Music Players?

So, Gary, you know that I am tech-limited, but I do still use my WMP, but, I went back to version 10. When I told the techs at work what was going on they thought that version 11 was "searching the net all the time and sucking energy from your computer"

Sometimes Verizon/Yahoo music player opens, like when I listened to TopShot's music sample, but I don't have much trouble using WMP or RealPlayer.

I rarely have any trouble listening to anything on the net.

All of our Mp3 players work well with WMP, I haven't used our I-tunes.

BTW, when we were using WMP 11 it took foh-ev-ah to open....it locked up eveything at times.

Going back to version 10 is easy, but it still constantly asks if we want to upgrade to 11.

I am still using WMP 10 for basic playing of a file.
I prefer MusicMatch for my massive Mp3 library, even though it takes 3 years to load. I chose MM a few years ago just on a whim and liked the way it held my library playlists... since then I've been very unhappy with it's "shuffle" inabilities. I can open a 1000 songs in a playlist and shuffle it, and it repeats songs just like a 2-bit radio station.
I only use Real for ripping to my harddrive-
I never use iTunes except to transfer "difficult" copy-protected albums to my hard-drive.

and I have an "experience-established" reason for NEVER upgrading when something works for me. Most of my players are older and work just fine. Heck with the latest upgrades, they'll wreak havok with your system and you have to spend forever to get them to play well with others... upgrading ain't worth it.

that's my 2 scents

Foobar 2000

This isn't for the faint of heart though because it's VERY customizable. You can start digging into it (and other audio related things) at http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

I switched over to running my show from fb2k as it's often called earlier this school year.

Oh, and WMP blows chunks. LOL

I detest V11 they have on Vista. Call me old-fashioned (or just a control freak), but I want power at my fingertips.

topshot rhit wrote:

Oh, and WMP blows chunks.

Thanks for the love bro.

apofreak wrote:

I prefer MusicMatch for my massive Mp3 library, even though it takes 3 years to load.

Oh yes, I forgot that my computer came with a free version of MusicMatch. I used it for a while, but I noticed that once I loaded in excess of 100 files it started loading really slow, and freezing up. I too noticed that it takes for ever to start, and it constantly asks you if you want to pay for the upgraded version.

There has to be something that works great without all the technicality of topshot's Foobar program.

I say if WMP is working well for you, then use it. Who cares if you are not trendy?

I use Realplayer myself, which does not seem to be in favor much, either, but it works well for me. I never get video commercials or pop ups with it, either.

For getting files on my IPod, I use a program called Poddox. It works well, is small, and does not try to do anything other than transfer files to my IPod. I like it.

Staybrite wrote:

Thanks for the love bro.

Anytime! Use WMP all you want. It's just not good for a geek. Foobar is geek (and audiophile) heaven. I note they have a thread where people are displaying various interface customizations. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=58574

I haven't done anything with that yet (you could play all day!). Just using the default right now except for changes to how titles and info are displayed and the plugin to start the next track when the previous drops below a threshold.

I'd stick with WMP if it works for you. I'm fairly computer savy and foobar was a real pain to get working the way I wanted it. I use Itunes because my wife can use it...

Sometimes I use WMP and sometimes I use Winamp.
Most of the time I fight with both.

Tall Tyrion wrote:

I say if WMP is working well for you, then use it. Who cares if you are not trendy?

Ahh finally some love, thanks DoubleT.

kethdredd wrote:

I'd stick with WMP if it works for you. I'm fairly computer savy and foobar was a real pain to get working the way I wanted it. I use Itunes because my wife can use it...

That's exactly what I fear might happen. I will spend several hours (possibly days) messing with Foobar, and will end up scrapping it out of frustration.

avdb11 wrote:

Sometimes I use WMP and sometimes I use Winamp.
Most of the time I fight with both.

I thought there was someone else praising Winamp (was it Alldat?).
I haven't played around with winamp for several years, maybe I will give that one a try.

The new Winamp sucks rocks, too. I had been using the old 2.95 for my show until switching to Foobar. It was simple and did the job. A big reason of why I moved to foobar was tagging and statistics. I can see the last time I played a song now.

topshot rhit wrote:

I can see the last time I played a song now.

Now that would be a pretty cool feature.

On the geek side, I've used GoldWave for several years now, but it's more of a tweeker and not a player (although you can play files on it). If you can think of it, GoldWave can do it.

Omg, winamp ?? That's like the winner of the best players for 1990.... can u say Die-no-sore ??

When it comes to music players, I just want something simple and easy to use. Depending on the media, the players don't really add to the music quality. On the computer, the quality of your speakers and sound card is where you get your sound.

I also use the Windows Media Player. I use the one built into Windows Vista, and it works without a hitch. You don't have to do anything to it to make it run. So, it's very "plug & play". I like it.

I say those dissing audiofiles can pound salt! I use Windows Media Player only because I've found no reason to look else where. It works for me. Besides its all about the speakers as far as I'm concerned. I've got a sweet set of Dell surround sound speakers set up around the room with a woofer box that makes the living room quake.




I'm with Tall Tyrion, who cares if your not trendy. I still wear Geranimals and an A-Team t-shirt.

Staybrite wrote:

topshot rhit wrote:

I can see the last time I played a song now.

Now that would be a pretty cool feature.

It will also track number of times you've played a song, but I don't care about that so I don't display it.

The biggest reason I went to Foobar though was I realized that archiving my cool-ection into mp3 wasn't too bright because it's a lossy rather than lossless format. Thus, whenever something better than mp3 comes around, I either have to re-rip all my stuff (if I still have them) or I'm screwed. Plus, I have needs for varying quality levels or formats (station requires OGG). So I decided to archive in a lossless format (I chose FLAC) and from there I can convert a file into anything my heart desires without losing additional quality. Many times I've converted back to WAV to edit the file and then re-encoide back to FLAC. You can't do that with mp3 without losing quality both times. Since Foobar is what all the audiophiles used (it has nothing to do with sound quality BTW but power to deal with massive collections and customizations to the interface or functionality) and supported all the major formats natively, I went with it. Now you know.

BTW, you could just archive to WAV, too, but if you have lots of albums that takes lots of space. Even though disks are cheap now, by going to FLAC I save about 45% of that space so instead of needed 500 GB I only need 300 GB for example.

Quote :

I use the one built into Windows Vista, and it works without a hitch.

I'm too much of an idiot to get it to work the way I want it. I've yet to figure out how to get it to do gapless playback so the church's new Vista PC has foobar, too.

Quote :

I'm too much of an idiot to get it to work the way I want it. I've yet to figure out how to get it to do gapless playback so the church's new Vista PC has foobar, too.

For a more professional use like that, I could see not liking WMP. But, for just general play while I'm surfing the web, it's works great for me.

Quote :

I still wear Geranimals and an A-Team t-shirt

Don't laugh at him. I am currently sleeping in M&M pajamas!

A M&M pajama when I remember those they use her for commercials I laugh ohhhh this is so funny.
I used them as my avatar some time ago.

I have a monkey on my pajama and no one is able to see who is who.

My problem is that you need to listen to some music samples a Real Player.
And for others samples you need an other player.
What I want is a simple player for all the music I listen.
One to play samples with and I can play the music on my computer too.
Then what's the best online player?

I do have the Real Player for just those types of songs. But, more and more, you can just jump over to MySpace and hear songs from a band there. No special player required.

I'm sticking with my WMP until I find something I like better.

That's why I love it to listen to MySpace, you don't need a player to listen to the songs there.

I listen to most my music on, projectplaylist.com They dont have everything, but they do have alot of stuff.