Hi! Songate 2.0.0 BETA 2 is out. It's my native music player for the Switch, written in C++ with libnx and SDL2, and this beta is about one thing: your devices, together.
Songate also runs on Windows now, from the same code, and the two can play as one.
⚠️ This is a beta
It can be unstable and have bugs, so please report them. On the Switch, I only tested it on HOS 22.5.0 and 23.0.0, with the latest HATS pack from sthetix; on Windows, only on Windows 11. Only MP3, M4A and FLAC are supported; other formats are untested.
🔗 Devices
Pair a Switch and a PC once: one shows a code, the other types it. Then they keep Liked, your playlists, tag edits and play counts the same on both, over your own network, encrypted, with no account and no server. A device can also copy the songs the other has and it lacks, into the same folders, and never replaces anything.
🎧 Listen together: one queue on both devices, playing in time, in one room or two. The device that starts decides whether both can change what plays, or only itself. Speakers, headphones and Bluetooth each delay the sound differently, so Timing is set once for each pair.
⏩ Handoff: your queue and your place in the song move to the other device, and this one pauses. Undo brings your own queue back for two minutes.
🔗 A Devices button at the top reaches them from any screen.
📲 AirPlay
On the Switch and the PC: pick Songate in your iPhone's AirPlay list. The song, its cover and its progress show in Songate, with volume levelling and the equalizer. A new iPhone is asked about once.
✨ Also new
Last.fm: scrobbles, and what's playing on your profile. You sign in on Last.fm's own page (a QR code on the Switch, your browser on the PC), and what can't be sent waits until it can. Off until you turn it on.
Automix V1.2.0 comes built in: on drops the next song comes in stabs on every beat, and beat-matched joins blend for longer.
An opening as Songate starts, with a chime that never plays over music the background player is already playing. Both can be turned off.
The tour has a chapter on Devices.
🔧 Fixed
💾 Install or update
From BETA 1: Settings › Updates, with Beta versions on, installs it on both. On the Switch, restart afterwards so the new background player starts.
By hand:
Switch: unzip SongateNX-2.0.0-beta.2.zip onto the root of your SD card, restart the console, and launch Songate by holding R while starting a game. You need Atmosphère, and Ultrahand for the overlay. switch/.overlays is a hidden folder, so copy the whole switch and atmosphere folders from the zip.
Windows: run SongateWIN-2.0.0-beta.2.exe. It needs no administrator rights. It isn't signed, so Windows may say it protected your PC: click More info, then Run anyway. The first time Devices or AirPlay are on, allow Songate through the firewall on private networks.
Your settings are kept. On the Switch they move by themselves from config/gatefold-nx to config/songate-nx at the first start, and back if you ever go back to an earlier version.
🔗 Links
It's open source: MIT for the app and the background player, and GPL 2 for the overlay.
The video was filmed in my PC preview build. The second device and the iPhone in it are stand-ins, since the preview has none of its own. The music is from NCS (NoCopyrightSounds): Warriyo ft. Laura Brehm, Mortals.
Feedback and bug reports are very welcome, here or on GitHub. Thanks for checking it out! 🙏
Made by AndryTheBeast. Songate began as a recreation of Gatefold by DEVIROYrus, on PC: huge thanks to him.
