itunes is horrible
 

ok.. before anyone says anything- it's a matter of preference. it's not a matter of whether the program is good or not. sure, it works fine. but it has features which i don't want. music library? no thanks, i prefer to actually keep track of music in terms of 'files' and 'directories'.. itunes doesn't seem to grasp such concepts. i'd like to be able to delete and add files without worrying that the program i use to play them will have a palsy and not know what happened. i'd also like to preserve my playlists after doing so.

i found myself a copy of winamp for mac.. which runs nicely and comfortingly similar to the windows version, but really there's a lot of features they didn't port over and it's not quite the same. also it runs in classic so it doesn't recognize filenames properly all the time.

so here's my question (and again, no i do not simply want someone to point out the wonders of itunes and convince me to use it, i tried it for a month, and i got increasingly sick of it).. does anyone know of an mp3 player with the following features:

-no music library
-playlists which can be saved as files
-shuffle, repeat, single-song repeat (winamp doesn't do this last on mac)
-recognition of filenames
-a small (winamp being the ideal here for me) interface that i can leave open at the top of the screen, 'always-on-top' optional

for now, i'm using winamp-mac, which is nice but makes me wish it worked as well as under windows (and this is a pretty rare feeling since i got this comp). itunes is still on the drive, but mostly because it has a decent built-in ripper. anyone who's been around the mac world longer and knows about some cool program that'll make me as happy about mp3s as i was when i first used napster, please do tell. :)

thanks

Sounds like you're yearning for Audion.

^_^
 

yes.. Audion r0x0r. also, the 'Black Bar' face is great. thanks a lot..

Oh, you're a brave soul! I feel the same way about iPhoto :D :D

But now my tunes are in iTunes and how do I get them out of there?

Margaret

Of the five features you asked for, iTunes already does #1,2,3 and 5.

Chris

iTunes copies mp3s into its own directory structure.. i disabled this before i even put mp3s onto my computer.. but yeah, check the prefs and it should be in there somewhere, it's a checkbox that tells it not to actually copy the files. also, you can delete/ move/ whatever the files it put in its library, which should be a folder in the Music folder.. which i also don't use. (i am a sloppy filer and i refuse to have any o/s tell me where to put my stuff)..

if that was too vague sorry, i don't have an iTunes library on here (and i won't, either)..

iPhoto does a very similar thing, and you can likewise find its evil spawn within the Pictures folder.. my solution is to use ACDSee (which can be downloaded for free at a few places) to look at pix. iPhoto is easier for transferring pix from a digital camera, so i use it for that, and then i export the files to my preferred directory.. (the command shortcut is apple-shift-E), then delete the iPhoto folder.

:) enjoy your liberation from smartass default programs

no, sorry, it emphatically *does not* do #1. it is a library-based app and it thinks it's so special with its fancy library.. which has little relationship to my mp3 directory, where my files are hand-placed and hand-sorted, the way i like 'em.. :)

also the interface is annoying as hell. i have the small ibook. the one with the little screen. i don't need a large aluminum box taking up space on the screen, i want a small bar (which i now have, props to Audion). so #5 is not to my specs either.

When I said that iTunes does number 1, I meant that while it has a library, you don't have to use it. You can use playlist exclusively if you wish. I realize that's not exactly what you want, so I'll grant you #1.

As for #5, there are lots of third party iTunes interfaces you can use if you don't like the little iTunes window (I don't either--12" Powerbook). Some control iTunes from the dock, some use menu bar widgets. Try a few of them and see if you like them. When Tiger ships, I'll probably use the iTunes interface in dashboard a lot.

Chris

Why don't you just have ImageCapture open whenever you connect your camera and save yourself all these hassles?

iTunes will do all you want to do you just have to kow how to use it. I have my music folder on 3 different drives and add new songs to itunes by putting the new folder with songs in it anywhere I want and then dragging that folder to the iTunes window. It has the added advantage of numerous scripts that will do different things including renaming the files artist-year-album-track-song name, my main requirement. All you have to do is tell iTuines to not organize and not copy to music folder. If you want playlists saved just export them as xml files. You can use Synergy to make a small (one button in my case) menu controller and add a floating window that is always on top that has what ever part of the song listed (in my case the same as the track is named with all pertinent info). One of the better data base programs and works well with 100,000 files...

iTunes does this right, or at least it is the future. Organizing files with a directory structure and file naming is becoming secondary in flexibility to organizing files with metadata. I was much happier with iTunes after I started letting it organize my music folders and making sure the song metadata was correct so that searches beat anything I could do with a file system. This is happening with other media now (which is why metadata handling is one of Spotlight's biggest features in Tiger) and it is clearly a more flexible way to handle large libraries. The content gets to drive the organization of the file system, instead of the other way around.

When I first started using iTunes, it was before I got my Mac. Prior, I was like folx... I used to extract what I wanted to wherever I liked.... I installed iTunes, let it "organize", and lost all "my" organization. I never used playlists etc, didn't need them - I thought I could do better.... Hated iTunes for messing with that!

But in fairness, I was just burning cd compilations, and using wavs with no metadata.... When I got the Mac, I resolved to let it do it the iTunes way from the start. Now I am satisfied. I manually control syncing to my iPod, use LAME for mp3s and Apple lossless for cd burns..... so far its all good.....

Sorry folx, I hope you find a satisfying answer for your needs.

mostly because i don't want to install any more software than is already on here.. and i really don't have time to devote to becoming an expert on mac software as my primary focus.. (much as i'd like to get there, it'll have to take a lot longer). also, i figure i'll have to learn that applescript stuff sooner or later and when i do i'll make some macros and pull 'em through QuickSilver and it'll be hella easy.

Image Capture is included in OS X install. Jut open it, go to preferences>Camera and select open Image Capture when camera is connected....

You can make as many playlists as you want in itunes, you never need to use the library. I have no idea what saving playlists as files means, like just the text of the playlist? Or the entire playlist including the music? What kind of file is it? iTunes can shuffle, repeat and all that. iTunes does recognize file names, if by file names you mean track names. There are plenty of third party apps that put an itunes interface in the top or bottom of the screen, no to mention minimize makes it very small. I know you said you don't want to use iTunes, but I feel the need to defend it. Because iTunes is the best thing that every happend to me. It does everything I ever wanted and is very far from "horrible." Why do you even care if it orginizes music in a different way then you? If you ever want the songs again you can just drag them out of the iTunes interface onto your desktop or into a folder and it will copy them all out.

Any heavy iTunes user should look into Synergy, since is manages to be a zero-real-estate, on-top-on-demand solution and provides menu bar or keyboard control over iTunes even when it is not frontmost.

As far as exporting playlists, iTunes can send one into a text file.

I can completely understand the reluctance to use applications which radiate an intolerable amount of smugness pretending to know better than you do how to manage your music.

It is certainly a matter of taste and a small, fast player with the specced features may be a good idea.

On the other hand, it might be worth your while not to reject approaches which are different from what you're used to just because they're different, but after evaluating possible merit.

Given both the usabilty and the amount of add-ons, scripts etc. I have come to the conclusion that iTunes is probably neither lightweight, nor exactly the way I'd like it, but still the best solution I've found. Your conclusion may differ.

However, the question how-do-i-want-to-use-my-music is different from how-can-i-transpose-a-possibly-broken-way-to-play-my-music-on-another-platform.

first off, i chose to use 'iTunes is horrible' as a subject simply because i knew it'd arouse the ire of die-hard fans and so get me a faster response... sorry, it was sneaky. *shrug*

aside from that, i've gotten ahold of Audion and i'm rather happy with it so far. and i've only used it a couple days. i used iTunes for over a month and kept running into problems with my style and its style.. and now that we've parted ways i have no hard feelings, but yeah, i'm using something else that i like better. for one thing (and this is crucial to me) the face (skin, to some) for Audion called Black Bar is small, fits at the top of my screen, and lets me control and see info for my music without the hassle of the clunky iTunes interface. sorry Apple, but a large rectangle is not small. not on a 12" screen it's not. the tiny bar i have now is way better. and yes, i know iTunes can be modified and tweaked, but i don't have the energy to tweak a program that irritates me when i can use a program that i rather like and don't need to tweak instead.

as for those of you who're all about iTunes, well look.. i've gone from calling Apple products 'macintrash' to loving my iBook. can't you be happy you got a PC tech to switch and stop trying to get me to switch my whole computing style too? and really, i wouldn't be using a mac if it weren't for it running on unix. i have no brand loyalty, it's about functionality and ergonomic compatibility. and the fact that this thing won't crash twenty times a day. that part is very important. :)

It would be unwise to make a habit of that practice. :rolleyes:

It's not nice to Troll....

Faster, perhaps, but lower quality.

iTunes is not an operating system.

Don't feed the troll more fish ? :confused:

Gimme a break. :rolleyes:

Closed.