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Topic: Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird (Read 6345 times) previous topic - next topic
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Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Hello everybody:

I am new in this fantastic comunity, I am surprised of finding such a place. Congratulations! I did not know where to put this, so in General (excuses to the administrators if I am wrong).

So, I am moving all the CDs to the computer. EAC + Flac. Hours of reading and configurating EAC. Now, I am running.

Now, we have the problem of the tags, and the problem of the player. I do not want to convert the music to MP3 to listen to it, and I want to see the tags in the player. I want Itunes, of course. But Apple hates us, so, no FLAC in Itunes at the moment.

I do not like most of the players I have seen with support for FLAC. I found this one Songbird, that even if is not a real player, is the most similar one to Itunes. It can read FLAC without problems (it does not show the time of the song, though). It can not read the tags straightforward, but it allows Bulk convertion of the inside tags for the program. So, we can add albums and making bulk convertions by artist, and in pretty short time, organize the thing.

Of course, until Itunes is not ready, this is only half solution, but is the only one who suited me. Maybe it will suit others too. I would like to listen any other suggestions now that I only have converted 20 CDs. I could still change.

PS: songbird is Free Software, and I am going to write to them, maybe they can add full support for Flac and his tags

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #1 –
Try foobar2000, you can customize its appearance to no ends, and its very powerful, it has playback for almost every formats out there (including native support for FLAC) + a very powerful masstagger.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #2 –
Quote from: mat128 on
Try foobar2000, you can customize its appearance to no ends, and its very powerful, it has playback for almost every formats out there (including native support for FLAC) + a very powerful masstagger.

  I did it Matt. I don't think foobar is a player for everyday use. Is powerful? Yes. Is in line with Flac? Yes. A lot of advantages for Foobar, I am going to leave it installed in my computer because I know I will need it. It is not the option that suits me.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #3 –
You could try media monkey (free version available). Or J River Music Center (trial version available).

But honestly, i think you should spend some time becoming comfortable with foobar. Start by downloading someone's configuration, and try to get used to the interface. It shouldn't take a lot of time (unless you want to do some really advanced + cool stuff), and it's well worth it; you'll be hard pressed to find a free program that's as feature rich as foobar.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #4 –
I'm sure you've heard of it but have you tried Winamp? It's classic skin is ideal for everyday use and it has native FLAC support
[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\']"We will restore chaos"-Bush on Iraq[/span]

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #5 –
Quote from: QHOBBES 2.0 on
I'm sure you've heard of it but have you tried Winamp? It's classic skin is ideal for everyday use and it has native FLAC support


Call me stupid, call me a lot of things. After using Itunes, I am quite sure I am never going to be back to WMP or winamp. I guess that is a matter of taste too, so my original question is a little bit stupid too, because every user has different taste.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #6 –
Both MP3Toys and VUPlayer can play FLAC natively. The latter is more of a minimalistic player, though.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #7 –
Quote from: PinkPanther on
Quote from: QHOBBES 2.0 on

I'm sure you've heard of it but have you tried Winamp? It's classic skin is ideal for everyday use and it has native FLAC support


Call me stupid, call me a lot of things. After using Itunes, I am quite sure I am never going to be back to WMP or winamp. I guess that is a matter of taste too, so my original question is a little bit stupid too, because every user has different taste.


I don't think he was being rude. he was merely asking you whether you'd used winamp.

Did you try media monkey? that's the program i'd be using if it weren't for foobar. It definitely does all the things you want it to.

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #8 –
Quote from: PinkPanther on
... I found this one Songbird... PS: songbird is Free Software
Songbird is interesting. I bet it will appeal to some Firefox users since it is built on the same platform. I am not a digital downloader, therefore most of Songbird's features are of no use to me. I prefer CDs (bird-in-hand). It took me a while to adjust to iTunes, but I have grown to appreciate it as a player, database and info source on new music, and of course, utility for my iPod (and free!). It has it's flaws, but it is continually growing and improving. My other utilities are dBpowerAMP and EAC, tho the latter I find tiresome. I use dMc for conversions and Tag&Rename for, well, the obvious. Currently I am checking out other database applications for inventory purposes. Collectorz.com is appealing by virtue of it's different packages (avid ebooker and photo collector), but I am still researching (and their UPC reader looks like a nifty toy!). There is a plethora of players out there, but they all still do things their own way, ergo some support flac and some do not. Since I already use Nero for burning, I just use the Nero player for flac, or convert to ALAC or MP3. I think players are like ice cream... everyone has their own favorite flavor and I'm a vanilla person.

Btw... Apple has added full screen cover flow to iTunes 7.1. Nifty! iLounge article

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #9 –
PinkPanther: I found something interesting... here

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #10 –
Quote
PS: songbird is Free Software, and I am going to write to them, maybe they can add full support for Flac and his tags


This is the cutest sentence Ive heard in a long time. Poor Flac and his tags....

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #11 –
Quote from: PinkPanther on
I want Itunes, of course. But Apple hates us, so, no FLAC in Itunes at the moment.


If using iTunes is really your priority, I would recommend dropping FLAC and using EAC and iTunesEncode to create ALAC files which are fully supported in iTunes.
 

Alternatives to Itunes and Flac: SongBird

Reply #12 –
I used to use MusikCube before switching to Foobar. I'd recommend it; it looks even better than I remember it, too.