WAV support for a MAC

[theanswer337]

I have recently switched from a PC to a MAC for my audio server. Previously, I used Foobar2000 as my player on my PC. I utilized the folder view to access all of my audio files. These are comprised of a mix between AIFF, WAV, Flac, ALAC and mp3.

 

Ultimately, I will be converting/re-ripping everything to AIFF.

 

Right now all I have installed on my MAC is iTunes and support for WAV is non-existent.

 

Is there a player available for a MAC that has a similar folder view/function like the one found in Foobar2000?

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[GoldenEar]

As far as I know there is no such player. However, a different format is recommended anyway since WAV cannot store any additional information like Cover, title etc.

 

Regards

Kay

 

[Paul R]

Just add them to the library and play away. Why would you think otherwise.

 

There is little support for embedded data in WAV files, but that is because they use an older and not very popular format to store the metadata, and iTunes does not support embedded metadata into WAV files because of that.

 

But it adds em to the library, stores the metatdata in the database, and plays WAV files just fine and dandy.

 

What kind of support are you actually looking for?

 

-Paul

 

 

[Codifus]

WTF

[theanswer337]

Let me clarify, by non-existent, I mean there is no way to easily find a specific selection in the iTunes library. Unless I am missing something.

 

I am aware that wav files play fine in iTunes, too bad you can't find them.

 

I liked Foobar2000 because it had the folder structure view incorporated in the player. Instant and easy access for any file type was very convenient. I'm wondering if there is an equivalent program available for a MAC.

 

 

 

[Codifus]

....called iTunes;)

 

Customize your view......check the box marked kind. I used to use it to mass convert several hundreds of lossless files to LAME MP3s all in one fell swoop. Very convenient. This was back in the day with iTunes 6 which had an optional LAME MP3 plugin.

 

CD

 

[Codifus]

If you have hi rez WAVs,like greater than 44.1/16, be careful when converting. I believe there was a bug in earlier version of iTunes that, if you decided you wanted your 96/24 WAV to be an AIFF, iTunes would accidentally downgrade it to 44.1/16 instead of making it a 96/24 AIFF.

 

Not sure if that has been addressed or not as my library is all 44.1/16

 

CD

 

[Paul R]

See attached. iTunes does not have any issues (other than embedding Metadata) with playing or indexing WAV files. Who told you it did?

 

-Paul

 

 

 

 

 

[theanswer337]

All of my experience with iTunes over the years has been on a PC where the artist/track number/song title all showed up under the Name tab in the library.

 

I will take a more in depth look at iTunes tonight on my MAC. Hopefully, I can configure my screen to look like the one above and my problems will be solved, as iTunes is my preferred player to use.

 

Thanks for the insight.

 

[Paul R]

That's just under the view menu, with "View as Album List" and "Always View Artwork" checked.

 

I am not familiar with FooBar, and I was thinking someone told you iTunes didn't have that capability - didn't realize you were in and looking for the options. Just ask if you have more questions on that, and I am sure we can get you some answers.

 

-Paul

 

 

[goldsdad]

Hi, theanswer337

 

I don't know if Foobar embeds tags inside WAVs, but even if your WAVs contain tags, iTunes does not read tags from WAV or embed tags into WAV. iTunes can create a track name from each imported WAV file's name, but it'll have no idea of the album titles or artist names, etc.

 

Although you are not ripping CDs with iTunes, realise that when iTunes rips a CD, it will get metadata from an online database and store that in its database and, only if the files it is creating are not WAV, also embed the metadata in the files. Obviously, that doesn't apply in your case of importing already ripped or downloaded WAVs.

 

If your PC is still operational, one solution could be to use Foobar to convert the WAVs to AIFFs with embedded tags, then add the AIFFs to iTunes instead of the WAVs and all the info will show as expected in iTunes.

 

If Foobar can't do that then there are other solutions to explore, such as iTunes scripts which will create artist and album names from folder names and put these into its database, but since you intend to convert the files to AIFF at some point, now might be as good a time as any.

 

Cool avatar, by the way

 

 

 

[bdiament]

I would suggest using an external program (i.e. not iTunes) for any conversions to .aif (or any other format).

 

Audiofile Engineering's Sample Manager is great for doing batches of files.

 

Best regards,

Barry

www.soundkeeperrecordings.com

www.barrydiamentaudio.com