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General => Internet, Science, & Technology => Topic started by: strongbad on March 19, 2011, 04:36:59 PM

Title: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on March 19, 2011, 04:36:59 PM
I spent a few years using the Zune software and growing very comfortable with it, but my Zune 80gb died a few months ago (RIP :() and I got one of the new iPod shuffles for Christmas, so I used iTunes for a while. I don't know how so many people can use iTunes. Compared to the Zune software at least, I fucking hated it. I went back to using the Zune software for a while, but stopped since it was annoying having to sync my iPod in iTunes while using Zune.

Then I found foobar2000 and fell in love. Easily the best music player I have ever used. Extremely customizable, lightweight, no bullshit. So I've been using that, although I still have to use iTunes whenever I want to update my iPod which is annoying.

EDIT: After some quick googling apparently I can use my iPod with foobar. Sweet.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Samus Aran on March 19, 2011, 04:39:27 PM
i don't really understand what's so bad about itunes

all i want from a music player is an organized list of my music and to be able to play it - that's what itunes does
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on March 19, 2011, 04:49:51 PM
Quote from: Kid on March 19, 2011, 04:39:27 PM
i don't really understand what's so bad about itunes

all i want from a music player is an organized list of my music and to be able to play it - that's what itunes does

I would honestly recommend using foobar for a few days and then going back to iTunes. Also I just figured out how to iPod sync with it and it's easy as hell. It's just a lot more streamlined, less bloated, and overall a better played IMO than iTunes.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Andria on March 19, 2011, 04:58:20 PM
I stopped using itunes months ago finally after figuring out how to get foobar to sync my touch. I love it. So simple
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: [hedy]Zidone on March 19, 2011, 08:07:29 PM
Quote from: Kid on March 19, 2011, 04:39:27 PM
i don't really understand what's so bad about itunes

all i want from a music player is an organized list of my music and to be able to play it - that's what itunes does

It uses an unnecessarily huge amount of memory (at least in Windows), it's bloated with Ping and that shit, and has poor tagging support.
It does, however, have smart playlists that don't seem to exist elsewhere and it's a lot simpler to tweak the interface to something I like than in foobar.

Also if you have something playing, switch to another playlist and try to pause it just stops the song :|

Quote from: MF Doom on March 19, 2011, 04:49:51 PM
I would honestly recommend using foobar for a few days and then going back to iTunes. Also I just figured out how to iPod sync with it and it's easy as hell. It's just a lot more streamlined, less bloated, and overall a better played IMO than iTunes.

Foobar isn't available for OS X, is it? akudood;
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on March 19, 2011, 08:12:46 PM
forgot kaz used osx lol
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: burzumfan420 on March 19, 2011, 08:17:43 PM
i use itunes on my windows comp and windows media player on my mac
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Daddy on March 19, 2011, 08:42:30 PM
I dislike folder based library support.  iTunes uses an actual database file though, which I like.  Also works fine on a mac
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Samus Aran on March 19, 2011, 10:13:46 PM
Quote from: Khadafi on March 19, 2011, 08:42:30 PM
I dislike folder based library support.  iTunes uses an actual database file though, which I like.  Also works fine on a mac


from what i recall, only the os x version of itunes uses a database file by default for libraries - the windows version didn't. i dunno if you can change that, or not.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: don't let's on March 19, 2011, 10:28:15 PM
I just use Zune now or WMP
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: LCK on March 19, 2011, 10:46:50 PM
Ever since I got my first iPod I had used iTunes as my main media player and it never gave me any problems until recently. It either crashes or it just won't open.
It's so god damn annoying akudood;

I just recently got a Zune though, and I'm warming up to the Zune Software. It's very nice. For the most part I'm still using iTunes, though, because there's no support for Last.FM with the Zune Software.
I'm aware of things like Zenses and shit but they've never worked correctly for me.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Daddy on March 21, 2011, 05:48:46 PM
Quote from: Kid on March 19, 2011, 10:13:46 PM
from what i recall, only the os x version of itunes uses a database file by default for libraries - the windows version didn't. i dunno if you can change that, or not.
Back when I used Windows it used a database also.

The XML file works just as well. It's how it builds the database.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: [hedy]Zidone on March 21, 2011, 06:59:51 PM
Also, lack of support for FLAC and ogg and shit

Also, in my experience, 75% of the time, it crashes every time trying to play M4A files.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: bluaki on March 21, 2011, 07:17:48 PM
I prefer keeping music organized by folder rather than artist, myself. Most of my songs are OSTs from games and such, so I organize their folders by the game although the composers and such sometimes aren't constant even in one soundtrack.

foobar is nice, but since I'm usually using Ubuntu, I stick with Rhythmbox and installed a plugin just for that folder-based browser view. I've tried and disliked the other Linux music players like Exaile and Amarok and prefer to avoid using Wine as much as I can.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on March 21, 2011, 08:05:07 PM
omg got last.fm working with foorbar, and it imports listens from my ipod
there goes the last thing that i was making me regret switching from itunes

also btw why does it show two tracks on my posts for recent plays?
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Thyme on March 21, 2011, 08:32:35 PM
Quote from: MF Doom on March 21, 2011, 08:05:07 PM
also btw why does it show two tracks on my posts for recent plays?


it's been like that for a very long time

the authorities that be don't know how to fix it
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on March 21, 2011, 09:43:12 PM
Quote from: Thyme on March 21, 2011, 08:32:35 PM
it's been like that for a very long time

the authorities that be don't know how to fix it

How come it only happens to certain users?
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Thyme on March 21, 2011, 10:27:57 PM
Quote from: MF Doom on March 21, 2011, 09:43:12 PM
How come it only happens to certain users?


It only does that when you're currently listening to music. When you're not it just shows the last song.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Daddy on March 21, 2011, 11:08:57 PM
Quote from: ZIDONE on March 21, 2011, 06:59:51 PM
Also, lack of support for FLAC and ogg and shit

Also, in my experience, 75% of the time, it crashes every time trying to play M4A files.
What crashes?


itunes supports ALAC though and it's not like you lose quality converting between flac and alac (lossless to lossless) and it supports flac with fluk (though that may be os x only).



why would iTunes crash on m4a files when that is what is sold through the itms?
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: [hedy]Zidone on March 22, 2011, 01:13:23 AM
Quote from: Khadafi on March 21, 2011, 11:08:57 PM
What crashes?


itunes supports ALAC though and it's not like you lose quality converting between flac and alac (lossless to lossless) and it supports flac with fluk (though that may be os x only).



why would iTunes crash on m4a files when that is what is sold through the itms?

When I try to play music files that are .m4a (I haven't tried other formats that aren't mp3) I just get a generic "itunes.exe has stopped working" message and I have to close it. It stops happening after about 3-5 attempts, then it comes back after some time.
I do have a single iTunes-purchased album that hasn't crashed in my experience. This also didn't happen before iTunes 10.
also it only happens if I try to play an M4A file for the first time in that session; it doesn't suddenly crash in the middle of an album or a song

I don't actually use FLAC much for listening purposes, but just using foobar works for that. (and it helps further segregate the glorious lossless master race from the lossy peasants)
and fluke does look like it's only for os x

also assuming that exporting the library gives a copy of the database file, is 56 mb normal for a library of about 10000 tracks? it seems to change dramatically when i remove just a few playlists, and i have a shit ton of those
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Daddy on March 22, 2011, 02:21:05 AM
Exporting the library gives an uncompressed xml file with xml data of every tag of every track, plus custom itunes tags and data. Playlists probably are similar

Uncompressed xml can be massive; zip or tarball the file and see how big it is.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: [hedy]Zidone on March 22, 2011, 02:44:20 AM
It compressed to about 2.64 mb with both zip and tar.gz, 1.27 mb with 7zip.

The uncompressed one I exported 3 days before this one was about 3 mb bigger; I didn't do much besides add around 30 tracks and delete a lot of unnecessary playlists.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: burzumfan420 on March 23, 2011, 06:50:38 PM
i only listen to tapes and  vinyls cos i dont have a computer
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on April 09, 2011, 07:47:03 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/pNnLV.png)
Just spent a couple hours customizing and organizing the shit out of foobar. This is why I love it, it's extremely simple and I can pretty much create my ideal music player. Everyone with windows should use it.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: Hiro on April 09, 2011, 08:06:51 PM
Seriously, foobar is the best wrench;
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: The Hand That Fisted Everyone on June 02, 2011, 07:47:04 AM
Hey guys i just got foobar, where can i get some cool themes n shit?
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on June 02, 2011, 09:33:30 AM
Quote from: Not Sid on June 02, 2011, 07:47:04 AM
Hey guys i just got foobar, where can i get some cool themes n shit?

You can do almost everything you want yourself, just fuck with the settings for a bit.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: The Hand That Fisted Everyone on June 02, 2011, 10:02:17 AM
there are some pretty badass ones out there though, things i couldn't do.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on June 02, 2011, 02:36:00 PM
show me these themes!
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: The Hand That Fisted Everyone on June 03, 2011, 01:27:59 AM
http://techsplurge.com/3316/15-foobar2000-skins-themes/
http://customize.org/foobar

there are also some on deviantart. However, I don't think any of these skins work with the current version of foobar. I haven't seen any skins for v.1.1.6 or whatever I have. foo flow looks pretty cool, but my rar extractor wouldn't extract it. I think it had something to do with my anti-virus.

anyways yeah.
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: strongbad on June 03, 2011, 02:57:59 AM
Quote from: Not Sid on June 03, 2011, 01:27:59 AM
http://techsplurge.com/3316/15-foobar2000-skins-themes/
http://customize.org/foobar

there are also some on deviantart. However, I don't think any of these skins work with the current version of foobar. I haven't seen any skins for v.1.1.6 or whatever I have. foo flow looks pretty cool, but my rar extractor wouldn't extract it. I think it had something to do with my anti-virus.

anyways yeah.

whoa those are sick
going to try some
Title: Re: Favorite Music Player
Post by: The Hand That Fisted Everyone on June 03, 2011, 03:59:36 AM
Quote from: MF Doom on June 03, 2011, 02:57:59 AM
whoa those are sick
going to try some
let me know if they work for you. I couldn't get a few to work.