Saturday, May 12, 2012

VGMPulse :: musical delight - Quick Start Guide





This guide is intended to assist VGMPulse user for browsing and using the service effectively. As such, it will only cover the basic information needed to stream the media.

VGMPulse Home Page (Beta)



What is VGMPulse?

VGMPulse (Video Game Music Pulse) is a music streaming service that is currently in its Beta stage.  Despite the name may sound, you will be amazed to find a huge variety of album genre, ranging from Anime, J-Pop, K-Pop, New Age to Game Music. All these musics are in lossy MP3 as well as lossless format (e.g. FLAC).

Why not give it a try now and see what it can offer?

Some of the features that you might like:
  • Huge music library to stream just by using standard web browser without installing any third-party software or plug-ins. You are bound to find those albums you like.
  • Stream music using VGMPulse' custom flash player instead of using external media player.
  • Advanced searching rules. Create a playlist that last for 1 hour with Final Fantasy albums released between year 1992 and 1999. All of which are composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu.
  • No idea which tracks to play today? Use the Random option to automatically create a playlist filled with tracks by random artists/albums. You can even specify which artists (yes, multiple artists) you feeling like listening to today.
  • Save your created playlist to listen to in other session.
  • View and listen to others playlist.
  • Rate and comment on the tracks/album that you like.
  • Last.FM scrobbing support.
  • .. and more for you to discover!


First Time Visit

When visiting the site at the first time as unregistered user, you will notice that you are only be able to browse the music library and not able to stream the songs. Other features are disabled as well. To enjoy the many benefits of streaming you MUST first register an account. After that you will need to click on the validation link in your email to activate your account.

Simply send an email to vgmpulse@gmail.com if you encounter any problem during the activation.

Before using this site, make sure you:
  • Enable Java Script for this site relies heavily on it.
  • Allow pop-up for the site (if you wish to use the flash player) 

Account Registration

Take important notice of the following fields when registering for an account in VGMPulse:
  • Username: This is used to login into VGMPulse. It is also appended as the name of your saved playlist (although the playlist name can be changed).
  • Full Name: This is viewable by public as your own identify. In other words, this is also your Display Name.
NOTE: It is possible to use the same name for both username and full name, if you like.

 

How It Works?

NOTE: The term 'Media' that is used in this context simply refers to both music and videos. Although video streaming support is very limited to a few titles. 

One word, playlist. Yes, the playback process you use depends largely on the playlist method that you had configured for your account. In the default configuration, the playback process simply involves the following three steps:

1) Browsing or searching for media.

2) Adding the media to a playlist by clicking the [+] button in front of the media. You can add the entire tracks in an album or specific tracks.

3) Instructing the playlist to play to the media client by clicking on the Play icon at the navigation bar. By default, the media will be streamed to the embedded flash player. However, there is another playback option, which is streaming to your media player.


Some things you should know:

  • Your active playlist is deleted every time you log out. To save your active playlist, read the 'Saving Playlist' section that follows. After saving you can then view and play it at any time you want. There are no limits on how many playlist you can save!
  • Transcoding will be done on loseless tracks ONLY. Meaning that it will convert the lossless source, e.g. FLAC to MP3. The MP3 bitrate is the same as the transcoding bitrate.

Now let's drill down to some of the features that you can use in VGMPulse.

Site Navigation Basics

Navigation Bar

This tutorial that follows is based on the default theme, Penguin.

Navigation bar at the top left corner.

The site navigation bar is the main bar that is located at the top left corner of the site. Listing from left to right are:
  1. Home
  2. Localplay (disabled)
  3. Preference
  4. Logout
  5. Play (playing method is depending on your current setting, default is Flash Player)
  6. Save current active playlist to new playlist
  7. Clear active playlist
  8. Add dynamic items

Playlist

As mentioned, playlist is the main ingredients that drives VGMPulse. Henceforth it is necessary to understand its behaviour.

Adding Songs to Active Playlist

You can add album or song to your playlist. To add the entire tracks in an album, simply click the [+] icon in front of the album title. Similarly, adding songs follows the same method, but click the [+] button ahead of the song title instead.

You can also add all the tracks in album in Random order by clicking on the icon next to the [+] icon.

Adding all tracks in Barbie Girl album. Left icon: Add according to the track number in ordre ; Right icon: Add all tracks in random order.

Saving Playlist

To save your current active playlist, hover to the 'add new playlist' icon (navigation bar) and click 'Add to new playlist'. Make sure you have at least some items in your active playlist before you save it.

Make sure there are tracks in your active playlist before you save it.


You should see the following screen after adding the playlist. It should contain all your tracks in the active playlist. You can then choose this playlist the next time you login.

NOTE: By default your playlist is viewable by everyone. If you wish to keep your playlist as private (own eyes only), continue reading the following section.

Added playlist are stored permanently in your account unless you manually delete it.

Changing Playlist to Private

On the playlist screen, click on the 'EDIT' icon

Click the 'EDIT' icon to start edit the playlist.


The highlighted box are the two options that you can set for the playlist.
  • Playlist name: By default the playlist is named in the order of [your_user_name] - [playlist_added_timestamp].
  • Public/Private: Setting this to Private will not list it in the Playlist view under the Browse section. In other words, others will not be able to see and play your playlist.
Make sure you click the Save icon to amend the changes.

Changing the playlist name and public/private option.

You should then see a lock icon next to the playlist name.

A lock icon next to the playlist name means that the playlist is now set to private.

And your playlist will not be visible to others in the 'Browse Playlist' option.

Private playlist are not listed when others are browsing the playlist.


User Preference

As your preference will most probably not be the same as others, here are some of the elements that you can customize.

Changing Site Theme

It is possible to change to different themes by going to the Interface option. The default theme is Penguin.

Changing the theme in Interface option. Default theme is Penguin.


Last.FM Scrobbing

If you are a Last.FM user, you can scrobe the music tracks that you are currently playing by entering your last.FM login credential via the Plugin option.

Adding Last.FM user information


Changing Streaming Method

There are two streaming methods that are currently enabled, which is Stream and Flash Player. You can change them in the Streaming option.

Stream
Setting this will prompt you to save a .m3u playlist file. Open it with any of your preferable music player (e.g. Windows Media Player or VLC) to start playback the media stream.

Flash Player
This is the default streaming method. It will launch VGMPulse' own flash player to play the stream. Especially useful if you don't want to open external media player to stream.

NOTE: Make sure you allow pop-up for the site when selecting this option.


Changing streaming method.

Changing Transcoding Bitrate

By default the transcode bitrate is set to 32 kbps, thus resulting in low sound quality during streaming in order to save your internet bandwidth. If you experience low music quality and is using a line without any bandwidth restriction, you may wish to increase it by increasing this value. The maximum value is 320 kbps.

Changing transcoding bitrate. The default bitrate is 32kbps.



FAQ

Can I download music album from VGMPulse?

No. VGMPulse is currently hosted using an Internet bandwidth that has a limited capacity. Such feature will be allowed after VGMPulse had upgraded to a higher bandwidth.

 

Why is there only a limited number of available videos?

VGMPulse is primarily focusing on music streaming, with video streaming still at its infancy stage. 

I had noticed that some album has only one track. Is that what it should be?

Album with only a single track is usually a full CD image without splitting to separate tracks using the CUE file. At the moment VGMPulse does not support CUE splitting. It will, however, be implemented once VGMPulse had reached its early milestone.

I did not receive any activation email after registering.

Under normal traffic condition, you will receive an activation email within several minutes upon registration. However, if you failed to receive any email regarding the account activation within 10 minutes or more, kindly send an email to vgmpulse@gmail.com. Do not attempt to recreate the account.

I found a bug / suggestion! What can I do to help?

Since VGMPulse is still on the Beta stage, you might find some of the bugs when navigating or using the site. Kindly send an email to vgmpulse@gmail.com and append [Bug] in front of the Subject title to help improve it for the benefits of others.

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Hope you enjoy visiting VGMPulse!

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