foobar2000
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. It is a convenient and flexible media player that can be customized to suit your specific needs and preferences.
Foobar2000 does need a fair amount of time to tweak and setup, but once you are done you can use it in just about any way you need to manage your media library.
Key Features include:
Supported audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, and SND.
Gapless playback.
Full unicode support.
Easily customizable user interface layout.
Advanced tagging capabilities.
Support for ripping Audio CDs as well as transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component.
Full ReplayGain support.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
Open component architecture.
When you first install and setup the interface appears a tad bleak, but in reality it hides some powerful features and a vast array of customizable options. You can choose the Quick Setup option, or you can go make individual selections regarding the type of information you would like to see displayed. If you need, there are skins available to download as well.
Foobar2000 is a great audio tool to have in your collection of apps. It is lightweight, has a small operating footprint and has some nice features. It has full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats. On the downside, it isn’t that easy to navigate if you are a novice. However, there is some help documentation available to assist those less experienced users.
