CNET Editors' review
This venerable and free alternative audio player has long been appreciated by hard-core customization enthusiasts, but Foobar2000 isn't just for early adopters or software jukebox fetishists. It doesn't mess with fancy buttons or bright colors, instead preferring a utilitarian, straightforward user interface to let the music speak for itself.
Foobar2000 uses tabs and panels to help the user navigate its plain, but functional, user interface. You can customize the interface using several layout options. Menu options and recognizable command buttons reside at the top of the window. Two panels, each with tabbed menus, reside on the left side of the window. From there, you can view the album list and the properties of a selected artist or song. You'll also find tabs for viewing a spectrogram, a spectrum, and VU meter of music currently being played. The largest panel displays track lists. Using the menu options, we were able to successfully pull music files from a CD, load them into the player, play them without issues, and save them as MP3s or WAVs. You can also display album art, and synchronize with portable players including iPods.
Though we would have liked to have seen a built-in help feature, the program does include a link that takes users to an FAQ page through the publisher's site. Both novice and advanced users will appreciate this program's easy navigation and straightforward style. Although many people might prefer a jukebox that looks more like iTunes, we highly recommend Foobar2000.
Publisher's Description
From Peter Pawlowski:
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint, and native support for several popular audio formats.
What's new in this version: Version 1.1.11 improves built-in crossfading functionality and fixes some potential security issues.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 129 votes
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Current version:
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My rating:
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"Highly customizable music player."
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.10
Pros
Plays many codes and even more if you know how to install extension, very customizable if you can do the same.
Cons
Have used it for a almost 2 years now and no problems as of yet.
Except not easily syncing to pmp'sSummary
Great free music player that is simply amazing.
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"Simply the best of the bests mini players"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.10
Pros
Easy to modify (Well if not installing a skin that is)
Fast
Portable
Cute when not skinned and when isCons
None so far and I've been using it for a year
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"Kept stopping"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.9
Pros
none at all
Cons
Foobar would play music and then stop about every ten seconds and then start again. Totally useless.
Summary
Useless
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"Simply the best that i could find. And it is free."
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.8
Pros
It takes some effort to understand how to navigate in its options and to set it right. But then it is simply the best music player i could find. Add some skin if you wish. You even can show album arts adding plugin.
Cons
Though with simplistic GUI, it has so many features you can get lost!
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"The answer to every music organisational problem"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.8
Pros
-Easy tagging
-File organisation and operations
-Replay gain
-Built-in (with the addition of LAME) file conversion
-Basic controls
-Easy customisation/addition of global hotkeys
-Advanced library searching/access featuresCons
-Perhaps not as pretty as some of the other media players out there. Learning curve is perhaps a little steep for the not-very-technically inclined.
Summary
Absolutely incredible and powerful beyond words. Its ability to organise files, its advanced tagging and the simplicity of its plugins make this music player my one and only.
Its very basic, little-to-no memory footprint, simple visualizer and advanced file operations are worth getting. Every time I say to myself "Geez, I wish there was a way to (insert something to do with digital audio here)", there's an answer with foobar. I recently discovered podcatcher, for keeping track of podcasts. It seems there really isn't anything this thing can't do, and I love it. -
"good easy to use mp3 player"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.8 beta 6
Pros
simple easy to understand light weight easy on memory mp3 player
Cons
none, exactly what i wanted, just a simple mp3 player
Summary
i got fed up of windows media player with its huge memory hogging, its desire to randomly litter my mp3 archives with unwanted album art and its sheer clunkyness. Just wanted a simple, easy to use mp3 player. foobar2000 is lightweight, extremly small, works on windows 7 64 bit and plays all my mp3's, just what i was looking for. With my video playback needs handled by media player classic i will never need to launch crappy windows media player again :)
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"Resume is built in, lots of plugins, marvelous"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.8 beta 2
Pros
Lots of plug-ins which you can update from within the client. Loads quickly. Resumes playback without hassle when listening to 'talk radio' for example. Never seems to crash. Isn't bloated with junk or trying to sell you anything.
Cons
File-output is a lot of manual downloading of codecs (that would be asking a lot of a free application though)
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"recommended media player"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.7 beta 6
Pros
easy to use
Cons
none so far
Summary
great app!
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"Excellent music player especially for FLAC files"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.7 beta 5
Pros
Lots of codecs available
Cons
Not the best of interfaces
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"Fast, simple, very compatible, pure"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.6 beta 3
Pros
Fast
Low memory usage
Pure sound
Plays almost every format
Highly adjustableCons
Pretty simple in interface , which I think is a pro, but for some it is a con
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