Foobar2000 or Winamp?

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Kuyt

Gawd
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Jan 21, 2007
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563
Which is better in terms of sound quality in playback?

Also, aren't there plugins to enhance the sound in foobaR?
 
Kuyt said:
Which is better in terms of sound quality in playback?

Also, aren't there plugins to enhance the sound in foobaR?
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No difference at all in terms of sound quality. Whatever you're going to hear is due to placebo effect.

As far as organization and layout, foobar is way superior if you get a good config. I'm currently using this one.

FOOAvA_1_04_by_dawxxx666.png
 
Actually, you can use kernel streaming in Foobar (Or the Asio4all plugin), which bypasses windows' default tuner, for bit-perfect music.
 
Secret Rabbit Code Resampler for Foobar is also widely regarded as one of the best software based resamplers. Plus, you get things like Dolby Headphone support and high quality software Crossfeed DSP's. Noise sharpening for Foobar many like as well.
 
There is a ASIO plugin for both Winamp and Foobar. For winamp. I use a Asio plugin I cant remember the name of it, then some times I uses audioburst.
 
I use both..Winamp for Internet Radio..Videos ..Foobar for my music
 
Foobar is probably the most amazing piece of music management software ever. The tagging functions are amazing.
 
Foobar looks like an awesome music program, but I'm very confused at the complex settings. I barely know what half the settings mean. Did you guys rely on the FAQ from the website to figure things out, or did you find a tutorial of some sort?
 
What do you guys use for ripping mp3's? I use iTunes but foobar seems to change the track listings for some albums and not recognize some of the album art.... any ideas there?

Also, is there a place to down load themes (like the sexy one above :))?
 
I use mediamonkey if I actually want to "use" the player...
With foobar, i just find myself wasting too much time configuring it, and even as a CS major, I find it's not worth the trouble.
 
Foobar is a pain in the ass to get customized, but the more time you spend with it and learn it, it gets much MUCH better. I only use foobar to experiment with theming. Winamp for day to day music.
 
I really like winamp, imo. I just like the crossfading effect, and it just feels more snappier to me. Been using it for years.
 
GPUCommando said:
I just googled FOOAvA 1.04 and installed. That was a pain in the ass....
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Eh, really? I guess gathering the components is a little annoying, but his older releases came with the components, so all I had to do was just use the install.exe and it was done.
 
Foobar any day of the week.

The 0.9.5.1 version has a new UI that makes getting a pleasant interface much easier. Import a premade theme from around the net if you are lazy.
 
One more vote for foobar, been using it for 5 years now. The music playback might not be anything better than winamp unless you really go knee deep into the customization of plugins, but it's not any worse either.

What I think makes foobar stand out is that it's more of an all around music utility. I find myself using the CD ripping, conversions, mass tagging, freedb lookups, mp3gain, etc all the time. It also lets you customize all of those utilities completely. WinAmp might be able to do all that now, I haven't used it it many years, but foobar puts it all right there for you on the right click menu.

I love the playlist organization as well, you really can't beat it. I use it to build playlists for burning or for parties, etc it's a very easy to use system. All you have to do is drag and drop or tell it which tab to send songs to, export the list to whatever format floats your boat and you can then import that into whatever burning app you use (it does have one built in but I'm stubborn and like to use professional burning tools rather than the built in variety).

You can also make the playlist display as streamlined and simple as you want to or go all out with graphics and whatnot like that FOOAvA shot. Foobar has a tiny footprint for everything that it can do. As I said before I haven't used WA in awhile but I remember it being a tad bloated when I left it for greener pastures.

It isn't the most straightforward application to delve into, but programs that have this degree of customization rarely are. If you've got the time and patience to learn about everything it can do you will be handsomely rewarded. If you're more of a leisurely listener then stick with winamp, foobar won't offer you anything more so why waste the time learning something else.
 
for a long time i used winamp 2.xx and didn't want to upgrade to a higher version since i thought they became to bloated. then i discovered foobar and now i'm satisfied.
out of the box it's a basic music player even for weaker machines but you could customize it way beyond that if you wan't.
 
I've always been a Winamp user.
I tried Foobar on a couple different occasions, but I could never get any nice looking downloaded themes/customizations to work. :(
I'd be using it if I could find a nice customization download that I really liked and I could get it to work...
 
Yellowcard - Paper Walls is an awesome album aznpxdd!!

Oh and I still use Foobar2k version .8.3. I didn't like any of the .9x versions period. All over .8.3 with the special plugins :D. It's simple, it's clean and the global shortcuts ROCK.
 
Foobar. So it's a little more complex. It's the kind of thing you learn something new on every day and one day you can't even take Winamp seriously any more.
 
I used Winamp3 all through college with the MMD3 skin. Now I use Winamp5 with the MMD3 skin.

It's the only skin I can stand (in horizontal mode). I had to go to Winamp5 'cause my playlist got too big and Winamp3 would crash.
 
GJSNeptune said:
I used Winamp3 all through college with the MMD3 skin. Now I use Winamp5 with the MMD3 skin.

It's the only skin I can stand (in horizontal mode). I had to go to Winamp5 'cause my playlist got too big and Winamp3 would crash.
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^Thanks for referencing that skin! I've had a hard time finding a good skin to use, mainly because the majority of skins are so small. This is the best skin I've seen so far.

I'm sticking with Winamp because I don't have much time for customizing and tinkering with Foobar. Using the label someone else in this thread said, I'm just a leisurely listener. The sound quality is mostly what I care about, and Winamp gives me that.
 
Speaking of Winamp and ASIO, I'm not sure if I installed it properly. That Otachan site is mostly Japanese, but I downloaded the 7zip file. After digging around, I found the out_asio.dll file (not sure exactly what it's called) in the bin (I think) folder. I put that in my Winamp/plugins folder. Is that all I needed to do?
 
pref>plugins>output
select asio out
you need to install and asio driver such as asio4all if you don't have one onboard
 
GJSNeptune said:
Speaking of Winamp and ASIO, I'm not sure if I installed it properly. That Otachan site is mostly Japanese, but I downloaded the 7zip file. After digging around, I found the out_asio.dll file (not sure exactly what it's called) in the bin (I think) folder. I put that in my Winamp/plugins folder. Is that all I needed to do?
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That plugin for Winamp worked 98% of the time for me. It would occasionally crash or cut short between tracks.

I switched over to Foobar, and immediately found a ASIO plug-in to use. Haven't had any problems with it.
 
I've tried Foobar a few times, but I don't have the patience to configure it, nor do I want to see album art or have big graphics on my screen. The MMD3 skin in horizontal mode offers me all I need while taking up not even half an inch.

If someone configured a Foobar MMD3 skin, I'd be all over it. :D
 
been using foobar .9 with the elegance "skin"

clean and simple

also i couldnt live with out the file converter in foobar
 
I've been using WinAmp since the beta days, that puts my usage at about 11 years. :eek: I still use the classic skins I got back when 2.X first came out. Small and simple.

audi0slave said:
I've been using Foobar since about 4 years ago, after discovering the flac format.. :cool:
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I've been using WinAmp to listen to all of my flac files. It has fully supported it for a while and has had plug-ins before that for a long time. I recently just re-ripped my entire CD collection into flac using WinAmp Pro. Worked perfectly and was pretty damn quick.
 
Foobar is a pain in the ass to configure. There's help, but it's poorly organized and spotty. The player itself is quite a pig; it causes page faults at a rate that I previously thought impossible.

But I haven't found anything I like better.
 
As everyone else has said Foobar is the better choice. It's biggest drawback is lack or file organization, but it is fully customizable and lightweight.
 
I admit that I've stared in bemused horror at foobar2000's UI configuration bits and then run off screaming, but for straight music playback it's one of the best players going. (I think XMplay has actually eclipsed it for sheer lack of bloat, but its UI elements are quirky in a couple of small but annoying ways.)
 
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