CarSub - a new iOS Subsonic client

[rich600]

Hi all,

I'm pleased to announce that the first version of my iOS app for SubSonic, CarSub, is now available in the App Store - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/carsub/id923424694?mt=8

You can find more information, including screenshots & guides, at http://carsubapp.co.uk

The app has been created with use in the car in mind. Its interface has got large buttons and uses gestures to control playback, making it quick to use without being distracting. Its also got full Bluetooth audio support and will integrate nicely with the controls of your Bluetooth device (headphones, speaker, car head unit etc).

Here's the list of features in the first version:

- A frustration free interface that is easy to navigate
- Gapless playback and audio caching for smoother playback
- Unique gesture-based interface for controlling playback
- Support for streaming over 3G/4G as well as WiFi
- Full Bluetooth Audio support
- Full Bluetooth remote control support
- Full Airplay support
- Streams music from any licensed SubSonic server
- Browse your entire music collection
- Browse most recently added
- Browse most recently played
- Supports multiple top-level SubSonic music folders
- Supports shuffle and repeat
- Displays album cover art
- Full lock-screen integration
- Full documentation and guides available at the CarSub website
- Supports iOS6, iOS7 and iOS8
- Supports iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus
- Supports iPod Touch
- Supports iPad

The next version is well underway, with caching support being the headline feature.

Please take a look on the App Store or the CarSub website for more details & updates and feel free to email me with questions/features requests.

Thanks
Rich

[DreamStatic]

Thank you for building another iOS client. Nice job out of the gate.

I Look forward to the Cache option in the next version. I bought it just to support future development as Cache is a Must have for me.

One issue I ran into right out of the gate is the alphabet didn't show all the letters. It stopped at the letter "L". I definitely have every letter represented.

I also hope to see the gesture controls configurable in the future, as I am used to sliding the opposite direction to go back. Anyhow, keep up the development. Thanks.

[rich600]

Hi

thanks for the feedback and ideas for future config - this is certainly what will drive the development.

Caching is definitely on it's way - I'm testing it now.

Strange about stopping at the letter L - I've not seen that before. The app parses the response of subsonic GetIndexes command. I assume it shows up OK on the web interface. If you create a user for me and PM me the details, I'll take a look.

Cheers
Rich

[NoahJenda]

Rich,

First off, let me thank you for your initial efforts on CarSub. It's already a great app.

I'm coming from Android and have only had a iPhone 6 for a few weeks. On Android, I used UltraSonic. My favorite feature of that app was gapless playback, because I have a lot of live or otherwise gapless albums in my collection. The UltraSonic implementation of gapless play was absolutely perfect.

Your CarSub is off to a terrific start, but the gapless playback isn't perfect yet. I still get a little click in between tracks. I've been using Abbey Road by The Beatles as my gapless test. Played on UltraSonic on Android, I do not hear the clicks so I know it's something related to CarSub. Perhaps it has to do with caching enough of the song in advance, or something else, but I hope you are able to refine the gapless playback until it's really seamless.

My only other question is about whether there is a v2 or not. I got v1 from the app store, and your site says you're working on v3. Did you pull v2 from the app store, or is it still waiting for approval from Apple? I know that can take a while.

Thanks again for your hard work!

[rich600]

Hi,

thanks for the info about gapless playback.

The app caches 90 seconds into the upcoming track(s) so it shouldn't be a problem with that. I'll check it out with Abbey Road though to see if I experience the same issue.

The version thing is confusing I'll admit. The version in the app store IS the first version, however there was a problem uploading the app to the app store with a version 1 number so I just up'd it to 2 and off it went. I'm calling the next version V3, to match the app-store version number (even though it'll be the 2nd version ). Hey, if Microsoft can skip Windows 9, so can I!

Thanks
Rich

[NoahJenda]

Rich,

Thanks for looking into the gapless playback issue. I'll test CarSub with a few other gapless albums (perhaps Dark Side of the Moon, or some live albums) and see if I experience the same click between tracks. I don't think it's specific to Abbey Road though, or to my CD rips (the vast majority of my MP3s are my own rips and not downloads) since all gapless albums played perfectly on Android with UltraSonic.

I also appreciate that you are active in this forum and take seriously the comments from your users. Makes me happy I bought your app, which I'm sure will only get better.

[CasN]

Rich,
like this development,. certainly with iSub no longer being actively developed/supported.
Apart from the caching which i think is coming shortly, I also miss a play-all option.
So you select an artist and just want to play all tracks from all albums.
I look forward to the next release, keep p the good work

[rich600]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll add play-all by artist to the feature backlog. Currently CarSub browses by music folder, rather than tag, which would be key to your request. Will have to see if there's and elegant way to add it in.

Version 3 (caching) has now been submitted to Apple. Hopefully it'll be out in a week. Check the announcements thread or the CarSub website for news.

Cheers
Rich

[NoahJenda]

Rich,

Just got version 3.0, so Apple finally approved it!

CarSub continues to get better and better. Thanks for adding the album art.

I noticed a few things in my preliminary tests:

1) It's a little slow to scroll through large folders of albums, such as my Various Artists folder. It's definitely slower than before you added the album art, so I assume it has to do with CarSub trying to render the images when I'm scrolling.

2) Gapless playback still isn't as seamless as it could be. It's not just "Abbey Road" that has a problem for me, but it's actually any album where one song blends directly into the next. "Dark Side of the Moon" or any live album with applause between the tracks has the same issue. It's not accurate for me to call it a "click", but it's more like a fraction of a second missing, so there is an audible jump between one track and the next. I loaded the same albums I'd been testing onto my iPhone and used Apple's music player, and the playback was perfectly gapless. It's definitely not a problem with my MP3s. I know Subsonic doesn't natively support gapless playback, but as I've written before, the guy who wrote the UltraSonic app figured it out so we know it's possible. Hoping you might have a breakthrough with gapless playback on your next release.

Thanks again for your continued work on the app, and your responsiveness to comments here in the forum.

[vitz]

This is great that there's finally an iSub replacement. My iSub has a bug where lots of tracks are missing, so the timing is perfect. Actually I have a couple hundred users so they may all switch over to carsub over time.

I have a couple issues to advise about (I haven't tested the new version), and also a suggestion. Many thanks.

1. "The" should be ignored when sorting Artist names, i.e. "The Beatles" should be under "B".

2. When albums have multiple discs, the app does not recognize them and sort in the correct album order. That is, in an album with three discs, it wrongly sorts disc 1 track 1, d2t1, d1t2, d2t2, etc., instead of disc1 track1, disc 1 track2, disc 2 track 1, disc 2 track 2, etc.

3. suggestion - when searching by artist, its more natural to scroll through all the names, rather than by letter. I know you are gearing the app towards cars, but the option to scroll through all the artist names would definitely be welcome.

Thanks again!

[rich600]

Hi,

wow, you guys are quick!

Thanks for the feedback again and suggestions - they all go on my backlog.

With regard to the gapless feedback, I too have noticed that there's a small gap between tracks - it's most obvious on live albums. It's one of the things I'll try to address in V4.

I'm going to add a configurable list of words to ignore in lists too.

Once again, thanks for the feedback. V4 is underway

Thanks
Rich

[NoahJenda]

1. "The" should be ignored when sorting Artist names, i.e. "The Beatles" should be under "B".

Yes! That would be a great feature to add for v4.

Perhaps there could even be an option to make our own selections of what to ignore, like in the Settings / General tab of SubSonic itself. I like the of being able to specify "The El La Los Las Le Les" or whatever I want to ignore.

[daneren2005]

It is actually part of the getIndexes schema sent by the server (added in 4.8 I believe): http://www.subsonic.org/pages/inc/api/e ... mple_1.xml

[rich600]

Hi,

this is a feature of V4, in development now.

CarSub will respect the list defined in Subsonic itself.

V4 should be finished over the weekend and submitted to Apple for review.

Thanks
Rich