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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 1.1.13 has fixed ID3v2 regressions from version 1.1.12.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 136 votes
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Current version:
5.0 starsout of 1 votes
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My rating:
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"Small, fast, free, yet the most powerful"
Version: Foobar2000 1.1.13
Pros
Powerful
FAST. Load in 2 seconds with 80K library
Play DVD Audio, DTS, and AC3 files
bit perfect output to my amplifier
Sound quality. It's just so natural. iTunes is boomy, and WMP is muddy. foobar2000 is just perfect. Clear high, tight bass punch, and balanced mid range.Cons
No Linux, and developer has been blatantly rejected linux port. I've seen people willing to shed $100 for anyone that can port foobar2000 to linux. I am upping the ante for $150. Most people that can't live without foobar anymore are using WINE, but I sense some quality problem when played under WINE. We need native linux foobar2000.
Summary
If you think other player powerful, think again. Can they use filter? Can they use wildcard? Can they use tag template? Can they reorganize music based on ID3 tag? custom folder and file name? Search 80,000 files in a flash? Library refresh on the fly? 40M memory footprint while playing FLAC? ASIO support? Steinberg VST? WASAPI support? resampler? Bit converter? downmix-upmix? loadable equalizer? transcoding and converting selective files by filter?
Oh, been using this for 9 years now, and the only software that made me buy windows 7. Microsoft should thank foobar2000.
Updated on Jul 16, 2012
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