Correction: Muziic creator David Nelson's age was mistakely listed as 14. David is 15 years old. Apologies, David.
Most of us are likely very familiar with YouTube, the online video hosting and sharing service that lets anyone upload videos for a global audience. The site hosts a wide range of video content--from major motion-picture trailers to that guy down the street who films his own puppet shows.
Among YouTube's massive catalog lies a myriad of music videos, live musical performances, and other audio recordings that have been captured on video or converted to the Flash video format. You can watch and listen to historical footage of great blues musicians like Robert Johnson or the latest Top 40 music videos, and now you can do it in a standalone music player specifically built to listen to audio from YouTube.
The Muziic Player looks slick, yet leaves a heavy system footprint.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Muziic is a music player and converter developed by the son-and-father team of David and Mark Nelson. Fifteen-year-old David is the technical lead, having developed the actual software.
Muziic lets you create playlists of streaming-audio files from YouTube, as well as convert your own audio files for submission to the site. According to the creators, Muziic adheres to the YouTube terms of use (which is why it includes a little video player), but not everyone is so sure about that.
After you install and start Muziic, it might hang a little as it connects with the YouTube server. Then you'll see a list of genres like Alternative, Classical, etc., in the left-hand column and a list of random tracks in the main window. A search box above the main window lets you search for any artist, song, or keyword, while the left-hand window lets you browse genres by YouTube user. Clicking on any user will list tracks in the main window.
To start listening to music, click the plus sign next to any of the available songs in the main window to add them to your playlist. A basic set of player controls--play, pause, stop, next track, and previous track--sits in the upper left-hand corner, and the tiny video player mentioned above rests directly to its right. A full-screen button lets you expand the video if you so choose.
The playlist controls are placed in the top-right corner of the interface. When you click on the plus sign next to any song, it will immediately be placed into this playlist. You can save and load playlists for later listening, and a "Clear Playlist" button" lets you start all over.
The Muziic Player looks slick and works fairly well, but it does use quite a bit of system memory, akin to Mozilla Firefox with many tabs open. I also found that while listening to an active playlist in Muziic, browsing the Internet via Firefox or any other browser slowed down considerably.
The standalone Muziic Encoder is a nice bonus. The simple tool lets you select an image (for the video) and an MP3 file, then it creates a formatted video version of your song that you can upload to YouTube directly from the Muziic interface.
For more about Muziic, read Greg Sandoval's report on CNET News. Better yet, give it a try and tell us what you think in the comments.
Miranda IM lacks the slick design of many instant-messaging programs, but makes up for it by supporting most IM clients in one fully customizable package. There's also a portable edition, designed for carrying around on a USB key. Like Pidgin or Trillian, it's easy to add your various IM accounts--including AIM, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN--and you'll have the same icons and status messages for each program. You can even manage the personal information for all your accounts from one central control panel.
Miranda IM's plain, gray instant-messaging window offers just the basics for typing and viewing messages; you won't find the text formatting options, heavy-duty emoticons, or links that a program like Yahoo Messenger offers. You will find numerous options to customize how chat or IM windows behave, including a handy option to have messages from a specific person always appear in the same location on your screen. You also can assign hot keys for a few actions, like opening the program or reading a message.
Miranda forces users to give up some of the unique features of the individual-IM programs, but it allows you to conveniently monitor and manage many of your chat and messaging programs in one place.
During installation, you have to be careful if you don't want to set JetAudio Basic as the default application for audio and video files. However, the freeware application gives you plenty of reasons to make it your only player.
The interface has a modern design that looks like an equalizer. You can customize each section of the program, from CD ripping to format conversion, to your heart's content. The program can convert files among some a number of formats, as well as read and edit MP3 tags. The built-in Cross-fader, Reverb, and Wide-sound modes provide a nice touch not found in most MP3 players. The program becomes truly unique with its clock, however, which features a timer and an alarm. We also appreciate the inclusion of a tool for seeking out song lyrics.
One quibble is it treats a playlist as an album but uses the artist as its primary key field, making it difficult to locate mixes. Still, JetAudio's appealing feature set should attract audiophiles.
FoxyTunes inserts a music player control panel into the Status Bar of Firefox and Internet Explorer, eliminating the scramble to switch windows so you can skip that Barry Manilow ditty you forgot to delete from your collection. The interface is easy to use and is highly customizable.
When opened, it shows a navigation array with buttons for Play, Pause, Mute, Next Track, Last Track, Volume, and the useful Show Player, which brings your music player to the front. There's also a Hide Player button, as well as a music Search tool, keyboard shortcuts, skins, and a mini player that places the application controls on your desktop as long as your browser is running.
Supported players include iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer, XMPlay, and Last.fm, as well as nearly two dozen others and a "custom player" option. Lyric and album art searches are complemented by skins, native music discovery, and automatic ''Now Playing'' inserts into your blog posts and Twitter feed. FoxyTunes' strengths are in the depth of available features plus the level of customization. Its weaknesses? Only that you'll wish all add-ons were this good.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Power Downloader's life is not always spent catching criminals and traveling the world. Every once in awhile, Power has to do tedious tasks like processing documents, adding content to a database, and organizing files. When repetitive work needs to get done on his computer, Power likes to listen to his favorite music to pass the time.
There are several good music applications to choose from, but some are stronger at certain things than others, and Power knows that not everyone uses the same program. Most people's music applications change over time and according to specific needs (like iTunes for managing music on an iPod for example), but one classic program has always been high on Power Downloader's list of favorite music applications: Winamp.... Read more
You might love your iPod or other portable music player, but can it play OGG and FLAC files? How about a game of Pong? Tom Merritt shows you how to install Rockbox, an open-source operating system for digital music players.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with the developers of MXPlay, beta jukebox software that lets you mash up your music with streaming movies, letting you create your own virtual music videos.
More interesting than the mashup features, however, is MXPlay's unique playback interface. A graphical interface lets you control the location of the listening audience and the position and direction of your speakers. Letting you tweak your own "room" does create better-sounding tunes. The MXPlay folks were very happy to compare its playback sound to that of iTunes, and I must admit I could tell the difference.
That got me thinking a bit about the existing digital music players for PC. There are a ton of great all-in-one jukeboxes on CNET Download.com for managing your library, making playlists, burning CDs, and syncing your portable devices, but how do they sound when playing music?
MediaMonkey is my personal favorite music-management and playlist software, but when it comes to listening to music, I generally use Quintessential Player, which has a similar plug-in architecture as the classic free music player Winamp. A variety of plug-ins let me customize the sound for headphones or my full stereo system.
JetAudio Basic is yet another powerful free music player with customizable sound, and Foobar2000 is the geek-chic pick for playing your tunes, but what's your favorite? Which digital music software do you use when you've got a party and you need the best sound? Tell me about it in the comments.
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