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September 02, 2004

Informatio: , ,

Plea for iTunes features...

(Please let me know if I am pontificating on something that can already be done and my ignorance is preceding me.)

iTunesIt’s simple… It seems like a feature that would have been suggested during some sort of target-user surveys… Most audio-editing applications support it…

Why can’t we set Cue Points in iTunes?!

(Ok, I know iTunes isn’t and audio-editing application, but go with me here.)

I listen to a lot of long audio files: usually interviews and lectures from places like ITConversations and NPR; sometimes sermons that I missed at church. In any case, these files can range from thirty minutes to over an hour in length. Invariably, I can’t always listen to an entire file in one sitting. Most of the time, I leave iTunes open and paused until I can cme back and hit play again — not really a problem when I am at work and I can sit down to listen to a bunch of five or ten minute chunks every once in a while.

What happens when I am listening to a file and it’s time to go home, though? When this happens, I need to either (a) decide to leave iTunes open until I come back the next day, or (b) shut my computer down and realize that I will have to “scrub” through the audio file the next day in order to find where I left off (which isn’t fun to do if I only had ten minutes left in a two hour lecture). Of course, there’s always the option of writing down the “Elapsed Time” reading so that I can come back to the exact spot later, but who wants to do that?

iTunes needs to incorporate the ability to set Cue Points (or Markers or Flags) — you can download a short PowerPoint presentation on Cue Points if you’d like. This should be as simple as hitting Command+Option+M while any audio file is selected. After a Cue Point is set, a flag is added to the iTunes timeline (see example below). If you hold your cursor over flag, the number of the flag appears over it (in cases where many flags were set, this could be helpful). Clicking on the flag would move the timeline indicator to that flag (conversely, a “Go to Cue Point” menu item could be added so that you could enter a numerical value for whch flag you wanted the timeline indicator to go to).

iTunes Timeline with Cue Points

Not only would this feature allow us to save points in audio files where we have to leave off, but it would allow us to mark key points in lectures and interviews, etc. Just this one simple enhancement would make iTunes a much more elegant audio tool.

(And then again, along with Cue Points, iTunes should also add “Loop Points” — in/out points — for looping short sections of audio files, but that’s another Blog entry.)

Posted at 11:50 am

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Comments (10):
If you had an iPod, the feature for which you look is already there as far as long audio files go. For example – you’re listening to a long audio file from within iTunes or on an iPod and you pause – as soon as you sync the two, it’s supposed to pick up the audio file where you left off. I haven’t tried it but I know it is a feature.


Second, if you stop a long audio file in iTunes, you could “Get Info” on the selected track and then select “Options” and check the box with “Start Time” as the current place in the track i.e. enter the current time at which the track is paused. Rudimentary, sure, but it would work until said cue markers become a feature. Either that or just spring for an iPod. : )

todd () (URL) - September 02, 2004 at 1:20 pm

Hmmm… That is definitely not a very elegant workaround — it works, but there’s too much in between.


As for using an iPod… Well, that works if you want to continue listening to the audio file awy from your computer. If not, you still have to use the “Info” workaround — or the low-tech “pen-and-paper” technique.


Blech.

timsamoff () (URL) - September 02, 2004 at 1:30 pm

While not in iTunes, i believe you can achieve similar using Quicktime Player. Again, not the ideal solution…

James E. Robinson, III () (URL) - September 03, 2004 at 07:45 am

As of about ten days ago, all of the IT Conversations files are avaialable in AAC (.m4b) format. If you download this format instead of the MP3s, iTunes and iPod will remember the position where you stopped for each track. If you sync iPod and iTunes, the bookmarked positions are synced as well.


Thanks for listening.


Doug Kaye, Producer
IT Conversations


p.s. You can also convert other MP3s to this format by (in iTunes) converting the files to AAC, the renaming them from .m4a to .m4b. It’s actually easiest on Windows where there are no file types, etc. On the Mac you may have to change the file type as well.

Doug Kaye () (URL) - September 03, 2004 at 4:46 pm

Thanks for stopping by and letting us in on that info, Doug!

timsamoff () (URL) - September 07, 2004 at 08:35 am

Try http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/scrip.. this script

Tim () (URL) - September 20, 2004 at 1:31 pm

iTunes/iPod need cuepoints so they can play album tracks that lead into each other without that annoying pause in between, too.

John - October 11, 2004 at 8:16 pm

N

N - -1 , N at 12: am

hi i agree that itunes should at least have a rewind or fast forward.It is incredibly this isn’t included.I guess it the classic case of principle before discernment..i guess it sounds old hat like still including a floppy drive… Apple there are real people out here !!

paul () (URL) - July 09, 2005 at 2:42 pm

Sorry, I haven’t been here in a while…

Tim ~ Thanks for that suggestion.

John ~ I’m pretty sure you can get iTunes to seamlessly fade between songs… Check your preferences.

Paul ~ iTunes does have fastforward and rewind — or you can just drag the timeline indicator. Or, do you mean something else?

As for the annoying lost comments… Arg!!! :-(

timsamoff () (URL) - July 07, 2006 at 09:44 am

  
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