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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Coppertino's Vox music player today received a new update, bringing a refreshed design that displays album art and hides playback controls until needed, along with new features such as gapless playback and improved searching across devices and file locations. The update also features improved multi-device support and bug fixes addressing previous issues with radio stations and general stability.

vox_20_2-800x500.png
Well known in the Mac community for delivering gorgeous sound, intuitive user features and flexible file support, VOX 2.0's most exciting update is the completely redesigned smart interface, which now slickly displays album art; seamlessly tucks away controls until needed, and offers perhaps the most lightweight, flexible, modern music player available for OS X. Additionally, Mac fans asked and Coppertino listened. VOX 2.0 now features gapless playback that eliminates pauses between audio tracks.

VOX 2.0 updates include:
- New playlist formats for export;
- Smarter searching across all devices and file locations;
- Improved multi-device support via the Audio MIDI;
- Several bug fixes address some minor issues that occurred when changing radio stations, stability when handling high loads and with services support.
vox_20_3-800x500.png
Originally launched last August, Vox is designed to be a replacement for playing music within iTunes, and supports a wide variety of audio formats including MP3, FLAC, AAC, Musepack, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and more. Vox can import an existing iTunes library with metadata, and also offers offers a built-in equalizer as well as internet radio connectivity, which is available as an in-app purchase.

Vox 2.0 is available in the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Vox Music Player Updated with Redesigned Interface, Gapless Playback
 

Dulcimer

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2012
891
688
Does anyone know what it means that Vox imports iTunes music? Does it double the space and create it's own library or does it share the library?
 

iSRS

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2010
468
291
Does anyone know what it means that Vox imports iTunes music? Does it double the space and create it's own library or does it share the library?

My question, too. Also, how does it handle iTunes in the iCloud / iTunes Match songs?
 

tMac7

macrumors newbie
Nov 7, 2013
20
1
Does anyone know what it means that Vox imports iTunes music? Does it double the space and create it's own library or does it share the library?

It just uses/scans your iTunes Library and plays the music from there. So no copies will be created.


But does anyone know if you can apply effects again? I heard that Vox had this feature but it was removed. Would be great to play my music with 432 Hz again.
 

iEnvy

macrumors 65816
Jun 25, 2010
1,211
313
DFW
So is it worth the download or what? Must be if MR is using this indirect ad placement.
 

SBlue1

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2008
1,936
2,366
Its slow. Plus it can find my Apple TV but not my Airport Express stereo. Deleted it.
 

energyboy

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2014
43
0
Awesome update!

But a few bugs:

My only gripe is that the animation when hovering over the player is a bit choppy on Mountain Lion but only animates when actually in the program. When a different app is the topmost app, hovering over the player does nothing. When Vox is top most, it doesn't transition to the controls immediately. There needs to be a way to disable the transition, and allow users to bring the controls from menu bar instead (I almost always have the same controls and never change them).

Song title scrolling doesn't work unless its kicked in by actually being in the app, it doesn't always display when something else is topmost.

The fading in/out between Artist and Album Title is annoying, there should be some method of control or display options, like a scrolling marquee on two lines:

Artist Name - Album Title
Track Title

An option to turn off the scrolling would be nice too.

As far as it's design... its absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I liked version 0.2.8 for the minimalism, version 1.0 for its redesign but this slightly flatter look is absolutely PERFECT. I hope to god they don't change it, its the first time I've actually appreciated and liked a bit of a flat look. Less is more and the UI designer on this did an amazing job. THANK YOU!

----------

VOX uses (share) the same library (iTunes library).

It can also be disabled, which is great!
 

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,581
2,833
Feels sort of Metro-ish…rather CPU intensive unfortunately (if you look at the effect on the activity of the WindowServer and kernel_task processes)
 

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parish

macrumors 65816
Apr 14, 2009
1,082
2
Wilts., UK
Nice update, but a couple of minor gripes.

It's not displaying album art in the player but it is in the Dock icon :confused: The previous version did display it in the player (but just a small icon in the top left corner).

In the previous version the currently playing track was displayed in yellow/orange - title, artist, etc. - but in the version the only indication is that the track number is replaced by a small equaliser icon which makes finding the current track in large playlists a bit tricky - have to scroll through slower.

Great player though. I mainly use it for playing FLACs to save having to convert to ALAC for iTunes.
 

glenbogle

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2013
27
0
Can anyone help me on how to get the prefspane for using the keyboard controls to work? It's all installed as it should be, but if I try to use them nothing happens in Vox and iTunes opens.


Any ideas?
 

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,581
2,833
Anyone else have the problem that it doesn't remember your preferences and reopens the intro animation every time you open the app?

I see the following errors turn up in the Console:
Code:
Vox[23810]: NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore error: com.coppertino.Vox does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier entitlement
syncdefaultsd[22466]: Can't register com.coppertino.Vox
usernoted[202]: ApplePushService: entitlement check for 'com.apple.developer.aps-environment' failed for 'Vox' (23810)

I've also noticed that the iTunes library parsing would suddenly fail after a few hours of usage.

EDIT: After deleting the prefpane and app itself as well as the com.coppertino.Vox container-folder and then restarting the system, the preferences seem to stick now, although the error messages still remain.

EDIT2: Again experiencing issues with the iTunes Library functionality. Guess I'll have to live without it for the time being. It's been like this for some time and restarting the app shows no effect.

EDIT3: Deleting every file whose name starts with 'iTunesMusicSource.storedata' from ~/Library/Containers/com.coppertino.Vox/Data/Library/Application Support/Vox helped fix it this time, although I have a feeling the issue will return
 

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energyboy

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2014
43
0
Anyone else have the problem that it doesn't remember your preferences and reopens the intro animation every time you open the app?

I see the following errors turn up in the Console:
Code:
Vox[23810]: NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore error: com.coppertino.Vox does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier entitlement
syncdefaultsd[22466]: Can't register com.coppertino.Vox
usernoted[202]: ApplePushService: entitlement check for 'com.apple.developer.aps-environment' failed for 'Vox' (23810)

I've also noticed that the iTunes library parsing would suddenly fail after a few hours of usage.

EDIT: After deleting the prefpane and app itself as well as the com.coppertino.Vox container-folder and then restarting the system, the preferences seem to stick now, although the error messages still remain.

EDIT2: Again experiencing issues with the iTunes Library functionality. Guess I'll have to live without it for the time being. It's been like this for some time and restarting the app shows no effect.

EDIT3: Deleting every file whose name starts with 'iTunesMusicSource.storedata' from ~/Library/Containers/com.coppertino.Vox/Data/Library/Application Support/Vox helped fix it this time, although I have a feeling the issue will return

How big is your itunes library?
 

JavaTheHut

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2010
334
1
Can anyone help me on how to get the prefspane for using the keyboard controls to work? It's all installed as it should be, but if I try to use them nothing happens in Vox and iTunes opens.


Any ideas?

Go to The Apple System Pref under "Other" and you will see "Vox"
 

dastinger

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2012
818
3
Shame that you lose the Radio feature devs offered MR members when the app first launched back in August :(
 
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