I know that I risk embarrassing myself with this suggestion as I am sure someone will tell me that what I want is already available.
When I select an album I do not always want to play it from the start. But I do want it to play continuously to the end from the track where I start it. However I am only given the option to " Play All" or " Play Now" ( the latter selecting only a single track). Yes there is a programming option “Add Next” or “Queue” but this is very long winded if you have an album of , say, 24 tracks - which is not uncommon for classical music - and want to start from track 2 and have to add 22 tracks one by one to the queue ( which will often result in mistakenly adding duplicate tracks or missing one).
So to start from track 2 I have to select “Play All” (which both starts play and loads all tracks into the Play Queue) then go to Play Queue and select " Play from Here" from track 2, hopefully quickly enough to do it before track 1 starts to play.
Why isn’t there simply a " Play from Here" option on the main album play page as well as on the Queue page?
I’ve found the quickest way to do this is to browse the library to the album you want then from the drop down arrow in the blue box choose ‘queue’. Next go to 'Play Queue at the bottom centre and select the track you want to start from and click somewhere in the middle to get the drop down menu and choose ‘play from here’.
Sounds a bit complicated but in fact it is very quick to do.
Thanks, that does indeed work though, as you say, a bit complicated.
Trying it I have found that pressing the blue “Play All” box does not always produce the grey drop down menu containing “Queue”. Instead it can simply start to play track 1.
I recall of few questions raised here over the past months regarding the sensitivity of that blue button so maybe the dCS team could consider this aspect in future iterations of the app.
The “Play All” box has two zones, one to the left at the “Play All” that starts playback immediately at Track 1 and one to the right at the downward arrow that drops down the menu.
Mike, thanks. I had not noticed that even after months using Mosaic. That clearly suggests that the graphical distinction of the zones could be better realised.
Mosaic needs quite a bit of rework to be in line with front-end apps like those offered by Aurender, etc. I gave feedback to DCS’s Sales folks. I stopped using Mosaic for music selection and instead stream via my Aurender server with their app. The poor user experience of Mosaic aside, I find using Aurender as the streamer feeding into my Bartok (via usb) gives the music more PRAT. A bit of a pity though as I would love to get rid of another “box” (the Aurender) and use the full functionalities provided by the Bartok.
I like using Mosaic every days, it is stable and the sound is excellent. It can be improved and I am confident that dCS shall do it. But in order to help them I presume that being supportive helps more than anything else…
Yes, it is worthwhile remembering that Mosaic is a work in progress. We have already enjoyed new versions with improvements since its introduction. We don’t know at what stage Edwin stopped using Mosaic of course but do know that Aurender Conductor provides a grid display of album artwork which I know many people prefer. Nice on a tablet display but perhaps the icons in such a mode may be too tiny on smaller screens such as phones?
Which reminds me that back in January Andrew Papanikolas envisaged that v.1.1.1 would be released this spring. I know that the current circumstances may have delayed things but would have imagined that software revision tasks would not necessarily require the factory to be open especially as ( AFAIK) Andrew does not work from the UK in any case.
Agree entirely Chris. The current version of Mosaic is significantly better than the first, incorporating many of the suggestions for improvements. I have found it very robust and the sound quality is excellent.
It would be useful to know exactly what setup you used for streaming direct to your Bartok Edwin. What server software did you use? On what platform was it running? I note the advice given by dCS that the best sound quality is obtained by using the ethernet connection to their machines (Bartok, Network Bridge etc) rather than USB, I’d suspect there is some other factor influencing SQ here.
I have the Bartok connected to the router via LAN, likewise the Aurender. The latter is linked to the Bartok via a Chord USB cable. My music library is stored in the Aurender. The Bartok is then connected to my Passlabs XP22 pre via its XLR outputs.
I have used the Bartok direct to access my Tidal Hi-Fi subscription as well as to my music library stored on a Synology server. The music library is a duplicate copy of what I also have on the Aurender.
I find navigating the music selection using the Conductor is far more flexible and user friendly. The tempo from the Aurender-Bartok combo somehow comes across with more tempo. I accept perhaps Mosaic is in its early stages and will evolve into a fine front-end; but for now I prefer the Aurender-Bartok combo.
Interesting. I stream music from my library on a Synology NAS using MinimServer software running on the NAS. I must admit that while this completely fulfils all my basic needs for browsing and playback in conjunction with Mosaic for control and gives excellent sound quality, it does not have the bells and whistles available from some other server software, Roon etc etc. A matter of personal preference I guess.
I wonder if you may have landed on the reason for Edwin’s poor experience with Mosaic. From other posts over the past year it is the reason that lies behind several reports of dissatisfaction with the app. Basically dCS have a proprietary implementation of UPnP and Mosaic accordingly only supports MinimServer and use of other UPnP software can cause all sorts of strange behaviour from odd track order to lack of gapless replay.
My Melco server came with Twonky installed as the ( then) default UPnP server and that introduced all sorts of oddities in Mosaic’s behaviour until I replaced it with MinimServer ( which is Melco’s default choice these days).
I started investigating digital in 2007 with the introduction of the first Linn Klimax DS. I finally abandoned my Naim CD555 player in 2011 with the release of the second incarnation of the Klimax DS/1.
Linn originally championed open source software and refused for many years to enter the software development business for a control app. Kazoo came about because all of the open source third party developers eventually realized that no money was to be made working on an app solution for the DS.
Since then I, and many others, have suffered and complained about Kazoo for more than a decade. My Naim friends have endured similar heartache with Naim’s own proprietary control point software.
Linn users were finally granted a reprieve when, after 3 years of vocal complaining on the (now defunct) Linn forum, we were granted access to a modified implementation of ROON. Our Linn players are now Roon “capable” but not Roon certified.
The point I am trying to make is that perhaps these companies, Linn, Naim and dCS, belong hiring true app developers instead of trying to do things in house. Somehow other companies, particularly the Asian manufacturers, have been able to put forth apps which perform better than the 3 large UK audio companies.
The previous poster on this thread mentioned Aurender and his satisfaction with their control point solution. I remember when Lumin released their first software app. It was actually an extremely interesting development as a new member on the Linn forum introduced himself as a new DS user and a computer programmer by hobby. He picked our brains and used us as beta guinea pigs to develop the very impressive Lumin software control point. You can imagine our surprise when we discovered the subterfuge which was that of him actually being a Lumin employee who was sent to the Linn forum to “integrate” with us and do market research and software testing for their yet to be released Lumin player - which at the time was a blatant copy of the Linn KDS.
I guess the moral of the story, imho, is that developing control point apps and software is not easy and the task is best left to the experts who do it for a living - instead of trying to develop internally.
Just my own opinion. For now I continue to use ROON and thank dCS for making all of their units fully ROON certified (unlike my Linn product and its “faux” Roon certification).
Grid layout is top of my list. Bubble is perfect as it shows two lines of text below image. However, just moved to IPad Pro so so longer an option.
Would also like to see Mosaic take advantage of larger tablet screen by displaying album art at something like 3x3 rather than 1x1 in playing now window.
An old gripe but Mosaic only shows total album time once playing - would like to know what I am letting myself in for before pressing Play.
Playing now window could show more metadata such as Genre.
I am very interested in your experience of using Mosaic App regarding its stability. Unfortunately, I have very bad experience. Mosaic closes to me very often before it displays any CD or artist I want. Usually, before I can start playing, I repeat the whole procedure 2 or 3 times because Mosaic returns to the first screen with which it is run, i.e. select the source from which I want to play music. Perhaps this is because I have a large library. over 10,000 albums. Minim server runs on Qnap NAS where music is also stored. Everything is further complicated by the fact that I use Voice Over (screen reader built into IOS) for a blind person to operate the touch screen.
I hope Mosaic will work much more stable in the upcoming versions.
Regards Robert
I am unsure what you mean by 3x3 or 1x1 ( are these centimetres, inches?). However, if you look at the portrait display and simply tap the thumbnail album artwork in the play bar at the bottom of the screen then you will see a full screen version of artwork and comtrols. Is this what you want?
Robert as I have written before your experience seems to be unique. There is no other respondent to this forum that reports anything like you report. You must be doing something unusual or wrong to cause your problems. Otherwise Mosaic is totally stable even if there may be refinements that some would like.
I will be blunt: do you have anyone sighted who can assist you? I appreciate that some of the Mosaic commands are selected via icons rather than text which may cause problems with Voice Over.
NB: since writing the above I have put my i-pad into Voice Over Mode. Your problem would appear to lie with this application as so many commands even those not involving icons ( you will be aware of the voice response “button: image”) that I tried were ignored or required numerous repeat actions. I also tried other applications than Mosaic and found a similar lack of accurate response.
Probably my difficulties are related to the fact that as the only person in this group I use the Mosaic App with Voice Over. I will ask my wife (seeing person) to check how the Mosaic App behaves when Voice Over is turned off. I wonder if it will be as stable as you describe it.
Best Regards Robert
Hi Robert I have had my Bartok for almost 6 months now and have used only Mosaic during that time and as Pete says I have found Mosaic to be absolutely stable and rock solid (thanks to dCS for that)
Hopefully you can get your problems sorted out ASAP
I checked again. This time I turned off the Roon Server. When the Roon Server is turned off, the Mosaic App runs more stable and will not restart. Perhaps the problem was that both the Roon Server and Mosaic App were requesting access to the Bartók DCS device. I would like a viewer to check the Mosaic App stability in my system with the Voice Over function turned off.
Best Regards Robert