Audio Temperature

Overview

Audio Temperature is a feature in Helium that assigns each track an energy and mood score on a scale from 1 to 10. It reflects the overall feel of a track — from calm and atmospheric at the low end to intense and high-energy at the top — and is entirely independent of BPM. Two tracks can share the same tempo yet have very different Temperature scores, because the score is based on sonic characteristics such as loudness, spectral texture, and rhythmic density rather than speed alone.

Helium calculates the Temperature score automatically by analysing the audio content of each file. The built-in scoring model is calibrated out of the box, so most libraries will produce useful results without any additional setup. If the automatic scores do not suit your collection, you can retrain the model on tracks you have already labelled to tailor it to your music.

The ten Temperature levels, from lowest to highest energy, are:

Viewing and Editing Temperature

Temperature can be viewed, edited, and searched from several places in Helium:

• Track list — A dedicated Temperature column shows the level name for each track. You can edit the value inline by clicking directly in the column.
• Music Explorer — The left-hand panel includes a Temperature node that lets you browse your entire library grouped by temperature level.
• Player context menu — While a track is playing, right-click the player and open the Set Temperature submenu to assign a level to the current track without leaving the player. Select None to clear the value.
• Quick Tag panel — The Quick Tag control includes a Temperature field so you can set or clear the value while tagging one or more tracks at once.
• Advanced Tag Editor — Temperature appears as a dedicated field in the Advanced Tag Editor. A lock control lets you apply it selectively when editing multiple tracks simultaneously.
• Action Manager — Use the Add/Modify Field action to set Temperature in bulk across any selection of tracks.
• Advanced Search — Filter your library by Temperature using operators such as is, is not, is at least, is at most, is empty, and is not empty.

Automatic Scoring

Helium can score tracks automatically the first time they are played.

To enable this:

1. Open Options and go to the Player section.
2. Enable Calculate BPM and Temperature when playing tracks without this data.

When this option is active, Helium analyses each track as it plays and saves the result. Only tracks that do not yet have a Temperature score are affected — existing values are never overwritten.

Retraining the Temperature Model

If the automatic scores do not match the feel of your music, you can teach Helium your preferences by retraining the scoring model on tracks you have already labelled. The retrained model blends your labelled tracks with the built-in defaults, so it stays accurate even if your selection covers only part of the spectrum.

To retrain the model:

1. Manually assign Temperature values to tracks in your library that you feel are correctly labelled. Aim for at least 10 tracks spread across a range of levels — the more tracks and the wider the range, the better the result.
2. Select those tracks in the track list.
3. Open the Tools menu and choose Retrain Temperature Model…
4. A window opens showing how many tracks will be added or updated in the training set. Helium begins retraining automatically.
5. Wait for the process to complete. A status message confirms when the new model has been saved.

Future automatic Temperature scores will use the personalised model.

To undo the retraining and return to the original defaults, go to Options → Tools → Temperature Model and click Reset to defaults.