Imploded Software

Helium is a full-featured music library manager that helps you organise, tag, and enjoy your entire music collection from one place. This guide walks you through the essential steps to get up and running, from adding your first files to playing music and building playlists. As you become more familiar with Helium, you will likely discover workflows that suit your personal style.

Supported audio formats

Helium supports a wide range of audio formats. All of the following are scanned by default when you add files to your library:

You can limit which formats are scanned using the Formats to add dropdown in the Add files dialog.

Adding files to the library

Most views in Helium are driven by your library, meaning they display only files that have been indexed. Adding your music to the library is therefore the first step you should take.

1. Select File > Add music > Add files to Library, or click the equivalent button on the toolbar.
2. In the dialog that appears, click Add to select the root folders you want to include. You can also drag and drop folders directly from Windows Explorer into the dialog.
3. If you want to limit which file types are scanned, open the Formats to add dropdown and adjust the selection. All formats are enabled by default.
4. Optionally, assign a Volume or Collection to the files being added, and choose whether to import any pictures embedded in the file tags.
5. Click OK to begin indexing.

During indexing, Helium reads the tags from each file and builds your library automatically. Progress is shown on screen as Helium works through each step — adding files, creating albums, grouping artists, identifying genres, and more.

Once indexing is complete, Helium will have:

• Created a track entry for every file found.
• Grouped tracks into albums and linked them to the correct artists and labels.
• Calculated ratings and summary information for albums, artists, and labels.

You can then start exploring your collection using the views described later in this article.

Tip: If your files have little or no tag information, it is worth adding some basic metadata before indexing. Open the My Computer view from the left navigation bar (or View > Views), select a folder or individual files, then use one of the tag editors or the Filename to Tag tool to add metadata. This gives Helium much more to work with when building your library.

Tagging and correcting track meta data

Once your files are in the library, you can browse your collection from any of the available views. If you come across tracks, albums, or artists with missing or incorrect information, Helium provides several ways to fix this.

• Tag Editor — Available from Tools > Tags, this is the most capable editor. It handles all tag fields and supports batch operations across multiple files at once.
• Advanced Tag Editor — Also found under Tools > Tags, this editor is suited to more specialised needs and supports customisable templates.
• Quick Editor / In-place editing — Available directly within many views, this is the fastest way to correct a single misspelling or fill in a missing field without opening a separate window.

If you are unsure which editor to start with, the Tag Editor is a reliable choice for most tasks.

Click here for more information about Helium's tag editors.

After you save your changes, Helium updates the library immediately and then writes the new information back to the files in the background, so you can carry on working without waiting.

Renaming files

If you want your folder structure and filenames to reflect the metadata stored in your tags, Helium's Rename tool can do this automatically.

The Rename tool uses a template you define to generate new folder paths and filenames based on each file's metadata — for example, organising files by artist name, album title, and track number. When renaming, you can choose to:

• Rename and move the files to their new location.
• Rename and copy the files, leaving the originals in place.

A common workflow is to keep unfinished items in a dedicated "incomplete" folder. Once you have fully tagged an album, you use the Rename tool to move it to your main music folder. This makes it easy to see at a glance which albums still need attention.

Click here for more information about the Rename tool.

Updating your library with new files

When you add new music to a folder that Helium already knows about, or when files have been changed or removed outside of Helium, use Update Library rather than re-running Add files to Library. It is faster and more efficient for keeping your library in sync over time.

To run it, select File > Update Library, or click the toolbar button.

You will see a tree of all the root folders previously added to your library. Check the folders you want to include in the update, then choose from the following options:

• Remove Unavailable — Removes library entries for files that no longer exist on disk.
• Force Sync — Re-reads every file regardless of whether it has changed, useful if you have edited tags with an external tool.

Once started, Helium will check for new files to add, pick up any tag changes made outside of Helium, and remove entries for any deleted files.

Click here for more information about the Update Library tool.

Browsing your Library

Helium offers a range of views for exploring your music. All views are accessible from the left navigation bar or from View > Views.

Many views share the same way of presenting items. For example, releases look and behave the same way no matter which view you encounter them in, so once you are familiar with the layout, everything will feel consistent.

Tip: Most views support both simple and advanced filtering. Use the filter bar to narrow down what is shown and quickly find specific items within a large library.

Playing music

Playback in Helium is controlled from the player bar at the bottom of the main window. Every view supports playback of what is currently displayed — selecting a release plays all its tracks, while selecting a single track plays just that track.

Player controls

The player bar includes the following controls:

• Previous / Next — Skip to the previous or next track.
• Play / Pause — Start or pause playback.
• Stop — Stop playback entirely.
• Smart Play — Starts playback using an intelligent selection based on your library.
• Volume slider — Adjusts the playback volume.
• Pitch / Tempo slider — Speeds up or slows down playback by up to 30% in either direction without changing the pitch independently.
• Seek bar — Shown at the top of the player area; click or drag to jump to any point in the current track.

Playback modes

The player bar also includes toggles for the following modes:

• Shuffle — Plays tracks in a random order.
• Repeat — Repeats the current track or queue.
• Crossfade — Smoothly blends the end of one track into the beginning of the next.
• Auto-Enqueue — Automatically adds more tracks to the play queue when it runs low. Right-click the Auto-Enqueue button to choose how tracks are selected — options include random album, same artist, same genre, same year, random, similar tracks, or a smart playlist.

Track information and rating

While a track is playing, the player bar shows the album art for the current track. You can right-click the album art to change or clear it. You can also:

• Mark a track as a favourite using the heart icon.
• Set a star rating from 1 to 5 stars.
• Assign a mood using the mood picker.

Right sidebar

The panel on the right side of the main window provides additional information about the current track, organised into tabs:

• Now Playing — Shows details about the track currently playing.
• Lyrics — Displays the lyrics for the current track. Lyrics can be downloaded automatically.
• Biography — Shows artist information sourced from Last.fm.
• Album Review — Displays a review of the current album where available.

Keyboard shortcuts

Your keyboard's hardware media keys (play, pause, next, previous) also work automatically with Helium without any additional setup.

Searching for music

Type in the search box in the top toolbar to search across all artists, albums, and tracks in your library. Results appear in the Search Results view. Most other views also have their own filter bar for narrowing down what is displayed inline.

Helium Streamer

If you also use Helium Streamer, you can access your entire library remotely from any web browser or via the native iOS and Android apps. More information about Helium Streamer is available at https://www.imploded.com.

Click here for more information about playing music in Helium.

Creating and managing Playlists

Helium supports two types of playlists:

• Standard playlists — A fixed list of tracks that you assemble manually.
• Smart playlists — A dynamic list that is built automatically based on rules you define, such as genre, rating, or play count.

To create a standard playlist:

1. In the Music Explorer, right-click the Playlists node and select New playlist... from the context menu.
2. Alternatively, open the Playlists view, select the Playlists tab, right-click in the playlist list on the left, and select New playlist....

To create a smart playlist:

1. Open the Playlists view.
2. Switch to the Smart Playlists tab.
3. Right-click in the list on the left and select New smart playlist....

Summary

This guide has covered the core steps for getting started with Helium — adding your music, keeping your library up to date, browsing and playing your collection, and organising tracks into playlists. There is much more to discover as you explore the full range of tools available.

To learn more, visit the following resources:

• Full documentation library
• Tips and tricks

If you need help with a specific feature or workflow, the community forums and support team are available to assist you.