Music Players & Converters
 

Since my introduction to .ape and .flac files, I've been searching around the net for a converter to allow me to play songs in my various external music devices. While I know there are many different types of converters available, many (almost 99.9%) of them are shareware. This means that the software will allow you some time before asking you to purchase the software and when this happens, you can usually find that nothing will work again until you pay up.

So this thread will be used to help people find good music players and converters, with the main aim of the software to be 'almost' totally free to use. You can post your favourite software with your personal comments to explain how good the program is, if its free, ease of use etc.


Music Players

Name: Nullsoft Winamp Player
Website: WINAMP.COM
Comments: When we first had Internet access, I used Windows Media Player to play my songs but found this program to be very buggy and eventually, after finding mp3 files, WMA would not play the files. After reading on various websites to learn how to play mp3 files, I tried downloading Winamp and couldn't believe the stability of the program (as well as being able to play mp3). Winamp is now apart of my list of 'mandatory-installed-programs' when I have to occasionally reformat my computers. Winamp's simple design and easy to use navigation makes it ideal for users who don't understand much about playing alternate music files on their computers. Boosted with an array of design skins and plugins which add even more functionality to this amazing stable program.


Music Converters

Name: dBpowerAMP
Website: dBpowerAMP
Comments: Thanks to Snowknight and seanne for their suggestions, I'm currenlty trying out this program to see the quality it can provide by changing one formart to another. Additional codecs can be downloaded from the same site to help in the conversion of other file types. I will include a more detailed comment for this program later.

Couldn't you just use foobar2000 to do this?
It's always worked for me.

dBpowerAMP

It's free, it's very easy to use and it can convert to/from any format you could possibly want to use (with the exception of protected files, such as .m4ps). This is probably the best all-round converter around.

Note that if you want to convert .ape files into a more hardware friendly format, it might be best to use the official compressor in order to simply unpack the original .wavs, instead of converting the .apes directly into another format.

Not for full-functionality.

READ HERE

Personally, I highly recommend Razorlame for it great customizability. Though I'm not sure what file types it accepts. Either way, if making an MP3, Razorlame and Lame 3.97beta2 is AMAZING. With such good MP3 encoding, what more could you need?

Also, I recommend the truly free BeLight. Though it is made more for video w/ audio applications, it can make AAC files, accepts AC3 input as well as various other formats. It is a GUI for a program called Besweet so it does require a bit of setup.

For true, all format loving with filters and, well, just amazing conversion for free, check out BeHappy. Easily the most comprehensive free tool for audio conversion/filtering. It is explained throughly at the link, and can use just about every encoder/codec to make whatever file you want.

Foobar2000 will do this easily. It's free, it plays nearly everything out of the box (without plugins) and has a builtin converter and masstagger far superior to winamps.

I recommend giving it a try: www.foobar2000.org

yeah just use foobar. i wouldn't even bother with anything else.

Really foobar2000 is for hard(er)core music listeners who want the best music quality, no fluff, just business; while WinAmp is for novice users (and those who want to play almost any digital music format concievable) plus it's skinnable out of the box. It'll take a while before foobar2000 reaches the format support of WinAmp (but really 99% of all music is still playable on foobar2000, it's those tricky gamerip formats that throw foobar2000).

Winamp - not available on my platform.

dbPowerAmp - not available on my platform.

foobar2000 - hideous, and not available on my platform.

Guess I'll stick with iTunes then. Does everything I need.

What makes foobar2000 so different that makes it for "hardcore music listeners," and the same to make Winamp for "novice users"?

They do the same thing, at the same level of quality. Why do some people insist they're on two completely different levels.

Nobody cares that you think you're special and that you feel the need to gloat that you use a Mac. Thanks for disgracing normal Mac users again.

Hey! Did I say that? Fuck you Merv. I was, in fact, pointing out that for me, THERE REALLY AREN'T ANY OPTIONS ANYWAY. I could use a few more features in iTunes, or if someone bothered to port one of the successful Windows players to OS X I'd certainly try it out. But no one has.

And honestly, this stupid personal beef you have with me really has to stop. It's very immature.

Not to "agree" with Merv Burger, but I too am wondering why you even posted. I guess it tells us what your status is with media players, but you definitely don't give us a reason to care in that post. And that leaves only that you are trying to say "I have a mac."

Now, if you had said, "I'm really happy using iTunes, but I have no other choice since there are no other media players that are good on Mac", I bet Merv wouldn't have said a thing.

I hope to own a macbook soon, so im not apple-hating, but you really should be a bit more conversational and less against-the-grain of windows PC discussions.

I stick by the 2nd generation of winamp, using 2.95, thankfully readily available over at OldVersion. With the correct plugins it can play and do everything you can throw at version 5, though much less of a bloat.

For my music converting / encoding needs I use CDex, mainy because it's the first thing I've ever used and it's done everything I've ever wanted it to, so why switch. I've been using both for years.

I too use 2.9x Winamp. It easily is great. I'm almost wishing I had someway of cataloging my music though. I used to have all my music in one folder, but windows explorer doesn't like that much, so now its all divided into folders and its hard for other people to browse my music. Maybe soon I'll try something else like foobar2000 or iTunes.

I've never heard of CDex, might give that a try. Does it work better than EAC, or have you ever tried E(xact)A(udio)C(opy)?

Dayvon, try using the Winamp Library (alt-L to access). It can keep track of boatloads of music through different folders without lagging (like iTunes does on my computer). You can also close the library when you aren't using it, so you can still have the tiny Winamp bar at the top of your screen.

LOL

I can't believe I never noticed this!!

...will now use Winamp 2.9x for the rest of life...

I only found out about it when hitting alt-L instead of ctrl-L to put in a link. =p