Testing and feedback needed!

[sbooth]

Now that I've gotten the major wrinkles out of the new "converterless" Max, and redone the preference system, it's time to test!

I would appreciate any testing and feedback on the current svn builds. Specifically I am looking for (in addition to anything else):

• Feedback on the new 'Settings' sheets for the file conversion and cd windows
• Any problems transcoding any formats, especially on Intel Macs
• Thoughts on the preferences (too many/too few?)
• Ease of use feedback

I'm planning on releasing this version as 0.7 once the bugs are ironed out and I've added the following new features:

• Join files on input
• Extract files using cuesheets
• Add drive offset support to the basic and comparison rippers

My release target date is somewhere around Halloween, give or take.

[krmathis]

I am not really sure if I like the rearranged Preferences. Where you moved most of the Ripper and file naming settings from Preferences to Ripper->Settings.

* I understand the concept since you use the same settings pulldown in the File Convertion window. But the pulldown in the Ripper window looks strange because it is wider than the window behind it, and because the text on the tabs are cut of.

* Having some Ripper settings in Preferences and other ones in Ripper->Settings makes no sense to me. I suggest you either move them all to Ripper->Settings, or return them to Preferences.
It would also be great to open Ripper->Setting without having a CD in the drive.

I also have two non-usability comments:
1. Remove the 22 languages you don't use from the Sparkle Framework
2. Strip the Max binary (shaves of ~4.7MB)


Edit: Cleaned up my feedback a lot!

[Fuga]

Have tried a couple of things with same results. This using 952. Both results the same.

1) Rip some tracks from CD using paranoia+C2 some trials, some trials using basic ripper, to AIFF. Only result is the first file with extension of dot-(null). Never had a title show in Encoder window.

2) Encode some files from hard drive to WAV (some FLAC, some APE). Of several sets of trials only once did a file's name appear in the Encoder window. Same result - files with .(null).

The last trial of encoding one FLAC to WAV I left the machine alone for quite a while. Nada.

[khead]

I tried to convert some files with no sucess.

I get a couple of null files to show up, but that's it.
That's on a G5 iMac.

[sbooth]

Have tried a couple of things with same results. This using 952. Both results the same.

1) Rip some tracks from CD using paranoia+C2 some trials, some trials using basic ripper, to AIFF. Only result is the first file with extension of dot-(null). Never had a title show in Encoder window.

2) Encode some files from hard drive to WAV (some FLAC, some APE). Of several sets of trials only once did a file's name appear in the Encoder window. Same result - files with .(null).

The last trial of encoding one FLAC to WAV I left the machine alone for quite a while. Nada.

I think the (null) extension is caused by some leftover preferences from a previous version. If you delete ~/Library/Preferences/org.sbooth.Max.plist do you still have the same problem?

[Maurits]

I think the (null) extension is caused by some leftover preferences from a previous version. If you delete ~/Library/Preferences/org.sbooth.Max.plist do you still have the same problem?

Yep, that solved it for me.

[Maurits]

I get the following error while converting wavs to m4a on PPC in build 952. At 97% it will say:

An error occured while encoding the file "xxxxxx.m4a".
*** -[NSCFArray objectAtindex:]: index (1) beyond bounds (1)

The resulting file seems to play OK in VLC though.
Could it be that it's trying to write tags which it has no input for since the source is WAV?
* If I feed it a MP3 (with tags) to transcode it to m4a it works fine.
* When I rip a track from CD to m4a all goes well (it gets the input for tagging from CDDB).

[Maurits]

Something else. I've always found the special menu item for 'Components' a bit confusing. It somehow suggests you can change settings for encoder there.

Shouldn't that info be in the 'About' menu?

[Fuga]

I think the (null) extension is caused by some leftover preferences from a previous version. If you delete ~/Library/Preferences/org.sbooth.Max.plist do you still have the same problem?

Yep that did it. Ripped CDs to AIFF, WAV, and FLAC. FLAC to WAV is good. I don't have many APE from others but them I tried failed with Max being unable to get block size.

Still, only one file gets handed off to Tag.

Please consider adding a "New Folder" button to the dialog window when user specifies location for output. User can hit cmd-shift-N to get the dialog but has to know to do that.

Thanks for the continued development.

[Nils]

I just built revision 990 and so far most things seem shiny. I have a few feedbacks/comments:

* Building was really great. I'm not a programmer and this was the first time I've used either svn or Xcode and everything went smoothly. That's saying something, I think. However, there were 914 'warnings' when I built Max in Xcode, just curious if this is normal?

* MusicBrainz tagging is wonderful! The loss of composer/genre information is not a problem, as these were rarely very accurate before and so I usually enter my own anyway. Having the year entered automatically would be nice, but I can understand not -- entering it from the cd case is no problem anyway. The tooltips for the MusicBrainz preference tab should changed from FreeDB.

* There was one small problem I had with the MB album information. When I was importing Nóirín Ní Riain - The Darkest Midnight, Max tagged the artist as 'Noirin NiRiain' instead. I'm not sure if Max is just stripping out the accents or whether it came from the artist alias's page or what.

* At first I was a little confused where the 'Output' tab from the preferences had gone until I found it in Tools > Settings. Then because it could only be selected when a cd dialog was open I was a little confused whether the settings were stored on an individual cd basis. Finally I got all straightened out. I'm with krmathis on moving them all back to the preferences.

Having some Ripper settings in Preferences and other ones in Ripper->Settings makes no sense to me. I suggest you either move them all to Ripper->Settings, or return them to Preferences.
It would also be great to open Ripper->Setting without having a CD in the drive.

Also, I think file naming (in the Tools > Settings > Naming tab) should be the same for both converting and ripping, instead of separate for both.

* I ripped three cds (one to Flac, one to mp3 and one to Ogg Vorbis) and they all ripped faster than Max 0.6.1. Converting seemed to go faster compared to Max 0.6.1 as well. Superb.


Thanks for the continued work, Max is already the best Mac audio ripping/converting program, and it just keeps getting better.

Nils[/url]

[l008com]

I just built whatever the newest is as of the date of this posting. First thing I notice is, why does it ask me to choose my formats for encoding every time I insert a CD, even though I set those settings in the app's prefs? Otherwise it seems smoother than 0.6.1. It doesn't tie itself up nearly as much when you insert a CD while other CDs are ripping/encoding.

Ok while encoding a few CDs, i got an ugly looking error:

Code: Select all

*** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value

I suppose I should have separated out my music before playing with the beta... oops.
OK at this point I have gotten the above error a few times. Also, how come you took away the settings to choose the temp folder and the destination folder? Now it just goes right to the music folder weather you want it to or not. I know i've said this a million times but, I'm going to try and make another mockup for a one window version of the App. By one window, I don't mean one total, I mean one for CD ripping & encoding, and another window for converting & encoding. I'll show you what I mean at some point.

[RonaldPR]

I do not normally try beta versions, but today I tried Max rev991. I use Max mainly for two actions, ripping CDs to flac files and converting aiff files to flac files. I tried both and it worked fine.

There may be several changes "under the hood" that are not immediately obvious to me, but there are apparent changes in the user interface. I am sorry that I have to report that I do not like most changes at all. Specially the separation of settings between "settings" and "preferences" I find disturbing.

1.
The separation in two sets of settings is confusing and not practical. I do not understand the rationale behind it, I do not see essential differences between the kind of settings in preferences and the kind of settings in settings. Related settings in two different places makes it difficult to see in one glance what the settings are and it is not possible to view or set all settings without a window (for CD or file) open. Please move everything back in preferences. If you want more obvious access to the preferences settings, you can change the "Settings" button in the toolbar to a "Preferences" button.

"Locations", "Naming", "Options", "iTunes" and "Post-processing" should be together in one tab "Output" or "Save options" in preferences. "Ripper" in settings should be back to "Ripper" in preferences. "Album Art" in settings should be back to "Album Art" in preferences.

2.
Why are some settings (like destination and naming) independent for ripping and converting?

3.
A minor issue in the "Naming" tab:
- English is not my native language, but I think that "if track tags not set" is better than "if track tags unset".

4.
I am not sure what to think of the need to choose the preferred encoding format for ripping again each time, for me it is a nuisance because I encode in flac always, but it may be useful for others.

5.
To end with a positive remark:
I like the menu to set the custom file name format.

6. And another:
Using the original filename as default when converting, regardless the destination folder and/or when no tags are available, is a huge improvement.

7. And a feature request:
I would like to be able to create and name a new folder for the converted files when I click "Convert". I tried entering "new folder name/{sourceFilename}" as custom file name, but that did not work.

[krmathis]

Stephen. Thank you for listening to the feedback from your faithful users!
With revision 1009 the settings have returned to Preferences, just where I want them to be.

So far I only have one cosmetic request (the rest seems fine to me):
Please make the Preference window 30 pixels wider, so that the Toolbar overflow icon don't show for the Post-Processing settings.


Thanks a lot for all the work you put into this application!

[RonaldPR]

Yes, thank you, this is much better.

Indeed, like krmathis writes, make the Preferences window a little wider so it will show the Post-Processing icon.

Tip-tools with MusicBrains settings still refer to FreeDB.

I can drag a folder with audio files into the Convert window, but I cannot drag a folder with audio files onto the Max icon, it needs to be the audio files themselves. Is it possible to make it so that a folder with files can also be dragged onto Max icon for converting?

The "Convert Files..." dialog does not entirely work as expected. Clicking an "Open" button when a folder is selected should open that folder rather than selecting the files in it. Maybe better name this button "Choose" and, if possible, add a button that will open selected folders.

The "Output Files" menu now has two choices, "Same as source file" and one other directory to be chosen. Is it possible to add a third choice "Show save dialog" that will, as it says, bring up a save dialog where one can choose the destination folder at the start of converting or ripping-encoding?

[sbooth]

* There was one small problem I had with the MB album information. When I was importing Nóirín Ní Riain - The Darkest Midnight, Max tagged the artist as 'Noirin NiRiain' instead. I'm not sure if Max is just stripping out the accents or whether it came from the artist alias's page or what.

That is strange, because I tried with a Motley Crue album (it's not mine, I swear ) and the umlauts showed up correctly: Mötley Crüe. I will try with some different albums and see how things work.