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eternaldiatribe · Mar 9, 2005, 12:02 PM

I have just switched from Windows, and I became very used to being able to put shortcuts to my MP3 partitions in the Quick Launch taskbar and navigate to each folder and right-click "Play in Winamp" as I wished to play them. Is there a method to do this in Mac OS or maybe a program I could get?

Also, I find iTunes a bit unwieldy for my tastes; is there a Winamp-like player (read: small and light) for Mac OS X that is still maintained? I tried Audion, but it crashes a lot, and a most of the other similar apps don't seem to be under active development (or are ugly as hell).'

I am using a brand-new Dual 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 with 2 GB of RAM and 10.3.8 OS update.

Thank you.

nbn22385 · Mar 9, 2005, 03:24 PM

Have you tried the mini-mode for iTunes? The search feature in iTunes should make it really easy to find the song you want in about a second.

hayesk · Mar 9, 2005, 03:29 PM

Search for MP3 player on http://www.versiontracker.com in the MacOS X section.

cpac · Mar 9, 2005, 03:31 PM

There aren't a whole lot of non-iTunes mp3 players being developed for the Mac because iTunes is pretty damn good.

It sounds like you should just set up playlists akin to the folders you used to play in Winamp.

Chuckit · Mar 9, 2005, 03:49 PM

QuickTime Player is a fairly lightweight player. Don't know if it's what you're looking for, but there it is.

Mithras · Mar 9, 2005, 05:34 PM

You might really like You Control:iTunes along with iTunes in mini-mode. You Control: is free, and gives you a quick hierarchical menu of genres, albums, & artists in the menubar. It's quite nice.

Another 'el-cheapo' option is just navigating folders in the Finder with column view, and playing songs in the preview column. That just plays one song at a time, though.

Krusty · 08:17 PM

You can also just drag your music folder into the dock and ... shazam .. you have a Quick Launch folder. If you only want shortcuts to certain folders, you can always do as I used to have to do in Windows .. Create a folder and inside that folder create shortcuts to all the folders you want easy access to. Then drag that folder into the dock and ... shazam again ... a customized Quick Launch folder. ** note holding the Option + Command (open apple) key while dragging will create aliases (shortcuts) quickly -- they'll have the exact same name as the original except for a little arrow in the bottom left showing its an alias.

[edit] Oh, and just thought I'd add ... whatever you add to the dock (be it a music folder or a folder of aliases), the folder hierarchies will remain intact. I remember when Windows didn't do this automatically with Start menu items. Even now, you have to manually choose "Open" or "Explore" to open a folder in a hierarchy .. on a Mac it will act just like "real" folders would. I just did the "Make a folder and add aliases" suggestion I gave above and was able to create a quick launch folder for the dock with several of my favorite albums in a matter of a few seconds by just quickly Option + Command dragging those favorites into the a folder I had created and then dragging it to the dock.

CaptainHaddock · Mar 9, 2005, 11:29 PM

Let me add that as a fairly recent switcher, I also wanted a bare-bones music player at first. All I'd used before was Winamp and its Linux clone XMMS.

But now that I've used iTunes for a few months, I've gotta say it's the best music player I've ever used. Once you start using the search box, song ratings, and smart playlists, you just might not feel like using Winamp ever again. I have a playlist that plays, at random, all my highest-rated songs excluding anything listened to within the last 2 weeks.

King Bob On The Cob · Mar 9, 2005, 11:36 PM

Maybe Audion...
http://www.panic.com/

http://www.xaudic.net/Download.htm
Uses WinAmp skins...

mitchell_pgh · Mar 9, 2005, 11:59 PM

My switcher friends all resist iTunes... usually after a few months they give in and use it the normal way... and end up loving it.

Gavin · Mar 10, 2005, 02:02 AM

Originally posted by Krusty:
You can also just drag your music folder into the dock and ... shazam .. you have a Quick Launch folder.

I was going to suggest just this but the clown beat me to it.

I'm gonna stick my nose in anyway:

PurpleGiant · Mar 10, 2005, 02:51 AM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
My switcher friends all resist iTunes... usually after a few months they give in and use it the normal way... and end up loving it.

Same. With one exception, every friend I have that has gone from Windows or Linux to Mac, bitches about iTunes for months before realising that it's actually really good.