Preferences
The Preferences enables you to customize these application settings:
Audio Configuration
Here you can specify the audio devices which are to be used by Sononym.
Note that you configure the Playback options from its own menu.
Audio Configuration (showing an error message)
General settings
Audio System
The audio driver architecture that should be used.
A special entry is ‘Default’ (not listed), which will use the system’s default audio output device with a moderately high, but safe latency.
| Architecture | Windows | Linux | macOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| WASAPI | Yes | - | - |
| Direct Sound | Yes | - | - |
| WinMM | - | - | - |
| Core Audio | - | - | Yes |
| PulseAudio | - | Yes | - |
| Alsa | - | Yes | - |
| Jack | - | Yes | - |
Reload Device List
Reload the device list to detect newly connected sound-cards/drivers.
Device Settings
These settings are shown when an audio system other than ‘Default’ has been selected. Changes are saved automatically.
Playback Device
The audio device that should be used for audio playback.
Sample Rate
The audio playback sample rate. The higher the sample rate, the more detailed the playback will be, but also the more CPU power will be used.
Buffer Size
The audio driver’s buffer size. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackling sound at high CPU usage, but will also cause more latency.
Channel Routing
Select which outputs of the device the audio is sent to. Click “Click to configure” to change the routing, or to reset it to the default outputs.
Open Driver Settings
Opens the settings provided by the audio driver, e.g. to change its buffer size or clock source. Only shown when the driver offers such a panel.
Recording Device
The audio device that should be used for recording.
Input Pair
Shown when the recording device has more than two inputs: choose the pair of inputs to record from. While recording, you can then pick the left or right input (mono), or both (stereo).
When recording from a different device than the one used for playback, you can also choose a separate sample rate for recording.
Play Test Sound
Starts a simple test sound to quickly check if the audio setup is working.
Reinitialize Audio System
Closes, then re-opens the connection to the soundcard/driver. May be useful for troubleshooting.
MIDI Configuration
Here you can configure how (and if) you want to control sample playback using MIDI.
General Settings
Stop playback when key is released
Enable this to stop sample playback when you release a note on the keyboard.
Ignore incoming MIDI while in background
Enable this option to avoid that other software/hardware is triggering samples while not actively using Sononym.
Device Settings
Reload Device List
Scan for newly connected MIDI devices.
Input Device
Choose which MIDI device to use for controlling sample preview. MIDI is only enabled once a device has been specified.
Input Channel
Decide if you want to use a specific MIDI Channel on the input device.
Test Input
Displays incoming MIDI messages, to quickly check that your device is working.
Display Configuration
Display - the dark theme has just been applied
Color Theme
Choose between a light and dark theme. The change is applied immediately.
Additional Options
Note that some options (zoom level & full-screen mode) are only available from the application menu.
Display
Specified a general size for table rows, tree widgets etc. Useful, e.g. to make the GUI more touch-screen friendly.
Font type
Specify the font type - either use the built-in font, or the system default.
The latter can be a better choice in case you have disabled anti-aliasing on your computer.
Font size
Specify which font-size to use.
Mouse Wheel / Scrolling
Specify the desired scrolling behaviour and sensitivity:
Touch/Trackpad: Smooth Scroll
Mouse Wheel: One notch = 1 line
Mouse Wheel: One notch = 2 lines ← Default choice
Mouse Wheel: One notch = 3 lines
Mouse Wheel: One notch = 4 lines
Note: the first option is recommended if you’re using a touch/trackpad and feel that scrolling is overly sensitive.
Search Configuration
General Settings
Search embedded metadata in files
If enabled, all available metadata (such as artist name, genre and other information embedded into your files) is searched in addition to the filename/path.
Preview files while stepping through results
If enabled, files will be previewed while stepping through search results (i.e., while pressing and holding down the arrow up/down keys). Requires that Auto-Play is enabled in the main toolbar.
Use natural sorting
If enabled, text columns are sorted “naturally”, so that results containing mixed text and numbers appear in a more intuitive order (e.g. “Kick 2” before “Kick 10”). This has a small impact on database performance (approx. 20%), and is therefore disabled by default. When disabled, text is sorted alphabetically (case-insensitive).
Reset filters prior to launching a similarity search
If enabled, all filters (including selected folder) are reset when launching a new Similarity Search.
Analysis Configuration
Here you can configure the audio analysis process (a.k.a. the Crawler), and decide what to consider when auto-tagging files.
General Settings
Effort
How many files the Crawler analyzes at the same time. A higher effort indexes your libraries faster, but leaves less processing power for everything else:
- Low - analyze one file at a time (slowest)
- Balanced - use half of the available CPU cores
- High - use all available CPU cores (fastest)
The dialog shows how many CPU cores each choice amounts to on your computer. Changes apply to the next analysis that is started.
On a single-core computer, files are always analyzed one at a time, and this option is not available.
Retries
How many times a file may be retried when the Crawler stops unexpectedly (for example, because a file is damaged or uses an unusual format). Once the retries are used up, the file is recorded as failed. Choose between 1 (give up immediately), 2, 3 (recommended) or 5.
Files that could not be analyzed can be found using the Failed Files filter.
Network port
Specify the port number we use for communicating with the Crawler. If this process is running, the new value will be applied once the process has finished.
If the Crawler could not establish a network connection, a warning is shown at the bottom of the dialog - in that case, try a different port number.
Auto-Tags
Decide what to consider when extracting auto-tags. At least one source has to remain enabled.
Include file name when extracting tags
If enabled, the name of the file (excluding the extension) is considered.
Include folder names when extracting tags
If enabled, the names of the folders that a file is located in are considered.
Include metadata when extracting tags
If enabled, the artist, title and comment fields embedded in a file are considered.
These are the global settings, used by every library unless it has been given its own settings.
Changing these settings does not affect files that were already tagged. To apply the new settings, choose “Rebuild Auto-tags (Hard Refresh)” from the Tag Options.
Project Configuration
Default Settings
This section allows you to specify default settings. This includes where to store projects on disk, and whether they should make use the auto-export feature.
NB: these settings applies to newly created projects. To change settings for an existing project, bring up its associated Options dialog.
Other Settings
Post Export Action: What action to take after a successfull export has completed.