Guide for Android

Everything in the Android app, in the order you will meet it. Button names below are exactly as they appear in the player's English interface. The Windows version has different screens and settings — its guide is being written separately.

Installation

The player runs on Android 8 and newer. There are two ways to install it:

• From this site — the Download for Android button. You get an APK file. Open it; if the phone asks, allow installing from this source (your browser or file manager) — Android does this for every app that doesn't come from a store.
• From RuStore — updates come through the store, but later: RuStore reviews each version first. The newest version is always on the site.

A new version installs over the old one: your music, favorites and settings stay. Once a day the player asks the site whether there is a new version.

First start

First you see the splash screen with the SHIKARDOS emblem — it is the face of the player and appears on every start. Then the main screen opens.

At the bottom there are five sections:

Which section the player opens on is chosen in Settings → Open on start. For example, if you mostly listen to radio in the car, let the player open straight on Radio.

Permissions

The player asks for nothing in advance. Each permission appears only when it is really needed, and saying no breaks nothing — only the thing it was asked for won't work.

Music access

When you first open Music, you see the Music access screen with a Grant access button. Tap it — Android shows its own question; answer “Allow”.

This permission is needed only to show the audio files on your phone. If you refuse, the player doesn't close: radio and the other sections stay. Changed your mind — the same screen offers Open app settings.

All files — for rare formats

Android itself decides which files music players may see, and it hides rare formats: DSD, APE, TAK, CUE sheets and others. So on Android 11 and newer the library may show a card Downloaded a file but can't see it? with a Show all files button. Tap it and, in the Android window that opens, turn on all-files access for SHIKARDOS AUDIO.

You can close the card with the cross — it won't come back. And if you open a rare file directly (for example, from a file manager), the player asks once: Show rare audio files? — Allow or Not now.

Notifications and exact alarms

• Notifications (Android 13 and newer) — for music controls in the notification shade and so the alarm can ring.
• Exact alarms (Android 12 and newer) — so the alarm rings on the minute, not “roughly”.

Where to see all permissions

Settings → PERMISSIONS. Each one says Granted or Not granted and why it is needed. Tapping opens the right Android page. Opening this screen asks for nothing by itself.

How the player finds music

Once you grant access, the player walks through the phone and builds the library. During the first pass the screen shows Scanning music….

The scan runs in two passes so you don't have to wait:

1. Fast. Only titles, artists and albums are read. The library fills in before your eyes, and you can listen within a minute.
2. Quiet, in the background. Embedded covers and the durations of difficult files are read. It doesn't get in the way, and if interrupted it continues from the same place.

When the player scans on its own

A few seconds after start the player checks whether the music on the phone has changed. If you copied a new album, the scan starts by itself and the album appears. If nothing changed, the scan is skipped to save time and battery.

If the library is empty, the screen shows Library is empty and two buttons: Scan — find music on the phone, and the blue Music from the cloud — if there is no music on the phone, you can listen from a cloud folder link.

An album in one file (CUE)

If a .cue sheet lies next to a large album file, the player splits the album into named tracks. It also works when the sheet says “album.wav” but the file next to it is “album.flac” or “album.wv”, and since version 1.1.68 — when the album is spread over several files, for example vinyl sides A and B.

Library sections

The tabs at the top of Music:

Your own tab order

To the right of the tabs is the settings icon Arrange sections. Put the tabs in the order you like: it is remembered.

Sorting songs

The list can be sorted By title, By artist, By album, By duration, By folder, By file name, By year, By album and track, By artist and year, By date added — and in Reverse order.

Adding and removing music

Below the library title there are two round buttons.

“+” — add

“−” — clear the library

The player asks Clear the library?. All added folders and files are removed from the library. The files themselves stay untouched on the phone.

What you can do with a song

A long press on a song in the list opens a menu:

Volume normalization

Albums are recorded at different loudness: after quiet jazz, loud rock hits your ears and you reach for the volume. Normalization removes that.

The capsule button VOLUME NORMALIZATION is on the left below the library title. Tap to turn it on and off. The right side of the capsule shows the state:

How it works

Each song's loudness is measured the way streaming services do it (in LUFS). Loud recordings are made quieter, quiet ones louder, so they all sound at one level. The correction is at most 12 dB either way, and raising never pushes peaks to the edge: that would require compressing the sound, and we never promised that.

Which level to match

Settings → Loudness target:

The Player screen

Tap a song — it starts, and a mini player with back, pause and forward buttons appears at the bottom. The full screen is the Player section.

• Cover — in the center; gestures work on it (see below).
• Title, artist, album and a heart for favorites.
• Format line — for example FLAC • 96 kHz • 24 bit, and below it the sound path: via Android • 16 bit or VULAN • bit-perfect. Tap it — “Signal path” opens: the whole road of the sound from file to headphones, honestly marking where the sound is recalculated and where it passes unchanged.
• Waveform of the song with time: tap or drag to seek.
• Buttons: repeat, back, pause, forward, shuffle.
• Volume — the slider at the bottom.
• Top right — the queue (the number under the icon shows the song's position, for example 5 / 12) and the menu “⋮”.

Gestures

Player menu “⋮”

Queue and shuffle

The queue icon at the top right opens the list of what will play. Stop after this track is there too. An empty queue suggests picking a song in the library.

How to shuffle

Settings → Shuffle:

Cloud: music from a link

A FLAC library weighs hundreds of gigabytes and doesn't fit on a phone. You can keep it in the cloud and listen without downloading: the player fetches the song in pieces as it plays, like radio. Seeking works.

Which clouds

How to share a folder link

1. In your cloud, open the music folder and tap “Share”.
2. Turn on access for anyone with the link. This is the key: a link from the address bar without open access won't work.
3. Copy the link.

If you forgot to open access, the player says so: Link sharing is off. Turn it on in the cloud — "anyone with the link".

The Cloud shelf

The Cloud tab in Music is a shelf of links to folders: yours and your friends'. Swap links — and each of you has a shelf of the other's music.

1. Tap Add a link and paste a folder link.
2. The player visits the cloud once: checks that the link is alive and learns the folder name and the number of songs. A dead link won't go on the shelf — you'll know right away.
3. The player suggests a name — from the folder name. You can give your own, for example “Friend's music”.

Under the name you see Songs last time: 39 — how many songs the folder had last time. When you open the tab, the player doesn't check links, to save your data: you'll learn whether a link is alive when you tap it.

The “⋮” menu of a link: Share the link — send to a friend, Rename, Remove from the shelf.

Inside a folder

• Subfolders — for example, albums inside a discography: tap to go in, Back to leave.
• Play the whole folder — all songs in a row.
• Refresh the list — if something was added to the folder.
• One folder shows at most a thousand songs — after that you see Showing the first thousand songs. Split big collections into subfolders.

Covers from the cloud

If the folder has a picture (cover.jpg, folder.jpg), it becomes the cover. If there is no picture but the cover is embedded in the songs, the player pulls it out in small pieces, without downloading the whole song. And if the playing song has its own embedded cover, the player screen shows exactly that one, even when the folder has a shared picture.

Long listening and USB DAC

• Clouds give out file links for a limited time. If you listen for long and a link expires, the player gets a fresh one by itself — the second hour of an album plays just like the first.
• With a USB DAC and VULAN, songs from the cloud go to the DAC the same way as songs from the phone.

Without the shelf: a single link

The “+” button below the library title: Folder from a link — open a folder once without putting it on the shelf; Play from a link — a link to one file.

If the cloud didn't open

Radio

The Radio section — more than a thousand stations, each with a checked stream, including ones collected nowhere else. At the top there are four tabs:

Below the tabs — the search FINDING STATION and genres: Pop, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Blues, Electronic, Dance, Relax, Retro, Hip-hop, World, Country, Russian chanson, Soul, Other.

Tap a station — it plays. The heart on the right adds it to “Mine”.

Hi-Res: radio in CD quality

Almost all internet radio sounds in compressed MP3. But there are stations in the world that broadcast in FLAC — lossless, like a CD, and some even higher. They are few, hard to find, and almost no player collects them.

We have 164. Every stream was checked twice: it is real FLAC inside. 119 stations in CD quality, 45 in Hi-Res, up to 192 kHz. No subscriptions or services: tap and listen to CD-quality music for free. For lossless stations, the format name in the list is painted with the signature shimmer.

Single-artist radio

The Single-artist radio button — stations where one artist plays around the clock: Vysotsky, Pink Floyd and hundreds more names (550). Not “similar music” and not a genre mix: want Chuck Berry all evening — you get Chuck Berry.

Radar — why turn it on

The same station plays differently for different people: it all depends on your carrier, Wi-Fi, VPN and where the station's server is. An online catalog can't know that. Your phone can.

The RADAR button turns the phone into a measuring instrument. It checks stations right from your network and ranks them by reception quality.

While the radar runs, the window shows how many stations were checked, answered and silent, smooth and with stalls, time elapsed and left, megabytes received and who is fastest so far. You can close the window — the radar keeps going, and the button says RUNNING.

The list rebuilds on the fly: stations that start faster and play smoothly for you rise to the top. Run the radar once — and radio starts in seconds. Changed networks (home, mobile, VPN) — run it again: measurements are kept separately for each network.

Station badges

After the radar, a badge appears to the right of a station — time to first sound:

Press and hold a badge for a detailed explanation.

Lightning — steady stream

Some stations are fussy: on a weak connection they keep dropping out. For them there is a steady stream.

1. Open the Mine tab.
2. Hold your finger on the station card for three seconds. The heart starts filling with green — let go earlier and nothing changes.
3. The heart turns into a green lightning bolt, and a moment later the station rises to the top of the list.

On start such a station first builds a minute of reserve — since version 1.1.68 the player screen shows Buffering… during this time — but after that it doesn't break even on a weak connection. Don't want to wait — tap Play: the station starts at once, without the reserve.

To remove the lightning, hold your finger for three seconds again: the station returns to a normal start.

What you see while a station plays

On the Player screen, in the station's cover square, there are stream meters:

The song title, if the station sends it, shows under the station name and in the notification shade.

• Stable stream • quality temporarily reduced — the connection is weak, and the player switched to a light stream of the same station so the music doesn't stop.
• via our own server — the stream goes through our relay server (for stations that don't open otherwise). The player says so honestly.

Your own station and recording

• Add a station by link — the link icon at the top of the section: name and stream address. The station lands in “Mine”.
• Refresh catalog — the arrow icon next to it.
• Recording: the “⋮” menu on the Player screen → Record stream. The stream is saved as is to the Music/SHIKARDOS Radio folder. Stations that stream in segments (HLS) can't be recorded — the player tells you so.
• Wake up to a station — the “⋮” menu → Set as alarm.

Cover gestures work on radio too: swipe left or right for the next or previous station.

Equalizer

It opens with the EQ button in the bottom row or from Settings → Open equalizer. The equalizer screen is always landscape — turn your phone. To close it, tap any of the four arrows in the corners of the screen or use the phone's back button.

The player has two equalizers, each with its own settings:

The GEq / PEq button at the top switches between them — even in the middle of a song. The one on screen is the one you hear; the other keeps its settings and waits. A fresh install opens the graphic one. If you had already set up the parametric one, the player keeps you there.

At the bottom of the screen are music controls: back, pause, forward (on radio — neighbouring stations), seek with time, the format of the playing file and a long volume slider. When sound goes through VULAN, the slider controls the volume of the DAC itself.

The top row

If the screen is narrow and the buttons don't fit, the row scrolls sideways with your finger.

Graphic equalizer GEq

• The 10, 15, 31 buttons set the number of bands. 15 is the default.
• Drag a band up for louder, down for quieter, up to ±12 dB. Your finger stays with the band it landed on until the gesture ends — neighbours aren't touched.
• Above the bands you see the frequency and gain of the band under your finger, for example 1k · +3.5 dB.
• Touch a band and a long slider for that band appears at the bottom. With 31 bands a narrow strip is hard to hit; a full-width slider gives precision.
• The reset button on the right sets all bands to zero.

The first time you open the graphic equalizer, it takes the curve already set on the parametric one and spreads it over 15 bands — the sound doesn't change when you switch.

Parametric equalizer PEq

The graph runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, gain ±12 dB. Up to 16 bands; the counter is at the bottom: BANDS 3/16. While there are no bands, the bottom shows Add a band with the “+” button.

Add band (“+” at the bottom) — the band appears at 1 kHz right on the current curve, so the sound doesn't change until you drag it.

The selected band has a card at the bottom: FREQUENCY, GAIN, Q, three shapes to choose from, the eye Bypass band / Restore band — listen without it without deleting, and the bin Delete band. The circular arrow is Reset all bands.

To the right of the graph a width rail appears for the selected band — Q for a bell, S (10 to 100) for a shelf. Not everyone likes two-finger gestures; the rail is easier.

Presets

PRESETS opens the list on the left. A preset goes to the equalizer that is open right now.

• 36 built-in: Flat and 35 genre presets — Classic, Rock, Jazz, Pop, Full Bass, Full Treble, Headphones, Vocal, Large Hall, Blues, Folk and more.
• The heart next to a preset marks it as a favorite. Favorites rise to the top, followed by a gold line and the rest.
• SAVE PRESET is the first line of the list. Give it a name (up to 40 characters) — the current setting becomes your preset. Saving doesn't change the sound or turn the equalizer on. A built-in name can't be taken: This name is taken by a built-in preset. Your own name overwrites your preset.
• Your presets are at the very top. Long press to delete; the player asks Delete preset “…”?.
• A preset saved on one equalizer opens on the other too — the curve is spread accordingly.

CRYSTAL and GRAVITY

Tapping the button at the top turns the effect on or off. When on, a strength rail from 0 to 100% appears to the right of the graph; when off, it disappears. The same strength is in Settings (below).

With a USB DAC and VULAN, the equalizer, CRYSTAL and GRAVITY keep working — our own engine computes them. While the curve is flat, the sound stays bit-perfect.

Reverb

REVERB gives the whole graph window to its panel. To close the panel, tap the cross on the right; the effect stays on.

• REVERB — the big button at the top left is the switch. Next to it: Working, Off or Nothing is playing — settings will be remembered.
• SPACE: Room — small space, gentle effect; Hall — concert hall, medium effect; Concert — large venue, deep sound; Stadium — open space, maximum effect.
• HALL LENGTH — how long the tail lasts: Short ≈0.6 s, Medium ≈0.9 s, Long ≈1.3 s, Cathedral ≈3.4 s.
• STRENGTH — 0 to 100%.

Choosing a space, length or strength turns the effect on by itself — so you never tap and hear nothing. Reverb works at 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz, including through VULAN. At DSD rates it is unavailable, and the player says so: Doesn't work at this sample rate (DSD).

Balance and window meters

BALANCE opens a long L — R slider at the bottom: up to 6 dB either way, in 0.5 dB steps. Double-tap the slider or tap 0 to centre it exactly. Balance works through VULAN too. To close, tap BALANCE again.

On the window glass, bottom left, is an honest label of what happens to the sound:

Next to it the USB icon shows VULAN's state: grey — off, coloured — on. To the right of the graph are the L·R level meters, left and right channels separately: they show what you hear, with the volume already applied.

Sound in Settings

The main equalizer controls are also in Settings — without opening the full screen:

You can also turn the equalizer off with one tap from the Player screen: “⋮” menu → Turn equalizer on / off.

AudioDNA: hearing test

Everyone's ears are different, and the left and right ear often don't hear the same. In a few minutes AudioDNA checks how you hear in your own headphones and suggests two things: a gentle personal curve, DNA Contour, and a stereo balance position. The test doesn't touch the equalizer — both results can be checked and turned off.

The test starts from Settings → Retake the test. It isn't available while VULAN is on.

Before you start

The Personal sound profile screen asks for five things:

1. Put on headphones — working stereo headphones, system sound effects off.
2. Set a comfortable volume — start low and stop immediately if the tone is unpleasant.
3. Find a quiet place — no background noise.
4. Takes a few minutes — first the left ear, then the right.
5. Answer honestly — “I hear it” only when you really hear it, even very quietly.

First listen to a sample signal — the Left and Right buttons play a tone in each ear, so you can check the headphones are on the right way. Then — Start test or Skip test.

How the test goes

• Each ear listens to eight frequencies: 125, 250, 500 Hz, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 kHz.
• At each frequency the tone gets quieter or louder, and you answer I hear it or I don't hear it. Missed it — Repeat. This way the player finds the quietest sound you can still hear.
• First the Left ear, then Great! Now the right ear. You can stop at any moment — Cancel test.
• The test runs twice and the results are averaged, so a random tap won't spoil the outcome. If the two passes differ noticeably, the player asks for a Control pass and takes the median of three. During a repeat, don't change the volume or the headphone position.

Result: DNA Contour and balance

After the test you see AudioDNA result is ready.

The recommendation is a starting point: play familiar music and fine-tune the balance by ear. Balance is saved in the player; if you change headphones, it's better to repeat the test. Done takes you to the Player screen.

AudioDNA in Settings

USB DAC and VULAN

Normally Android passes every app's sound through its own mixer, where it may be resampled and its bit depth changed. VULAN is our driver: it sends sound to a USB DAC directly, bypassing the Android audio system, bit for bit. No root needed.

It is the first line of the sound section: Settings → VULAN — bit-perfect output to DAC. The state is shown under the name:

When you turn it on, the player shows VULAN is on: Sound goes straight to the DAC, bit for bit, bypassing Android. If no DAC is plugged in yet — Connect a USB DAC and the sound will go straight into it, bypassing the Android audio system. A song that is already playing switches to VULAN right away.

What works with VULAN

• Equalizer, CRYSTAL, GRAVITY, reverb and balance work — our own engine computes them. While the curve is flat and nothing is on, the sound stays bit-perfect, and the equalizer screen shows BIT-PERFECT OUTPUT.
• Volume — the cover gesture and the slider on the equalizer screen — changes the volume of the DAC itself, not a software volume.
• Android's own effects (Fixed gain) can't reach the DAC — under VULAN they are dimmed and can't be tapped.
• The AudioDNA test isn't available while VULAN is on.

How to turn it off

Turn VULAN off with the same switch. The player shows VULAN is off: To return to normal sound, unplug the USB DAC and plug it back in. That is how Android works: it notices the DAC's sound card only at the moment the cable is connected.

DSD through VULAN

Two settings appear under VULAN, only while it is on:

Without DoP the player converts DSD to PCM, and all processing works.

Signal path

Tap the format line on the Player screen (for example FLAC • 96 kHz • 24 bit) and Signal path opens: the whole road of the sound from file to headphones, step by step. Green marks what passed unchanged.

If nothing is playing — Nothing is playing.

Bluetooth

Settings → Bluetooth:

What the Codec now line can say:

• No Bluetooth headphones connected.
• needs the “Nearby devices” permission — tap — without it Android doesn't show the codec.
• Android does not report the codec to apps — headphones are connected, but the phone won't say which codec.
• the phone does not allow it — the codec is visible, but the phone doesn't let apps change it (this happens on Android 12 and newer).

Alarm

Wake up to your own song or your own radio station. Alarms live in Settings → AUTOMATION → Alarms. Straight from the Player screen — “⋮” menu → Set as alarm.

The Add alarm button opens New alarm:

Add — the alarm is on. Tap a card to Edit alarm.

When the alarm rings, the screen shows the time, the name, Alarm triggered and the Stop button.

Sleep timer

“⋮” menu on the Player screen → Sleep timer, or Settings → PLAYBACK → Sleep timer.

• Pick a time: 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1 hour, 1.5 hours or 2 hours.
• While it runs you see Remaining: …. Changed your mind — Turn timer off.
• When time is up, the music pauses.

To stop after a song instead of after a time — Stop after this track in the same menu.

Volume schedule

The volume changes by itself with the time of day: quieter in the morning, louder in the afternoon, very quiet at night. “⋮” menu → Schedule, or Settings → AUTOMATION → Volume schedule.

Turn on the switch at the top. Four points are set from the start:

• Tap the time to change the hour. The slider sets the volume level.
• The point that is in effect right now is highlighted.
• Add — a new point (up to eight in total); the label morning, day, evening or night is set by the hour. The cross deletes a point; at least two must remain.
• Reset — back to the original four points.

Stream recording

“⋮” menu on the Player screen while a station plays → Record stream. The player says: Recording the stream as is — Music/SHIKARDOS Radio. The stream is saved exactly as it came from the station, without re-encoding.

• Stop recording — the file is saved: Recording saved.
• Stations that stream in chunks can't be recorded: This stream comes in chunks (HLS) and cannot be recorded.
• If recording didn't start — Recording failed.

Automation

Settings → AUTOMATION — what the player does by itself, without taps:

Language and appearance

The first section of settings — Settings → LANGUAGE & APPEARANCE:

Skins

The APPEARANCE window. First comes Studio — the look you set up yourself. Below are five ready-made skins; you just pick one:

Each card shows three palette dots; the chosen one has a check mark.

Studio

Tap the Studio card to open its settings:

Richness steps — each adds one thing:

Colour grading

Your own player colour — square, wheel or colour code, whichever suits. It opens from Settings → Colour grading or from Studio.

• Two buttons at the top of the window switch the view: H S B — a square with sliders, RGB — a colour wheel.
• The # field — type a six-character colour code (RRGGBB).
• Below — a sample: a button, bars and a label in the chosen colour.
• Skin's own — back to the skin's native colour. Cancel — back to what it was before the window. Close — keep your choice.

Driving mode

Settings → Driving mode: nothing runs or glows — the radar stands still, bars turn grey, bright badges go out. So nothing distracts you from the road.

Two neighbouring settings help too: Open on start — let the player open straight on Radio, and Play on launch in Automation — the song or station continues by itself.

All settings: the map

Settings — the gear in the bottom row. Sections go from top to bottom in this order:

The usual bottom row stays visible in Settings: tapping a section closes Settings and opens it right away.

Playback

Library

Backup and transfer

Changing phones or reinstalling the player — take your settings with you.

After restoring: Settings restored. Some of them will take effect after restarting the player.

About

Troubleshooting