http://www.techradar.com/pro/linux March 2020 LXF260 55Music streaming TUTORIALS
Streaming from
the command line
library, select it in the file browser and then press the
Spacebar. You can add multiple directories to the library,
which are displayed in the indexed paths pane at the top
of the interface. To delete a directory, select it from the
Indexed Paths pane and press the Backspace key.
After you’ve added directories to the library, you
must switch to the Library view from the default
Settings view. To do this, press ‘a’. Musikcube reads the
metadata on the individual music files and can sort the
collection according to genre, artist, album, etc. By
default, the Library view features a pane on the left with
a list of all the artists whose songs you have in the
library. When you select an artist, the associated tracks
are displayed in the Tracks pane on the right. If you have
more than one album for an artist in your library, the
Tracks pane will identify the different albums.
You can switch between the different panes with the
Tab key. To play a track, select it from the Tracks pane
and press enter. You can pause/resume playback of a
track by pressing the Spacebar.
From the library view, accessed by pressing ‘a’, you
can also toggle between different views. By default the
Library view lets you browse your collection by different
artists. You can alternatively press ‘2’, to switch to the
Albums view, where the pane on the left will display all
the albums in your library. Press ‘3’ if you want a view of
all the different genres of the files in your library. You can
also create different playlists with Musikcube and
access these by pressing ‘5’. To return to the default
Artists view, press ‘1’.
Like many other feature-rich command-line utilities,
Musikcube has a vast number of default key bindings,
but they don’t perform the same function at all times.
For instance, pressing the Spacebar in the Library view
will pause or resume playback, but it does nothing when
you’re in the Settings view. Similarly, pressing 1-5 only
works from the Library view and not the Settings view.
In addition to view-specific and function-specific
shortcuts, the project also has a number of default and
global key bindings. As the name suggests, the global
key bindings perform uniform functions, irrespective of
where you are in the Musikcube interface. You must
refer to the user guide on the project’s GitHub webpage
for a complete list of configured key bindings (https://
github.com/clangen/musikcube/wiki/user-guide).
On most Linux distributions and applications, the left
Alt key on the keyboard is treated as the Meta key, and
Musikcube is no exception. You can access the context
menu for a selected item by pressing Alt+Enter. You can
add individual tracks to a playlist by individually
selecting them from your library, or you can create a
playlist based on artist name or genre. From the Library
view, press ‘1’ or ‘3’ to select either the Artist or the
Genre view respectively. Select an artist or genre from
the pane on the left. You’ll notice that all the relevant
tracks are displayed in the Tracks pane. Press Alt+Enter
to access the context menu, and select Add To Playlist
in the pop-up. You can choose to add to an existing
playlist or create a new one. You can now access all the
playlists by pressing ‘5’ from the Library view.
The playback control bar appears at the bottom of
the interface when you start playing a track. It has allthe functions you expect from a music player, such as
letting you tweak the volume, toggle shuffle on/off,
queue repeat, etc. There are, of course, keyboard
shortcuts to perform each of these functions too. The ‘,’
key is used to toggle shuffle on/off. You can similarly use
the ‘.’ key to switch between repeat-list, repeat track, or
turn off repeat.Filtering tracks
With an extensive music collection, you might not
always remember the name of the artist or album, or
even the complete name of the track you might be want
to listen to. Should that happen, you can use
Musikcube’s filter function to quickly identify the track
you’re interested in. Press ‘f’ in the Library view to open
the in-built search engine. There’s a search bar at the
top of the interface, while the panes at the top list all of
the albums, artists and genres that your music
collection features.
As you start typing in the search bar, Musikcube will
narrow down the matching results for each category.
For instance, when we type ‘ch’ in the search bar, it
displays the album Calls and Echoes, the artist Chad
Crouch and the genre Psychedelic Rock. The filter
function, however, can’t be used to narrow down a track
you’re interest in. For this, you must switch to the Tracks
Filter view by pressing ‘t’. You can now use the search
bar to identify all tracks that match your criteria.
Despite being a rounded utility, Musikcube does have
a few shortcomings. For one, it doesn’t support real-
time or live updating of indexed paths. So if you add new
tracks to an already indexed directory, an already
running instance of Musikcube can’t immediately see or
access these tracks. You must either close and then
relaunch Musikcube, or remove the directory and add it
again. Also missing is support for internet radio stations.
This is a fairly common feature in modern graphical
music players, and it has already been requested by
other users.
If you’re looking for a robust music player to manage
your collection of tracks, this nifty utility is more than up
to the task. The ability to stream is icing on the cake.ENHANCE YOUR TERMINAL-FU Subscribe now at http://bit.ly/LinuxFormat
The Alt+ key
combination is
referred to as
M- on the user
guide. The user
guide suggests
pressing M-n
to create a
new playlist, so
press Alt+n on
your keyboard.
Similarly, press
Alt+Enter to
access the
context menu,
and so on.You can redefine
the key bindings
from the Settings
view by selecting
the key bindings
option from the
bottom pane.5554March 2 h4r0wonh0o’tevs March 2020 LXF260 55
Music streaming TUTORIALS
library, select it in the file browser and then press the
Spacebar. You can add multiple directories to the library,
which are displayed in the indexed paths pane at the top
of the interface. To delete a directory, select it from the
Indexed Paths pane and press the Backspace key.
After you’ve added directories to the library, you
must switch to the Library view from the default
Settings view. To do this, press ‘a’. Musikcube reads the
metadata on the individual music files and can sort the
collection according to genre, artist, album, etc. By
default, the Library view features a pane on the left with
a list of all the artists whose songs you have in the
library. When you select an artist, the associated tracks
are displayed in the Tracks pane on the right. If you have
more than one album for an artist in your library, the
Tracks pane will identify the different albums.
You can switch between the different panes with the
Tab key. To play a track, select it from the Tracks pane
and press enter. You can pause/resume playback of a
track by pressing the Spacebar.
From the library view, accessed by pressing ‘a’, you
can also toggle between different views. By default the
Library view lets you browse your collection by different
artists. You can alternatively press ‘2’, to switch to the
Albums view, where the pane on the left will display all
the albums in your library. Press ‘3’ if you want a view of
all the different genres of the files in your library. You can
also create different playlists with Musikcube and
access these by pressing ‘5’. To return to the default
Artists view, press ‘1’.
Like many other feature-rich command-line utilities,
Musikcube has a vast number of default key bindings,
but they don’t perform the same function at all times.
For instance, pressing the Spacebar in the Library view
will pause or resume playback, but it does nothing when
you’re in the Settings view. Similarly, pressing 1-5 only
works from the Library view and not the Settings view.
In addition to view-specific and function-specific
shortcuts, the project also has a number of default and
global key bindings. As the name suggests, the global
key bindings perform uniform functions, irrespective of
where you are in the Musikcube interface. You must
refer to the user guide on the project’s GitHub webpage
for a complete list of configured key bindings (https://
github.com/clangen/musikcube/wiki/user-guide).
On most Linux distributions and applications, the left
Alt key on the keyboard is treated as the Meta key, and
Musikcube is no exception. You can access the context
menu for a selected item by pressing Alt+Enter. You can
add individual tracks to a playlist by individually
selecting them from your library, or you can create a
playlist based on artist name or genre. From the Library
view, press ‘1’ or ‘3’ to select either the Artist or the
Genre view respectively. Select an artist or genre from
the pane on the left. You’ll notice that all the relevant
tracks are displayed in the Tracks pane. Press Alt+Enter
to access the context menu, and select Add To Playlist
in the pop-up. You can choose to add to an existing
playlist or create a new one. You can now access all the
playlists by pressing ‘5’ from the Library view.
The playback control bar appears at the bottom of
the interface when you start playing a track. It has all
the functions you expect from a music player, such as
letting you tweak the volume, toggle shuffle on/off,
queue repeat, etc. There are, of course, keyboard
shortcuts to perform each of these functions too. The ‘,’
key is used to toggle shuffle on/off. You can similarly use
the ‘.’ key to switch between repeat-list, repeat track, or
turn off repeat.Filtering tracks
With an extensive music collection, you might not
always remember the name of the artist or album, or
even the complete name of the track you might be want
to listen to. Should that happen, you can use
Musikcube’s filter function to quickly identify the track
you’re interested in. Press ‘f’ in the Library view to open
the in-built search engine. There’s a search bar at the
top of the interface, while the panes at the top list all of
the albums, artists and genres that your music
collection features.
As you start typing in the search bar, Musikcube will
narrow down the matching results for each category.
For instance, when we type ‘ch’ in the search bar, it
displays the album Calls and Echoes, the artist Chad
Crouch and the genre Psychedelic Rock. The filter
function, however, can’t be used to narrow down a track
you’re interest in. For this, you must switch to the Tracks
Filter view by pressing ‘t’. You can now use the search
bar to identify all tracks that match your criteria.
Despite being a rounded utility, Musikcube does have
a few shortcomings. For one, it doesn’t support real-
time or live updating of indexed paths. So if you add new
tracks to an already indexed directory, an already
running instance of Musikcube can’t immediately see or
access these tracks. You must either close and then
relaunch Musikcube, or remove the directory and add it
again. Also missing is support for internet radio stations.
This is a fairly common feature in modern graphical
music players, and it has already been requested by
other users.
If you’re looking for a robust music player to manage
your collection of tracks, this nifty utility is more than up
to the task. The ability to stream is icing on the cake.ENHANCE YOUR TERMINAL-FU Subscribe now at http://bit.ly/LinuxFormat
TheAlt+key
combinationis
referredtoas
M-ontheuser
guide.Theuser
guidesuggests
pressingM-n
tocreatea
newplaylist,so
pressAlt+non
yourkeyboard.
Similarly,press
Alt+Enterto
accessthe
contextmenu,
andsoon.You can redefine
the key bindings
from the Settings
view by selecting
the key bindings
option from the
bottom pane.