Made a Thing That Plays Stuff

Here's something I made for the fun of it. That is, the fun of making it and the fun of using it. Come to think of it, making this webpage has been fun, too.

My original thought was just to see if could use Apple's audio frameworks in an AppleScript app. When that turned out pretty excellent, things started getting out of hand. Turns out that There's a Lot to Think About if you make one of these things.

The first hump I had to truck with was "Previous" and "Next" buttons. Conventionally, these are arrows that point to the left and to the right. Why? Because they stole the iconography from CD players that nabbed it from tape machines that moved tape left to right. But playlists don't go left or right; they go UP and DOWN. Because playlists are a genus of the List Family.

Nothing much you can do about the Play button. I mean, you start changing stuff like that and people won't know what's going on.

Yeah, But So What? How's It Work?

Maybe I should explain how to use it before I get into all that other kinda thing.

Play Play can open playlist XML files exported from the Music app, M3U files and CSV files whose rows contain an audio file path. Such files can also be drag-and-dropped to Play Play. A selection of audio files in the Finder can be dragged to it and saved as an M3U playlist file. And the playlist or track selection in the Music app can be snagged and played.

Important to note: Play Play can only play local non-protected non-Apple Music files. You know. Pretty much the stuff you've ripped, Old-Timer.

Once a playlist is loaded, hit play (tap spacebar). You can skip around with the Previous and Next buttons.

Alongside Previous and Next there in the Transport Controls, look out for Random Play, Repeat and "S" for Segue. And, of course, our old friend Stop.

If you look reel close you might detect the token Liquid Glass effects I applied so's it'd look moderne.

Albums Load Like You Read About

Here's a picture of the time I dropped the files from my Music/The Rolling Stones/Beggars Banquet/ folder (the individual files as a batch, not the folder itself) on to Play Play and then saved the playlist as a M3U named "Beggars Banquet" that also appears in Play Play's Recent Items submenu in the File menu.

Here's where you'd shut Random Play and Segue off. I know I said it was a playlist player but sometimes a playlist is a list of album tracks, so.

Hey, know what I put in there? A menu item/shortcut to search Wikipedia for the Artist or Album of the playing track. Sort of like liner notes.

Settings Panel is Darker. Important?

Maybe you wonder why Play Play is in Dark Mode. It's because album artwork looks better with a dark background. But see how I made it so you can just shut that setting down? I'm no tyrant.

I arranged it so you can keep as many as 30 previously loaded XML, M3U or CSV files in the Recent Items menu. That's not even a lot, I tested it.

The thing I wanted to explain is the Segue feature. I don't know who thinks DJs can "cross-fade" because that's not a thing. What two-handed DJs do is pot the playing track down while letting fly the track on the other turntable. You'd need three hands to cross-fade. Not a thing. Anyway, you can set the seconds here and then toggle it on or off from the main window on the fly. I feel that this is a tremendous feature that no one has ever thought of before.

Can't guarantee it'll always work, but if a track can be ID'd in the Music app, Play Play can update play counts and played dates.

It Can Get Little

Look at all the white space not being taken up with screenshots and snarky captions.

What Else

Here's another convention I had to subjugate (you'll recall that earlier I subjugated the Left/Right-Previous/Next convention). I rigged an option so as each track plays it scrolls to the top. It can be toggled with that T-Arrow button in the Toolbar.

The "i" button in the Toolbar toggles the Info Header visible or hidden. It's hidden in this screenshot. Wonder where it is?

The button on the right in the Toolbar toggles the three row sizes. They are: Big, Medium, Little. The Little one is so small there is no room for album artwork. Not gonna post a screenshot because there'd hardly be any color in it.

For goodness sake, I didn't even get to mention the Open and Recent Items buttons in the Toolbar. See, I like everything right there, you know? Just. Right. There.