Posted Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Follow-Up on iTunes Song "Cropping" -- The AppleScript Answer

After yesterday's dispatch about iTunes song cropping (see below), I received an email from Doug Adams, the proprietor of the must-visit Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes site.

Doug's site has AppleScripts for every imaginable iTunes task, and for some unimaginable ones. And, it turns out, he has two scripts that work with iTunes' Start Time and Stop time attributes to automate the cropping process.

A script named Player Position to Start or Stop sets the Start Time or Stop Time of the currently loaded track to the time of the paused player position. Pause a tune, run the script, and you've saved yourself a trip to the Get Info dialog box. Lovely.

A second script goes one step further. Copy as MP3 from Start to Stop makes an MP3 copy of the selected track, using its Start and Stop times as the beginning and ending of the new file. It even provides the option to name the new track and file. (As Doug wisely points out, this process compresses already-compressed audio, so it will degrade quality somewhat.)

You've got iTunes chores, Doug has AppleScripts.