apple newbie - music setups?

ketan

ketan

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2006
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this is the lamest thread in many ways... i've been a lifelong Apple hatter but just traded in my Android for an iPhone (got an SE). i h*te iTunes but am resigned to having to learn it or whatever the stock music app is on there. will I be happy? (i'm a Winamp guy!) what other apps are good for musicing on your iPhone?

what are the best musical instrument apps? digi-congos?

here, this should sweet'n things up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtD28wPPPfc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSw-cwUM8DA


 
You can sync winamp to an iphone easily enough. Then iOS has an app simply called Music for playing music, so no itunes involved.

Or move towards a streaming service like Spotify, Apple music, Amazon etc.

I don't get whole fanboy need to love / hate either apple or android. Why not just pick the platform that suits your needs best and move on.
 
I'm not concerned about streaming - I just want to be able to manage and listen to my digimons like the file-system-obsessed PC person I've always been. So I want to be able to move files around to different folders at times and change files around in playlists on the fly.

I don't get whole fanboy need to love / hate either apple or android. Why not just pick the platform that suits your needs best and move on.

Haha - fair enough. My hate stems from my inability to figure out how to do the most basic things when I use my wife's computer and phone.

I'm still on the lookout for digi-bongo and digi-congo appz and the such too. Any fun sequencer things?
 
Why did you make the switch? I don't think you're going to like it much.

Edit: This is a fun app to play with http://www.syntheticbits.com/funkbox.html i probably got the recommendation from soul strut now i think of it. I've tried iMPC but it kept crashing for me - deleted it.

 
Thanks for the tip, Cai

Phones are getting way too big for me... I chose my last phone because of how small it is (Moto X) and now that it's dying, I can't find anything other than the SE that is the same size or smaller. I figure it's not THAT big a deal to switch platforms... I just never got the hang of managing music via iTunes.
 
It's not that it's a big deal... but if you are this guy:


ketan said:

the file-system-obsessed PC person I've always been... I want to be able to move files around to different folders at times and change files around in playlists on the fly.



...you may end up disappointed with iOS.

iTunes is not the worst way to go, but it's not exactly a good piece of software, either. In true Apple fashion, it likes to force you to do things its way. Its file management has never been very good, and its file support is still very limited, among other issues. It could also be argued that newer iterations are as much (or more) focused on selling product as they are on playing music.

What I find most bothersome is not the individual issues, it's that iTunes has been around for over a decade, and yet there's been no substantial improvement in functionality. And there's no motivation for one, since iOS users have little alternative.

I'm not an Apple hater in any way. I just find them disappointing. They have a history of overpromise and underdeliver, and that's gotten worse with time.

On the plus side (for me), I still have my old pre-iOS iPod, which I've had for ten years, and it works well.







 


ketan said:

I don't get whole fanboy need to love / hate either apple or android. Why not just pick the platform that suits your needs best and move on.

Haha - fair enough. My hate stems from my inability to figure out how to do the most basic things when I use my wife's computer and phone.


I know that feeling, the odd occasion when I have to use a Windows laptop I find them poorly made and a pain to use. But it's swings and roundabouts really. If you're used to one system it's generally going to be easier to use that. I used Windows PCs for years until I had training on a Mac so it made sense to make the switch, can't say I'd want to go back. But Apple definitely have their downsides. As a company they seem to be moving away from anything that isn't mobile technology, they haven't updated their desktop range in years and they're now years behind others. I'd switch to Ubuntu if it weren't such a steep learning curve to use.
 


Fred_Garvin said:

It's not that it's a big deal... but if you are this guy:


ketan said:

the file-system-obsessed PC person I've always been... I want to be able to move files around to different folders at times and change files around in playlists on the fly.



...you may end up disappointed with iOS.

iTunes is not the worst way to go, but it's not exactly a good piece of software, either. In true Apple fashion, it likes to force you to do things its way. Its file management has never been very good, and its file support is still very limited, among other issues. It could also be argued that newer iterations are as much (or more) focused on selling product as they are on playing music.

What I find most bothersome is not the individual issues, it's that iTunes has been around for over a decade, and yet there's been no substantial improvement in functionality. And there's no motivation for one, since iOS users have little alternative.

I'm not an Apple hater in any way. I just find them disappointing. They have a history of overpromise and underdeliver, and that's gotten worse with time.

On the plus side (for me), I still have my old pre-iOS iPod, which I've had for ten years, and it works well.


Media Monkey will work with an iphone and that's how I put the music on the wife's iphone.

I watch her use it in the car to play music via bluetooth and that interface is shocking... Tiny buttons that require Sherlock Holmes to locate for a non-Apple chap such as I.

Isn't there one with big, f*ck-off PLAY and SHUFFLE buttons?


 
I lasted one day with an iphone after realizing every piece of media you transfer in and out must be done through itunes. Android is so much better for that, hook it up through usb and drag and drop like a thumb drive.

There must be third party ways to transfer with an iphone... I felt like a child using the iphone and apple had the keys..
 


Beatsoup said:

I lasted one day with an iphone after realizing every piece of media you transfer in and out must be done through itunes. Android is so much better for that, hook it up through usb and drag and drop like a thumb drive.

There must be third party ways to transfer with an iphone... I felt like a child using the iphone and apple had the keys..





Thats correct. Files for other media players (such as 8player Lite) are loaded when you are syncing your phone in iTunes, but the files appear in the third party app, not in your Music app.@ketan If iTunes really grinds your gears you should explore these types of apps..
 


Fred_Garvin said:

On the plus side (for me), I still have my old pre-iOS iPod, which I've had for ten years, and it works well.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nw1XRnPzbc

 
Just a quick PSA

If you are running any version of iTunes lower than 12.5 on your laptop or computer

Don't bother installing the new iPhone OS 10.0.2

Not compatible..
 
I mostly like the phone at this point. It's the same as using my old Androids, in essence. Except I wish Google Calendar had a wedgie type thing instead of just the icon to open the app (any good calendar apps that project your Google calendar as a widget?). Also, the listening to of music is soul crushing as a former Android user (I h8 u appl), but I'm using MediaMonkey and tag editing to try to get my music more clearly organized on this TURRRIBLE bloated Music app, and learning to change how I listen to music a bit.

Thanks, this thraed was helpful.
 
On the music listening tip, the jetAudio app has come a long way and also includes the Bongiovi music enhancement thing. I swear by it now. MP3 game still needs to be impeccable but mp3tag can help with that (in Windows anyway).
 
I'm not a kneejerk Apple hater but I had an iPhone way back in the day and the thing that killed me with it was the lack of a proper equaliser (and the fact the settings were not accessible within the music player itself).

I now have an iPhone 6S for work and was curious to see what had changed but it still looks like there is no proper equaliser and the player itself is on a par with the appalling PlayMusic app. Am I missing a trick here or is it still that poor?

On a side note Ketan, advice too late to help but I'm also a fan of smaller phones and the Sony Xperia Z compact series are really good in this regard. Small, powerful, and decent camera and media playback.
 


Junior said:


On a side note Ketan, advice too late to help but I'm also a fan of smaller phones and the Sony Xperia Z compact series are really good in this regard. Small, powerful, and decent camera and media playback.



Yeah, I was actually going to get that! But my network didn't offer it so I was going to have to pay $$$.
 


Junior said:

I now have an iPhone 6S for work and was curious to see what had changed but it still looks like there is no proper equaliser and the player itself is on a par with the appalling PlayMusic app. Am I missing a trick here or is it still that poor?


The music player is that bad. The trick is jetAudio.

https://appsto.re/ca/hJUv1.i (I've got nothing to do with the app, just a satisfied user!)
 
As far as home listening players go I'd love to have this https://roonlabs.com/ but just can't justify the price.

But I hear jriver is the standard app for most serious digital music nerds.
 


aka said:



Junior said:

I now have an iPhone 6S for work and was curious to see what had changed but it still looks like there is no proper equaliser and the player itself is on a par with the appalling PlayMusic app. Am I missing a trick here or is it still that poor?


The music player is that bad. The trick is jetAudio.

https://appsto.re/ca/hJUv1.i (I've got nothing to do with the app, just a satisfied user!)



Cheers aka, I will give it a look as it would be nice to have the option to just use the my work phone when travelling on business....

That roonlabs looks very pretty M*rk but what does it do exactly? I see the Wikilinking part of that but what else do you get for the megabucks?
 


Okem said:

As far as home listening players go I'd love to have this https://roonlabs.com/ but just can't justify the price.

But I hear jriver is the standard app for most serious digital music nerds.


I had a look at Roon after reading this. Wow. The expensive answer to a question no-one is asking. I mean, I kinda know about the music I've got already.
 
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