Nemp 5.1.1

Bugfix in Nemp 5.1.1

Sometimes the timing is just stupid: One day after the release of 5.1, an email came in about a really, really embarrassing bug that has been lying dormant in Nemp for several years. To make a long story short:

Nemp now supports genres like "Heavy Metal" and "JPop".

Not kidding - these two (and a few more) have not been saved in the media library. Because these genres have an index between 126 and 147 in the list of ID3v1-tag genres. Because ... reasons. :/

Nemp 5.1

New in Nemp 5.1

While the internal data structures have been heavily revised in version 5.0, they have so far remained the old ones in the web server. In version 5.1, the new data structures and their advantages are also used in the web server. The template system has also been heavily reworked and some new features have been added: For example, it is now possible to play files from the media library directly in the web browser via HTML5 audio.

In Nemp itself, the code for playing web radio has been reworked, and the support for audio CDs has been improved: The query of metadata now works again via the online CDDB and should be much faster than before.

In addition, there are some comfort features like a revised hint window, inserting an album into the playlist from the coverflow via double-click and displaying covers for the playlists in the media library. And one option that I myself have missed from time to time is now finally implemented as well: Crossfading between tracks can be disabled for live recordings.

Bug fixes

And last but not least, there is a whole series of bug fixes. Some bugs I could reproduce easily, others unfortunately not. For the latter I hope that they are fixed now by the changes in the code - but I can't be completely sure. Let me know if there are still problems!

Updating

Due to the changes to the web server, some existing files should be deleted. When installing via Setup.exe this should happen automatically. When using the portable zip version, Nemp will recommend to delete these files when starting the new version for the first time. Just click on "Delete files ..." - then Nemp will delete these files and everything will work as usual. Please don't be shocked by the large number of files that will be deleted there - they are really not needed anymore. ;-)

Nemp 5.0.2

Bug fixes

• With some monitor configurations, the preview in the taskbar did not work and caused error messages.

Nemp 5.0.1

This is the first bugfix-update for Nemp 5. However, one new feature is added as well: An extended export system for the Media Library.

Enhancement

• CSV export greatly extended. It is now possible to generate variable exports based on export templates in different formats, e.g. csv, html and json
• Menu item "Online help"

Bug fixes

• Deleting the media library caused a crash
• Sample rate was not displayed correctly for HiRes files (i.e. 96kHz)
• Tab order in detail window corrected
• In the detail window the hint text for the checkbox "Quick refresh" was set everywhere
• Possible access violation at startup fixed
• In CSV export the properties album artist, composer and BPM were missing

Nemp 5

New in Nemp 5

Version 5 starts a new chapter in Nemp and large parts of the code have been rewritten for it.

The biggest visible change is the introduction of Categories in the media library. This allows you to divide the media library into different sections. You can customize these categories according to your needs. The former separation into two lists (e.g. artists and albums) in the tree view has been replaced by a new tree structure, in which several sort orders can now be used in parallel - you can also customize these according to your wishes.

In addition, the arrangement of the individual areas is now more freely configurable, and all elements (except for Controls and Playlist) can be optionally hidden. The functionality of Drag&Drop has been extended, and the settings dialog has been greatly revised.

In the Media Library, the properties "Album Artist", "Composer" and "BPM (Beats per Minute)" are now also processed and stored. The album artist can be preferred when categorizing by "Artist".

On the other hand, the automatic search for lyrics has been dropped. This has always been kind of a gray area. After the community-based LyricWiki was shut down, I don't see any way to continue offering this feature. It is now reduced to automatically generated URLs to AZLyrics.com or search queries to various search engines. From there the text can be copied manually.

New concept: Categories

• You can organize the media library into different categories. Each file can be assigned to one or more categories.
• The categories can be customized to your own preferences. You can use up to 32 different categories.
• Move or copy files to other categories using Drag&Drop, Copy&Paste or the menu.
• A category can have the function "Recently added". All files that you add to the media library will be added to this category as well

New concept: Reworked tree view

• The old separation in the tree view between "Artists" and "Albums" in two different lists has been replaced by a list that displays both levels in one tree structure.
• In this combined view, further sortings can be added, which can be used in parallel.
• In the grouping by "albums" the covers can be displayed
• What exactly an "album" should be in this sense can be configured: Optionally based on the metadata, the directory structure, or a combination of these.

New features and changes

• Completely reworked form designer for arranging individual areas in the main window. Hiding of many areas is now possible
• Completely reworked settings dialog. The structure should now be more logical and clear. Scrollable view allows more related settings to be placed on one page.
• Heavily reworked detail view for a file.
• Enhanced Drag&Drop: moving/copying to other categories possible; hints about the triggered action before the drop.
• Search for tags in the tag cloud (also for rarely used ones that are currently not displayed due to space limitations)
• Support in playlist files for relative paths to parent folders with "..".
• Extraction of additional tags from audio files: Album artist, composer and BPM (beats per minute)
• Hint at startup, if Nemp has no write permissions in the data directory
• Display of a hint icon in the media list on incomplete metadata if the file name or folder is displayed instead
• Configurable background color for the coverflow in the Windows default view (i.e. without skin)
• Categories for playlists and webradio can be hidden
• PDF documentation replaced by Windows help. Individual chapters in it linked directly to the interface to provide targeted help in some situations.

Removed features

• Removed search for lyrics for multiple selected files. Instead: Support for manual search for lyrics at different search engines in the file properties dialog.
• Distinction between "private" and "public" skins removed. Skins are now searched only in the \Skins\ subfolder in the program directory.

Bug fixes

• "Additional pause between tracks" overrides repeat mode "Stop after end of playlist".
• In the playlist editor for favorite playlists, access violations occurred when adding files if no playlist was created yet.
• The first playlist in the media library was regularly removed
• The byte-order-mark in UTF16 formatted ID3v2 tags was sometimes included in the output.
• Various bugs with the old artist-album lists sustainably eliminated by the new concept (and the completely rewritten code).

Nemp 5 beta

New in Nemp 5

Version 5 starts a new chapter in Nemp and large parts of the code have been rewritten for it.

The biggest visible change is the introduction of Categories in the media library. This allows you to divide the media library into different sections. You can customize these categories according to your needs. The former separation into two lists (e.g. artists and albums) in the tree view has been replaced by a new tree structure, in which several sort orders can now be used in parallel - you can also customize these according to your wishes.

In addition, the arrangement of the individual areas is now more freely configurable, and all elements (except for Controls and Playlist) can be optionally hidden. The functionality of Drag&Drop has been extended, and the settings dialog has been greatly revised.

In the Media Library, the properties "Album Artist", "Composer" and "BPM (Beats per Minute)" are now also processed and stored. The album artist can be preferred when categorizing by "Artist".

On the other hand, the automatic search for lyrics has been dropped. This has always been kind of a gray area. After the community-based LyricWiki was shut down, I don't see any way to continue offering this feature. It is now reduced to automatically generated URLs to AZLyrics.com or search queries to various search engines. From there the text can be copied manually.

About the Beta

This is a beta release. If you find a bug (something is not working, something seems wrong, typos, grammar, whatever!), please report it here on GitHub, or send me an e-Mail to [email protected]

For now, only the zip archive is available. For the actual release, I will add an installer as an alternative download.

Known issues

(last updated: 10.02.2022)

• Unless you explicitly set "German" as language, the english Help will be used
• The Update dialog doesn't have a reasonable minimum size for resizing
• With the default settings, a click on "OK" in the settings dialog will trigger a "Save changes?" message, even if no changes were made at all.
• Default MainForm position may collide with installed ToolBars

Nemp 4.15.0

This is another slightly bigger update. It contains a few changes, some nice new features and a few bug fixes.

New features and improvements

• Customizable coverflow: The coverflow is now more customizable. Cover positions can be adjusted, reflection can be turned off or made less intense - and it now looks much better on light skins than before.
• Search for duplicates in the playlist: The playlist can be scanned for duplicate entries, making it easier to delete them.
• Revised file overview in the main window: The details displayed now make more sense for cue sheets and web radio, and the display can be limited to the currently playing track.
• Customizable display in the playlist, i.e. not always just "artist - title", but relatively freely selectable.
• Optional artificial pause between two titles. Practically the opposite function to "detect silence" and "crossfading".
• Support of Apev2 tags for mp3 files and support of ID3v1 tags in combination with Apev2 tags.

Changes

• For webradio, the current track is no longer stored in the playlist file.
• Some internal changes regarding saving settings.
• Some windows now have a different foreground behavior.

Bugfixes

• Webradio was sometimes not saved correctly in the playlist.
• When changing skin not all star graphics were updated.

Nemp 4.14.0

This is a slightly bigger update, with a few changes in Nemp's behavior in "special cases", some nice new features and a few bugfixes.

Significant change

• The decision whether the settings are saved in the program directory or in the user directory is now made in a different way: Decisive is now the existence of the file UseLocalData.cfg in the Nemp folder.
  The (portable) Zip-archive contains this file, the installer will install it according to your choice during the install process.

New features and enhancements

• Enhanced portability: Nemp now supports besides drive letter correction for external drives also installation in cloud directories by using relative paths in the media library (if possible). Both variants are optional. Both techniques are also fully supported in Nemp playlist format.
• Quick access to favourite playlists, including an editor and preview for these playlists.
• Improved Drag&Drop in the playlist. Copying files out of (or within) the playlist by holding down the Ctrl key.
• Better quality for covers in coverflow (configurable).
• Creation of QR codes for the URL of the web server, as well as some small improvements, changes and bugfixes on the web server

Changes

• Drag&Drop within the playlist of several titles simultaneously now moves all selected titles one after the other to the selected position.
• Nemp now behaves differently if the currently playing track is removed from the playlist. Next track is now the first entry of the playlist in this case.
• Handling of the search in the playlist changed. When typing, all hits are always marked with a symbol in the display, with F3 you can go through the hits, Enter plays the focused entry. As a “hidden feature” you can use Shift+Enter to select all hits and move them to a certain position in the playlist (or copy the files into a new directory).

Bugfixes

• Under certain circumstances the playlist could not be saved
• Fixed some rare exceptions in the coverflow

Nemp 4.13.2

Nasty Bug fixed

Editing file information in the main window (with activated quick access to metadata) could lead to data loss or nonsense data in the ID3-Tag of the edited file. The error occured, when editing was finished by "Enter" without actually changing the text information.

This bug was caused by some changes in version 4.13. Previous versions (4.12 and earlier) are not affected.

About the installer "version b"

The original version of the installer was detected as a Trojan by Windows Defender ("False positive). In version "b" I added my nickname to the name of the developer respectively manufacturer (i.e. my name). This was absurdly enough to prevent the heuristics from giving a false alarm.

Nemp 4.13.1

Bugfix

Changing of playback speed did not work as intended