Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More)

willyati

@RapidEdwin08 I think the (new) USB itself caused the issue, problem still existed after a clean install. Im now up and running, and will just add games and music through a shared nettwork. Thank you for your response, the music player works great now that im ditching the usb! Sorry for any confusion, this hole ordeal is new to me.

fadorka

So I figured it out. Apparently FAT file systems can't create symbolic links. So I reformat my USB thumb drive to a different file system and the symbolic link worked correctly.

But as it turned out that had nothing to do with why my music wouldn't play. Apparently if the mp3 does not have a specified length in it's metadata it will refuse to play.

Honestly I have no idea why it works this way and the fact I managed to figure this out is a complete miracle. But hey I guess if anyone else is have similar problems make sure to check the metadata of your mp3.

RapidEdwin08

@fadorka Thanks for the info.
Makes sense about the FAT filesystem...

Anything else you can share about the mp3 metadata?
Was it too much or too little metadata?
Maybe some $P3C!AL characters were included in the metadata?

One thing to try is check if the song plays IN a playlist...
As in select a song you know works to form a playlist with the bad.mp3 in the same folder/ list somewhere.
Then skip to that bad.mp3 using next/previous track.
Does the bad.mp3 play then?

If you're up for it, you can try to manually run an MP3 from the Home directory with mpg123 with this command, and see if it outputs an error:

mpg123 ~/bad.mp3

fadorka

@RapidEdwin08 It seems that no other metadata needs to be available for the mp3 to play the only thing that matters is a listed length.

Putting the bad mp3s and skipping to them in a playlist doesn't make them play either.

If you want to try to emulate the problem to test yourself here's how I did it . Take something from youtube e.g

then I used this youtube to mp3 website https://ytmp3.cc/e64c1/ although I'm sure other websites will do the same. Check the properties of the mp3 to see the metadata, it should be all blank. The mp3 will not work with IMP, to fix it import the mp3 in something like Audacity then export to apply track length to the metadata.

Outside of this strange quirk IMP is an awesome program! Thanks for the help to get it set up and working.

smartgenes

I have an older Retropie-BGM-Player in my menu, which only worked in the background briefly, but does still play music in the Retropie menu. Do I need to get rid of this/how do I clean the system of it in preparation for this new music player?

RapidEdwin08

@smartgenes I'd say just try the Standard install of IMP 1st .
I tried to accommodate for most of the known BGM scripts in IMP.
Not sure what you have, but if it's 0lder, you're probably good to go.

If you have issues after install, then you can start looking around at runcommand_onstart and autorun scripts if needed.

0THER BGMs ALREADY INSTALLED:
[IMP] will attempt to Disable (NOT Remove) the following BGMs Indiscriminately upon Install:
Livewire, BGM Naprosnia, BGM Rydra, BGM OfficialPhilcomm, Generic mpg123 Scripts
[IMP] will attempt to Re-Enable them Upon Uninstall
It is still Recommended you Disable your Current BGM Scripts Before Installing [IMP] If you can.

smartgenes

@RapidEdwin08 Did it just obliterate the music folder in roms, I could have sworn one existed before? I'm not sure whether it installed or not, is the installer supposed to make a menu screen in emulationstation... I also get an error message which I think is something not caused by the install:

lvl0: VolumeCintrol::init() - Failed to find mixed elements!
.

RapidEdwin08

@smartgenes said in Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More):

@RapidEdwin08 Did it just obliterate the music folder in roms, I could have sworn one existed before? I'm not sure whether it installed or not, is the installer supposed to make a menu screen in emulationstation... I also get an error message which I think is something not caused by the install:

lvl0: VolumeCintrol::init() - Failed to find mixed elements!
.

Are you using a USB for ROM storage via the standard RetroPIe usbromservice?

On Install IMP will MOVE the ..roms/music Folder to the retropiemenu:
/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/imp/music

It will then attempt to create a Symbolic Link to that new Music Location back in ..roms/music.
However, if you are using USB Storage, this will fail due to the filesystem type of the USB Storage not supporting symbolic links.
Any previous music from ..roms/music should have been moved to the new location in retropiemenu.
This is a known issue with USB Storage, you can see more details a couple posts backin #89 or so.
IMP won't recognize the music in /roms/music unless it's linked to the main /imp/music DIR.

For your issue with lvl0: VolumeCintrol::init() - Failed to find mixed elements!, it sounds like you have the wrong Audio Device selected in ES.
You may want to toggle different Audio Device Settings from the Main Menu -> Sound Settings.
Try different Audio Devices like PCM,HDMI,Headphone,ect depending on your configuration, back out of the Main Menu to apply/test it.

smartgenes

@RapidEdwin08

smartgenes

@RapidEdwin08 You're absolutely right, I'm storing the roms on external USB, so good to know the files should still be there.

There is some issue with audio I had before, bizarrely from cold boot I always had to reboot before the audio worked, not sure if it's still like that after I updated retropie. I just updated yesterday and had to purge pulse audio to get the audio on again.

It may or may not be related to another error I get, 'Failed to get size of gamma for output default'.

smartgenes

@smartgenes @RapidEdwin08
I read back on some of the older posts and I saw you suggested dropping the music folder as a sub folder in music so that IMP could pick up the music there as the symlink method won't work for me on the USB filesystem (it also doubles as storage for my old Wii).

I see IMP is in the Retropie menu (and the whole explanation about that being to avoid issues with last game played etc if you had placed it in the menu as a regular roms list with .XML. )

As for the audio issue:

cd ~/.emulationstation/
sudo nano es_settings.cfg

Then changing "AudioDevice" value = "HDMI"
seems to have solved the error message as you said.

However, though I can see the music in the menu in IMP it's still not playing anything yet, even MMMENU.

RapidEdwin08

@smartgenes
Have you tried manual command line mpg123 on a music.mp3 file?
Try putting an mp3 in your home directory and running it manually.

mpg123 ~/test.mp3

I'm not %100 what all the effects of updating your RetroPie build had on your audio.
It's debated, but typically recommended to NOT update a working RetroPie build.
Wondering if there's an issue with mpg123 outputting alsa vs pulse audio ...

With that said, IMP has mpg123 utilities in the installer.
You might want to try uninstall reinstall of mpg123. Maybe even try install mpg123 from source if you still have issues, just know source install can take a while...

smartgenes

@RapidEdwin08 I think it's some other oversight, mpg123 plays the file from the home menu. There's sound in emulationstation as it clicks on key presses in the menu also. I purged pulse audio so I don't think it would be that?

smartgenes

@smartgenes It might be helpful to know my previous BGM Player was the Naprosnia one. Could this be interfering/what are the instructions for its removal?

When I go to the old BGM and select volume, I get the error message:
amixer: unable to find simple control 'PCM',0

smartgenes

@RapidEdwin08 On a rebuild of card it's working, so maybe related to the previous BGM which is not installed this time. What are the options regarding the symlinks - I want to link to my roms folder again, can I change the behaviour of Imp so it just looks to the roms folder or shall I just put all the music in a sub folder in roms/music again?

Unfortunately my VolumeControl::init() - Failed to find mixer elements! Is back again too...

RapidEdwin08

@smartgenes I'm really not sure what your audio issues are, plus IMP merely Disables/Enables Naprosnia, no messing with Audio Settings...

For your USB /roms/music/ you can try to create a symbolic link to the Music Folder inside the /imp/music folder instead.

mkdir ~/RetroPie/roms/music # If you have not already
ln -s ~/RetroPie/roms/music ~/RetroPie/retropiemenu/imp/music/roms-music

I do not use the USB Storage method, but the path may vary, so adjust accordingly if needed.

trickarrow89

Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB
RetroPie 4.7.1

Amazing addon! Couple of quick questions -

Should music be stopped in the Retropie Config menu before entering RetroPie Setup? I noticed that when the music is still playing and you enter the RetroPie Setup, the GUI is rendered useless while music is playing. I am not sure if this is a bug or a coincidence and something else is going on. I did manage to hit CTRL + C to get out of the GUI and back to the RetroPie Config Menu.
Is it possible to run GUI Navigation Sounds for a theme and IMP simultaneously?

RapidEdwin08

@trickarrow89 said in Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More):

Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB
RetroPie 4.7.1

Amazing addon! Couple of quick questions -

Should music be stopped in the Retropie Config menu before entering RetroPie Setup? I noticed that when the music is still playing and you enter the RetroPie Setup, the GUI is rendered useless while music is playing. I am not sure if this is a bug or a coincidence and something else is going on. I did manage to hit CTRL + C to get out of the GUI and back to the RetroPie Config Menu.

You should not have to stop the Music.
In my case the issue only happens after a Song changes, and I'm able to still control the GUI Menu with Joypad, just have to Select something to Refresh it.
I think one of my scripts is doing a 'tput reset' where it does not need to be...

Can you try this:

nano /opt/retropie/configs/imp/errorcheck.sh

Remove or Comment Out the 2nd to Last Line before the exit:

~~tput reset~~
exit 0

OR Comment Out

#tput reset
exit 0

Does this resolve the GUI issue?

Is it possible to run GUI Navigation Sounds for a theme and IMP simultaneously?

Sure, but you may want to check out the previous post #85 about using Music Over Games Setting...
I find that Theme UI sounds work OK, but the Snaps can sometimes clash with the background music.

trickarrow89

@RapidEdwin08 Thanks - I'll see if I can recreate the issue and look into your recommendations. I'll update you on what I find.

As far as the video scrape music/sounds, those work with IMP; both play. You are right though, I just turned off the video scrape music/sounds as it did clash with the background music.

EasyStreetExile

@RapidEdwin08 Hey really awesome work here! Sorry for the noob question, but when adding my own music, am I placing it in imp/music folder, or does it need to go into the B-side/A-side folders? Thanks

Edit: disregard lol, I got it to work. Thanks again for this great tool