Re: Songbird...

On Thu, 4 Dec 2008 00:50:45 +0000, adm <adm1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


iTunes doesn't bundle anything up. It just gives you an interface to
find your files and play then easily. All your music files are in your
iTunes library folder, in subfolders organised by artist, then in
subfolders by album.

Ok.


It's the same thing as Picassa or iPhoto (is it). If they don't do
anything to the files collection then they are fairly pointless and if
they do I don't need / want them.

Well......Picassa and iPhoto act as browsers for your files, viewers
for your files and also as limited editors for your files if you so
wish.

Ok, but ignoring any manipulation of the data here, are they not
exactly the same as iTunes can be (if you tell it to leave the files
where they were and just present them to you)? Simply a package that
does (for display and presentation purposes) 'gather up' all your data
and present it to you, potentially in one scrollable screen (<<I'm
thinking of Picassa here as it's the only one I've seen in any detain
(on someone else's PC)).

To get the same functionality, you'd need to use Windows Explorer to
locate the right file, a .jpg viewer (or whatever file format you use)
to view it, and an editing application should you wish to edit it. Of
course, the editor and viewer are often the same app.

Yes, just as I like it.


So you don't know all those things or can't access those things
yourself (manually)? If I want to listen to some Quo I choose the Quo
folder then the particular Quo album then the track and play it. I'm
not sure how a package could help me play that quo track (without some
prior effort on my part anyway). Scrolling down a longer single list
isn't necessarily easier for me.

There is no need to scroll anything. All you need to do is type in the
track name into the search box on the top right.

Ah, so 'search' for it then? From my POV that's what I do when I can't
find something.

For example, if you want to play a track called "Track 1" just type
"Track 1", everything that doesn't match will be filtered out and you
can just click on that track and it will play.

Ok. (remember I'm not a keyboarder, I'm a mousy click person, hence
why searching and typing stuff are last resort for me).

If you want to listen to "Album 1", type in that name and all the
tracks on that album will be listed and everything else filtered out.
Click on a track to play.

Ok (sounds handy if that's what you wanted to do and I can see how
many would).

If you want to listen to your Quo collection, type "Quo" and all your
Quo tracks will be listed. If you want to filter furter start typing
the album name....

Ok. (and I'm not trying to be akward here) but I haven't listened to a
whole album since I was a kid [1] and even then it was a rare moment.
In fact I rarely listen to a complete track unless it really catches
me or is on the radio while I'm driving etc.

It's really, really easy....far easier than finding the right folder on
the disk, then selecting the right track. Of course, if you DO want to
do it that way, you can just use FInder to go to the right artist
folder, select the right album, then the right track then double click
it to play.....

Or search on this Winbox. Understood (last resort, typing remember)
;-)


No, I didn't mea n the store particularly but I was trying to give a
comparison that we both might understand (the man - file interface) to
show how I prefer the same *direct* contact with music, photos or
videos.

So - just use finder to do exactly that. No problem. Counter intuitive
though....

I'm sure it is for (possibly) the majority so it must just be how my
mind works. I have no problem finding what I want on this PC and I
have thousands and thousands of files on here. I heard somewhere (it
wasn't in The Sun so it could be true <g>) "If you have an organised
mind you don't need an organised life". Now my life is and mostly
always has been what you might describe as 'organised chaos'. I have
never been diaryed, and my 5_year_plan has never been more than 5
mins, yet, ask me for some tool or thing that is in this house that I
might not seen for 15 years and I can normally go straight to it. The
Mrs on the other hand would have a breakdown if everything she has /
needs wasn't in it's place (and a place for everything) etc. I'm not
saying I like what I have or that it's better etc, it's just what I am
(and my Mum and our daughter are exactly the same).

No, I agree they (from your description) both work similarly, the
difference I guess is I see they are similar (results wise) and prefer
not to complicate matters (as I see it) by letting some 3rd part app
manage my stuff. KISS etc.

KISS would be letting iTunes (for example) present a unified interface
for browsing and playing your files rather than using a file browser to
find the file, then a player to play it.

Again, not from my perspective. How could complicating the situation
(with another package and with *it* potentially reformatting the
display of my data I already have and am happy with) be better (for
me)? You see, for iTunes to make things easier for me I would have to
be in it, and I never am. If I feel the need to listen to 'a track' I
would have found it and been listening to it before iTunes has even
opened (could just be broken or this PC but a fact none the less). *I*
know where my stuff is, *I* select it using Explorer and when I click
on it I want it played. When I'm finished I close the player and am
done, rarely wanting to play anything else [2].

Yes, as you do with iTunes but you don't see them as a folder
structure do you?

They are exactly the same structure. Just use Finder if you want to
view the raw folders. It's more difficult though as you have to
navigate to the right folder, whereas iTunes knows where the music is
located and has a neat search/filter ability. It's much quicker.

Oh I can see how it could be quicker, especially if you have anything
tending towards a 'reasonable music collection' but if you see things
as shapes rather than words, if you prefer the GUI to the keyboard, if
you don't have an iPod or mp3 player (to need to synch up) or listen
to music on your PC much, it's just not an issue.

I do have iTuned on this PC and I've only (meaningfully) used it for
streaming radio. It started popping up when I clicked on an mp3 from
Explorer but as it takes so long to open (compared even with WMP) I've
de-associated it with pretty well everything. If I want iTunes for
something I'll start it myself. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] And I didn't have tinnitus then.

[2] Same with photos. I rarely take pictures of people or scenes, I
generally take pictures of things, objects for reference purposes or
if they are funny / different etc (when I'm fixing machines for
people, especially kids and mainly girls I often come across thousands
of pictures of just their faces, thrust into the camera! . So, I don't
ever want a slide show of a series of pictures because that's not why
I've got them and know where they are because the folder structure is
good. Think of my music and pictures as being more of an archive than
something I might use day_to_day.
.

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