Spicefly SugarCube FAQ - Updated 22nd February 2010

Glossary
SC = SugarCube
SB = Squeezebox previously known as Squeezecenter
MIP = MusicIP previously known as MusicMatch

Prerequisites before using SC
Install MIP first, detailed guides and instructions on how to do this can be found on this site.
Setup MIP to work in headless mode, this allows MIP to work in the background as a service and therefore will startup following a reboot of the PC. Otherwise you will need to have the MIP GUI frontend permanently open.
Allow MIP to scan your music collection so it fingerprints your music, this may take awhile!

Important tips
When setting up MIP, ensure you match the same directory structure as SB for the location of your music. Ie. Z:\My Music or \\Mynas\My Music
Its recommended to set MIP to “archive analysis” this places the fingerprint in the music file, just like a mp3 id tag and will then move with the file. This will save having to go through the whole fingerprinting process again should you need to rebuild your PC, or reinstall MIP etc.

Once MIP has been installed and has fingerprinted your music. Install SC via the repository link; http://www.spicefly.com/public/public.xml If you are upgrading from an older version of SC that was manually installed into the plugin folder, ensure you remove it and restart SB before continuing.

Do I need the MusicIP plugin for SB?
No, you do not need to install setup or configure the official MIP plugin. SC uses its own routines and doesn’t utilise any SB MIP plugin settings. This means you can keep your SB environment clean from MIP and not have the additional overhead of running the MIP scans within SB.

1) Refresh the MIP Headless, this is via the web page; normally http://localhost:10002/ click the Reload Cache button. This reads in the library that has just been updated by the GUI. If you don’t see any Reload Cache button then check that MIP and the Headless mode are looking at the same file. See guides for further details.

2) Refresh the MIP Headless, this is via the web page; normally http://localhost:10002/ click the Reload Cache button. This will read in the filters that have just been updated by the GUI. If you don’t see any Reload Cache button then check that MIP and the Headless mode are looking at the same file. See guides for further details.

How do I configure SC?
Once installed via the repository (see above), Check the SB Plugin tab and select SC to set the port number. Must line up with the MIP port number, default is 10002. See guides for further information.
All other settings are then player specific, so go to the Player Tab and select the SC menu item.

How do I make SC work?
Ensure SC is enabled, via the web page or on the respective device see settings menu.
Then just select a song (which will be used as your seed track) you will see that track added to your Now Playing list. Then SC will select the next track and append it to the Now Playing tracklist.
You can also select an album and SC will then pick tracks based on that album (subject to parameters selected), which will be appended to the Now Playing tracklist.

How do I set parameters for how the mix should sound?
There are no money shot settings, as it will be dependant on your library and what tracks you have. You can create filters in MIP, based on rating, certain Genres, last played etc. Then use these with SC. (See filters above) Or you can let it freestyle based just on MIPs analysis and have no parameters. Parameters are on a per player basis see Player tab on SB web page. I’ve found that a Mix Style of 114 and a Mix Variety of 3 seems to work quite nicely. However experiment with the settings to find what works for you!
Note; In simple terms the looser the settings the better, this gives MIP the opportunity to find tracks across your entire library that match up. If you tighten the settings so much that MIP can only select from 100 tracks then don’t be surprised if you don’t get very good results and receive lots of tracks from the same album.

How often are SC settings refreshed?
SC settings can be changed on the fly, while SB is playing and will take affect on the next SB track change.
Note that changes to filters etc. will need the steps detailed above to be actioned before they will be visible to SC.

Nobody seems to know the current fate of MIP, reborn here; http://www.amplifindmusicservices.com/ At this time there isn’t another product that is mature and works in an offline state, ie a local music collection not connected to the internet. MIP is very good in this situation and currently newer music services are more focussed on being online and recommending music to stream/buy. If a “better” product comes along that fills this gap. Then it is feasible that SC will replace MIP with something else, but at the moment MIP does the job well and is pretty solid.

Can I get on the SC beta program?
Only kind souls who have donated are eligible to join the beta program. Known as Friends of Spicefly, these guys have donated to help with the cost of running the web site (its not free) and help to provide motivation to continue the development of plugins and the website. As a thank you for their support, friends can obtain the very latest versions of plugins and put forward feature requests which are more likely to make their way into the plugins in the future.