Topic: Mac playback?

[lastubbe]

Just curious what people like for playing back on Mac's?  I used Winamp for years on my PC's, but I can't quite find a comparable program for my Macbook.  I have tried a couple of the free programs, but I haven't fell in love with anything.  I am currently using Cog, and Itunes for my ipod.

Also, what are the preferred/commonly used programs for transferring/converting?  I recently downloaded Audacity.

Thanks much in advance.

I am really hoping to find something good, even if I have to pay for it.

-Lenny

[Patrick]

Just curious what people like for playing back on Mac's?  I used Winamp for years on my PC's, but I can't quite find a comparable program for my Macbook.  I have tried a couple of the free programs, but I haven't fell in love with anything.  I am currently using Cog, and Itunes for my ipod.

Also, what are the preferred/commonly used programs for transferring/converting?  I recently downloaded Audacity.

Thanks much in advance.

I am really hoping to find something good, even if I have to pay for it.

-Lenny

I use a combination of Play, Cog, iTunes, and VLC (obviously for video) for playback into the rest of my system.  Depending on what kinds of files I am working with determines the program that get used

For converting, look no further than xACT. 

[setboy]

xACT is great. I am using Wave editor right now for editing. it's good for almost everything but tracking, I use songbird for playing back things like flac.

[lastubbe]

Thank you for the feedback!

In terms of playback, is there anything with a little more features than Cog/Songbird?  Something similar to Winamp that has an equalizer or options to give the output a little more punch or flexibility going out of the computer?

[Tim]

fwiw - A lot of the HiFi guys use Itunes. I listened to a $50,000+ system that was using itunes and a Ayre usb dac.

I know people love to hate on itunes but thought I'd at least share that

[lastubbe]

I actually like Itunes alot.  The only problem is it won't play shn's for me.  It will play flac with a quick conversion using fluke, but for shn it wants to go for a wav conversion.  Cog just plays the straight data files no questions asked.

I guess I was just use to playing with Winamp for so many years, and while Mac has such amazing software on so many levels, I am puzzled as to why I cannot find anything as good.

Thanks.

[page]

Another vote for Songbird. I asked in the team thread a couple days ago for gapless playback. Tried a couple of things and found songbird to have the least number of deficiencies.

I decode/encode on the command line, and do my burning with Simply Burns (hat tip goes to greenone for the recommendation, it *will* do gapless burning correctly).

wav editing is all done in Audacity.

Notice my trend of cheap/free software. ymmv. Best of luck.

[JackHenry]

Wave editor right now for editing. it's good for almost everything but tracking

Why don't you like it for tracking??

[setboy]

Wave editor right now for editing. it's good for almost everything but tracking

Why don't you like it for tracking??

it's a pain in the ass. I went from cdwav, which is so, so much better than this. You need to pull out two markers to show where the start and end of the tarck will be. For me it makes thing take much longer. Maybe I just suck at. Who knows.

[printguy]

Has anyone used Fission for tracking?

http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/

It's my software of choice.

[setboy]

Has anyone used Fission for tracking?

http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/

It's my software of choice.

I have been lookng in to this.

[Tim]

I actually like Itunes alot.  The only problem is it won't play shn's for me. 

yeah I should have been more clear, some people hate on itunes and for others its just doesn't meet their needs. Good point and one that isn't considered by many "hifi" guys.

[Patrick]

Has anyone used Fission for tracking?

http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/

It's my software of choice.

Yeah, I use it.  I liked it a lot better when I first bought it.  Now it's just clumsy and not very professional.  But it still gets the job done.  Better than tracking with a full blown DAW.

[J.T.L]

http://www.voxapp.net/

a playback app that has bells and whistles

[lastubbe]

http://www.voxapp.net/

a playback app that has bells and whistles

Very nice!  Thank you.  I like this better than Cog or Songbird.

Is there a plugin for shn playback?

Thank you.