Alright people....im back on the mactrail once again, and ive got a DVSE on its way home.
Simple question....whats the best MP3 player for mac ? i need/want the following features....
-playlists
-skins
-visualizations(like in winamp)
and basically anything else that a good mp3 player need.
ciao.

[DBursey]

Soundjam is the best, IMO. Tons of features, very customizable playlists, the ability to convert winamp skins. Very versatile program.

[NastyP]

screw all the rest, sound app is the only one i have found that can easily handle over 1000 mp3's and handle them the way i like them to be handled.

Nasty P.

[Kozmik]

SoundJam MP is the best... oh wait, why the hell am I advising Dragonlance? I mean, we all know he'll sell his iMac DV SE in a month anyway in favor of a superior Athlon box. (When I say superior, I mean it... one that can get 120fps in Unreal and costs the same.) Odd, that he's even going to try the Mac platform again.

[Ca$h68]

Dont listen to them. You said you wanted skins. SCREW Soundjam, it comes with these skag nasty butt ugly skins that are really hard to use. The player with the BEST skins is easily macast. It also has a lot of visualization stuff.

Soundjam has the best sound quality though, but I cant notice a diff.

Ca$h

[tonymac]

Among other things, Sound Jam will let you convert any existing WinAmp skin. It is definitely my favorite because of it's flexibility in handling playlists (view by title, artist, album, shuffle order, etc) and because the encoder is AltiVec enhanced. I registered my copy the week I got my G4 and have never regretted it.

Hey Ca$h, how can you say it sounds better, if you can't hear a difference??

[Demonhood]

From the look of things lately, it doesn't appear as if Macast will ever be updated again in our lifetime. It works fairly well, but I much prefer the skins of Audion (made by Panic software).

Audion is actively being updated and maintained, so more users are actually making skins for it (unlike Macast which went without a skin addition for months).

[Cipher13]

Audion seriously kicks anything elses ass... for playing. Too bad it isn't as complete a package as SoundJam (ie. ripping and stuff).
Know what, there is an mp3 forum now...

Cipher13

[witulski]

QuickTime 4.0!

[denim]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Audion seriously kicks anything elses ass... for playing.

That's why you pair it with N2MP3. Between the two of them, I'm all set.

[This message has been edited by denim (edited 09-15-2000).]

[roders]

So Dragonlance has caught a whiff of OSX, or he's just been released.
I just hope this doesn't mean we have to put up with his stinkin opinions again.
I hope your a reformed (as opposed to deformed as you were before) character Lancey boy, cause if your not; I'm gonna have to roast your arse!

P.S don't bother flaming me if your a little jonny sixpost, this guy's got a history...



[This message has been edited by roders (edited 09-15-2000).]

I've got a big bucket of sand ready for you, Roders! You feckless bully you! After all, it isthe year of the dragon!

[roders]

Grrrr,
Shudup & give me your lunch money rubber johny boy.

I expect to get flamed by a dragon, but; but not by a little johny six post!
Boo hoo, sniff sniff, wimper wimper, mammy, MAMMY!!!

[slboett]

The best skins award goes to Audion - but SoundJam has a converter Ca$h so your comments against SJ are moot.
SoundJam is the best MP3 package for the Mac, period.

Scott

There, there Roders ... cheer up lad. Here, you can have a lick of my ice cream cone if'n you like!

< credits begin to roll as camera zooms out on shot of Roders and his new little friend Jonny Sixpost ... walking off, hand in hand, towards the local anger management clinic ... >

[harnet]

http://www.soundjam.com

hand’s down Soundjam ..and when you Pay for the Unit $39.00 it’s the Best Mp3 player around up to know,,,,,,,,,

Originally posted by slboett:
SoundJam is the best MP3 package for the Mac, period.
Scott

Yes it is... if you like $hitty sound. Even playing *CD's* SoundJam sounds crappy. Almost like it downsamples the CD stream. Bells and whistles aren't important in an MP3 player, sound is, period. Who cares if you have all those jazzy visual plug-ins if it sounds horrible. And the MP3 ripper isn't all that good in SJ either. Besides, the two best plug ins for SJ (Whitecap and Geforce) are stand alone apps that can also be used with Audion.

Even MP3's that click and pop in other players (or won't even play) are perfect in Audion. Audion all the way!

Flamed by moi ? u cant be serious !!!! but anyway, im not reformed, i just made a choice of computer, and i reserve the right to change my mind whenever i like ? sound good ? hehehe

Anyway, ive had experience with Audion and N2MP3, but i found visualizations and those weird animations that play along with the music missing from Audion.(it was about 6 months ago when i last used Audion, not sure if there have been upgrades since)....

And yes, i got the wiff of OSX....those dirty rotten bastards at apple are in the process of sending me a copy of the public beta....

[This message has been edited by Dragonlance (edited 09-15-2000).]

[Demonhood]

Audion still doesn't contain visualization plug-ins or animations. But since I just have it running in the background while I'm working, it doesn't really matter.

I will give SoundJam some credit for being quick to adopt Altivec, multiple processors and Carbon support, but since I still encode MP3s using the old school method of SoundEdit 16 SWA export, I'll stick with Audion for now.

[Kozmik]

The two best visualization plugins I've seen are WhiteCap and G-Force. They work with most Mac MP3 players and many Windows ones as well. http://55ware.audiogalaxy.com/

[Cipher13]

Audion rocks - who really wants to see what their music looks like?
No one... its a waste of runtime and all that...
It NEVER skips, even when opening the most intensive apps and stuff. Never.
A comment was made earlier about SoundJams shitty CD playback - doesn't it just use the same thing that the control strip and Apple CD Audio Player use?
Hard wired from the cd drive to the sound output...
Play a CD in SJ, then quit. It may well keep on playing.
BTW, IMHO, the best skin for any music app I've used, is X Fusion for Audion.
It is perfect! I've used it since I got it... never changed skins.
Its small, well set out, and looks great...
If anyone wants it, I'd be glad to send it to you. Or just check out Panic.com's Audion skin gallery and search for it.

Cipher13

[blizaine]

Windows Media Player is the BEST!!!!


you know it's true....

[witulski]

QuickTime 4.0!

[Ca$h68]

Ok, whoever said that SJ rules because it can convert winamp skins;

WHO GIVES A FLYING FRICK!?!?!?

Winamp skins SUCK. The buttons are all the same, and they just blow. Thats WHY macast is better. Freedom to design. And why does it need ot be updated? It works fine!

Ca$h

[Cipher13]

In 1983 the Lisa Desktop Manager worked fine too...

Cipher13

[The Godfather]

SOUND APP!

[slboett]

Cashy boy, SJ can convert Audion skins, the best, IMHO. MacAst, WinAmp, etc. all suck. SJ rocks.

Scott

[blizaine]

SJ can convert Audion!!?!!?? that's cool!

[rhino_g3]

So Dragonlance is a PeeCee user and a Mac user wanna be huh?

For some people it just takes longer for them to realize that Macs are better. Mabey one of these days Dragonlance will get it figured out.

I hate PeeCee users who come to this forum and try to pretend they are Mac users. Make up your mind would you!!!!!

rhino_g3

[slboett]

Yes, SJ can convert Audion skins. Very cool as they do have the best skins.

Scott

Originally posted by Cipher13:
A comment was made earlier about SoundJams shitty CD playback - doesn't it just use the same thing that the control strip and Apple CD Audio Player use?

SJ doesn't just shuffle the CD audio through like Audion, it samples the CD stream for its graphic displays and equalizer. It really seems to me to be a problem with SJ's equalizer. The highs are noticeably distorted, almost like SJ is downsampling the audio. If the eq is off, the distortion isn't as noticeable. But it has to be turned off, not just zeroed out. The eq really needs some work IMO.

If they would fix this, SJ would rule, though Audion still sounds the best

[Ca$h68]

Ok, Macast doesnt have any stupid problems with it, and it really DOES have the nicest skins. Why? First, they can be ...like... hrm.. you can open doors and stuff, which is really cool. Secondly, and I LOVE this, is when you put your mouse over the button, it lights up dimly, and then displays what that button will do. Thats great. However, it is not an Mp3 encoder, nor is it able to burn CDs, nor can it figure out the meaning of life. Personally, I dont care, but apparently, some people like everything in one program (and they are really missing out, since N2mp3 is so nice....mm...quality..mmm)

Ca$h

New kid MusicMatch Jukebox has got to be a contender.

[cteselle]

I haven't used an mp3 app on my mac for quite some time, but recall that I liked Vamp the best because of its low profile. What we really need is a port of WinAmp. That player rocks!!

------------------
Promote Chicken Randomness

[dani]

Why do you people want visualization stuff, animations etc? IMO, an MP3 player should be small and as out of the way as possible. Who needs "cool" skins - do you just sit watching your screen when you're listening to music?

According to tests (sorry, can't remember where I read this, so it's not much use) Audion has far superior sound quoality compared to SoundJam. Combined with great playlist features, I don't see what else you need.

Anyway, could someone tell me what is the best freeware encoder for the mac? Currently I'm using BladeEnc.

SoundApp is the best. It's AppleScriptable. I use it together with FileMaker Pro and have a serious MP3 jukebox that is faster and much more flexible than any of the commercial or shareware stuff that's out there. SoundApp plays your music very well and for serious music listening that's the bottom line.

[dani]

Yes, well, I have SoundAppFat and it does a lot of stuff but it doesn't encode mp3:s. So what would you be referring to, GBJoe?

Originally posted by dani:
Yes, well, I have SoundAppFat and it does a lot of stuff but it doesn't encode mp3:s. So what would you be referring to, GBJoe?

It's an MP3 Player. It can convert different sound formats. It doesn't encode. A good MP3 player doesn't need to encode. What it does, it does very well. If you want the best encoder then you get a program that does that well. I set up a suite of tools that all work together via AppleScript that includes a database for songs (FMP), a player (SoundApp), and an encoder (MPegger). I don't think you can get a single program that can do all those things as well as each of these individual tools.

For me it's definitely Audion, in combination with N2MP3 it surely rocks.
AND it's available for OS X now!!!

hands down the best mp3 player is macast lite. I use 1.5.2 and it is small, can be easily hidden, and does not take up much ram on the computer which is very nice. I never notice a slowness in redrwaing time, which i do in every other mp3 player except macast regular. Also, it is butt ass simple to design skins for it. I made one yesterday and it took me like two hours tops, and that is because it is my first one, and I rather like it. The sound is awesome, but you can't mess with the eq. But who needs that when you have your computer hooked up to your stereo to really get good sound out of high quality speakers, not the lame ones that cast way too much for equal sound for a computer. Plus, in the newest version, 2.1 you have the ablility to use folder in your playlist, a function taht no other mp3 player has.