A decent mp3 player for OS X? :(

[colinAMS]

It's been a month since I decided to switch to Mac and so far the transition has been almost painless; email switched over fine, I got a copy of MS Office for Mac so I could still do my work... Photoshop, Aperture, everything else was excellent.

Then it came time to choose an mp3 player.

I am about ready to kill myself over this. OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm beyond frustrated.

I'm looking for one application that can do all of the following things. I don't think it's an unreasonable list:

1. Small and light; not memory-intensive.
2. Doesn't choke when 30,000+ tracks are loaded into the playlist
3. Ability to sort files in the playlist by path and filename (this is important)
4. Ability to stream music from the internet or from network shares
5. Jump-to-file keyboard shortcuts
6. Simple, intuitive UI.
7. Not database-driven

I have tried the following applications and rejected them for the following reasons:

1. iTunes; rejected for the worst UI ever, gigantic memory footprint, doesn't let me sort my files how I want, and nearly destroyed my directory structure despite instructions to the contrary.
2. Songbird; huge, cannot handle all my tracks, does not sort by path and filename
3. Cog; does not sort by path and filename
4. VLC; crashes and burns due to amount of files
5. XMMS; resolutely refuses to produce sound (I have read every last how-to on the internet about this). It would be nice if this worked but I've ran out of ideas
6. Audion; won't even run on OS X Leopard (neither my Mac at home nor at work will run it)
7. Toolplayer; doesn't even have a playlist editor

I find myself forced into running WinAmp in VMWare to solve my problem, which in my opinion is a horrible solution. It won't run adequately in Crossover.

So... if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can do, I would be extremely appreciative. And before anyone suggests to the contrary (as has been said in other forums where I've asked this and received zero useful replies) I am not "new at computers" nor is this a case of user error, nor do I consider that I ought to have to re-think how I deal with 750G of music, nor am I just a Mac-hater (I just spent €2,000 on this, for god's sake).

There must be something out there that does what I'm looking for.

Thanks

Colin
Amsterdam

 

[eric]

well you did your homework... ;P

you got any suggestion i would have given - i am going to subscribe to this thread though, i'd like to see if you find what you're looking for.

 

[baggss]

I hate to to say it but I think #1 and #2 are almost mutually exclusive with 30,000 tracks in a playlist...

 

[colinAMS]

I disagree; WinAmp can do it and use less than 60mb of memory.

Even a fully-loaded instance of WinAmp in VMware uses less memory than iTunes before I load a single track in it.

I just think using VMWare to solve my problem is a horrible, clunky workaround. I'd much rather be using an OS X application.

 

[baggss]

Then I guess you are stuck. Good luck.

 

[Tex-Twil]

i am going to subscribe to this thread though, i'd like to see if you find what you're looking for.

me too I don't have a MBP yet but I know I will have the same problem. I've tried iTunes several time on my current notebook and I just hate it. So I just wish there was a winamp version for OSX

cheers,
Tex

 

[CrimsonRequiem]

There is a beta version of Winamp that works on Macs but it doesn't work on Mac OS 10.5 T_T""

Works on 10.4 and below.

Link here

 

[colinAMS]

The beta version of WinAmp for OS X is ancient and does not run on Leopard.

 

[dtravis7]

Also that Beta WinAmp is running in Classic mode. Yuck. No way. Sorry.

If you want WinAmp, I can think of nothing for OSX that is or works like WinAmp. I love iTunes and have for years and have a large collection of music. On OSX, iTunes has never given me any issues at all with all my collection of music. The Windows version of iTunes to me is a bit sluggish though.

 

[colinAMS]

I would even consider using iTunes if it would just allow me to sort my entire list by path and filename.

 

[Tex-Twil]

I would even consider using iTunes if it would just allow me to sort my entire list by path and filename.

This is exactly what annoys me in iTunes.

 

[deathcab1]

I would even consider using iTunes if it would just allow me to sort my entire list by path and filename.

what do you mean?

 

[colinAMS]

I want to be able to sort the entire library by filepath and filename, not by artist, genre, song title, year, album or anything else that iTunes wants me to sort it by.

I want to view my files according to the directory structure of my music server.

 

[christm]

I guess your memory demands and file sorting structure are the limitations. Otherwise I would reccomend iTunes or VLC but from your research I guess this doesn't suit you, which is fine as they don't suit everyone.

 

[colinAMS]

I could accept a larger memory footprint if an application will allow me to sort the playlist/files by directory structure.

 

[baggss]

I want to be able to sort the entire library by filepath and filename, not by artist, genre, song title, year, album or anything else that iTunes wants me to sort it by.

I want to view my files according to the directory structure of my music server.

I could accept a larger memory footprint if an application will allow me to sort the playlist/files by directory structure.

iTunes was never designed to do that and likely never will. It is designed to sort by ID3 tagging and not by the file structure on your disc. You can either deal with that, find a suitable alternative (which looks like a slim chance) or go back to Windows and use Winamp, it's your choice.

Please, don't tell me a story about managing a large library with iTunes, look at my Sig. That is just music and doesn't include video.

 

[visualpurple]

I want to be able to sort the entire library by filepath and filename, not by artist, genre, song title, year, album or anything else that iTunes wants me to sort it by.

I want to view my files according to the directory structure of my music server.

How are you organizing your music if it's not by artist, genre, song title, year, or album? By how many illegitimate children the artist has?

 

[eric]

i actually do somehting that may be similar to what he is doing.

i keep music according to mood and style (not artist or genre), but i usually just drop a group or two into a player (itunes or WMP) and usually randomize play.

 

[Dysfunction]

i actually do somehting that may be similar to what he is doing.

i keep music according to mood and style (not artist or genre), but i usually just drop a group or two into a player (itunes or WMP) and usually randomize play.

Errr Category, comment, Genre works for both for me. Then again so does Grouping.

edit: but I'm always down for better apps.

 

[Dysfunction]

What are you doing with such a big playlist?
Honestly?

I'm guessing my playlist would shock you too then