Trax is a freeware utility which creates playlists compatible with just about every MacOS mpeg audio decoder (Vamp, MacAMP, AudioActive, SoundApp, etc.) The only requirement is that they support the OpenDocuments apple event.
Trax is designed to mimic the finder interface for arranging files: i.e. it displays files in a hierarchical view, catagorized by their parent folders.
How do I use it?
When you first launch Trax it will create an empty playlist "Untitled" for you. To start adding files to the playlist, select "Open Source Folder..." from the File menu. Alternatively, you can open your source folders by dragging folders and disks on top of the Trax icon in the Finder (you may need to rebuild your desktop first before this will work). You may open multiple source folders if you choose.
To begin adding files simply select the file in the list, and press the "+" button at the top of the window. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate, and enter/return to add to the playlist. You can also double-click files to add to the playlist. As of version 2.6, Trax supports multiple selections, using either the (command) or (control) keys. To select an entire list, choose "Select All" from the "Edit" menu. File names turn red in color to indicate they have been added to the playlist.
As you build your playlist, you may edit it as needed. The "-" button deletes the selected entry (you can also use the enter/return key, or double-click the selection). The up arrow button shifts the selection up one in the list, and the down arrow button shifts the selection down one in the list. You can also use the keyboard to reorder your playlist: (command)+(up) rotates the selection up, (command)+(down) rotates the selection down. The funny looking off-set rectangles button shuffles the playlist randomly.
At any point you can get information about the selected file (such as bitrate, frequency, ID3 tag, etc.) by selecting it in the list and clicking on the "i" button. Alternatively, you can select it and hit (command)+(i). If the file is stored on a writable volume, you can optionally fill in the ID3 tag information.
When you are finished, simply choose "Send list to player" from the "Trax" menu (note that if this is your first time running Trax, or you are upgrading from a pervious version, you will have to choose your player application from the preferences dialog for this to work. See below for more details). Trax will then launch your player and send the list of files to play. Alternatively, you can click on the "Play" looking button (last one on the right) in the playlist window. File names turn green to indicate they have been sent to the player.
If you wish, you may save your playlist as a Trax file, allowing you to open it again at a later time for playback. Note that if a file specified in the playlist isn't online when the playlist is opened (perhaps it was on a CD-ROM or Zip disk which is now ejected), Trax will prompt you to insert the disk. Clicking "Cancel" at this dialog will remove the file from the playlist. Also note that only the list of files currently available are sent to the player.
Trax playlists (v2.3 and above) are cross-compatible with Norman Franke's SoundApp playlists.
To open a saved playlist file, either open it from the finder, or choose "Open PlayList" from the file menu. If you currently have an unsaved playlist open, Trax will prompt you to save it.
Preferences
Trax allows you to customize several features for your setup. In particular, you can:
* have Trax only display files ending with ".mp3" or any other extension you choose. This is useful if you keep other files in the same directory as your audio files. Trax is case-sensitive, but does support wildcards. So, for example, if you have some files ending with ".MP3" and some ending with ".mp3", you can enter ".**3" in the preferences dialog to display both type of files. Some decoders also supports .mp2 files, so you could enter ".mp*" to display both .mp3 and .mp2 files. You can force Trax to display all files by unchecking the checkbox.
* specify how many directories deep Trax will search for .mp3 files starting at the root of the folder. So if you have some .mp3 files nested 4 or 5 folders deep (perhaps categorized by type, author, etc.), you may need to up this from the default value of 3.
* specify whether Trax displays playback times in lists. Note that this feature is entirely independent of whether or not Trax automatically decodes the header. If automatic decoding is off, Trax will display playback times when a file is moved to the playlist and/or when the user gets info on a selected file. Undecoded files will list "-" for their playback times. You may wish to display playback times, but not do automatic decoding, if you have many files stored on a slow source volume (a single speed CD-ROM, for example).
* specify whether Trax automatically decodes the header of MPEG files. Unlike previous revisions of Trax, the 2.x releases can now decode the header information of MPEG files. This allows Trax to give a 100% accurate display of playback times, regardless of bit rate, frequency, layer, etc. Turning this option off will speed up the display of opened folders - file times will still be displayed when a file is moved to the playlist and/or when a user gets info on a selected file.
* specify the size of the disk cache Trax uses to store file playback times. Using a larger disk cache speeds up source directory opens, as it prevents trax from having to access slow CD-ROM drives or other devices.
* specify a default source folder (or disk) to open at startup. To change this folder, simply click on the underlined name following the "Open Folder" checkbox.
* specify the application Trax launches and sends your playlist to. Simply click on the underlined name after the "Playback Application" caption (initially this is set to "(none)"). This will allow you to choose your player through the standard getfile dialog. Note that Trax keeps track of your application via an alias record, not a hard path — meaning you should be able to move the player and still have Trax find it.
* specify whether or not Trax automatically shuffles a playlist randomly on open. Alternatively, you can click the off-set rectangles looking button in the playlist window to re-shuffle the files.
Keyboard Equivalents
(command)+(up) : rotate current selection up 1 in playlist
(command)+(down) : rotate current selection down 1 in playlist
(command)+(i) : get info on selected file from header
(enter)/(return) : in source list, move to playlist; in playlist, delete selected item.
(delete)/(backspace): in playlist, delete selected item.
Suggestions/Notes
To fully utilize Trax, I suggest organizing your mp3s by type: Create several subdirectories like "Rock", "Country", "Alternative", etc. in one main folder and organize your mp3 files into their respective folders. Then when you open the main folder in Trax, it will display the files under their corresponding folder.
Trax respects file/folder invisibility.
Trax is currently PPC only, simply because there are no 68k MP3 players available at this time. If you see a need for a 68k version, let me know.
You can find a wealth of information about MacOS MPEG decoders, encoders, etc. at http://php.indiana.edu/~kdegraaf/mp3.html.
Special thanks to Naotaka Morimoto for doing a Japanese localized version of Trax.
Distribution
Trax is freeware and may be freely distributed on any shareware/freeware compilations, so long as the "ReadMe" and "ReleaseNotes" files are included, and no modifications are done to the application.
Support
If you have any constructive suggestions or comments, please email them to "trax@radparker.com". The latest version should always be available for download at "http://www.radparker.com/tb93/trax/".
Trax was written in Metrowerks CodeWarrior, using the PowerPlant application framework.
