REALIZER LABS

Brennan Controller

Version 2.3.2 · Chrome and Edge

A better interface for the Brennan B2/B3 music player on your home network.

Browse, search and play the library, edit tags, fix album art, rip CDs and import from USB, all over the B3's own HTTP API.

Replacement playlist manager improves upon buggy native playlists.

Clean Metadata, Album Art, Find Duplicates and Controller playlists need a licence; everything else is free, including the unit's own playlists.

The Brennan Controller: library, an album open, and the player with the VU meter

What it does

Free:

  • Browse, search and play, with album art and with the hard disk and a USB stick side by side.
  • Use the B3's own playlists as it stores them, adding a track or a whole album in one click. The seven colour playlists are hidden unless you turn them on in Settings.
  • Rename tracks, albums and artists in place. A check stops a rename from landing on a name already in use, and changing an album's artist moves it.
  • Delete albums and tracks, rip a CD, import from a USB stick, and run Scan Disk and Reindex.
  • Use the volume knob and the VU meter.
  • Play here, which streams the B3's files to this computer so the music plays from the computer instead.

Controller playlists: your own playlists, kept by the Controller and shown beside the Brennan's.

  • Yours, not the unit's. Playlists are kept by the Controller and listed by name. Albums and tracks from the hard disk and a USB stick can sit in one list; add with the + on any artist, album or track, reorder by dragging, rename, duplicate or delete.
  • Your existing lists come with you. The Brennan's own playlists are brought in the first time you use it (duplicated names arrive numbered so each can be told apart), so nothing you made is lost.
  • On the player when you want it there. Each list shows whether the Brennan has a matching copy, one that has changed since, or none, and one click puts a copy on the player (or takes it off) without touching the list here. Play uses the Brennan's copy when it matches, so it keeps playing with the Controller closed; otherwise the Controller plays the list itself, item by item, and you are asked which you prefer. USB items play from the Controller and are left out of a copy on the player, whose playlists hold its own disk only.
  • You always see what is playing. The playing bar names the playlist in play and where you are in it, for example "Road trip, 3 of 12".
  • Follows you between computers (optional). Turn on Sync in Settings and the same playlists are on every computer you register. What is sent is the playlist names and the artist, album and track names in them, nothing else (no music files, no listening history, nothing about your computer), kept compressed under your licence email. Nothing is sent unless you turn Sync on; turning it off deletes the stored copy, and a copy is deleted by itself 30 days after a licence ends. See the terms.
  • Names that move on. If a track or album is renamed or deleted, its entry shows dimmed as "not on the unit" and is skipped when playing; nothing breaks, and it comes back to life if the name is restored.

Controller playlists are part of the licence. Free installs keep the Brennan's own playlists exactly as before.

Clean metadata: reads every name on the disk and lists what a set of tidy-ups would change:

  • stray text (file extensions and any other that is a possible error/inconsistency)
  • punctuation (curly quotes, odd dashes)
  • spacing
  • track numbers/format ("1. Title" to "01 Title")
  • artist repeated in track names
  • spelling slips, and ALL CAPS or all lower case to Title Case.

An optional 'Format' puts every track into one shape you pick, such as "01 Title" or "Artist - 01 Title".

You see "Is now" and "Will be" for each item before anything changes, apply one or all, and every rename is remembered and can be undone, with a save-able CSV log.

Find duplicates: albums and tracks duplicated on an album (same title ignoring numbering, punctuation and case). Choose which copy to keep and which to delete.

Album art: scans every album for missing or stock covers and fills them from Apple Music and MusicBrainz, or you drop in your own; covers are written to the B3.

Install

  1. Click Download, accept the terms and enter your email. We email you a download link. Extract the zip to a folder you will keep. The browser loads the extension from that folder, so do not delete it.
  2. Open chrome://extensions in Chrome or edge://extensions in Edge.
  3. Turn on Developer mode.
  4. Click Load unpacked and choose the extracted folder, the one that contains manifest.json.
  5. Click the extension's toolbar icon. It finds your Brennan on your network by itself; if it doesn't, type the Brennan's address into the address box.

To update, unzip the new version over the same folder, then click Reload on the extension's card in chrome://extensions or edge://extensions. Your registration is kept, and if you remove the extension and add it again in the same browser, it registers itself again.

Release notes

2.3.210 October 2026
  • The network search no longer raises a router or NAS sign-in box: its probes send no credentials.
  • Settings: a "Search the network automatically" switch (on by default; it only runs when no saved address answers) and an "Addresses to skip when searching" box (empty by default, kept per user). The Find Brennan button always searches.
  • The Find B3 button is now Find Brennan.
2.3.110 October 2026
  • Playlists follow renames: when a track, album or artist is renamed (by hand, by Clean, or by Undo) or an album is moved to another artist, the playlist items that held the old name are updated, so a tidied library does not leave gaps in your lists.
  • The dot beside each playlist is now the switch: click it to put the list on the player, to copy changes to it, or to take it off the player (the list stays); hover for what it will do.
  • Playlist rows show the track count as text, and an album in a list counts its tracks.
  • The playing bar shows the playlist in play and where you are in it on its own row, on the full-width and narrow screens.
  • A "Sync now" link beside the sync status; sync checks for changes made on your other computers every 15 minutes while the window is open.
  • Register lists Controller playlists first.
2.3.010 October 2026
  • Controller playlists (registered): your own playlists, kept by the Controller rather than the player; albums and tracks from the hard disk and a USB stick in one list; a dot shows whether the player has a copy and one click puts it there; play from the player's copy or from here; the player's existing lists come in on first use. Turn on sync in Settings and the same playlists are on every computer you register.
  • The playing bar names the playlist in play and where you are in it.
  • Finding the unit: the search looks on this PC's own network first and waits longer for a slow unit; when a stored address does not answer it says so and searches rather than looking as if it forgot.
  • Artist rows show albums and tracks; the row icons are bigger and clearer, with a setting to keep them on; a setting shows or hides the player's colour playlists (off by default).
  • Clean metadata: a Disc part in Format, for multi-disc sets named "1-01 Title".
2.2.210 October 2026
  • Finding your unit: the search probes each network range in two halves rather than all at once, waits longer for a unit that is slow to answer, and when more than one unit answers it lists them in Settings so you can pick one.
2.2.110 October 2026
  • Very large libraries: artists and albums are read as their own lists, so a unit that returns tracks first no longer hides them. The header counts the rows read and the lists fill as they arrive.
2.2.010 October 2026
  • Libraries of any size: every artist and album is read. Some units cap a request at 500 rows, which hid most of a large collection.
  • Finding the unit: more home networks are searched, and a slow unit gets longer to answer.
2.1.110 October 2026
  • Hover a locked tool to see what it does and how to unlock it.
  • Play here has its own volume, remembered between sessions.
  • Fits a narrow window: one screen at a time with a back chevron and a mini player.
2.1.09 October 2026
  • Improved Clean Metadata UI.
2.0.02 October 2026
  • Three tools need a licence: Clean Metadata, Album Art and Find Duplicates. $10 a year, upgrades included, on up to 3 computers. Everything else stays free. Enter a code, or have it emailed, from Settings.
  • Clean Metadata lists every change with the issues found on it, applies one at a time or all at once, and every rename can be undone. A Format option sets how every track name is built.
  • Playlists (free): the seven colour playlists live on the B3. Add a track, an album or a whole artist with the + icon; open an album item to see its tracks; search looks inside playlists.
  • Play here: stream the B3's music to this computer instead of the B3's outputs.
  • Search bar and Reload in the header; Play album, Add to playlist and Delete as icons in the album view; the playing track shaded teal with elapsed and total time.
  • Settings: registration, days left, B3 software version. Album rows show their track count; playlist and artist counts are total tracks.
  • Works offline: the licence keeps working for 7 days past its end if the licence server cannot be reached.