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

buzzardbait

@RapidEdwin08 Just did a fresh update of RetroPie 4.8.2, with the updated Pixelcade software (I have an LED marquee), and this update of IMP. I had been waiting to do this on a fresh MicroSD card because I already had a completely stable system running with RetroPie 4.7.21 and didn't want to break anything.

The new IMP features are GREAT! Thanks for all the hard work. I now have a fun startup mp3 that plays before IMP plays a randomized selection from EITHER my A-Side or B-Side folders.. Music stops when the screensaver starts, fades in/out going in and out of games.. I have a funny goodbye mp3 when it shuts down.. it is really awesome.

Thanks again for all the thorough work on this- if anyone is on the fence about installing, let me just say IMP is a great choice. This is a really full-featured enhancement for RetroPie with a lot of options for whatever you might want to do with background music.

FWIW- I am on a Pi 4B 4GB RAM running in an arcade cabinet with:

RetroPie 4.8.2
Pixelcade 4.4.5
IMP 2022.10

buzzardbait

@RapidEdwin08 So I have noticed something, not sure if I have a setting wrong or if anyone else is experiencing this.

I set up an mp3 as my "Quit mp3" for when I shut the Pi down from EmulationStation.

What happens, is the BGM playing continues to play, and the Quit mp3 plays concurrently- both mp3s play until the Quit mp3 has played in full, and then the Pi shuts down.

What I expected to happen- the BGM stops or fades out, and then the Quit mp3 plays, and then the Pi shuts down.

My settings in IMP are:
1. Music @ Boot - ON
2. Delay - 5 sec.
3. Startup mp3 - ON
4. Quit mp3 - ON
5. A-Side - ON
6. B-Side - ON
7. Shuffle playlist @ Boot - ON
8. OMX Monitor - OFF
9. Randomizer - BGM
10. Stop IMP @ screensaver - VIDEO
11. Lite Mode - OFF
12. Infinite Mode - OFF
13. Music Over Game - OFF
14. Fade in/out - ON
15. Delay @ Game end - OFF
16. Stop at sleep - OFF

Running:

RetroPie 4.8.2
IMP 2022.10
Pixelcade 4.4.5 (don't think this matters, but FYI).

Any recommendations?
Thanks!

RapidEdwin08

@buzzardbait Your attention to detail is uncanny and appreciated.

I would suggest you use the [PC/0ther] Utilities in [~/imp/imp_setup.sh] and Apply this setting:
Add [IMP-STOP] to Emulationstation [Quit]

NOTE: This will stop IMP @Restart of ES as well.

Long story short, adding the Quit song to Emulationstation's default quit/ Scripting location was the place I wanted to use to get the Quit song to play @Shutdown/Restart without diving into the system OS or using systemd ect...

RapidEdwin08

IMP v2023.01 Released

Changed Play [quit.mp3] Song to a systemd Service to address Music 0verlapping issue (at ES Quit 0ption still Available in PC Utilities).
Added Fade x1/x5/x10 Interval Settings for Adjustable Fade Speeds (to address Slow Fade issue on PlayBox V2 Vanilla).
Modified Fade mechanism to perform Additional Check if Audio Device from [es_settings.cfg] not found in amixer check.
OMX Monitor Version [RC1] (No Reports of Bugs, No Changes, Release Candidate).
Updated mpg123 Utilities to include [v1.31.2]
Fixed BGM A-Side/B-Side playback issue when set at boot.
Adjusted errorcheck .sh, was too vague stopping at any error:

buzzardbait

@RapidEdwin08 So I have installed the latest version on a fresh SD card, and I did get everything working fine, EXCEPT the quit.mp3.

My setup is:
RPi 4B, 4GB
RetroPie 4.8.2
IMP 2023.01 with these settings:
1. Music @ Boot - ON
2. Delay - 5 sec.
3. Startup mp3 - ON
4. Quit mp3 - ON
5. A-Side - ON
6. B-Side - ON
7. Shuffle playlist @ Boot - ON
8. OMX Monitor - OFF
9. Randomizer - BGM
10. Stop IMP @ screensaver - VIDEO
11. Lite Mode - OFF
12. Infinite Mode - OFF
13. Music Over Game - OFF
14. Fade volume out/in - 1X
15. Delay @ Game end - OFF
16. Stop at sleep - OFF

I have A-SIDE & B-SIDE filled with music, a startup.mp3 file and a quit.mp3 file; upon boot, IMP will play my startup.mp3 and then select either A-SIDE or B-SIDE and play a random selection from it. So far, great!

When I shutdown Emulationstation, the quit.mp3 will not play at all. Music just stops and then the Pi shuts down.

Am I missing a setting in the new version?

When I used the PREVIOUS version of IMP (2022.10), the behavior I was getting was the same, except in shutdown, when the quit.mp3 DID play but simultaneously with previously playing music; followed by normal shutdown.

(The quit.mp3 file isn't the issue- it definitely works.)

Thanks for any help!

RapidEdwin08

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

@RapidEdwin08 So I have installed the latest version on a fresh SD card, and I did get everything working fine, EXCEPT the quit.mp3.

...This is why I didn't want to use systemd in the first place; mixed results...
Not sure what the issue is, sounds like you have stock Raspbian/RetroPie image on pi4?

1st thing you can try is to Uninstall/Reinstall IMP...
As usual, I made a few fixes/changes after the initial release, and one of them pertained to the systemd quit service.
It's possible you have a version before I adjusted it Here

If you still have issues you can try these commands to troubleshoot:

cat /etc/systemd/system/impquit.service #Show Content

sudo systemctl daemon-reload #Reload may show errors

sudo systemctl stop impquit.service #Should hear quit.mp3
sudo systemctl enable impquit.service
sudo systemctl start impquit.service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload #Reload may show errors

If all else fails, for now you can apply the 0lder method from [~/imp/imp_setup.sh].
It is still retained in [PC/0ther] Utilities: Add quit song to ES Quit.

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 First off, thank you for IMP, I have been trying to get a BGM working on my setup for weeks, then I found this and minutes later I have the biggest smile on my face! I appreciate the work you put in, its fantastic. It works as advertised and I have even been able to add my own tunes!

I have a query I hope its easy enough for you to point me in the right direction.
I cannot get the BGM music to start automatically, if I go into the menu and select Start BGM, it works perfectly. But following a reboot it does not start. Where can I look to see that it is correctly configured to start post boot?

I have Rpi4, latest build of RetroPie & I am using a hifiberry-amp hat. I can confirm that all the other features work, in game sounds work fine etc.

I'm fairly adept at scripting, and have been playing with Pi's for years :)


#cat  /opt/retropie/configs/imp/settings/music-startup.flag
1
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   2 Feb 14 18:40 music-startup.flag

Thanks in advance!

Screenshot from 2023-02-15 10-25-09.png

RapidEdwin08

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

I cannot get the BGM music to start automatically, if I go into the menu and select Start BGM, it works perfectly. But following a reboot it does not start. Where can I look to see that it is correctly configured to start post boot?

Thanks for the feedback...

From your screenshot it looks like you already have BGM A Enabled, so it should be working, and playing only A-Side at boot.

I believe I found and fixed this issue about a week ago, but I could be wrong.
You might have installed before I made the changes Here.
You can try to uninstall, re-download ~/imp setup, and re-install.
I recommend fresh install as I made a few other changes/fixes since the release as well.

Or if you want, you can check the [boot .sh], and just #Comment# the bad lines out.

[/opt/retropie/configs/imp/boot.sh] Lines 83-86:

	# Replace rpMenu/music Path with roms/Music Path in Playlist files - No Longer Required - No Longer Works
	#sed -i s+$ESCmusicDIR+$ESCmusicROMS+ /dev/shm/abc
	#sed -i s+$ESCmusicDIR+$ESCmusicROMS+ /dev/shm/shuffle
	#sed -i s+$ESCmusicDIR+$ESCmusicROMS+ /dev/shm/init

I also wanted to elaborate on the BGM Settings VS Randomizer at B00T while the topic is relevant.

BGM A-Side Enabled: Plays ONLY BGM A-Side at B00T overriding any previous playlist
BGM B-Side Enabled: Plays ONLY BGM B-Side at B00T overriding any previous playlist
BOTH A-Side/B-Side Enabled: Plays BOTH A/B Side together as single playlist at B00T

Randomizer Mode ON: Supersedes BGM at B00T
Randomizer ALL: Respects BGM A/B Settings allowing you to Include OR Exclude BGM from Randomizer playlist at B00T
Randomizer BGM: Plays 0nly EITHER BGM A-Side OR BGM B-Side at B00T overriding any previous playlist
Randomizer PLS: Plays only Random Playlist Files .PLS/.M3U

Also, a quick reminder about Music Over Games and RetroArch Audio Driver Here

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 Thanks for getting back so soon. I did the fresh re-install and can confirm the hashed out lines above are indeed there.
The results are the same, no background music at startup.

One other thing I saw flash up when starting a game (I have FADE on) is a message stating "unable to get current volume" is this a symptom of this issue or something else?
I just wanted to reiterate that I have disabled onboard audio and am using (successfully) an audio hat. So in game sounds work, IMP works fine apart from the no music at startup. Just in case :)

Checked the mp3 files, they are consistently named i.e. all lowercase .mp3
Nothing in syslog or dmesg to indicate any issues either.

Where can I look now?

RapidEdwin08

@hopwon You can check the IMP Output log file right after a Reboot before you Press anything IMP Related in ES.

/dev/shm/current-playlist

You can also check the actual Playlist Files to confirm the Path to MP3s is correct.
(NOTE: the current-track Log file in this Location is only used when LITE Mode is DISABLED)

/opt/retropie/configs/imp/playlist

Are you able to get Music playing at B00T at all?
Tried any other Settings with BGM Disabled?
Do you hear the startup.mp3 Play at B00T?
Trying to determine if the issue isolated to BGM settings, Audio device, or the Music Files themselves...

Are you sure ALL the songs in the BGM Folder play?
One known issue is that any File with a Double-Space will not play with mpg123 Issue#4
Another known issue is with Files that have no metadata mentioned Here.

The "unable to get current volume" is an issue with IMP Not being able to detect the audio device properly at FADE.
You can Disable FADE for now to get rid of the message
May be related to the audio hat in use, as I personally do not own or ever tested, but we can definitely troubleshoot that later as well if you're up for it.

Edit* Another thought regarding the audio hat, try increasing the Delay of IMP at B00T...
I'm guessing the audio hat has additional drivers/scripts being loaded at startup?
I wonder if IMP is starting playback before the audio hat is loaded.
Can you check the status of the # Current Playlist # after a Reboot?
If it's playing, you can try increasing the Delay.

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 There is no startup.mp3 plays which makes me think delaying the start is a top suggestion.
It's a vanilla install and copied a few mp3 into the default folder as I did think that might have been an issue, but no.
Will dig into the issue tomorrow and feed back.
Thanks again!

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 said in Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More):

@hopwon You can check the IMP Output log file right after a Reboot before you Press anything IMP Related in ES.
/dev/shm/current-playlist
You can also check the actual Playlist Files to confirm the Path to MP3s is correct.
(NOTE: the current-track Log file in this Location is only used when LITE Mode is DISABLED)
/opt/retropie/configs/imp/playlist
Are you able to get Music playing at B00T at all?
Tried any other Settings with BGM Disabled?
Do you hear the startup.mp3 Play at B00T?
Trying to determine if the issue isolated to BGM settings, Audio device, or the Music Files themselves...

Are you sure ALL the songs in the BGM Folder play?
One known issue is that any File with a Double-Space will not play with mpg123 Issue#4
Another known issue is with Files that have no metadata mentioned Here.

The "unable to get current volume" is an issue with IMP Not being able to detect the audio device properly at FADE.
You can Disable FADE for now to get rid of the message
May be related to the audio hat in use, as I personally do not own or ever tested, but we can definitely troubleshoot that later as well if you're up for it.

Edit* Another thought regarding the audio hat, try increasing the Delay of IMP at B00T...
I'm guessing the audio hat has additional drivers/scripts being loaded at startup?
I wonder if IMP is starting playback before the audio hat is loaded.
Can you check the status of the # Current Playlist # after a Reboot?
If it's playing, you can try increasing the Delay.

@RapidEdwin08 Check the following:

IMP Output post boot:

pi@SpaceInvader:~ $ uptime
10:33:13 up 0 min,  2 users,  load average: 1.01, 0.35, 0.12
pi@SpaceInvader:~ $ cat /dev/shm/current-playlist
cat: /dev/shm/current-playlist: No such file or directory

Red Flag?

pi@SpaceInvader:/opt/retropie/configs/imp/playlist $ cat current-track 
High Performance MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 Audio Player for Layers 1, 2 and 3
	version 1.25.10; written and copyright by Michael Hipp and others
	free software (LGPL) without any warranty but with best wishes
Decoder: generic
Trying output module: alsa, device: <nil>

Directory: /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/imp/music/bgm/A-SIDE/
Playing MPEG stream 1 of 1: 08 - Confusion [Alternate Version] [Instrumental].mp3 ...

MPEG 1.0 L III cbr320 44100 stereo

Title:   Confusion [Alternate Version] [Instrumental]
Artist:  New Order
Comment:                             
Album:   Power, Corruption & Lies [Collector's Edition] Disc 2
Year:    2008                            Genre:  Alternative                   
> 04864+12622  02:07.05+05:29.72 --- 005=005 320 kb/s 1045 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
> 0000+0000  00:00.

> 0000+0000  00:00.

No music playing at boot at all. I did put a 30 second delay in but no change

Listing of music directory:

pi@SpaceInvader:~/RetroPie/retropiemenu/imp/music/bgm/A-SIDE $ ls -l
total 253420
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 12623967 Feb 14 18:36 '01 - Age of Consent.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 18104457 Feb 14 18:36 '01 - Blue Monday.mp3'
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 16461878 Feb 14 18:37 '01 - Crystal.mp3'
...... loads more

Lets forget the fade issue for now.
Regarding drivers for the hat, its included in the /boot/config.txt:

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
#dtparam=audio=on
dtparam=audio=off
dtoverlay=hifiberry-amp

This is the correct config for this device, as I mentioned everything works as expected.

Current settings:

,-------------------------------------------------------.               
 | Music @Boot: ON  Delay: 030 |          LITE Mode: OFF | 
 | startup.mp3: ON  @quit: ON  |      INFINITE Mode: ON  | 
 | BGM A~SIDE:  ON B~SIDE: ON  |    Music OVER Game: OFF | 
 | Shuffle Playlist @Boot: ON  | FADE Volume Out/In: x5  | 
 | 0MXM0N:OFF  RANDOMIZER: BGM |    DELAY @Game End: OFF | 
 | Volume%40 @Screensaver: VID |    Stop IMP @Sleep: ON  | 
 `-------------------------------------------------------'  
 http.server: [OFF] [http://192.168.1.85:8080] [STOPPED]
 Music: /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/imp/music

My guess at this stage is that the audio driver is not loaded at startup, even with the 30 second delay.
More than happy to help troubleshoot/assist in making this work with you

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 Bit more info:

Running these from the cmd line:

bash /opt/retropie/configs/imp/boot.sh

Waits 30 seconds then starts playing music beautifully ,then gives me this error output:

sed: -e expression #1, char 0: no previous regular expression
sed: -e expression #1, char 0: no previous regular expression
sed: -e expression #1, char 0: no previous regular expression
pi@SpaceInvader:/opt/retropie/configs/all $

pi@SpaceInvader:/opt/retropie/configs/all $ cat autostart.sh
#while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
emulationstation --no-splash#auto
bash /opt/retropie/configs/imp/boot.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 & #auto
emulationstation #auto

Two ES entries, is this by design?

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08
Manually changed autostart.sh to

#while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
bash /opt/retropie/configs/imp/boot.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 & #auto
emulationstation --no-splash#auto

And lo and behold it works! BGM happiness :)

RapidEdwin08

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

Two ES entries, is this by design?

No, I'm pretty sure IMP added the Extra emulationstation #auto entry by mistake due to the installer not taking into account the emulationstation --no-splash#auto entry.
Basically the autostart was loading Emulationstation Twice, and IMP was only set to start before the 2nd entry.
In this state, if you were to Quit ES, it would have reloaded a 2nd time, this time with IMP playing.
Glad you found this.

There should be a backup named autostart.sh.b4imp
Can you confirm the content of the Backup autostart.sh before IMP?
I will try to update the installer to accommodate.

cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh.b4imp

Thanks for the Feedback

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 said in Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More):

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

Two ES entries, is this by design?

No, I'm pretty sure IMP added the Extra emulationstation #auto entry by mistake due to the installer not taking into account the emulationstation --no-splash#auto entry.
Basically the autostart was loading Emulationstation Twice, and IMP was only set to start before the 2nd entry.
In this state, if you were to Quit ES, it would have reloaded a 2nd time, this time with IMP playing.
Glad you found this.

There should be a backup named autostart.sh.b4imp
Can you confirm the content of the Backup autostart.sh before IMP?
I will try to update the installer to accommodate.
cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh.b4imp
Thanks for the Feedback

Here you go:

pi@SpaceInvader:/opt/retropie/configs/all $ cat autostart.sh.b4imp 
#while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
emulationstation --no-splash#auto
pi@SpaceInvader:/opt/retropie/configs/all $

You are correct, I put the second ES line back in and tried what you suggested and indeed, when I quit ES, it restarted with BGM!

RapidEdwin08

@hopwon For the Fade issue...

Are you able to Adjust/Retain Volume in ES Sound Settings?
Or does the Volume setting get lost when you try to adjust from ES.
If Volume does not retain, try to find the correct Combination of AudioDevice/AudioCard, then you can try to Enable Fade again in IMP and Test.

If Volume is working fine and AudioDevice/AudioCard Settings are correct, can you confirm the output of these commands:

cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg | grep "AudioCard"
cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg | grep "AudioDevice"
amixer | grep "Simple mixer control" | grep -v 'Capture'

buzzardbait

@RapidEdwin08 Took me a few days to get this tested. I ended up using the method from ~/imp/imp_setup.sh - selecting Add quit song option from the [PC/0ther] Utilities. And it did work!

But before that, when I entered:

cat /etc/systemd/system/impquit.service

I did get this message returned:

[Unit]
Description=IMP Stop + Quit Song
DefaultDependencies=no
Conflicts=reboot.target power off.target halt.target shutdown.target
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/bin/true
ExecStop=/opt/retropie/configs/imp/impquit.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I don't know enough to figure out what was going on from there, but if that's helpful, thought I'd pass it along.

hopwon

@RapidEdwin08 said in Integrated Music Player for RetroPie [IMP] 2021.10 (Background Music for RetroPie and More):

@hopwon For the Fade issue...

Are you able to Adjust/Retain Volume in ES Sound Settings?
Or does the Volume setting get lost when you try to adjust from ES.
If Volume does not retain, try to find the correct Combination of AudioDevice/AudioCard, then you can try to Enable Fade again in IMP and Test.

If Volume is working fine and AudioDevice/AudioCard Settings are correct, can you confirm the output of these commands:
cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg | grep "AudioCard"
cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg | grep "AudioDevice"
amixer | grep "Simple mixer control" | grep -v 'Capture'

Hi, been away for a few days.
The fade issue fixed itself once we worked out that that IMP was not starting due to the duplicate entries in autostart.sh.
Everything is working perfectly now :)
Massive thanks again for your time.

buzzardbait

@RapidEdwin08 reading @hopwon 's responses and despite me pretty much getting things to work, you mention a few things that might solve my problem.. Previously I was copying a lot of old configs from backups of RetroPie 4.7.x for fresh installs onto a new card, which probably impacted my RetroPie 4.8.3 setup. I pulled up some of the log files and I was getting some error messages that made sense- I wouldn't be surprised if some of that stuff might have been interfering with IMP in certain ways.

Working on a fresh install with a fresh card- been careful to sort through the configs I'll need only, from my old backup, and we'll see what happens. Thanks- I'll report back.