Spicefly SugarCube FAQ

Glossary

SC = Spicefly SugarCube
LMS = Logitech Media Server, previously known as Squeezebox, previously known as Squeezecenter.. gotta love marketing..
MIP = MusicIP previously known as MusicMatch

Pre-requisites before using SC

Install MusicIP Mixer, scan you music library and play around with it so you understand how it works.

Setup MIP Headless Mode, this allows MIP to work in the background as a service and will startup automatically following a reboot of the PC.

For detailed guides see MusicIP and LMS section - (Otherwise you will need to have the MIP GUI frontend permanently open)

Important tips

If setting up Headless Mode sounds a major hassle. Windows users can install Spicefly SpyGlass MIP which will automate the process for you, see MusicIP and LMS section for more details.

When setting up MIP, ensure you match the same directory structure as LMS 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 into 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 in headless mode, that should be the hard part done and dusted!

On LMS install the Spicefly SugarCube plugin via License Manager (Show all 3rd Party plugins) note you need a license to enable a 30 day evaluation.

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 part of the LMS MIP plugin settings. This means you can install SugarCube and keep your LMS environment seperate from MIP and not have the additional overhead of running the MIP scans within LMS.

How do I configure SugarCube?

Once installed via License Manager, check the LMS Plugin tab and select SugarCube to set the port number. This 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 SugarCube 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 180 and a Mix Variety of 1 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.

How often are SC settings refreshed?

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