Should I upgrade to 8.x?

[GeeJay]

My 12 year old Mac mini finally died, and given its longevity I decided to stick with the apple family. I stopped upgrading at 7.9, since I use LMS exclusively for my local files, and Erland’s suite of plug-ins (custom scan, track stat, dynamic playlists, etc.) are a must have.

I’m inclined to stick with 7.9.x, since it’s my understanding there are no guaranties that those plug-ins will work as well in the 8.x environment. I’ve not spent much time researching what those later releases offer, but it sounds like DSTM may have some appeal (I loved the original version, before licensing issues took away much of the “smartness” of it).

What do others think who have similar use cases?

[d6jg]

I started to reply last night but decided it needed more thought.

As you are going to have to build a new machine I’d say yes upgrade to 8.3 but initially with only a small subset of your music files. Install Erland’s plugins and test. If all is well great. If not wipe the machine and start again with 7.9 but be aware that there can be issues with newer versions of MacOS.

In fact I’d suggest you try LMS on a Pi and with a couple of SD cards you can try various permutations

[GeeJay]

Thanks for the advice. I probably should first do some research on the current incarnations of Custom Skip and ratings plug ins and see how close they come to replicating the functionality I used with Erland’s plug-ins.

[GeeJay]

I took the plunge and upgraded to 8.3.1. It was seamless, thank goodness. I did some research on the new versions of the plug-ins I enjoy and decided to stick with Erland's unsupported versions for now. So far they are all working fine as well.

I know one day those plug-ins will no longer work for me if I continue down the upgrade path (not something I have to do anytime soon). My hesitancy around switching over now is that I'm not sure if I can set up dynamic playlists to pick tracks in the same way I currently do, using Custom Skip filters that favor higher-rated tracks: 5* played 100% of the time, 4* played 75% of the time, etc., down to 1* never gets added to the playlist. I did read that there is currently no automatic ratings, which I can probably live without but something I do like (particularly adding points for playing a track all the way through, and subtracting points if you skip ahead before the song is half-way through).

It does look like most everything else I need has been carried over to the newer plug-ins, and I think I read somewhere that if I ever do want to switch over to RatingsLight, there is a way to convert my TrackStat data to the new app.

I want to express my appreciation for all the community developers that keep this system alive, and have actually improved on the user experience. I'm relieved that I can continue listening to my local music files in the manner I've enjoyed for over 15 years, and look forward to reconnecting and discovering some of the new toys y'all have created!

[d6jg]

I took the plunge and upgraded to 8.3.1. It was seamless, thank goodness. I did some research on the new versions of the plug-ins I enjoy and decided to stick with Erland's unsupported versions for now. So far they are all working fine as well.

I know one day those plug-ins will no longer work for me if I continue down the upgrade path (not something I have to do anytime soon). My hesitancy around switching over now is that I'm not sure if I can set up dynamic playlists to pick tracks in the same way I currently do, using Custom Skip filters that favor higher-rated tracks: 5* played 100% of the time, 4* played 75% of the time, etc., down to 1* never gets added to the playlist. I did read that there is currently no automatic ratings, which I can probably live without but something I do like (particularly adding points for playing a track all the way through, and subtracting points if you skip ahead before the song is half-way through).

It does look like most everything else I need has been carried over to the newer plug-ins, and I think I read somewhere that if I ever do want to switch over to RatingsLight, there is a way to convert my TrackStat data to the new app.

I want to express my appreciation for all the community developers that keep this system alive, and have actually improved on the user experience. I'm relieved that I can continue listening to my local music files in the manner I've enjoyed for over 15 years, and look forward to reconnecting and discovering some of the new toys y'all have created!

Excellent.
Make sure you try Material if you haven’t already and Music & Artist Info

[GeeJay]

Thanks for the suggestion. Material was already next on my list, and I’ll add the other as well.

[AF1]

I'm not sure if I can set up dynamic playlists to pick tracks in the same way I currently do using Custom Skip filters that favor higher-rated tracks: 5* played 100% of the time, 4* played 75% of the time, etc., down to 1* never gets added to the playlist

Hard to tell without seeing the SQLite code of your dynamic playlist, but should be possible. Example: your dynamic playlist picks tracks rated > 1 star. You don't want to listen to 1 star tracks anyway, so better to filter them right away. In CustomSkip create a filter set with 3 rules: “if rating = 4 then skip percent = 25, if rating = 3, then skip percent = 50, if rating = 2, then skip percent = 75%. If you want to try Dynamic Playlists, please install version 4 because version 3 is deprecated. Details and FAQ on the plugin's GitHub page.

I did read that there is currently no automatic ratings, which I can probably live without but something I do like (particularly adding points for playing a track all the way through, and subtracting points if you skip ahead before the song is half-way through).

What you're describing is part of another plugin called Alternative Play Count. Tracks have a dynamic played/skipped value (DPSV) that ranges from -100 (skipped very often recently) to 100 (played very often recently) and changes the way you described without messing with track ratings. More details on the plugin's GitHub page.

I ever do want to switch over to RatingsLight, there is a way to convert my TrackStat data to the new app.

No need. All important TrackStat values (rating, play count, date last played) are also part of an LMS database table called tracks_persistent.

[chaug]

GeeJay could, you list which of Erland's plugins you are using (and which seem to work fine for you on 8.3.1.? I am particularly interested in TrackStat, but I'm also using MultiLibrary and Playlist Generator, so I'm curious whether those are working for you.
Thanks!