Troff is a media player that let you loop a part of a song, slow it down and create markers on the song timeline.
It is designed for practicing with music, it is perfect for dancers working on a choreography or for musicians learning to play a song.
This guide often uses the word "song" instead of "song or movie".
Keyboard shortcuts will be written inside of "()".
Troff is laid out in different sections or areas. They will be referred to as areas in this guide.
When you start Troff, you must add songs! You can find songs on the find-page troff.app/find.html or add songs from your computer or phone! Add from your computer by clicking the -button in the Songs area, select one or more songs or movies and click "Open". Then the songs and movies will be saved in Troff and displayed in the songs area.
Note: The files you add will be copied into your web browsers memory. This means that
In order to remove songs or movies, open the songlist in floating state. Select the files you want to remove, click the drop-down and select "Remove songs from Troff". After you confirm your selection, the songs will be removed.
When you have songs in the songs area, click a song and it will be selected. This is indicated by it becoming purple. When the song is loaded, the text "Wait for song to load" written in the top section, will be replaced by the song name, artist and album.
Note: If the text "Wait for song to load" does not disappear, then Troff might not be able to play that particular song. Try to convert the song to mp3 (or movies to mp4) and try again.
To play the song, press the round play-button in the top area or (Space), the song will then wait 3 seconds before start. If you don't want to wait 3 seconds, either press the Enter-key, or continue to read this guide.
There are two ways to share your songs and all the markers: via a link or with a songlist.
You can upload your song along with all the markers and info to our servers, and then share a link to the song with anybody who needs to practice to the song! When people go to the link, they will get the song, all the markers and info so that they can start practising right a way!
This is great if you have a team where everybody needs to work on the same song. Then only one needs to prepare the markers!
You upload and share the song via the -button above the play-button.
Songs that are uploaded to the server will display the sharable address in the url-bar.
However, if the markers, song info or states are changed, the url will be reset to troff.app.
If you want to share the newly edited markers, simply click the share button again,
and you will get a new link to the new markers.
In the same way, if the people who have downloaded your song edit the markers, their url will be reset to troff.app. And in order for you to get their new markers, they will have to click the share button, and you will have to go to their link.
You will then get a choice if you want to import the new markers, keep your existing markers or merge the markers.
When you share or download a song, that songs url is saved in the find page! So if you have edited the markers and want to get back to an old version, you can find it at troff.app/history.html
Songs, along with their markers, that are shared publicly can be found by anyone at the troff.app/find.html. Here you will se both all the public songs and the versions you have downloaded.
You can toggle only watching your downloaded history under Settings and then activate "Only my versions".
If you are signed in, you can share songlists with other users that are also signed in!
Simply edit the songlist and click the -button in the lower right corner. Then you will be able to add new users to the songlist by entering the email-adress that they use.
The next time those users sign in, they will receive the songlist with all the songs and markers, and whats more, if you or they update the markers, or add new songs to the songlist, all the other people in that songlist will receive those updates!
This is a perfect way for a team or group to work together on routines: Everybody will always have the same songs, and the latest versions!
You can also personalize your shared songlists with a logo and a color! That way
Note: you can recognize songs that are in a shared songlist, via the line on the left of the song in the songlist. (sort of like the line to the left of this note)
If you select a song that is in a shared songlist, you will also see it by the line on the left of the markerlist and the settings area.
The color of the line depends on your theme.
If you remove a song from a shared songlist, the song will be removed from the songlist for all users BUT, it will not be removed from any users computer.
Similarly, if you remove a user from a songlist, that user will not receive updates made to the songs in that songlist, but they will still have all the songs and the songlist on there computer, just not a shared songlist.
When you stop sharing a songlist you will still have the songlist on your computer, but the other users will no longer get updates you make to the songs, and you will not receive updates that they make.
Note: Users you add to the songlist have access to the same functionality as you do. This means that they can
So, only add users you share a common goal with!
Troff have a song-specific settings area (explained below: The settings area) as well as global settings. The global settings is where you configure Troff to look and behave the way you like it. These settings will be applied regardless of what song is selected.
You access the global settings via the -button in the top left corner.
Here you decide the theme of Troff, how the marker-color, songlist, space, enter, select marker and delete marker will behave and what areas of Troff that should be visible.
You can also set what the default values for the setting should be.
The settings area is where you configure Troff to play the current song the way you like it. Here you decide how fast the song will be played, how many times, which part of the song that will be played and more.
Markers are labels that you can add to the timeline. The timeline in Troff is vertical and stretches the full height of the player. The markers contain text, and can be colorized so that you easy can find specific parts of the song later.
To add a marker, press "Add marker!" or (M), then the "create new marker" dialog appears, here you can write the marker name (will be visible on the timeline).
The marker will be added to the timeline where the cursor was when you pressed the button, but the location of the marker can be adjusted in the "create new marker" dialog.
In the info-area you can add more info to the marker. This will not take up space on the timeline but will be easily accessible at the info part. This dialog also lets you decide the color of the marker.
You can always press the edit button () next to a marker to bring up the same dialog to edit the marker.
If you want to play only a part of a song, click the marker where you want to start and the marker will be selected (indicated by the purple color). Then click the "stop" button next to the marker where you want Troff to stop playing, the purple color indicates that the "stop" button is selected. When you press "play" only the selected part of the song will be played, the selected part is shown in purple on the timeline.
This is a great way to focus on tricky parts of the song.
Note: You might have noticed that the purple color of the timeline changed when you select start and stop-markers. The purple part is the "active playing region" and indicates simply where Troff will start and end.
If Troff should start playing at the beginning of the active playing region,
when pressing space, enter or the play pause button,
can be edited in the Global Settings.
But you can always move the cursor to the beginning by pressing "G",
as in "Go to marker".
If you have a small part selected and want to play the whole song you can either press the name of the first marker, and then the stop-button of the last marker, or you can press "play full song" or (U) to select the first and last marker.
If you want to share your markers to someone, the members of your show-team or band for instance, use the share-button explained in the "Share the song"-section.
However, there is a manuel way to share everything except the song itself. If you want to share the markers manually, press "advanced" followed by "import / export" and the import export dialog appears.
Note: When you export, not only will your markers, marker-info,
marker-color
be exported, but the states,
settings and song-info as well.
More on that later.
When you are exporting you will get a long text-string. Copy the text and share it with your friends that want to import your settings.
To import settings, click on "advanced" followed by "import / export" and then "import", paste the the text-string in the text-box and click ok.
Note: If you miss a single sign or character when copying or pasting, the import will not work. Then, just try again.
You can copy you markers to another place in the song. This is helpful if you repeat the routine or the song repeats itself.
Simply select the first and last marker of the markers that you want to copy. Then click "advanced" followed by "copy markers", and input to what time you want to copy the markers and click "copy markers".
Note: If you are not satisfied with the result, you have 5 seconds to hit undo in the notification pop up in the top right corner.
There are a number of ways in which you can change the time of, or move, a marker.
If you press (Shift + Up/Down), (Alt + Up/Down) or (Shift + Alt + Up/Down) the selected marker will move Up/Down by 1, 0.08 or 8 seconds respectively.
You can also click the edit button of the marker, and change the time there.
If you click "advanced" followed by "move markers" you can move all markers at the same time, or just the markers between the two selected ones (including the selected markers).
There are a number of ways in which you can delete one or several markers.
You can click the edit button of the marker, and then press remove.
If you click "advanced" followed by "delete markers" you will get an option to delete all markers at the same time, or just the markers between the two selected ones (including the selected markers).
When a marker is deleted, there will be a notification square letting you know that the marker has been deleted, as well as an undo-button in the top right corner.
If you have markers for a song, and then stretch the length of the song in an external program (for instance; using Audacity going to Effect > Change Tempo) then the markers will no longer match the new length of the song.
Then you can stretch the markers. click "advanced" followed by "stretch markers". stretching the markers to 200% will create twice as much space between the markers as before. Stretching them to 50% will reduce the space to half.
There is no "undo" functionality when stretching markers, therefore it is recommended to export your markers and settings first so that you can undo the stretch if it did not match your desired result.
In Troff, you can zoom in on the timeline which makes it easier to for example focus on a 3 minute song in an 1 hour movie, or just to focus on a few bars in a song.
You zoom by pressing "Zoom" or (Z), this will zoom the timeline to the active playing region, hence select a marker before and after the area you want to zoom to and press (Z).
To zoom out, either select the first and last marker (by "play full song" or (U) ) or press "zoom out" (shift + Z)
One way to work with markers is to set a marker at the start of every bar. Then have good short names for the markers and maybe colorize them in a way so that they are easy to understand. This way, it is easy to find the particular part you want to practice. However, you might not want Troff to start playing from the first beat, but rather 3 seconds or so before, so that you can prepare.
Troff lets you do exactly this with the "start before" functionality. If you toggle "start before" or (B) you will se that the "active playing region" will change. If "start before" is active, Troff will start to play the song a few seconds before the selected marker.
The number of seconds can be changed in the start before-number box, or can be increased or decreased by (shift + B) and (alt + B) respectively.
"stop after" works in the same way but for the stop-selected marker.
You can loop the selected playing region a number of times by pressing the number of times you want it to play.
If you press "∞", Troff will loop the selected part of the song until you pause it.
As default, Troff waits 3 seconds before starting to play a song. This way you can hit play, and then have time to get in position before the song starts.
You can change the number of seconds Troff pauses before starting to play by changing the number in the "pause before"-number box or by (shift + P) and (alt + P).
You can also quickly toggle if Troff should pause or not by pressing "pause before" (P).
"Wait between" works in the same way as "pause before" but it changes the time Troff will wait between loops. It lets you catch your breath before doing it again!
Troff let you control the volume and speed of the song with a slider, or by using the "+" and "-" buttons.
If you press "Volume" (V) or "Speed" (S) you will reset the values to 100%.
You can also increase or decrease the volume or speed by (shift/alt + V) or (shift/alt + S) respectively.
The info area is an area where you can take and read notes regarding the current song or marker and check the tempo of a song. If you play a movie in Troff, this will be displayed in the info area.
If you repeatedly tap "Tempo" (T) to the tempo of the song, Troff will calculate the tempo and display it. This tempo will be saved for the particular song.
In the song info, you can write notes and information regarding the current song. These notes will be saved per song and are easily accessible by selecting the song.
The marker info works like the song info, but the text written there will be saved per marker. Hence, when another marker is selected, the text displayed will change.
This is a great way to write things that you want to remember for a specific part of the song.
The countdown area shows two things:
The top-number shows the number of seconds until the song will start.
It will count down during the "pause before" and the "wait between".
The bottom-number shows the number of loops that are left.
It will count down for each time one loop is finished.
Note: The order of the two numbers match the order that you control these values in the Settings-area.
The song area is where you can select which song to play. The selected song is purple. If you can't find the song you want, it might be in another songlist, or it has been removed from the computer.
The song area can either be in the attached state, then it will be next to the states and settings, or it can be in the floating state, then it be in a pop-up square.
You can change between the two states in the settings, or with the maximize () and minimize () buttons.
When the song is in the floating state, more info is available about the song in a sortable table.
You can create songlists to only show a few songs in the songs area.
Open the songlist by clicking in the attached state or by clicking the "songlist"-button in the floating state.
To create a new songlist, click "New songlist", give it a name.
There are two ways to add songs to songlists:
You can click and drag songs on to songlists to add them.
In the floating state, you can also select
the checkbox next to every song you want to add and then click the dropdown and select "Add to ...",
then all those songs will be added to that songlist.
The same way makes it also possible to remove songs from songlist, just select
"Remove from ...." instead.
A "state" is something that saves all the values in the settings-area as well as all markers selected.
To understand when this is useful, imagine the following scenario:
Lets say you usually practice a guitar solo of the song. Then you always set the same markers, always set start before to 10 seconds and pause before set to off.
Lets say you also practise the ending of the song. Then you have a different set of markers and start before is set to 3 seconds, and pause before is set to 3 seconds.
States lets you quickly switch between these.
Select the markers and settings you want to save then click "remember state". Name the state and press "OK".
The state will appear as a button in the states list. When you have another marker selected, you can simply press this state to recall the state.
Remove a state by pressing the "R"-button next to it.
The areas explained in this guide can be toggled on and off. Press the buttons in the top section of the area you want to toggle.
Note: If an area is visible or not is saved with the song.
If you select a movie in the songlist that Troff is able to show, the movie will be shown in the info area. (Except for on iOS, where the operating system will decide how you will enjoy the movie)
You can at any time toggle fullscreen by the (F)-key.
The "Play in Fullscreen"-button does not toggle fullscreen, but toggles whether or not Troff should enter fullscreen on play and exit fullscreen on pause.
Note: If you pause Troff and Troff exits fullscreen (because "play in fullscreen" is active), simply press (F) to enter fullscreen again.
Troff lets you examine what is happening in the movie in detail by allowing frame by frame stepping:
I would be very grateful if you could tell all your friends about Troff. The more people using Troff the merrier!
Use the following button to send an email about Troff:
... or share this link via your social networks: troff.app
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| Space | Play/pause (with countdown, from marker) |
| Return | Play/pause (without countdown, from where the cursor is) |
| Esc | Stop song (and exit fullscreen) |
| M | Set marker |
| G | Go to marker |
| N | Move to next pair of markers (use shift + N to move to previous) |
| E | Edit the marker info text |
| I | Edit the song info text |
| 1-9 | Set number of times to loop song |
| 0 | Loop ''Infinite'' (∞) many times |
| P | Toggle ''Pause bef start'' |
| B | Toggle ''Start Before'' |
| A | Toggle ''Stop After'' |
| F | Toggle fullscreen |
| Ctrl + F | Find song (use arrow-keys + enter to quickly select song) |
| U | Unselect markers, ie play the entire (full) song |
| Ctrl/Alt U | Unselect start-marker / end-marker respectively. |
| T | Tap repeatedly to calculate the tempo of song |
| V | Set Volume to 100% |
| S | Set Speed to 100% |
| W | Set Wait to 1 second |
| R | Remember current state to recall it later |
| Z | Zoom in to only see the active playing region (the purple part of the timeline), use shift+Z to zoom out to see the whole timeline |
| Left/Right Arrows | Use right and left arrows to step 1 sec forward/backward in song/movie, use shift or alt to move 10 seconds / one frame respectively |
| Up/Down Arrows | Move the selected marker up or down, 1 sec, 1 frame or 10 seconds with alt/shift/(alt+shift) + Upp/down respectively. |