Suggest a Windows all-purpose audio player/editor

[Saga Musix]

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

You can also removes a virus after it affected your system. You can uninstall programs at any time? But what's the point then? The fact that Winamp does install advertisments on your pc makes it Adware per se.

--

I love minimalistic software which can be extended at any time. That's why I use Firefox, Miranda and XMPlay for example. Those apps don't have anything you wouldn't need when they're installed, but they become very powerful as soon as you have the right extensions / plug-ins.

[psishock]

The fact that Winamp does install advertisments on your pc makes it Adware per se.

You didn't got me . Before installing anything it does ask you, just like Daemon Tools example, "do you want me to install those ads or not?" with a simple checkbox. You just have to read for a few seconds before "next, next, next, finish"-ing the proccess.
So i wouldn't call this post-ad removal process, just a simple yes/no question before the install.

[Saga Musix]

it's not like that. i wasn't asked whether i want to have a anti-spyware link on my desktop. not in the whole installation process.

[psishock]

=(  what sick bundle-edition did you downloaded mate? The purest free version does ask you for everything and don't have those. There are some strange and dangerous sounding bundle versions even on the official download area, they are almost double size as the regular version. Now those might not ask nicely, but then, you have been warned before the download.
The choice was again yours.

[LPChip]

=(  what sick bundle-edition did you downloaded mate? The purest free version does ask you for everything and don't have those. There are some strange and dangerous sounding bundle versions even on the official download area, they are almost double size as the regular version. Now those might not ask nicely, but then, you have been warned before the download.
The choice was again yours.

Guys, we have a traitor amongst us. Seize him!

[Saga Musix]

i downloaded it directly from their website. but i don't care anyway since winamp hasn't been on my hard drive for quite some time now

[Sam_Zen]

2 psishock
If you've got IrfanView 4.20, do mind that you also have to update the proper plugins package.

The collection on my page is the result of years of selection and testing, with certain preferences :
If possible, avoiding apps that use the dreadful registry. No hooters and bells, just fit for the task.
If possible, no setup procedure, just unpacking into its own directory and run.

As Jojo, I like a program with just the core tool, plus the choice of adding plugins.
My ascii-editor, AkelPad, is an extreme example of this, even the basic buttonbar is a plugin to be activated.

[älskling]

Last time I tried XMPlay the only skin I could stand was the one looking like winamp 2...

I'm trying out Foobar2000 now, it seems quite nice!

[psishock]

Hey älskling, try the winamp5 skin, its cool as far as i can tell. You can switch even to mini and full mode, so everything can fit on your titlebar, as you have used to it.
Foobar2000 is also a nice piece of software, some of my friends are using it, but winamp just dominates in our region, nobody seems to use WMP for music.

EDIT: quick XMplay question, is there any easy way to prevent the program from stealing the focus every time when i'm selecting a tune from TC? I've used to browse with cursors+enter and now i must do it with mouse and constant clicking can be tiresome after some time.

[Saga Musix]

the first thing i did when using xmplay for the first time was of course searching for a winamp skin because i didn't want it to change. there was no classic winamp 2 skin (just one that was lightened up a bit) and i chose another (Neutron) one which I still use. It's always like that: First, it seems that you can't get used to the new software, but you'll soon recognize that its own features are maybe even better.

psishock: I always have XMplay in the tray. That way, it doesn't steal the focus.

[Harbinger]

DL'd XMPlay and was very happy with it. Yes, psishock, there is some setup required. I'm lazy too, but i'd rather work a little bit to get an application exactly the way i like it. I found the LAME and .ogg plugins that you guys linked me too, tried to save as an .mp3 (required a little setup), and it worked great (altho i don't like having to switch "output" from audio to LAME just to write an .mp3 file). Found a nice skin at the website, a couple of vis plugins, set up the "Options and stuff" and i now have an all-purpose player. Between WMP, Nero (both players came with the computer), and XMPlay, i should be able to listen to any kind of file (even Sammy's OGGS!). :wink:

I also tinkered around with Audacity, and for now it suits my purposes. I like that i can save directly to .mp3 from there after edting a .wav. Ill take some time later to explore it...


Thanks for all your suggestions and advice. I guess this little internet thing, with all its new-fangled web sites and forums, might not be such a bad thing...

BTW, this doesn't close the subject. If anybody comes across excellent players or audio editors they can bump this thread so we all know. :wink:

[xaimus]

foobar2000 is the least offensive general-purpose music player i have used under windows

[Sam_Zen]

2 psishock
Good question about the XMP focus. If activated it indeed stays on top.
I don't have much trouble with that, because I can still write something in a text-file underneath it, while listening, but indeed, no choice but the taskbar, to get it out of sight. Maybe I will drop this as a suggestion on the XMP forum, to be able to toggle this property.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

Harbinger: In all of my computing, in Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, OpenBSD, OS/2... I have never come across a better audio playback app than foobar2000. It's lean, it's fast, it's got probably the best playback engine known to man for most audio types, and it's free. It's also got the most customisable GUI I've ever seen -- it's an app that really appeals to your inner geek.

I should also mention that it's replay gain is second to none. Winamp took about six hours to scan through my music database -- foobar did it in about two minutes, with better results. It really is a beautiful piece of software.

Here's a screenshot of mine -- note the very pretty OSD, the clean, simple design which doesn't try to distract you (I keep mine minimised to the tray 99.9% of the time), the amount of geeky info you can display (if that's your wont), and much more. For example, you can use it as a last.fm radio player, with the ability to see tracks coming up, skip over a whole bunch of tracks, and so on! It also does all the normal stuff, like hooking through to coverart sites, lyrics sites, mass tagging, CD-TEXT reading, and so on. You can also choose to play your playlist in order, repeating, randomly, shuffled by album, shuffled by folder, or shuffled globally (random == can repeat a track, shuffle == can't repeat a track).

It really is an awesome program -- I ditched everything in its favour.

[psishock]

ok, foobar2000. So do you know a skin for it that fits in the window title bar (like winamp5 mini mode example)? I'm, in the other hand, having my player 100% always on top when listening to music, playing with seek and volume bars all the time. Most of the time when i'm listening to one of my favorite million of songs, stored on the disk, i'm searching for the good parts and going on to the other, also i push up the volume on very nice parts and taking back the joy on regular ones. So a minimalistic skin with seek/volume bar, time, name/artist display, basic controls and maybe playlist drop button would surely come handy. I really don't need the other "eye candy".


This XMplay skin could be great, but the seek bar is kinda short for ~2h mixes example and i cannot seek smoothly with it (ability to stretch out would be nice). Also you have to be very precise when you want to interact with these seek and volume bars on every XMplay skin. You have about 3 horizontal pixels and that's it. If you want to work fast you will probably miss often. (some added "dead pixels" in the upper and the bottom area would be also nice)