PC Audio Players

[spursdude]

I'm curious to see what software you use for playing music on your PC...
I use a combination of QCD and WMP9.

I probably left some off, so feel free to mention other software.

[Pat Logsdon]

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but I mostly use the media player in Kazaa Lite these days. I don't even really download anything anymore, but it's already set up to access the directories where my music is.

When I'm around the house streaming via WiFi, I use WMP and Windows Media Encoder.

[Janak Parekh]

QCD (www.quinnware.com) all the way for my Oggs! I love it. In particular because it supports proper gap removal, which neither Winamp 2 nor Winamp 3 do (they have crossfade and silence detection, but I want neither -- I just want the tracks to play one after the other without a break). Plus, it's fast and stable, unlike Winamp 3 :pukeface:

I suspect, though, that not a lot of people know about it.

--janak

[Pat Logsdon]

OK, QCD is my new player. VERY nice - thanks for the link, Janak! :rock on dude!:

[dean_shan]

I use MusicMatch for my ripping and then I use WMP9 and WinApp2 for playing my MP3s.

[Kati Compton]

Plus, it's fast and stable, unlike Winamp 3 :pukeface:
I use Winamp3 with no problems whatsoever...

[Janak Parekh]

I use Winamp3 with no problems whatsoever...
Try taking a look at its memory and CPU usage when it's playing. That was one problem. HTTP streaming was also extremely buggy and crash-prone. My third major complaint was that the library function was totally buggy and useless. Fourth was the lack of gap removal. Fifth is the dearth of plugins, since it totally broke Winamp 2 compatibility.

The boards on Nullsoft's site are loaded down with complaints; partially as a result of that, AOL/Nullsoft has decided to ditch Winamp 3 and base Winamp 5 primarily on Winamp 2. In fact, Winamp 2 is still under development, but all updates on Winamp 3 have virtually ceased.

But if you're just doing straightforward playback, it's probably sufficient. I was using it for some time until I rediscovered QCD several years after I had first touched it, and preferred it immensely.

--janak

[spursdude]

But if you're just doing straightforward playback, it's probably sufficient. I was using it for some time until I rediscovered QCD several years after I had first touched it, and preferred it immensely.
Yeah, I use QCD maybe 1/3 of the time - although it doesn't have the massive media organization powers of WMP, QCD plays a ton of file types, has nice skins and functionality, and the ability to control it as a tray icon, which is really nice. The stream recording is also nice...

[Paul Martin]

QCD (www.quinnware.com) ....I suspect, though, that not a lot of people know about it.

I hadn't, until tonight. I'm looking forward to trying it out! I have been using dBpowerAMP (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/) {site seems to be down for the moment}, both for player and converter. The player's not bad for CD-only stuff IF you want to play the tracks sequentially from track 1. I never noticed until I wanted to play track 35 on a CD with short audio pieces. I couldn't find a way to skip ahead.*** So, I'll give QCD a whirl. The dBpowerAmp converter is great because it offers right click conversion of sound files, so I'll probably stick with it until QCD offers something better. Thanks, Janak!

*** Note...it could be my incompetence and not a shortfall of dBpowerAMP! :D

[Kati Compton]

I'll download QCD and give it a try.

[gwinter]

I suspect, though, that not a lot of people know about it.

Wow! I remember a friend of mine introduced this program to me 4~5 years ago, seriously. It was one of the early programs that allows skinning, but otherwise a very unassuming CD player. Looks like they've come a long way. 8)

[luebster]

I use MusicMatch Plus for the SuperTagging, then I use Winamp3 for playback. I like the crossfading feature.

Do any of the other players support crossfading? I like to use it when my wife and I host a party and put it on shuffle. I'd use MusicMatch exclusively if it had crossfading.

Chris

[spursdude]

Do any of the other players support crossfading? I like to use it when my wife and I host a party and put it on shuffle. I'd use MusicMatch exclusively if it had crossfading.
Both QCD and WMP 9 for Windows XP support crossfading.. it's really nice. :D I don't think I would use them without that feature.

[GingerTommy]

I use Media Center (http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter/).
It does everything really well - crossfading, playback zones, tagging, cover art, web interface and freeware PocketPC interfaces are available. The actual player is not freeware though.

[luebster]

Both QCD and WMP 9 for Windows XP support crossfading.. it's really nice. :D I don't think I would use them without that feature.

I just downloaded QCD and in a word...WOW! I am a convert. I've been playing with it for about 20 minutes now and I really like the interface. Some of the text animations are nice (like the fading played/remaining timer), but I'm trying to get just the right settings on the crossfader. I have it set to 200ms fade-in, 800ms overlap, and 1500 fadeout duration. I remove leading and trailing silence turned off (unchecked). Much more powerful than Winamp's fader to say the least.

Spursdude, what settings have you settled on? Maybe I'll try yours to see if I like it better. And thanks for turning me on to this awesome player.

I'm going to suggest it to all of my Winamp-using friends.

[Kati Compton]

I like QCD (already made a skin!)... The ONLY thing it's missing for me is a resizeable playlist. That bugs me a bit.

[spursdude]

Spursdude, what settings have you settled on? Maybe I'll try yours to see if I like it better. And thanks for turning me on to this awesome player.
Glad you like QCD... I actually like to keep to keep the overlap a little shorter, like around 500ms maybe. I haven't experimented with QCD too much - I still use WMP a lot. You should ask Janak, who got me into QCD. :D

[Janak Parekh]

You should ask Janak, who got me into QCD. :D
I should become director of marketing for Quinnware. :lol:

Seriously, I don't use the crossfade at all - I just use the gap removal features, so I'm not going to be of much help here :( And, besides, it depends on the genre of music you're listening to. You generally need shorter crossfades with classical music, for example.

--janak

[spursdude]

I like QCD (already made a skin!)...
That's quite good for a first skin.... it just should up in the updated skin list. :rock on dude!:

[spg]

I like to stay pretty simple and not have loads of programs installed all over the place on my computer... So I stick with Windows Media Player 9. Already installed, and covers all my needs.

And then the impressive part is after it gets past WMP9, it zooms out my speaker jack into my stereo system and then out via my big honking speakers. :)

[Kati Compton]

I like QCD (already made a skin!)...
That's quite good for a first skin.... it just should up in the updated skin list. :rock on dude!:
And the updated version is now there - I was using a combination of old and new skinning methods, so I updated it to now use the new methods. Should be a little smaller in size (not that it matters *too* much, but it's the smallest skin with more than 2 modes!).

I changed the graphite/blue one slightly because the blue text was hard to read. I made it the same color blue as the blue/blue text.

I'm glad you liked my skin. Fortunately, I only want a very simple interface. If I was into the crazy arty ones I'd be in trouble, because I don't have that type of talent!

I really just made the skin for me, but figured I may as well share. :)

BTW - the skin name is "Petite", for those of you that might be interested.

PPS - I couldn't find this thread by searching for "PC Audio".... You would think it would have shown up. <sigh>

[Janak Parekh]

If I was into the crazy arty ones I'd be in trouble, because I don't have that type of talent!
Yes you do. Witness the cat/cracked egg conundrum. :lol:

PPS - I couldn't find this thread by searching for "PC Audio".... You would think it would have shown up. <sigh>
I don't think phpBB can handle quote marks. :cry:

--janak

[Kati Compton]

I searched without the quotes. Try it, and make sure you say that all words have to be included. No topics or posts meet the criteria. This is why I usually have problems when I'm trying to search here. :(

Oh, and if I were a better artist, perhaps my cat would not be mistaken for a cracked egg! :)

[Janak Parekh]

I searched without the quotes. Try it, and make sure you say that all words have to be included. No topics or posts meet the criteria. This is why I usually have problems when I'm trying to search here. :(
You're right. :cry: I hope the next phpBB release improves things...

Oh, and if I were a better artist, perhaps my cat would not be mistaken for a cracked egg! :)
No, no, that's what DOES make you a great artist. If it was so obvious, you'd be a designer. Big difference. :)

--janak

[Kati Compton]

Oh, and if I were a better artist, perhaps my cat would not be mistaken for a cracked egg! :)
No, no, that's what DOES make you a great artist. If it was so obvious, you'd be a designer. Big difference. :)
Ha! Now if I could turn incompetance into a positive "feature" in my real job...

[Tom W.M.]

I use Winamp 2 because it's fast, and all of the buttons are in the same place, no matter what skin you use! I tried Winamp 3, but found it horribly slow, and I never could find any of the buttons! :evil: (It doesn't play my DivX .avi files, either) Once I tried QCD, but I didn't like any of the skins, for the same reasons as Winamp 3. I have found some beautiful Winamp 2 skins and I see no reason to upgrade to a player that is uglier and so slow that it has to have a splash screen.

As for WMP, I don't use it at all for audio, but I like the "Corporate" skin and use it for video all of the time.