Ableton Forum

Mac is said to be the preferred environment for musicians and I really like it too. There's just a few things I don't understand...

Do I have to buy additional software just to audition my audio files properly?
When double clicking an audio file in Finder it opens in iTunes. Fine. But then iTunes goes on and plays all the following tracks in it's library! It seems I cannot even disable this "feature". Seriously stupid!

Well then, I'll use the preview feature in Finder. But there seems to be no shortcut so I have to manually click the tiny play button in the preview window each time I'm auditioning audio files. Tell me if I'm wrong!

Is there any way to sort the files in the column view? So many asd files there it makes it troublesome to audition only the audio files.

I know about Iced Audio's Audiofinder I just think it should be possible to manage without it but I'm starting to consider it.

Any other options?

Also I think I have to buy a version of XP to run via Parallels so that I can use Soundforge 9 again. I haven't been able to find any alternative yet. Anyone using Bias Peak? It's just more than double the price of Soundforge.

Thanks

the itunes auditioning problem: select a audio file, hit Command + I, goto the "open with…" tab and select quicktime. then click on the change all-button and you should be set.

sorting files in finder in column view: COmmand + 1,2 or 3 changes the views, play around, i think its command+2… then select display by file type. problem solved.

audio finder is a nice program, theres a free trial on their website. go check it out

and for the sound forge alternative, have a look at SoundStudio, a nice and easy to use audio editor. serves me well and it aint that expensive.
http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5012

hope that helps.

greetz,

breakaholik

Thanks but:

quote "Brkhlk":the itunes auditioning problem: select a audio file, hit Command + I, goto the "open with…" tab and select quicktime. then click on the change all-button and you should be set.

Then Quicktime opens a window for each file and I have to press play each time and then press close afterwards. Not an effective workflow when auditioning many audio files.

sorting files in finder in column view: COmmand + 1,2 or 3 changes the views, play around, i think its command+2… then select display by file type. problem solved.

Ok but still not possible in column view (cmd+3) alone

audio finder is a nice program, theres a free trial on their website. go check it out

and for the sound forge alternative, have a look at SoundStudio, a nice and easy to use audio editor. serves me well and it aint that expensive.
http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5012

hope that helps.

greetz,

breakaholik[/quote]

I've dl the Audiofinder demo and will try it out.

Soarer wrote:Thanks but:

Then Quicktime opens a window for each file and I have to press play each time and then press close afterwards. Not an effective workflow when auditioning many audio files.

Why don't you preview them with Ableton? One click preview from the Library. Example, out of the three location assignable folders I have one set to my loop library. I could put a folder in here titled "~preview" - any new loops that come in would go into their own folder, then I'd drop this folder into ~preview - open Ableton and quickly go through the new files.

Would this help you? Definitely better than previewing with quicktime.

if you use column view you can preview inside of finder

mike holiday wrote:if you use column view you can preview inside of finder

Yes but unfortunately finder is very stupid, and doesn't like remembering column view sometimes.... not to mention that it chokes up when you are using this feature over a network.

I'm with smutek on this one... preview in the app you're going to use the file in. It'll save you a lot of hassle.

Soarer wrote: Do I have to buy additional software just to audition my audio files properly?
When double clicking an audio file in Finder it opens in iTunes. Fine. But then iTunes goes on and plays all the following tracks in it's library! It seems I cannot even disable this "feature". Seriously stupid!

view the folder in column view (apple 3) and make sure the preview pane is
enabled in the view options.

when selecting an audio file, a quicktime player appears automatically in the preview
pane, and you can simply hit play, and scrub through the track.

it's all built into the OS.

sqook wrote:

mike holiday wrote:if you use column view you can preview inside of finder

Yes but unfortunately finder is very stupid, and doesn't like remembering column view sometimes.... not to mention that it chokes up when you are using this feature over a network.

I'm with smutek on this one... preview in the app you're going to use the file in. It'll save you a lot of hassle.

I know, Finder pisses me off. You can set in the preferences to Always Open In Column View, but I swear at least a few times a day it decides to open in stupid icon view. I hate that.

I already wrote my opinion on this in my 1st post:

Soarer wrote: Well then, I'll use the preview feature in Finder. But there seems to be no shortcut so I have to manually click the tiny play button in the preview window each time I'm auditioning audio files.!

Far too inconvenient.

I'll try to use the browser in the apps that I use but not all browsers are good.

Sounds like someone needs to stop bitching and write his own OS.

Why don't you just hit the space bar when you're in itunes? it works like a Pause button...this way the next song won't play...easy as that. You just need a little bit of patience to understand OSX.
BTW...why do you want to use a computer to listen to your music if you seem too lazy to click one or two keys...? neither OSX nor Ableton Live will do everything for you...

I'm also thinking of buying audiofinder, as I have come from the awesome apple loop browser and can't deal with browsing for loops thru live's browser. Does everyone agree audiofinder is the best third party loop browser for mac?

Atomikat wrote:Why don't you just hit the space bar when you're in itunes? it works like a Pause button...this way the next song won't play...easy as that. You just need a little bit of patience to understand OSX.
BTW...why do you want to use a computer to listen to your music if you seem too lazy to click one or two keys...? neither OSX nor Ableton Live will do everything for you...

itunes sucks for browsing loops/samples. If you don't fiddle around with the preferences it might copy all your audio into it's own library (who wants that). It doesn't show you the directory the file is in.

Finder is fantastic for finding stuff (ha ha !!), but the original poster is right: it would be so much better if you could sort files by date or name or size and then select and play them only with key-commands, without using the mouse.

Live's browser is fine for auditioning, but the search functions are x times slower than finder. If you want to go through all samples with "snare" in it's file-name that are spread over x directories on your drive then you will be way faster using finder to find them than with live's built in browser. (Why is that anyway? Can't ableton incorporate the index and searching of OSX?)

it's so stupid when people complain about other people wanting computers to do something for them..... sheeesh isn't that what a comuters primary function is , why don't you stop using a computer and have a fucking orchestra play your audio whenever you want to audition something

anyway i'm new to macs and could use some help couple threads down, when any of you helpful folk are done here.