Description: Cantata is a (yet another!) client for the music player daemon (MPD). Originally started as a fork of QtMPC, the code is now *very* different. Cantata can be compiled with KDE support, or as a pure Qt4 application. The interface is very configurable - most views can be shown as either a list or tree structure.
Currently Cantata has the following views:
1. Library - Group by either Genre, Album Artist (or Artist if Album Artist not set), or Album 2. Folders - displays MPDs virtual filesystem. (This view is hidden by default) 3. Playlists - standard, dyamic, and smart 4. Internet - Radio Streams (allows saving of internet radio URLs, searching for stations via TuneIn or ShoutCast, station listings from; Digitally Imported (+Sky, JazzRadio, RockRadio), TuneIn, IceCast, ShoutCast, SomaFM, etc.) and Online services (Jamendo, Magnatune, SoundCloud, and Podcasts) 5. Devices - enables copying from/to USB-Mass-Storage (UMS) and MTP devices, and ripping AudioCDs 6. Search - search via MPD
The sidebar has a context menu, allowing you to control its style and what items are shown.
Refer to http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Client:Cantata, and https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CDrummond/cantata/master/README, for further information.
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NOTE: The screenshots on this page are out of date, and only reflect the 1.x codebase
1010 the best, still. I really hope someone will pick up this project. This player does everything perfectly, your music library, podcasts, internet radio, great interface. It is the perfect audio player, nothing else comes close.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases). Cantata is now a Qt only app, therefore cannot support KDE's global shortcuts. That said, most of Cantata's actions are available via dbus. "qdbus mpd.cantata /cantata listActions" will list all available actions. There is also a "cantata-remote" shell script to help invoking the commands. e.g. "/usr/share/cantata/scripts/cantata-remote cantata playpausetrack" will cause the play/pause action to be triggered. Using this, you should be able to use KDE's global keyboard settings to connect shortcuts to an invocation of this script.
I really want to use this audio player now that it came included in my fresh Kubuntu install, but I can't get it to recognize my local music directory. Is there any way to get assistance with this?
The parts of the 'Collection Settings' I have filled in are 'Name', 'Host: localhost' and 'Music folder '/media/classl3ss/Tertiary/Music'. It should have adequate permissions. I looked at my ksysguard and Cantata is running as my user which has read privileges.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases).
There are 2 ways which Cantata controls MPD:
"Basic" - where Cantata starts its own (per-user) instance of MPD. With this setting, Cantata configures the MPD folders, etc, for you.
"Standard" - This is the normal case where MPD is run system wide, or on another machine. Here Cantata cannot configure MPD - so it is up to you to alter MPD's config file, etc. to suit your settings.
Seeing as you are seeing the "Host:" option, then this would imply your are using a "Standard" collection. If so, then configuring MPD is a manual step, and Cantata cannot help with this.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases).
There are 2 ways which Cantata controls MPD:
"Basic" - where Cantata starts its own (per-user) instance of MPD. With this setting, Cantata configures the MPD folders, etc, for you.
"Standard" - This is the normal case where MPD is run system wide, or on another machine. Here Cantata cannot configure MPD - so it is up to you to alter MPD's config file, etc. to suit your settings.
Seeing as you are seeing the "Host:" option, then this would imply your are using a "Standard" collection. If so, then configuring MPD is a manual step, and Cantata cannot help with this.
Hey, I just wanted to say that this is probabbly the best audio player (not just the best mpd client) i used! It does exactly what i want it to do. Thank you for this awesome software!
Version 2.0 introduced a change that I don't like. Now, with 2.0.1 the albums of a given artist are listed according to the year the album was released. I would like to change it to alphabetical order, but I cannot find the way to do it.
Can albums be sorted only by the year? If so, could you please make it possible to sort the albums alphabetically.
I'm using Cantata version 2.0.1, OpenSuse Leap 42.1
que tan posible seria incorporar esta funcionalidad en cantata, me gusta cantata y le veo mucho potencial pero de momento esta funcion le veo indispensable para el trabajo del dia a dia.
hi
thanks for the seamless update to 2.0.0
if you hide the track-number column the list no longer jumps to the current track (found that out randomly after the update because the column was no longer hidden)
reason for hide it is that most tracks here don't have a tracknumber in the metadata
Would have thought this issue would also be present in 1.5.2 Anyway, will be fixed for 2.0.1 (already is in 2.0 branch and master)
Also, please use the github issue tracker for bug reports.
Hello.
First, thank you. Good app ;)
1. Some .APE/.CUE are not well listed. They are shown as just one long track.
2. I miss options like "Added to collection within last week", "Added within last month", . . . It's a must have.
Cheers from France.
Okanda
I like the interface layout and the simplicity of using / configuring.
The UI is Not cluttered and hard to use.
Amarok has become Too much, too involved.
I want to listen to my music not learn a new app : )
the use of MPD, seems like my music sounds clearer.
Thanks,
Landis.
I have try with all cover-show and mpris plasmoids and Cantanta never shows the cover art like another kde aplicattions like Amarok, CLementine, Yaroc, etc....
Is it possible?
Hi, I'n new to Cantata and so far I'm pretty pleased. The only problem I have is that the tiltle of all my iTunes m4a files isn't identified correctly. All m4a files have "unknown" titles. Any other files have the correct titles. Any ideas how to fix that?
Best regards
dadebue
I love this application, please help me to fix my challenges: Currently start Cantata with the question, if i aim to set it up on a local computer or just as client, then comes the question about the path and so on. I wish to compile Cantata in a way, (or edit the source code) that these questions get skipped, so that the user can simply click on a audio file and Cantata plays it. Who can help me please ? :)
Cantata is an mpd client; mpd is a music database/playback system.
It's not designed to "just play a file" at all.
Some clints "fake" random local file support by temporarily adding the files to the database, but i'd say you're rather looking for something like smplayer.
Well Cantata *can* playback local non-MPD files - it has a minimal embedded HTTP server which it uses to serve files to MPD. (I use this to play AudioCDs from my laptop out of MPD running on my Pi 2)
And as for 0 config - as long as MPD is using its defaults, then this too can work. Or at the least, provide a system-wide default Cantata config.
If you check for a running (local) mpd server at start (on default port) you can probably reasonably just connect to it.
If there's no local mpd server running, you can (given mpd is installed ... ;-) start one and connect it, but you sacrifice the wizard that asks the user what you want to do (in case mpd is just installed along libmpdclient and he actually wanted to connect his RasPi)
It's a trade-off, but my main objection would be "why use an mpd client just to abuse mpd to playback local files only" - and drop about everything (database, network, client/server) that's cool about the mpd approach.
----
Is the http server btw. in the cantata process, ie. if you quit cantata, playback stops?
I guess a connection attempt could be made, etc. to make things simpler. I'll accept patches to do this...
Does not affect my use case - where MPD is running on a Pi2
I agree, that MPD is not really meant for local file playback (or at least, that's not its strength). But, it is useful to be able to playback some local files. Again, seeing as my MPD is on another machine, I do use the in-built http server for this use-case (and for playing AudioCDs)
Yes, the HTTP server is in-process, and Cantata should remove any localy served files from the playqueue when it closes. I guess a separate cantata-http helper could be written (like cantata-dynamic) to serve the files...
Ratings & Comments
385 Comments
Excellent software, will it be ported to Qt6 ?
10 10 the best, still. I really hope someone will pick up this project. This player does everything perfectly, your music library, podcasts, internet radio, great interface. It is the perfect audio player, nothing else comes close.
How can i add global shortcuts? I'd like to be able to move the track forward and backward with shortcuts like i already do with Audacious.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases). Cantata is now a Qt only app, therefore cannot support KDE's global shortcuts. That said, most of Cantata's actions are available via dbus. "qdbus mpd.cantata /cantata listActions" will list all available actions. There is also a "cantata-remote" shell script to help invoking the commands. e.g. "/usr/share/cantata/scripts/cantata-remote cantata playpausetrack" will cause the play/pause action to be triggered. Using this, you should be able to use KDE's global keyboard settings to connect shortcuts to an invocation of this script.
Works great! That's what i was tryin' to do but i didn't know how. Thank you very much, now i'll use Cantata as my default music player.
I really want to use this audio player now that it came included in my fresh Kubuntu install, but I can't get it to recognize my local music directory. Is there any way to get assistance with this? The parts of the 'Collection Settings' I have filled in are 'Name', 'Host: localhost' and 'Music folder '/media/classl3ss/Tertiary/Music'. It should have adequate permissions. I looked at my ksysguard and Cantata is running as my user which has read privileges.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases). There are 2 ways which Cantata controls MPD: "Basic" - where Cantata starts its own (per-user) instance of MPD. With this setting, Cantata configures the MPD folders, etc, for you. "Standard" - This is the normal case where MPD is run system wide, or on another machine. Here Cantata cannot configure MPD - so it is up to you to alter MPD's config file, etc. to suit your settings. Seeing as you are seeing the "Host:" option, then this would imply your are using a "Standard" collection. If so, then configuring MPD is a manual step, and Cantata cannot help with this.
Sorry - for the late reply, I really don't use this site much (apart from to announce new releases). There are 2 ways which Cantata controls MPD: "Basic" - where Cantata starts its own (per-user) instance of MPD. With this setting, Cantata configures the MPD folders, etc, for you. "Standard" - This is the normal case where MPD is run system wide, or on another machine. Here Cantata cannot configure MPD - so it is up to you to alter MPD's config file, etc. to suit your settings. Seeing as you are seeing the "Host:" option, then this would imply your are using a "Standard" collection. If so, then configuring MPD is a manual step, and Cantata cannot help with this.
Hey, I just wanted to say that this is probabbly the best audio player (not just the best mpd client) i used! It does exactly what i want it to do. Thank you for this awesome software!
Version 2.0 introduced a change that I don't like. Now, with 2.0.1 the albums of a given artist are listed according to the year the album was released. I would like to change it to alphabetical order, but I cannot find the way to do it. Can albums be sorted only by the year? If so, could you please make it possible to sort the albums alphabetically. I'm using Cantata version 2.0.1, OpenSuse Leap 42.1
Use the menu button in the lower left of the library view, and select 'Sort Albums' > 'Name'
Thank you.
que tan posible seria incorporar esta funcionalidad en cantata, me gusta cantata y le veo mucho potencial pero de momento esta funcion le veo indispensable para el trabajo del dia a dia.
hi thanks for the seamless update to 2.0.0 if you hide the track-number column the list no longer jumps to the current track (found that out randomly after the update because the column was no longer hidden) reason for hide it is that most tracks here don't have a tracknumber in the metadata
Would have thought this issue would also be present in 1.5.2 Anyway, will be fixed for 2.0.1 (already is in 2.0 branch and master) Also, please use the github issue tracker for bug reports.
Hello. First, thank you. Good app ;) 1. Some .APE/.CUE are not well listed. They are shown as just one long track. 2. I miss options like "Added to collection within last week", "Added within last month", . . . It's a must have. Cheers from France. Okanda
I like the interface layout and the simplicity of using / configuring. The UI is Not cluttered and hard to use. Amarok has become Too much, too involved. I want to listen to my music not learn a new app : ) the use of MPD, seems like my music sounds clearer. Thanks, Landis.
I have try with all cover-show and mpris plasmoids and Cantanta never shows the cover art like another kde aplicattions like Amarok, CLementine, Yaroc, etc.... Is it possible?
Hi, I'n new to Cantata and so far I'm pretty pleased. The only problem I have is that the tiltle of all my iTunes m4a files isn't identified correctly. All m4a files have "unknown" titles. Any other files have the correct titles. Any ideas how to fix that? Best regards dadebue
Cantata gets its metadata from MPD - so the issue will probably be there.
I love this application, please help me to fix my challenges: Currently start Cantata with the question, if i aim to set it up on a local computer or just as client, then comes the question about the path and so on. I wish to compile Cantata in a way, (or edit the source code) that these questions get skipped, so that the user can simply click on a audio file and Cantata plays it. Who can help me please ? :)
Cantata is an mpd client; mpd is a music database/playback system. It's not designed to "just play a file" at all. Some clints "fake" random local file support by temporarily adding the files to the database, but i'd say you're rather looking for something like smplayer.
Well Cantata *can* playback local non-MPD files - it has a minimal embedded HTTP server which it uses to serve files to MPD. (I use this to play AudioCDs from my laptop out of MPD running on my Pi 2) And as for 0 config - as long as MPD is using its defaults, then this too can work. Or at the least, provide a system-wide default Cantata config.
If you check for a running (local) mpd server at start (on default port) you can probably reasonably just connect to it. If there's no local mpd server running, you can (given mpd is installed ... ;-) start one and connect it, but you sacrifice the wizard that asks the user what you want to do (in case mpd is just installed along libmpdclient and he actually wanted to connect his RasPi) It's a trade-off, but my main objection would be "why use an mpd client just to abuse mpd to playback local files only" - and drop about everything (database, network, client/server) that's cool about the mpd approach. ---- Is the http server btw. in the cantata process, ie. if you quit cantata, playback stops?
I guess a connection attempt could be made, etc. to make things simpler. I'll accept patches to do this... Does not affect my use case - where MPD is running on a Pi2 I agree, that MPD is not really meant for local file playback (or at least, that's not its strength). But, it is useful to be able to playback some local files. Again, seeing as my MPD is on another machine, I do use the in-built http server for this use-case (and for playing AudioCDs) Yes, the HTTP server is in-process, and Cantata should remove any localy served files from the playqueue when it closes. I guess a separate cantata-http helper could be written (like cantata-dynamic) to serve the files...