Hello everyone,
I feel a bit embarrassed for starting such a thread, but I really fail to find a player which would fit my needs:

1) can play losless files (flac, ape, wav...)
2) can play CUE sheets (of various target audio formats)
3) can display waveform of played items
4) can play music WITHOUT creating any library
5) can play music WITHOUT iTunes
6) can play music folders, drag&drop playlists without need to manually create playlists
7) display some useful info in queue (duration of track, remaining time of queue, audio format, bitrate etc..)
8) does NOT reserve and lock audio device for itself
9) is NOT a versatile video/audio player, but dedicated audio player
10) can be controlled by (custom) key shortcuts
11) is native Mac OS(X) app, not some wineskin or other emulation

I've tested so many programs, and it seems only player which matches all those points is AIMP4 which is not available for Mac OS(X) :/

can you recommend some? eventually which music player for OS(X) do you use and are happy with?

EDIT: so far I'm most happy with Nulloy which fits all the points except cue sheets

EDIT2: Tiny Player, it's free and works great, no nonsense online ads crap or activation

 

Last edited: Jul 21, 2021

VOX Media Player (Audio only)

https://vox.rocks/mac-music-player

 

I use Fidelia ( https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37166/fidelia ) because it allows loading (up to 3) AUs

 

5teezo - I've been using VOX, but it lacks the waveform functionality, which I'm not willing to give uo, unless there will be no other app to use :/
jayxflash - I think I tried Fidelia some time ago, but it felt clunky to use, will try again, thanks for heads up

 

Honestly, I've been searching for a great music player for 2 years now, tried maybe 20 different ones, but still haven't found a really good and quick one.
The high-end players are great for organizing and managing samples, but usually either too slow or too clunky for fast file preview.
Either they don't support some important formats, or cannot open a list of files, or they're too slow to quickly skip through a list of files, etc.

However, I do have two halfway usable recommendations:
1) Just use Ableton's file browser - it will play a lot of formats, can quickly skip to the next file, and files with embedded slice info (REX/RX2 etc) will preview at the same bpm as your project.
2) Ocenaudio version 2.x (old version): Loads faster than v3, and by defining keyboard shortcuts for previous/next file and other functions, this is quite fast as a player too. It loads most formats, and you have a great audio editor as a bonus.

Windows users are really much better off, many free players are better than most payware from the Mac App Store.
I have both platforms, but for music I like to stay on Mac mostly.

 

Interested in this as well.. I still use itunes but i feel that the sound is different from what i heard in yhe daw..So probably not the most transparent..

 

Thing is, once you have a good tagged iTunes library (which I have), nothing matters anymore. With smart playlists and rating system it's simply unbeatable in terms of quickly playing what you want.

 

I use VOX because I didn't find a better one (so far). But it was hard to say goodbye to my friend Winamp 2.95 @ Windows (when I made the switch). I'm aware of a discontinued Mac version for Winamp but it was/is just not the same. So for now, VOX it is.

 

fiction - ocenaudio is cool, 3.2.11 64bit loads almost instantly on my rig, I like to use it instead of SoundForge (I've known from Windows)
jayxflash - "good tagged iTunes library" is the problem, I have over 26000 tracks, so building/maintaining library is out of question for me (same goes for my images library), in terms of finding quickly what I want, I can rely on my memory (so far) and I cannot afford to mess the various versions/releases/edits of "similar" items, my needs are far beyond regular music library most people are probably fine with :|
D-Music - VOX is buggy for me sometimes (for ex. when changing tracks sorting, sometimes it just screws up, keyboard controls ocassionally screw up too); Winamp for Mac doesn't support FLAC, so not an option for me to consider at all

 

Save the waveform display (although it has some kind of spectrometer and even VU meter), I guess VLC can't be beat. It recognizes almost any audio format on the planet except .wma. Maybe by now someone has found a way to add it to its list of codecs.

 

Also Pioneer Rekordbox free is a very good player. Maybe limited to some audio formata though but ticks pretty much all the boxes

 

mercurysoto - VLC is so crappy it cannot even play WMV files without stuttering on OS(X), I replaced VLC with Elmedia Video Player long time ago,
and on Windows, program by Mirillis called Splash 2.0 can do automatic frame interpolation, so videos look as smooth as on nowadays Smart TVs - once you get used to it, there is no other player to use for videos on Windows :P
jayxflash - sounds interesting, maybe a DJing program could actually be best solution for an audio player?? to be honest I didn't think such way yet...

 

Forget Rekordbox. To use it offline, you need an "nxs" license file. The download is free, but even after creating an account, there's no way to create such a license file for the free version .

 

That was like 4 years ago, before they introduced the Nexus players and the first generation of all-in-one consoles. Now is free and unlock some features for a subscription. But purely for managing local files, preparing memory sticks for DJ sets it works out of the box

Ah yes, they made this free (https://rekordbox.com/en/products/rekordbox/) because they otdroduced rekordbox DJ, which is a mixing software similar with traktor

 

@jaxyflash: No, just tried 5min ago with the latest Mac release. You either have an nxs license file or you have to press "Cancel", after which the app quits.
The pioneer forum members guide us to this link, but like said, no way to create a free license.

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2017

Edit: do not try to activate the "DJ" part of rekordbox. The organizer (and basic dual media player) is free.

From your own link
- rekordbox rejects your serial number
Effective version 3.0, a serial number is no longer required to use the basic (export mode) operation of rekordbox. You do, however, require a KUVO account, which can be done as part of the registration process at rekordbox.com

Edit 2: I've just installed a fresh copy of rekordbox (Install_rekordbox_4_3_1.exe) in a windows virtual machine previously untouched by Pioneer software. I've just logged in during installation with my kuvo account (which is free to make) and the app installed and runs as expected.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2017

So it seems that offline installation is not supported anymore. Thanks.

 

It is, if you ever installed rekordbox on your or any a computer and have the key it generates (the folder .PIONEER on the root of any SD card, USB thumb or hard drive on your system) from your kuvo account on said computer. However, this should not stopping anyone from trying a piece of (arguably) good software.

 

will try the rekordbox, it requires online authentication, but once done it works offline (tested as blocked with LittleSnitch)

 

Thank you for the heads up. I haven't ever had the need to challenge VLC at all, but it's good to look beyond the horizon. Much appreciated.