7.  Playback Settings

The Playback Settings menu allows you to configure settings related to audio playback.

7.1.  Shuffle

Turning shuffle on will cause Rockbox to randomly re-order the playlist. Thus, to shuffle all of the audio files on the player, you first need to create a playlist containing all of them. For more information on creating playlists refer to section 4.4.
Options: Yes/No.

7.2.  Repeat

Configures settings related to repeating of directories or playlists.
Options: Off / All / One / Shuffle / A-B:

Off

The current playlist will not repeat when it is finished.

Note: If you have the Auto-Change Directory option set to Yes, Rockbox will move on to the next directory on your hard drive. If the Auto-Change Directory option is set to No, playback will stop when the current directory or playlist is finished.

All

The current playlist will repeat when it is finished.

One

Repeat one track over and over.

Shuffle

When the current playlist has finished playing, it will be shuffled and then repeated.

A-B

Repeats between two user defined points within a track, typically used by musicians when attempting to learn a piece of music. This option is more complicated to use than the others as the player must first be placed into A-B repeat mode and then the start and end points defined.

To set the Start Point (A) press Play + Left. Setting the End Point (B) is done accordingly using Play + Right. To reset the markers press Play + Navi.

7.3.  Play Selected First

This setting controls what happens when you select a file for playback while shuffle mode is on. If the Play Selected First setting is Yes, the file you selected will be played first. If this setting is No, a random file in the directory will be played first.

7.4.  Fast-Forward/Rewind

These settings control the speed and acceleration during fast forward and rewind. The setting FF/RW Min Step controls the initial speed and FF/RW Accel controls the acceleration.

7.5.  Anti-Skip Buffer

This setting controls how early Rockbox starts refilling the music buffer from the hard drive when playing. A longer Anti-Skip Buffer helps prevent skips in music playback if Rockbox has trouble reading from the disk. This can happen if the player is knocked, shaken or jogged heavily while Rockbox is trying to read the hard drive.

The anti-skip buffer can be set to various values between 5 seconds and 10 minutes.

Note: Having a large anti-skip buffer tends to use more power, and may reduce your battery life. It is recommended to always use the lowest possible setting that allows correct and continuous playback.

7.6.  Fade on Stop/Pause

Enables and disables a fade effect when you pause or stop playing a song. If the Fade on Stop/Pause option is set to Yes, your music will fade out when you stop or pause playback, and fade in when you resume playback.

7.7.  Party Mode

Enables unstoppable music playback. When new songs are selected, they are queued at the end of the current dynamic playlist instead of being played immediately. Pausing and stopping playback is disabled as well as skipping songs and launching plugins.

7.8.  Crossfade

This setting enables a cross-fader. At the end of a song, the song will fade out as the next song fades in, creating a smooth transition between songs. The crossfade setting is particularly effective when the player is set on shuffle.

Options for crossfade settings are:

Enable Crossfade

If set to Off, crossfade is disabled. If set to Shuffle, crossfade is enabled when the shuffle feature is set to Yes, but disabled otherwise. If set to Track Skip Only, tracks will only crossfade when manually skipped. If set to Shuffle and Track Skip then crossfade will only be active when shuffle is set to Yes and the track is manually skipped. If set to Always, tracks will always crossfade into one another.

Fade In Delay

The “fade in delay” is the length of time between when the crossfade process begins and when the new track begins to fade in.

Fade In Duration

The length of time, in seconds, that it takes your music to fade in once the Fade In Delay has ended.

Fade Out Delay

The “fade out delay” is the length of time between when the crossfade process begins and when the old track begins to fade out.

Fade Out Duration

The length of time, in seconds, that it takes your music to fade out once the Fade Out Delay has ended.

Fade Out Mode

If set to Crossfade, one song will fade out and the next song will simultaneously fade in. If set to Mix, the ending song will continue to play as normal until its end, while the starting song will fade in from under it. Mix mode is not used for manual track skips, even if it is selected here.

Note: The rules above apply except in the instance where Fade Out Delay plus Fade Out Duration is less then Fade In Delay (which would create a gap in the audio). In this case, the Fade In Delay is reduced to eliminate the gap.

The graphic below illustrates how the different settings work in practice.

7.9.  Replaygain

This allows you to control the replaygain function. The purpose of replaygain is to adjust the volume of the music played so that all songs (or albums, depending on your settings) have the same apparent volume. This prevents sudden changes in volume when changing between songs recorded at different volume levels. For replaygain to work, the songs must have been processed by a program that adds replaygain information to the ID3 tags (or Vorbis tags).

Note: APEv2 tags are not currently supported.

Options for replaygain are:

Replaygain Type

Choose the type of replaygain to apply:

Album Gain

Maintain a constant volume level between albums, but keep any intentional volume variations between songs in an album. (If album gain value is not available, uses track gain information).

Track Gain

Maintain a constant volume level between tracks. If track gain value is not available, no replaygain is applied.

Track Gain If Shuffling

Maintains a constant volume between tracks if Shuffle is set to Yes. Reverts to album mode if Shuffle is set to No.

Off

Do not process replaygain information, i.e. turn off the replaygain function.

Prevent Clipping

Avoid clipping of a song’s waveform. If a song would clip during playback, the volume is lowered for that song. Replaygain information is needed for this to work.

Pre-amp

This allows you to adjust the volume when replaygain is applied. Replaygain often lowers the volume, sometimes quite much, so here you can compensate for that. Please note that a (large) positive pre-amp setting can cause clipping, unless prevent clipping is enabled. The pre-amp can be set to any decibel (dB) value between -12dB and +12dB, in increments of 0.1dB.

7.10.  Track Skip Beep

Controls the volume of the beep that is heard when skipping forward or backward between tracks. The beep is disabled when set to Off.

7.11.  Auto-Change Directory

Control what Rockbox does when it reaches the end of a directory. If Auto-Change Directory is set to Yes, Rockbox will continue to the next directory. If Auto-Change Directory is set to No, playback will stop at the end of the current playlist. Using the Random feature requires you to first generate a folder list via the Random Folder Advance Configuration plugin (see section 11.4.11).

Note: You must have the Repeat option set to No for Auto-Change Directory to function properly.

Note: This feature only works when songs have been played from the file browser. Using it with the database may cause unexpected behavior.

7.12.  Last.fm Log

Enables logging of your played tracks for submittal to http://www.last.fm. This service was formely known as Audioscrobbler. When you enable this option, you’ll have to reboot to start the logging. The log-file is called .scrobbler.log,and is to be found in the root directory of your player.

Note: See LastFMLog for a further description, and for tools you can use to submit your Last.fm log.

7.13.  Cuesheet Support

Enables reading of cuesheet files for played tracks. If a cuesheet is found for a track, track markers are displayed on the progressbar and it is possible to skip between the tracks within the cuesheet. Also the information found in the cuesheet file will replace the information from the ID3 tags. When you enable this option, you’ll have to reboot for it to come into effect.

7.14.  Skip Length

Designed to speed up navigation when listening to long audio tracks, Skip Length changes the behavior of the Left and Right buttons so that they skip by a given time instead of skipping to a new track.

7.15.  Prevent Track Skipping

If this option is enabled, the ability to manually skip tracks is disabled in order to avoid accidental track skips. It does not prevent changing tracks if a track ends, which can be achieved by combining this option with Repeat set to One