Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

murph1134 · May 30, 2005, 08:16 PM

I just made the switch from PC to a beautiful new iMac G5. However, there is one thing I miss about the PC. On my PC, I had Winamp as my default audio player, and before importing songs into iTunes I would open them in Winamp and listen to them, edit their ID3 tags, etc. so that the transition into iTunes was a lot better. I also used Winamp to play all my FLAC, SHN, etc. files.

I am looking for a program similar to Winamp for the Mac. I tried MacAmp, but it was missing one key feature, the ability to edit ID3 tags. If anyone has a suggestion, I would greatly apprecieate any input.

J-Shock · May 30, 2005, 08:34 PM

I am also new to Mac (1 week and counting) and i also have the same problem. i know winamp wasnt the best program out there, but it was the only one i used. It was the best to listen to music and to edit the id3 tags. I also liked the fact that it played whole folders. it wasnt complicated to add folders, songs, radio stations, etc. Any help on this would be real great.

Chuckit · May 30, 2005, 08:37 PM

iTunes can edit ID3 tags, you know.

murph1134 · May 30, 2005, 08:43 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

iTunes can edit ID3 tags, you know.

I know, its just I liked it better on the PC being able to edit it before importing into iTunes. It made it a lot easier once it was imported, because then if you somehow lose where the file was, u dont have to go finding it. It's not so much the ID3 issue as it is being able to play FLAC and SHN, but I figure if I'm gonna try to find a new program as my default, I would like it to do those and also edit ID3's.

murph1134 · May 30, 2005, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by J-Shock

I am also new to Mac (1 week and counting) and i also have the same problem. i know winamp wasnt the best program out there, but it was the only one i used. It was the best to listen to music and to edit the id3 tags. I also liked the fact that it played whole folders. it wasnt complicated to add folders, songs, radio stations, etc. Any help on this would be real great.

Its amazing, everything about the switch to the mac has been fantastic, but this one little thing really bothers me. All my friends who have macs think I'm crazy, because iTunes is such a great program. And it is a great program, its just Winamp was so good for playing a few random songs, and not having to open a huge program like iTunes with a huge library. You could open one song and listen to it without having a huge window open. Or whenever I downloaded random songs from bands I hadnt really heard before, I'd listen to them in Winamp before importing them to iTunes to make sure I liked them, to make sure the tags were filled out, etc.

Also, about half of what I do with music is lossless audio (FLAC and SHN) and iTunes doesnt play those.

lavar78 · May 30, 2005, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by murph1134

I know, its just I liked it better on the PC being able to edit it before importing into iTunes. It made it a lot easier once it was imported, because then if you somehow lose where the file was, u dont have to go finding it.

Make a smart playlist in iTunes that shows all of the recently added songs (Date Added is Today). All of the songs you import will be automatically added to that playlist.

lavar78 · May 30, 2005, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by murph1134

And it is a great program, its just Winamp was so good for playing a few random songs, and not having to open a huge program like iTunes with a huge library. You could open one song and listen to it without having a huge window open. Or whenever I downloaded random songs from bands I hadnt really heard before, I'd listen to them in Winamp before importing them to iTunes to make sure I liked them, to make sure the tags were filled out, etc.

You can preview/listen to songs directly in the Finder using the column view. Alternatively, you can open a song file in another program (QuickTime, VLC, etc.).

analogika · May 30, 2005, 09:11 PM

If you just drag the folder with the songs of a new album (that the moron you downloaded from didn't properly label) into the left-hand side of the iTunes window, it will automatically create a new playlist from those songs. You can then simply select all and enter Artist, Album, Genre, etc. tags for all at the same time.

I believe there is a FLAC plug-in for QuickTime that will allow iTunes to play that format, as well.

I wish FLAC supported ID3 tags, and I wish people who uploaded mp3s to bt.etree.org et. al. were more rigorous with labelling.

J-Shock · May 30, 2005, 11:39 PM

You guys just made my day. Thank you. I never thought of adding the Date Added format and i didnt know u could drag a folder into the playlists. thank you, Now screw winamp

King Bob On The Cob · May 31, 2005, 02:49 AM

There's always Audion if you really hate iTunes...
http://www.panic.com/audion/
Now free!

analogika · May 31, 2005, 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by J-Shock

You guys just made my day. Thank you. I never thought of adding the Date Added format and i didnt know u could drag a folder into the playlists. thank you, Now screw winamp

Welcome to Macintosh.

Get used to *everything* being drag-and-drop.

The same trick works in iPhoto, for example, and dragging a folder into an Open/Save dialog box will automatically shift your location to that folder.

coopns · May 31, 2005, 10:57 AM

Just curious, why do people edit tags?

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by coopns

Just curious, why do people edit tags?

I download a lot of live music from sites such as bt.etree.org or the live music archive at archive.org, and a bunch of other random sites. Sometimes they are in mp3 format, and other times I convert from FLAC / SHN to mp3 and I put them in iTunes. They usually don't have tags, so I edit the tags to make my music library more organized.

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by King Bob On The Cob

There's always Audion if you really hate iTunes...
http://www.panic.com/audion/
Now free!

There it is. Exactly what I was looking for with mp3s. Now if I can just find a good program that plays FLAC and SHN I'll be all set.

Millennium · May 31, 2005, 12:41 PM

The lack of audio formats is distressing indeed, and it's one of the reasons I wish Apple would stop sitting on their audio-plugin SDK. They've got one -they inherited it from SoundJam- but they've guarded it for years, and they only allow developers to make visualizers rather than plugins that are actually, you know, useful. A few audio plugins have been made, usually after a lot of reverse-engineering, but Apple's legal department goes after anybody who makes one.

If Apple would allow these plugins, then their audio format problems would be solved.

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 12:41 PM

I just found out VLC plays FLAC. Looks like I'm in business.

Thanks a bunch for everyone's help. I can tell this forum is going to be a lot of help for me in the future.

coopns · May 31, 2005, 12:42 PM

Thanks, as a follow up, is it tough to edit tags, could you give some instructions?

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

The lack of audio formats is distressing indeed, and it's one of the reasons I wish Apple would stop sitting on their audio-plugin SDK. They've got one -they inherited it from SoundJam- but they've guarded it for years, and they only allow developers to make visualizers rather than plugins that are actually, you know, useful. A few audio plugins have been made, usually after a lot of reverse-engineering, but Apple's legal department goes after anybody who makes one.

If Apple would allow these plugins, then their audio format problems would be solved.

It would be nice. It also seems like there are not many other players out there aside from iTunes. While Windows has iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, MusicMatch Jukebox, etc., the Mac really only has iTunes, with a few random programs that play some things but not always others. I really hope Nullsoft decided to make a winamp program for the Mac, because it would be really well recieved by live music traders I think.

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by coopns

Thanks, as a follow up, is it tough to edit tags, could you give some instructions?

Audion is great for tag editing. You just open the file in audion and CTRL+Click if you have a one button mouse or right click if you have a two button mouse on the playlist, and click edit ID3 tag. I find it easiest to open audion, start a playlist, then drag whatever you want into the playlist.

Millennium · May 31, 2005, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by murph1134

Audion is great for tag editing. You just open the file in audion and CTRL+Click if you have a one button mouse or right click if you have a two button mouse on the playlist, and click edit ID3 tag. I find it easiest to open audion, start a playlist, then drag whatever you want into the playlist.

It's been a while since I edited tags in Audion; does it let you change the tags for multiple files at once? That's one of the iTunes features I really like; it made organizing my collection -most of which was poorly tagged- very easy.

murph1134 · May 31, 2005, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

It's been a while since I edited tags in Audion; does it let you change the tags for multiple files at once? That's one of the iTunes features I really like; it made organizing my collection -most of which was poorly tagged- very easy.

no it doesnt, thats the one drawback. If I have to do that, I do it in iTunes.

Chuckit · May 31, 2005, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

The lack of audio formats is distressing indeed, and it's one of the reasons I wish Apple would stop sitting on their audio-plugin SDK.

The CoreAudio SDK (which, from the looks of it, is primarily for AudioCodec development) is included with the Xcode Tools. I actually took a look at it because I'd like to get Ogg playback in iTunes again, but audio programming is a little beyond my depth (in that I really know nothing about it).

Mr Scruff · Jun 1, 2005, 06:48 PM

Macamp lite X might be what you're looking for:

http://www.arcticlounge.com/maltx/index.php