Audiop Players - Alternative to Winamp

[MAtT_Zero]

I've been searching for an alternative audio player for ages, but I still can't find what I'm looking for.

At the moment I use Winamp3 with the RM-X plug-in and a great skin... but it is slow on my PIII 500, and is also (i read) not the best-sounding player in the world.

I'm looking for an alternative, and I'm not fussed about looks - but it absolutely MUST have these features that there's no way i can live without:

- multiple-loaded playlists on the interface, so you just switch between your pre-loaded playlists with one click (winamp2 did not have this - nor most players i've looked at)

- the ability to use "next track" and volume control without the player being in focus (while minimized or whatever) as per the RM-X plug-in for Winampx

- The ability to enqueue files to the playlist by just double-cliking them in explorer - as per winampx

The top one is the most important by far - I won't even consider a player without that.

Any suggestions?

[neoufo51]

Winamp sounds just fine for what it is. Don't listen to what audiophiles say unless you truly agree that you don't like the quality of your player. Being a AP myself, I choose Foobar2000 for my playback, it has all I need and more. However, the multiple playlist thing won't happen unless somebody makes a plugin for it or the main man decides that many people want it.

The other 2 options are definitely available in Foobar, but the volume control, forget it, thats useless anyhow, but you can use the volume control on Foobar easily with the assignable keyboard shortcuts. ( + and - on your numpad)

I think the Winamp 2.9X series has most of the features of 3 now. However, its not gonna be special until Winamp 5 (2+3) comes out.

[Andy L]

To be honest, I've never seen a player that supports multiple loaded playlists apart from WA3.

But if you want a player that's fast, sounds good, and you're not too bothered about looks, then go for Foobar2000. I can use Next Track and Volume controls without it being in focus, and I think you can enqueue files by double-clicking in Explorer as well.

[MAtT_Zero]

I'm an AP in so far as i have a very expensive NAIM amp and nice Mission speakers - but they are just for my stereo equipment. My PC runs through them too - but I have a cheap soundcard and play MP3s which are often not great quality anyway - so I guess I shouldn't worry too much about sound.

My main concern is that the skinned WA3 is sluggish on my PC wheras everything else I run is bloat-free and lightning fast (i'm tweeked to the max) ;-)

i've just taken a look at foobar here at work - and yeah, that's exactly what i'm looing for - a no-nonsense, non bloatware interface with nice sound....

BUT (as u warned me) no multiple-playlists. I mean, I have about 3000 files here, organized into folders like "drum & bass" and "80s"... which I skip around loads in the course of a listening session. The thought of having to load a playlist from a file everytime frankly frightens me :-o

Anyway, seeing as there's no nasty install to this foobar thing i'll give it a shot at home 2nite... see if i can get used to going back a few years in convenience ;-)

[Ardor]

wimamp 3 is a memory-drainer. You're better off using winamp 2.xx, which will work without problems on your system. Sometimes you gotta forgo some of the more fancy features (aka bloatware) and just stick to the music. :wings

[The Gauge]

Try Quintessential Player.

http://www.quinnware.com/

It's light, quick, functional and has some very nice looking skins.

Also, I have many mixes split into mp3 tracks that never seem to join seamlessly when being played back. QCD gets the closest to "seamless" that I've found so far providing you configure the crossfader module properly.

Also, if you want to be rid of this playlist nonsense, give STP Player a try. This is THE smallest MP3 player out there. Absolutely miniscule. It has right-click menus that show you a hierarchical layout of your directories so you can navigate your way through thousands of MP3s in seconds. It also lists them by filename, NOT mp3 tags which are usually wrong. For a minimal player with super-speedy file access, this is the one for you.

http://www.netean.com/stp/

[MAtT_Zero]

thanks, i'm studiosly looking at them all on my work PC (sacrificial ;-)... but havn't found anything yet that i'm willing to install on my home PC* as I'm not prepared to give up on the multiple-playlist requirement. Why should I have to save and load playlists when one click will do? Before multiple-playlists I used to just have one huge playlist of ALL my files cos I refused to use them too as well *chuckle* Maybe i'm just lazy - but the inducement of laze is my ultimate PC goal :-)

Looks like I may have to wait for the fabled WA5... except isn't it owned by AOHell now or something? Not sure I want to use anything associated with them ;-)

* (amazing the amount of garbage programs leave in the registry when you get rid of them.... it has to be a worthwhile install to mess with MY registry - lol)

[dacaveman]

Quintessential is the best.
this the new winamp

[neoufo51]

Tell you what, I'll talk to the Foobar developers on IRC and see if I get Peter or Case to make a multiple playlist plugin, possibly tabbed, perhaps, so that you can navigate through them quite easily. Hmmm, now thats an idea eh?

I'm also involved with the Foobar community at HA, so I might actually get this feature installed for you if I persuade the right people. Right now, we're trying to get the streaming to actually show the stream titles, but I'll be sure to try and get this feature added and will update this thread in a week to say what the main man has to say about it.

We just got a guy who made a plugin that reads the titles of the songs and artists right as they begin to play using the TTS engine included with XP, so hey, anything is possible.

[random]

i just tried stp player and that xm player, both take up more ram than foobar2000, so i would just stick with foobar2000 hehe

[dr. damn]

Originally posted by MAtT_Zero
Looks like I may have to wait for the fabled WA5... except isn't it owned by AOHell now or something? Not sure I want to use anything associated with them
Nullsoft, like Netscape and ICQ, has been owned by AOL for several years now.

IMO, Winamp 2 is superior to Winamp3 in every way (well, except skins, but who needs fancy skins anyway? It's a MEDIA PLAYER. Jeez.)

[neoufo51]

Matt_Zero, your prayers may just be answered quite soon.

It seems that Peter, head programmer of Foobar2000, had an idea similar to yours but never fully realized its potential till now. Lots of the guys on IRC seem to like this idea and here's what Peter had to say about it.

"I've had this idea before, I might make additional UI component (with tabs) for that after 0.7.
Or someone can write a component that switches between multiple playlists, would work with existing UI."

So you won't see this in the current 0.7 series, but a good chance you will see it when the 0.8 beta hits. When it does, I'll update the media forum so everybody can take advantage of tabbed playlists.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by neoufo51
Matt_Zero, your prayers may just be answered quite soon.

It seems that Peter, head programmer of Foobar2000, had an idea similar to yours but never fully realized its potential till now. Lots of the guys on IRC seem to like this idea and here's what Peter had to say about it.

"I've had this idea before, I might make additional UI component (with tabs) for that after 0.7.
Or someone can write a component that switches between multiple playlists, would work with existing UI."

So you won't see this in the current 0.7 series, but a good chance you will see it when the 0.8 beta hits. When it does, I'll update the media forum so everybody can take advantage of tabbed playlists.
I run WMP 9, with all of the plug-ins installed, and have no problems with it, plus it doesn't drain my resources at all. Also you can get all types of crazy skins for it.

[neoufo51]

Originally posted by ATLien
I run WMP 9, with all of the plug-ins installed, and have no problems with it, plus it doesn't drain my resources at all. Also you can get all types of crazy skins for it.

Uhhh, why did you quote me?

Anyway, I doubt he likes WMP9, not that many people use it for their mp3s because they have tons of files, and many of them aren't playable in WMP9 without directshow addons. For instance, ogg, mpc, flac, xa, mod, and tons of little known formats that no other player supports. Don't tell me you can run through a 3000 song playlist on WMP9 with the greatest of ease, cuz you can't. Otherwise, Winamp, Coolplayer, Quinntessential, and Foobar2000 wouldn't be so damn popular.

[Sho0tyz]

IMO, Winamp 2 is superior to Winamp3 in every way (well, except skins, but who needs fancy skins anyway? It's a MEDIA PLAYER. Jeez.)



I disagree with this. The memory/speed issues are the only problems with winamp3. Multiple playlists are great, and the search function is about 100 times better than Winamp2 - which is a god send when dealing with large playlists. I couldn't care less about the skins and video players and whatever else they threw in there. I've tried just about every other mp3 player I can find, and none of them really made me happy. I wish I never would have tried Winamp3, that way I wouldn't know what I was missing out on. It's so tough to go back to Winamp2 now. I just hope they don't manage to fuck up this new "Winamp5" somehow.

[MAtT_Zero]

thx neoufo51... if that surfaces in the next release i'll be switching for sure. Maybe it would be best just to have a file-tree in a pane - so your folder organizations just become the playlists.... that would save duplication in organization?

I didn't realise Nullsoft had been swallowed by the whale for so long... thanks4 the inpho Dr Damn. Do you think that'll mean v5 will be a commercial release?

As you guessed, WMP wouldn't exactly be my first choice ;-) The nearest I get to that is the great 6.4-based Media Player Classic for viewing vids....

[dr. damn]

Originally posted by MAtT_Zero
Can I ask how you can get the shortcut keys to work while not in focus?
Microsoft keyboards do this by default with the IntelliType drivers.

[MAtT_Zero]

oops sorry, deleted the post as i worked it out (global tickbox)

MANTRA... try b4 u ask try b4 u ask....

.... was just practising my s/w newbie skills ;-)

[MAtT_Zero]

I'm liking this foobar thing more and more :-) I may even have to sacrifice multiple-playlists for a while..... thanks for all the advice....

[Criminal_Sniper]

HOOAH! FOOBAR WINS AGAIN!!!!

the best of the best is only getting better

[jonnymnemonic]

What I have done is save every CD as a separate playlist (m3u), and use WinAmp 2.95. SInce I have all CDs saved as playlists, switching between them is a simple matter of clicking on one in Explorer - so it's virtually the same thing as WA3, minus the bloatware and extra memory required to actually keep multiple playlists loaded in memory.

You can also configure the 'Links' section on your Explorer bar to contain the directory of your playlists, making it simple indeed to swap to a new playlist.

Sometimes the easiest solution is...the OS itself. ;)

[Born_Downloader]

Where's this Winamp 2.95, i've just been on winamp.com and they've still got Winamp 2.91

[neoufo51]

It's a leaked version. Not supposed to come out but was downloaded furiously when it was accidently put on the server. Ask somebody in here for 2.95 installer if you want it. I don't.

[neoufo51]

Matt. Zero, you lucky bastard. This just came out of the presses.

From Peter...

beta 43 posted, including prototype playlist switcher (can be embedded in UI later, so no whining about having to pop up the window please)

Here's a reaction to the new playlist support.
"And today, beta 43 is out, with multiple playlist support. When setting "follow cursor" to on, i can switch to playlist B while playlist A is still playing, position the cursor on an appropriate track.... and voila, after the current song of playlist A ends, the selected song on playlist B begins...... and when used together with the crossfade-plugin, i can even crossfade from one playlist to another one - awesome"

Get it here.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/foobar2000/

[Porro]

I've got a nasty feeling that this is a stipid question, but....what's wrong with MusicMatch Jukebox?

[Tremaine]

wianamp 2 foobar is also pretty good
Originally posted by Porro
I've got a nasty feeling that this is a stipid question, but....what's wrong with MusicMatch Jukebox?
it's laggy and is a pain in the ass to use i use to have to use it when i had my rca lyra....

[mr.jip]

i have to admit also im liking the foobar player, eventho its doesnt look much, its still alot better in many to many music players.
BUt i do like quintessentail (i think thats how you spell it) player.