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M20d Media Player Loops Audio Files Instead Of Playing Them Once Through And Stopping.


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I have the M20D and I totally love it. We're a three piece band and it gets challenging when we want to play something that has multiple guitars or a keyboard in it, so the solution we use is to create the backing track in Pro Tools, save it as an MP3 file, and then play it via an iPod, and perform along with it. The iPod was a bit inconvenient and we wanted to centralize audio control while playing live, so we've copied the MP3 file to the SD card in the M20D, added the song to the M20D's play list, and added a foot switch to the M20D to trigger the audio file to play. Problem is, once the file finishes playing and the song is over, the M20D's media player keeps looping the MP3 file, over and over.

 

The foot pedal I got is a really nice unit that has toggle switches for "Momentary" vs. "Latched" and also for reversing polarity. Although I haven't played with the polarity, switching from "Momentary" to "Latched" hasn't made any difference; we play the backing track and perform along with it, and then it loops and begins playing again.

 

I haven't been able to find anything about this in the Advanced manual.

 

Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get the track to just play once without looping?

 

Thanks for your help!

     Scott

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At the moment, you have to click your pedal when you want the track to stop playing. I do the same thing, but, we only use one backing track at the moment, so I am not sure if it goes to the next song when you want it to start. We need ours to stop about 1/4 into the song. I forgot to click it to stop once......ONCE! I wish it would stop at the end of the track.

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Thank you for replying. Wow, I'm blown away that Line6 would intend for a backing track to loop! That just doesn't make sense to me. It basically makes the feature of the media player useless for my purposes. As you point out, in the heat of battle (playing a gig), you're probably not going to remember to jump on the pedal again to stop the track from starting over. I'm going to call Line6 tomorrow and ask them about this. If their answer is, "Yep, that's how we designed it," then it's going to be back to using an iPod for us.

 

Anyone else have any experience with this issue?

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There was discussion in another thread and it was brought up that people who use it to play background music between sets would not want it to loop. I understand that completely, but, I would rather use an ipod for between sets and cue my backing tracks with a foot pedal and have them stop after each track.

 

I guess it was designed more to play background music. Maybe in a future update, there will be an option for one or the other. Not yet.

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I agree that this would make the media player much more useful. It's only really of use to play some background tracks before and after the gig. After considerable research I stumbled across an iPhone app called 'onetrack' which is absolutely great for backing tracks and play lists.

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I use my android phone for my backing tracks. 

 

I've created stereo mp3 files with a mono backing track on the right channel and the click track on the left channel. 

So I can get the backing track on the PA and the click track (that also has some cues) to the drummer's headphones. 

 

But are you guys playing live with backing tracks without click track? 

Never tried it, didn't believe it could work...

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I use my android phone for my backing tracks. 

 

But are you guys playing live with backing tracks without click track? 

Never tried it, didn't believe it could work...

The only track we use is the keyboard part on the intro to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", so no "click" required as the track starts the song and stops at first chorus. That is where I need to remember to hit the pedal. I used to play this part on keyboard, but it was the only song we dragged the keyboard along for. I like playing it better, buy instead, recorded it.

 

Personally, I think the board would be the best thing for backing tracks, with foot pedal control, and in between sets would be easier with an ipod or computer. Clearly. I am one of the few or it would have been designed that way.

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Okay, just got off the phone with Line6 Tech Support and it turns out that Digital-sound is correct. Line6's intention for the Media Player was to act as a simple event DJ at your gig by playing music while the band sets up and/or tears down, therefore any playlist will loop indefinitely, even if it's just one song. The workaround the Tech Support guy at Line6 suggested is to create a second track that's long and blank, which will give me time to dash back to the pedal and hit it again to stop playback. I think I'm going to do exactly that, but I'll probably also add some sort of audio cue (like the sound of me tuning my own guitar) so that when I hear it between songs, I'll instantly think, "I'm the only guitar player, why am I hearing someone tuning their guitar when it's not me? Oh yeah, that's the M20D's media player still going, I'd better go shut that off."

 

I did request that the Tech Support guy escalate this to the product manager for possible inclusion in the next firmware update so that looping vs. non-looping becomes a user-selectable preference for the Media Player. You can help by writing to Line6 and requesting it. I know when the M20D first came out, there was a thread dedicated to feature requests for the next firmware update. I'm not sure if that's still around, but if it is, that would be another good place to request. I'll look for it.

 

Thanks again, everyone, for your help!

    Scott

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Okay, just got off the phone with Line6 Tech Support and it turns out that Digital-sound is correct. Line6's intention for the Media Player was to act as a simple event DJ at your gig by playing music while the band sets up and/or tears down, therefore any playlist will loop indefinitely, even if it's just one song. The workaround the Tech Support guy at Line6 suggested is to create a second track that's long and blank, which will give me time to dash back to the pedal and hit it again to stop playback. I think I'm going to do exactly that, but I'll probably also add some sort of audio cue (like the sound of me tuning my own guitar) so that when I hear it between songs, I'll instantly think, "I'm the only guitar player, why am I hearing someone tuning their guitar when it's not me? Oh yeah, that's the M20D's media player still going, I'd better go shut that off."

 

I did request that the Tech Support guy escalate this to the product manager for possible inclusion in the next firmware update so that looping vs. non-looping becomes a user-selectable preference for the Media Player. You can help by writing to Line6 and requesting it. I know when the M20D first came out, there was a thread dedicated to feature requests for the next firmware update. I'm not sure if that's still around, but if it is, that would be another good place to request. I'll look for it.

 

Thanks again, everyone, for your help!

    Scott

 

http://line6.ideascale.com/

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