Mac iTunes question

[Dave2002]

I would like to be able to put some music onto a hard drive or SSD. Then I'd like to plug the drive into one of my Macs, then play the music.

I do not want to activate iTunes, or have iTunes import any of the files into a music library. OK - I might allow iTunes to make the tracks/files playable, but I really don't want to have to spend more than (say) 30 seconds on this - i.e. plug in drive, start playing the tracks - preferably using some pre-prepared playlist.

I'm thinking of about 20 tracks, which might never be played again after this week. I just want to do it!

Is this asking too much? If there's a usable alternative to iTunes which will do this, I'd like to know.


Maybe I'm missing something, but previous experiences suggest that iTunes will try to "help" me!

[Dave2002]

I may (just may) have found an answer to the question posed above. I don't know if it will work on all systems, but it might.

Step 1. Find a suitable player for all the files. This will either be one player, or a file specific player if the files are of different types. Make sure the players are installed on the machine to be used.

Step 2. For each file on the drive use Get Info (or the equivalent shortcut Option I) to open the info file. Set the "Open with:" field to the player to use.

Hopefully, then

Step 3. Open the files in an appropriate order - will then work as expected.

If all the files can be opened in one player, then it might support playlists, which could make things simpler. Applescript could be used to open the files in order if the payer(s) are different, or do not support playlists.

Getting files processed in a suitable order is not always so easy. This is often an issue at a photography club I go to, where members bring photos in on memory sticks or drives etc., but we often end up seeing them in some random order. This can happen even if people have put sensible names on the files, or put numbers in the file names, but different software will react differently to the files as presented.

Hard coding the order in an Applescript file should get round that problem, though is probably overkill for everyday use. Using software which handles lists sensibly, either music or photos, does make life a lot simpler, but one doesn't always know what is going to be available.

For me the remaining issue is to find a suitable replacement for iTunes, though the problem I have been checking out may be avoided as I can probably play most of the tracks I want from physical CDs! It may not be worth the bother of ripping and putting the files onto a separate drive, though that might avoid the need to move a CD player.

[Anastasius]

Try this tip http://www.macworld.com/article/1049...istenonly.html

[Dave2002]

Thanks for that tip. I presume it'll work with folders/directories as well as single tracks.

I had rather expected others to come in and suggest different players, and avoid iTunes. I do still use iTunes - mostly for convenience - when it doesn't misbehave or do things (such as copying files again) which I don't always want.

My immediate need for this has now passed, but I will try it out. I actually just ran everything from CDs, as I was able to locate CDs in my collection for all the pieces I wanted to play to a group of friends.

The only significant mistake I made was to not realise quickly enough that feeding my CD player via a digital link to a DAC then on to the amp I was using would cancel the ability to control the volume of each CD track using the remote. I need to check that too, but I think if I'd used an analogue link into the amp that I would have been able to control the volume, and that would have been helpful. That seems to be a "feature" *** of a Marantz CD67-MkII SE player plus remote.

***PS: It's not a specific feature of this CD player I think. It's a consequence of the TOSLINK/SPDIF link between the CD player and the DAC normally used. That only transmits the data from the CD player, not any form of control sequence, such as volume control information from the remote control unit. Sometimes I wire these units together using analogue cables to the amplifier directly, and I often don't use the remote as my listening location is often clost to the units, so don't use fhte remote. I often do use the digital link via a DAC for other convenience reasons. If I'd thought about all this beforehand I might have used a different configuration, or at least have been less puzzled by the behaviour. I'd probably have used the analogue links, as it would have been useful to control the volume levels remotely.