Revision as of 22:18, 16 January 2017

The Jukebox

The Jukebox is the fourth tab of the Sidebar. This feature allows the GM to accesses the sounds and music from Tabletop Audio, Incompetech, BattleBards, and Fanburst.

Finding and Adding Audio Tracks to the Jukebox

The Jukebox Track Selection Window

Click on the + Add button to select between adding Tracks or Playlists

From the Jukebox, click the +Add button, then select Track from the revealed sub-menu to open a popup window with tabs for audio source options. There are tabs for the current four sources of audio we have available through Roll20: Tabletop Audio, BattleBards, Incompetech, Fanburst.

Regardless of what audio tab you're searching under, you can always preview individual tracks by pressing the Play button.

Tabletop Audio

Tabletop Audio is a site created to provide 10-minute-long background audio tracks for RPG gaming sessions. Roll20 has teamed up with Tabletop Audio to incorporate their library of audio and music into the Roll20 Jukebox.

From the Tabletop Audio tab, use the Search For: drop-down menu to filter the Tabletop Audio tracks available. You can narrow down your search by genre (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical, Modern, Nature, Horror, and Music are the currently available genre options).

Note: TabletopAudio content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License..

TabletopAudio content can be used in podcasts and videos with attribution, if the channel is non-profit. For content producers monetizing their content, TabletopAudio requests you contact him to discuss a licensing arrangement, if your channel is making significant money.

BattleBards

BattleBards is another site partnered with Roll20 to bring you a portfolio of audio and music tracks integrated into Roll20's Jukebox.

From the BattleBards tab, use the Search For: drop-down menu to filter the BattleBards tracks available. You can narrow down your search by track category (Monsterscapes, Music, NPC Scripts, Racial Languages, Sound Effects, and Soundscapes are the currently available category options).

Incompetech

Incompetech is a site created by Kevin MacLeod that houses a prolific library of music tracks that he has composed and made available to the public. All of Incompetech tracks are shared under a Creative Commons license: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. The Roll20 Jukebox has a collection of over 1,000 different Incompetech music tracks that spans a large variety of genre types.

From the Incompetech tab, use the Search For: field to search via keywords. At present, keywords only seek out ones that are in the track title. We recommend going to Incompetech's site directly for more enhanced search options that are categorized by Feel, Tempo, Genre, and Length. Once you find the tracks you want, enter their titles in the keyword search of the Track Selection Window to bring them up.

Note: Most of Incompetech's library has been imported to Roll20's and in most cases, you should be able to find the track you want after searching through Incompetech's website. However, some of MacLeod's works are hosted on other royalty free/creative commons resource sites. Due to exclusivity reasons, these tracks may not be available in Roll20's Jukebox. Also, Incompetech's library is constantly updated with new works as Kevin MacLeod creates them, so a recently composed track may not have been uploaded to Roll20's library yet.

Using Your Own Music/Sounds through Fanburst

Fanburst is a free online service for musicians and creators to upload and share their music: Unlimited uploads for artists, unlimited streaming for fans. Roll20 has integrated Fanburst so that you can stream audio from their extensive library into your own games.

From the Fanburst tab, use the Search For: field to search via keywords. At present, keywords only seek out ones that are in the track title.

Note: Fanburst’s TOS prohibits the streaming of copyrighted content. Upload at your own risk.

Transferring SoundCloud Audio to Fanburst

As of September of 2016, SoundCloud, the principle music resource utilized by the Roll20 Jukebox since its inception, privatized their API access. This prevented Jukebox playback for any tracks hosted by them in the Roll20 Jukebox. If you had hosted your own audio on SoundCloud for use in Roll20 games, there is a one-click option available to copy your SoundCloud library to Fanburst when you create a Fanburst account.

Presently, if you have any SoundCloud tracks in a campaign, these will remain listed in your Jukebox. You will not be able to play them, but you will retain the ability to obtain the SoundCloud URL of these tracks. Clicking on the Cloud icon that appears when you hover over a track will open up the SoundCloud URL in a new browser tab.

Adding Tracks to Your Game

Add your desired music/sound tracks to your campaign's Jukebox library by clicking the + button that hovers over the track listing (this is directly to the right of the play button). This adds the new track to the bottom of your track list in the Jukebox.

Organizing Your Jukebox Audio Tracks

Once you begin adding audio to your Jukebox, you're likely to create a very robust library of audio tracks before too long. There are several methods Roll20 gives you to keep all of your tracks organized.

Renaming Tracks

Renaming a Jukebox Track

You can rename a track once it has been added to the Jukebox tab of the Sidebar. To rename it, hover over its entry in the Jukebox until it highlights in yellow. A type cursor will also appear. Click anywhere over the title to make it editable. Type a new name for the track and press Enter to save the change.

Rearranging Tracks

How to Rearrange the Order of the Track List

When you hover your mouse over a Track in the Jukebox, an icon displaying three horizontal lines will appear to the left of its listing. This icon is the handle for the Track. Clicking and dragging this icon allows you to rearrange the order of the current track list.

Removing Tracks from the Jukebox

The Rick-Click Delete Option for a Jukebox Track

To remove tracks from your Jukebox, right click the Track title in your Jukebox to reveal a sub-menu. Click the "Delete Item" option to remove the track from your Jukebox.

Creating Playlists

A Jukebox track library with Playlists ("The Estate" and "Earth"). The Estate Playlist folder has been opened to display the tracks listed within it while the Earth Playlist folder is currently collapsed.

Very similar to Journal Folders in functionality, you can create folders within Jukebox's track list called Playlists. Beyond simply keeping batches of related tracks together for organization purposes, a Playlist can be played directly. This allows you to cycle play through various tracks without manually having to stop and start playback manually.

To add a Track to a Playlist folder, click and drag the Track's handle icon to move items into the folder. You can pull Tracks out or swap Tracks between Playlists in the exact same fashion.

One thing to note about The Jukebox Playlist system is that it is only 1 level deep, sub-folders are not available in the Jukebox.

Adding Playlists

Click the + Add button, and then click Playlist. A popup window will appear to prompt you to give the folder a Name. Click Ok to add the named folder to your Jukebox.

Playlists Options

Right click on a Playlist to reveal these folder options: Sort A-Z, Rename Folder, and Delete Folder.

• Sort Playlist Tracks: Choose Sort A-Z to organize the Tracks within your Playlist in alphanumerical order.
  
  
• Rename Playlist: Choose Rename Folder to rename that Playlist. This will bring up the name popup window that you saw before when you first created the Playlist.
  
  
• Delete Playlist: Choose Delete Folder when you want to remove the Playlist entirely. Deleting a Playlist does not remove its Track contents. All Tracks that were within the folder are moved to the root Playlist (The default Jukebox track list).

Popping-Out the Jukebox into a New Browser Window

You can pop-out the Jukebox to a new browser window. To do this, double click on the Jukebox icon at the top of the Jukebox tab of the Sidebar.

Playing Music/Sounds in Game

These are the options available to any given audio Track added to the Jukebox

Play/Stop Button

The first icon on the left of any Jukebox Track is the Play/Stop button. All players currently in the session will be able to hear the Track while it plays. You can also play more than one Track at a time. For example, you can have an ambient noise Track running at the same time as a soundtrack music Track is playing. While a Track is playing, the Play icon changes to a square Stop icon. Clicking on this icon will stop playback of the Track.

Loop Button

The next icon beside the Play/Stop button is the Loop Track button. When Loop Track is turned on, once a Track reaches the end of its playback, it will automatically start playing itself from the beginning. In other words, it will never stop playing until you either toggle off Loop or click on the Stop button of the Track. This feature is recommended for background noise and music, but not for circumstantial sound effects like an explosion or sword slashing audio Track. By default, Loop is toggled off, which shows the icon in grey. Once activated by clicking on the button, the icon turns black. Enabling or disabling Loop on a Track is just a single left click.

Volume Slider

To the right of the Loop Track button is the Volume Slider. Each Track has its own volume control which can be used to normalize their volume. When the slider handle is moved to the far left of the slider, the volume level is at 0% and 100% when moved to the far right.

Track Source URL Button

While this feature does not affect playback, it is worth mentioning if you ever want to retrace where an audio Track comes from. When you hover your mouse over a Track, a cloud icon will appear directly right of the Volume Slider. Clicking this icon will open the Track's source in a new window.

Play from Playlists

Playlists have additional play options. Next to the name of the playlist you'll find a "Play" button as well as a toggle for the "Play Mode" of the playlist.

Back to Back

"Back to Back" indicates that each Track will be played individually one after another. When the end of the playlist is reached, it will start again from the beginning. If an individual Track is looped within the active playlist, using this option will cause the individual Track to keep looping when the playlist gets to that Track.

Shuffle

"Shuffle" indicates that the Tracks will be played in a random order. Order is synchronized across clients, so that Tracks will play in the same order for everyone. The playlist will continue playing shuffled until you pause it manually. You should not use looped Tracks with this option or it will just loop the same Track over and over.

All at Once

"All At Once" indicates that all Tracks in the playlist will start playing once the playlist is began. Note that it is up to each Track's individual loop settings to determine if it will loop after it plays once. You can mix and match looped and unlooped Tracks with this option.

Now Playing Widget

The Now Playing Widget appears up at the top of the Jukebox Tab

At the top of the Jukebox is a Now Playing widget. This tool is visible to players in game and will only display Tracks that are currently playing. This is the only 'hint' to the players of what is being played when they tab over to the Jukebox. They don't have access to see the Game Master's entire Jukebox Track list. Pressing "Play" on any given Track of Playlist will add those Tracks to the widget and GMs can stop their playback directly from this widget.

Play on Load

The Play on Load feature on a Page's Settings Window

At the bottom of a Page's Page Settings dialog box, there is a Play on Load drop-down menu. This menu lists every Track and Playlist that you've added to this game's Jukebox. Selecting either Jukebox Track or Playlist will automatically play when you move the players to that page. Note that this only takes effect when a GM moves the Player Ribbon to that page, not for the "Split the Party" feature (since the Jukebox is global, not player-specific).

Master Volume Control

The Master Volume Control on the My Settings Tab of the Sidebar

In addition to the Game Master's control of the individual track volumes in the Jukebox tab, each person connected to the game can also use the Master Volume Control located under the My Settings tab to control the volume level of all music being played. This slider is located right underneath the Display Name field. This functions exactly like a volume slider on an audio track, where the far left is 0% and the far right is 100% volume.