Freesound Forums

This thread is for freesound users to post suggestions for features that they feel would enhance the usability, accessability, effeciency (whatever you want to call it) of the freesound site. Bram will then let us know how feasible those ideas are and if he will be able to do them or not.

Current list of features that Bram would agrees on:

• ways to order any list of samples in different ways. "See all giles in a tag, ordered by filesize"
  
• "favorite users" list for each user
  
• make the 'tagline' a bit more extensive
  
• change the 'user profile' on phpBB to point to the right place on freesound...
  
• ability to create a custom list of sounds, so one can 'jam' with them all at once...
  
• html "play" button in lists, to facilitate for more than 15 samples per page
  

I find that it's a lot of fun to browse through the freesound loops, and play several loops at once. More than one sample can be previewed at once, so you can actually mess around with them -- with a complete disregard for rhythmic precision -- in real time.

It would be great if you could go through the archive, select a bunch of samples, then see them all together on one page and jam with them.

I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

RHumphries
I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

possibly a checkbox option in the search function, or a saved preference in a cookie? good thought.

vladzur
Me gustaria bastante que pudierais incluir la opción de ver este sitioen español.
¿es esto muy complejo?

Gracias

my spanish is pretty poor, but i know enough to realize vladzur is wondering if it would be possible add translation somewhere with the descriptions / comments. he asked also if this would be very complex. bram will let you know for sure, but i believe it would be quite a big task . . . they do create technology for this (libraries, APIs, etc) but they are hard to impliment and they do a nominal job with the translations, to say the least . . .

chaircrusher
I find that it's a lot of fun to browse through the freesound loops, and play several loops at once. More than one sample can be previewed at once, so you can actually mess around with them -- with a complete disregard for rhythmic precision -- in real time.

It would be great if you could go through the archive, select a bunch of samples, then see them all together on one page and jam with them.

agreed, nic, do the honnors.

- Bram

Hello RH,

RHumphries
I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

Do you mean text + flash player?
The problem is simple: mozilla firefox breaks when I add more than 15 flash-players per page. Prety annoying!
If you mean only text - that ca be done - but I don't really see the use

- Bram

Bram
Hello RH,

RHumphries
I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

Do you mean text + flash player?
The problem is simple: mozilla firefox breaks when I add more than 15 flash-players per page. Prety annoying!
If you mean only text - that ca be done - but I don't really see the use

- Bram

well it would make it a bit faster to load pages. maybe its not hte download time but the parse time before the page is displayed properly on slower systems that is the bottleneck

Anton

Bram
Hello RH,

RHumphries
I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

Do you mean text + flash player?
The problem is simple: mozilla firefox breaks when I add more than 15 flash-players per page. Prety annoying!
If you mean only text - that ca be done - but I don't really see the use

- Bram

well it would make it a bit faster to load pages. maybe its not hte download time but the parse time before the page is displayed properly on slower systems that is the bottleneck

Yes, one line of text plus a simple play button would be nice. If it can't be done then it can't be done.
I'm no web designer, but rather than implementing the entire flash player for every sample, could you have an html play-button link that calls up a flash player when clicked?

I'm used to using SFX search engines that give 50 results to a page. That way I can browse quickly through and see if there is anything of interest and then move on to the next 50 quickly.

Also, it might be nice to have an indication of how many samples follow the current page. i.e. rather than ">15" say "16-30 of 192".

Thanks for the good work. I think the site has a lot of potential.
-Richard

RHumphries
I'd like to see a text only page; i.e. without waveforms but more results. I find it very cumbersome to look through 15 samples at a time.

Bram
Do you mean text + flash player?
The problem is simple: mozilla firefox breaks when I add more than 15 flash-players per page. Prety annoying!
If you mean only text - that ca be done - but I don't really see the use

- Bram

this is a tricky one. the option to load more samples per page seems like it would be pretty useful, but the issue with the flash players makes it technologically tough . . . i have never worked with flash before, but would there be a way to create just one instance of the flash player that has the play/stop for each sample as a unique button inside it? i have a feeling this would be pretty tough and time consuming if it's even possible . . .

another less pretty alternative would be to provide the functionality based on user agent (i.e. to everone but those using firefox) . . . i wonder if the limit in firefox is a security thing, or a bug thing?

hmmmm . . . .

Also, the search engine should look through the tags and file titles, not just the description.

-Richard

i was thinking of a possible implimentation that might not necesarily be called a "feature", but still fits in this thread anyway. that is:

would it be too picky to require at least some sort of description before a sound can be accepted? i am talking about before moderation / at the point after the user has filled out all the descriptions/tags (the point around where the spell checker is), if the user has no text in the description box, throwing those back at them and requesting a description before the sounds will be submitted for moderation. another less strict thing you could do is still let the sound go, but just ask if they are sure they don't want a description (and why it helps everyone is there is a description).

another feature i was thinking that falls in the same category (takes place at the same point in the submission process), is you could have the script compare the descriptions and just give a friendly reminder if 2 or more of the descriptions are identical (i.e. copy/pasted). not block the sound from submission, just let the user know it's nice to have descriptions be as unique as possible. sometimes it really is tough to think of anything different to say between 2 or more similar sounds, so this one is not as big of a deal.

RHumphries

Yes, one line of text plus a simple play button would be nice. If it can't be done then it can't be done.
I'm no web designer, but rather than implementing the entire flash player for every sample, could you have an html play-button link that calls up a flash player when clicked?

Sure, ... nic, add it.

RHumphries

Also, it might be nice to have an indication of how many samples follow the current page. i.e. rather than ">15" say "16-30 of 192".

done.

- bram

RHumphries
Also, the search engine should look through the tags and file titles, not just the description.

it was a searious mind-bender to get it work, but it does now (since 10 minutes)!!

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/searchText.php?search=tabla%20fill

someone PLEASE give the search a good try-out!

- Bram

nicStage
would it be too picky to require at least some sort of description before a sound can be accepted? i am talking about before moderation / at the point after the user has filled out all the descriptions/tags (the point around where the spell checker is), if the user has no text in the description box, throwing those back at them and requesting a description before the sounds will be submitted for moderation. another less strict thing you could do is still let the sound go, but just ask if they are sure they don't want a description (and why it helps everyone is there is a description).

The moderation engi,e now alows the moderator to flag a file as badly described (this also automaticaly sends an email to the submitter). Later I will add feature for "describers" to focus on badly described files.

another feature i was thinking that falls in the same category (takes place at the same point in the submission process), is you could have the script compare the descriptions and just give a friendly reminder if 2 or more of the descriptions are identical (i.e. copy/pasted). not block the sound from submission, just let the user know it's nice to have descriptions be as unique as possible. sometimes it really is tough to think of anything different to say between 2 or more similar sounds, so this one is not as big of a deal.

Too hard, I think... How do you communicate this to the user, how do you properly check this? I'll add some extra checks, but... it's hard, especialy as not a lot of the submittters are native english speakers. (see the latest batch of VERY badly described samples, which I all flagged)

- bram

Bram

RHumphries
Also, the search engine should look through the tags and file titles, not just the description.

it was a searious mind-bender to get it work, but it does now (since 10 minutes)!!

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/searchText.php?search=tabla%20fill

someone PLEASE give the search a good try-out!

- Bram

It searches through the tags now, which is a vast improvement! Thanks for your hard work. I'd still like to see it search through the file names as well, but don't kill yourself over it.

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/searchText.php?search=spring2.wav

"real time development"

- bram

moved this thread to a new forum, called "feature requests".
that way we can still have one thread per request without disturbing the other forum...

- Bram

Maybe a nice new feature is a 'special' page where people can request a sound.

It should also be possible to check the request so the user knows a sample has been uploaded, with maybe a automatic email. And in this way it's possible that the request page is kept up to date.

I don't know if the check can be done automatic... for example if some one uploads a sound and then uses the requested 'keyword' as a tag for the sound.

Also a small basic search form on the index page would be cool and handy.

greetz !

what about using the forum for it?
that would also give an "email when replied" feature.

- Bram