Version 2
The same care should be taken when using Trainspotter with version 2 as the 1.x release, i.e. make sure you have backed up your collection and any audio files before you start, just in case - I haven’t had any reports of audio files being damaged during the beta phase or since the early days of version 1 for that matter.
Prerequisites for version 2
- Traktor Pro 1.2.x, Traktor Pro 2, Traktor Kontrol S4
- Java 1.6 (do not use Java 1.7 as this won’t work for Trainspotter)
If you are running OS X, Java should be installed by default. Run the Software Update feature in OS X to make sure you are running the latest version.
If you are running a Windows machine you need to download the 32-bit Java Runtime Environment from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html
click the “Download JRE” button. Select “Windows” as your platform, not “Windows x64″ (even if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows).
Click, download and run re-6u23-windows-i586.exe
Trainspotter is a 32 bit application on Windows and uses various 32 bit programs and .dlls, so running the 64 bit version of Java isn’t possible.
Installing Trainspotter 2
Before you download, please note that Trainspotter is not freeware. All the functions of Trainspotter apart from the key detection and iTunes integration are free for you to use. The key detection is limited to 20 detections each time you run Trainspotter. The iTunes integration will sync only a portion of your tracks.
OS X users can download Trainspotter 2 from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4520217/Trainspotter-2.2-macosx.cocoa.x86_64.zip
Windows users can download it from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4520217/Trainspotter-2.2-win32.win32.x86.zip
Once you’ve downloaded the .zip file, extract it to a place on your hard drive and then open the Trainspotter2 folder and double click the TrainspotterTwo file to start Trainspotter.
Depending on your system configuration Trainspotter may ask you for the location of your NML file - this is the collection.nml that is used by Traktor to store you music library information and is usually located in /Users/username/Documents/Native Instruments/Traktor. You can find the location of the directory in the Traktor “Data Location” preference page.
If you have more than one version of Traktor installed, check that Trainspotter is using the correct collection.nml for the version of Traktor you are running, otherwise any updates you do in Trainspotter won’t be visible in Traktor.
If you are a Windows user and have got a 64-bit version of the Java Runtime Environment installed(as well as the 32-bit version), then you may need to edit the TrainspotterTwo.ini file (in the same directory as the TrainspotterTwo.exe) and add the following lines before the line containing -vmargs:
-vm
C:\Java\JRE1.6\bin\javaw.exe
You should replace the path above to the path to your javaw.exe that was installed with the 32-bit Java Runtime Environment, so your TrainspotterTwo.ini file should look something like the following:
-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.1.0.v20100507.jar
–launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.1.1.R36x_v20100810
-vm
C:\Java\JRE1.6\bin\javaw.exe
-vmargs
-Xmx1024m
Updating Trainspotter
When updates are available Trainspotter should let you know when you run it. It will then take you through the update process. If necessary you can always revert back to a previous version by using the Help->”About TrainspotterTwo” menu option, clicking on Installation Details->Installation History and selecting the install date to revert to and clicking “Revert”.
Upgrading from Trainspotter 1.x
Trainspotter 2 can be installed completely separately to 1.x, they don’t share any files apart from your Traktor collection and playlists. Any dynamic playlists that you have defined in 1.x will still be present in v2 as these are stored in the Playlists directory where your collection.nml is located.
If you want to keep your preferences settings from 1.x you can copy the contents of your trainspotter.properties file in to the trainspotter2.properties file that is created under /Users/username/Trainspotter2 on OSX or documents and settings/username/Trainspotter2 or Users/username/Trainspotter2 on Windows. The trainspotter2.properties file is created after you first run Trainspotter 2.
New Features in v2
- Tagging from Discogs Digital - Discogs wasn’t great for keeping up to date with latest digital releases, now you can use Trainspotter to find tracks in Discogs Digital and update tags and cover art from there
- Improved playlist management - you can have multiple playlists open at the same time, reorder them and drag and drop from one to the other and to and from the desktop.
- Improved Discogs searching - Discogs search results are now ranked in order of the number of matching tracks in your collection for the release. Matching tracks in a release is done on a release basis, not track by track as before.
- New media player - play/pause/fastforward/rewind tracks using the Trainspotter UI so you don’t have to keep switching back and forth when you’re tagging
- Flexible UI - all the UI layout and settings for different windows are customizable and are saved after each session.
- Improved cover art support - no more using the “Comments” field to store cover art locations, all cover art is written directly to the file. The collection browser now displays embedded cover art on demand, rather than loading it all up at the start.
- FLAC encoder/decoder built in - no need to download and configure the flac binaries.
- CD ripping built in - Find your CD release in discogs and rip it directly in to you collection
Features in v1.71 that aren’t in v2
- Ant Script - this is going to be replaced with a Java plugin API to allow you to develop extensions to Trainspotter.
- Traktor 3 support - v2 works with collection NML version 14 only
Support
If you need help with Trainspotter 2 please check out the forum and post any issues or suggestions there.
Enjoy!