I stopped using Butler and/or LaunchBar just to be more geeky by using the Terminal (don't tell me no one's ever done this before). I set up aliases fine, but encountered a problem setting up my 'Function keys (fkeys) to iTunes' functions. I knew to use bindkey, but couldn't find the special code for the fkeys anywhere -- you can't just put "F1."
After almost giving up, I stumbled upon a great Unix feature: Control-V. Press that in the Terminal and then hit any fkey, and it will give you the magic code to use, even pasting it if you're using vi. Then, put these lines (or something similar) in your ~/.cshrc (if using tcsh):
#Key bindings for iTunes
bindkey -c "^[OP" "sh /Users/your_user/scripts/previous"
bindkey -c "^[OQ" "sh /Users/your_user/scripts/playpause"
bindkey -c "^[OR" "sh /Users/your_user/scripts/next"
bindkey -c "^[OS" "sh /Users/your_user/scripts/tuneinfo"
You can use a different path to the scripts if you want. After that, you need to make those scripts. A sample one is:
#!/bin/sh
echo "Play/Pause"
osascript <<ENDSCRIPT
tell application "iTunes"
playpause
set theCurrentTrack to the current track
set theBand to the artist of theCurrentTrack as string
set theSong to the name of theCurrentTrack as string
return (theSong & " - " & theBand)
end tell
ENDSCRIPT
For next and previous functions, just copy the first script and change playpause to next track and previous track, and the script must be named to match what you put in ~/.cshrc. Then log out, open a new terminal window, and voila! I am using these fkeys:Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20041210120032130