Suggest a Windows all-purpose audio player/editor

[Harbinger]

Having recently gotten a very good Windows machine, i find myself switching all my sound- or graphics-intensive off my Mac and onto my Superfast Windows.
The problem is, none of the installed software on the Windows machine can do what i need to have done in one application. On my Mac, i use Audion, a piece of now freeware, which can encode to .mp3, edit mp3 tags, play mp3s and Sam_Zen's oggs (whose music i'd never hear if it weren't for this app), and has an excellent and intuitive GUI.

WMP is close but will not play oggs.
ModPlug Player will not play oggs correctly, and i don't think can encode mp3s.

I'd like to find an all-in-one player/encoder (preferably free) that's easy to use and not primitive (using command lines and such). It would be great if it can edit the actual sound data as well, though i know that's pushing it.

Anyone have any suggestions? :?

[psishock]

Winamp? Its free, have millions of plugins and can play everything.
Sam is using XMPlay if i'm not mistaken. I never had any experience with that player.

[Saga Musix]

Winamp is the biggest shit you can get, seriously. Since years, it's bloatware, meaning that it can do more things than you'll ever need. Also, it installs adware by means of desktop links.

On the other hand, there's XMPlay which is 100% free, developed by Ian Luck, the creator of BASS. Both BASS and XMPlay have the best XM replay engine to be heard in any player. It's a very good player not only for mp3/ogg users but of course for module listeners as you can set interpolation, looping, fade-out, etc. per file. And you can use Winamp plugins if there's a format that doesn't work in XMplay or one of its native plugins.
Encoding to mp3/ogg is possible if an encoder like LAME is present.

[LPChip]

XMPlay all the way. I use it as main audio player. Nothing I've seen can top XMPlay, and you know what? Not only is it more stable than winamp and has a less big memory footprint, it can run most of winamp's plugins aswell.

That means that you can play about any format possible simply by putting a .dll file in the plugins folder. Not to mention that there are also plugins specifically for XMPlay, which are more stable.

It'll be more of a problem deciding which of the plugins you'll use to play that same music format, rather than to worry if there's a plugin that plays it.

And it has to be said too. XMPlay plays .ITs and .XMs as best as any player can do (trackers excluded ofcource).

Did I mentioned XMPlay is portable, and thus doesn't require installation at all?

Did I also mentioned that XMPlay is skinnable and there are alot of very good skins out there?

I didn't mentioned that? geez... But I did now right? What're you waiting for? Go download XMPlay, or you'll be sorry you didn't.

[Saga Musix]

and what about a screenshot of how awesome xmplay can look?



featuring the most awesome music visualization i've ever seen, the "3d spectrum" which is a standard vis in xmplay,  the skin "neutron" and also the systray controls which i've created myself just for xmplay.

[Harbinger]

Unfortunately for all of us, LP has been replaced by a popup adbot, and according to his super-secret subliminal encoding i feel commanded to find and download XMPlay.  :retarded:


OKay, okay, i'll give it a look. BTW, does it encode to mp3?

And an audio editor? Whacha got?

[Saga Musix]

audio player's aren't editors and there has to be some seperation. everything else is just a pure waste of resources imo (i.e. having always loaded an editor interface if you just listen to music).
Audacity as a well-known audio editor for windows, I can't really judge it, though, as I'm using other (commercial) tools.

Due to licensing issues, you will most likely not find any free player that has a built-in MP3 encoder. You can use external encoders for mp3 and ogg encoding directly in XMPlay.

[psishock]

Sounds good , i'll give it a try, and see what can this highly praised XMplay do.

[Relabsoluness]

Winamp is the biggest shit you can get, seriously. Since years, it's bloatware, meaning that it can do more things than you'll ever need. Also, it installs adware by means of desktop links.

While I do agree that Winamp has bad sides and has had negative evolution(e.g. for me the 10th anniversary version crashed about on every second time when playing ordinary audio cd's; what a progress in ten years), it's hardly the worst player out there. What comes to the unnecessary features, not everything has to be installed. And I can't remember having the adware problem.

[Saga Musix]

hardly the worst player out there

okay, make that "the worst popular player besides WMP".

And I can't remember having the adware problem.

the last time i installed winamp, there was the infamous "get 50 mp3s for free" offering during the installation which i didn't tick of course, and a desktop shortcut or two for a "free anti-spyware search".

[älskling]

I prefer Winamp to XMPlay any day of the week. Possibly because I'm more used to it.

[psishock]

älskling, i agree atm , i'm so used to winamp and looks like the plain XMplay needs some more plugins and customization right after install (unpack) and i AM one of the laziest man on the earth, i love when everything is present right after the install. (couldn't play midi files example :minor shock:)

Jojo, those crapwares are "offered" on the install, and can be dechecked any time. My amp isn't polluted with them.

[Sam_Zen]

2 Harbinger
Never mind a contest about 'the best', but you can just download XMPlay from here along with some useful format-plugins.

No setup procedure, as LP states, just create a directory for it, and run. Of course a plugins subdir for the plugin DLLs.
As the name suggest, XMPlay started as an XM-player, so it's a solid base to handle trackers properly.
Now it has expanded to a lot of other audio-formats as well. But of course, it's a player, not an editor. But it can make a playlist.

As far as the OGG format is concerned : Even IrfanView can play it, but only with a very simple interface.

Since you're obviously transforming to the windoze environment, I'll point to some relevant tools to handle audio things.

Having the proper format-converters is quite crucial too.
Most apps here don't need any additional external coder.
As Jojo states, it's a waste if one has to open an editor just to play a file.

To cover a lot of codecs needed for the system, you could install the 'K-Lite Codec Pack' to be found here

[psishock]

ok, i did put my lazyness away for a bit and messed some more with XMplay. It IS quiet nice indeed with the right plugins and skins. I got almost completely used to it now and what i like the most, compared to winamp5, that lightning fast opening and working speed. Even it has .sf2 midi playback support, yay. :cheers:
I've updated my old ifranview from your site Sam. My my, you got a backup from the half internet there as i can see.

[residentgrey]

Audacity for edits, XMPlay for listening. Find the so-called Snack version from the newest build. I can email it if you need to. It works the playlists a lot better than the newest version from my XP.