or change device properties, right-click your device, then select . From there, you can view various pieces of information. If you have an iPod, you can update the owner's name.
16.3.2. Adding Music to Your Digital Audio Player¶
To add tracks to your player, simply drag the tracks you want from your Music Library to your device.
Helix Banshee transparently supports transcoding of your songs for any device. You can have your music library in any number of formats (including, but not limited to, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC), and it will be transparently transcoded before it is sent to your digital audio player.
To remove tracks, select your device in the list of sources, right-click the song you want to delete, then click .
16.3.3. Copying Music on Your Digital Audio Player to Helix Banshee¶
Helix Banshee supports importing music from your digital audio player to your music library. Simply drag and drop the songs from your digital audio player to your Music Library and they are copied automatically. You can also import all the music on your digital audio player by right- clicking your player in the source list and selecting .
16.3.4. Synchronizing Your Library¶
To keep your digital audio player up to date with your Helix Banshee Library, select your player in the source list, then click in the upper right corner.
Helix Banshee also synchronizes your ratings and cover art in your tracks to your iPod.
16.4. Creating Audio and MP3 CDs¶
Insert a blank CD in your CD or DVD drive.
Select the songs you want to burn, then click the button in the upper right side of Helix Banshee.
Specify the disk options you want, then click .
For example, click if you want Helix Banshee to eject your CD when the writing is completed.
You can track the status of the burn in the bottom left corner of Helix Banshee. A message box appears when the burn is complete.
Click .
16.5. Sharing Your Music¶
You can automatically update your online Audioscrobbler profile with the music you listen to in Helix Banshee. This lets others see what you are listening to, and gives you access to charts detailing your listening history. If you join groups such as the Banshee Group, you can also see what other people are listening to.
Before you can share your music, you need to enable the Audiosrobbler plug-in and enable song reporting.
In Helix Banshee, click +.
Select the check box to the right of in the left column.
A tab appears to the right of the tab in the right pane. You can also configure Audioscrobbler later by clicking ++.
Click the tab.
If you have already registered with Last.fm, click and specify your Last.fm username and password.
If you have not previously registered with Last.fm, click . This opens the Last.fm Web site where you can register. Click and specify your Last.fm username and password.
Click . Helix Banshee starts reporting with the next song you play.
Click . After Audioscrobbler is configured, use the options on the + menu to enable or disable song reporting, visit your user profile Web page, or visit the Web site of any Audioscrobbler groups you belong to.
16.6. Configuring Helix Banshee Preferences¶
Click +.
Choose from the following options:
- Music Library
Lets you specify a music folder location. This location is used when you import music. Click to place a copy of the files you import in your Helix Banshee music folder.
- File System Organization
Lets you determine folder hierarchy in the music library, and how filenames are displayed.
- CD Importing
Lets you determine encoding profiles for CD ripping. Select the output format you want, then click to configure advanced options for that format.
- Use error correction when importing
The error correction tries to work around problem areas on a disk, such as surface scratches, but can substantially slow down the time it takes to import.
Click to save your changes.