beaTunes News

As explained recently, beaTunes has supported an MPM and Time Signature column for a long time, but the automatic computation of time signatures left much to be desired. Today's update is not going to make beaTunes perfect, but it's a big step towards better time signature values.

Here's what's new: When calculating BPM with the OnsetPeak algorithm, beaTunes also calculates the time signature. I added some logic that takes the Genre field into account. So if the genre is Waltz, beaTunes will now set the time signature to ¾—guaranteed. The same is true for the corresponding signatures of Paso Doble, Polka, etc. Note, that this only works, if the genre field contains a proper genre value.

Another caveat is the Use online resources checkbox. If it is checked, the logic described above will not be used and you are essentially giving up control, accepting whatever is in the central database. For the moment, those values will most likely be wrong. As I roll out some additional changes, the situation will improve over time. But for the moment, it's best to simply leave that online resources box unchecked.

I hope these changes continue to make beaTunes more useful for dancers. As always, you can download the update from the download section of the website.

Most important changes in 4.5.8

• Improved time signature detection based on known genres (e.g. Waltz, Paso Doble, …).
• Fixed issue when sorting the main table by tags.
• Improved handling of mp3 files tagged with the outdated ID3v1.
• Recognize mp4 as audio format in folder-based collections, and make sure non-iTunes fields are written in iTunes-based collections.

Labels: ballroom, BPM, dancing, id3, MPM, Release, Time Signature