Winamp

[s.meyers]

Not sure if anybody knows about this free program called winamp,but it's great.It's faster than RealPlayer,WindowsMediaPlayer and probably also faster than QuickTime.You add files into the prog. til you have a desired playlist(which if you know what you want takes about 2 minutes)Then it may slow your computer down like a second playing all the music non-stop,but what doesn't?

You can get it here http://www.winamp.com/player/

It offers to go Pro,you don't need to unless you want a few extra features but its around 15 a month.Click the free on if you want it.It's good.Just thought I'd let you guys know about a free little program that's really good.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I used Winamp back in the early days of mp3... probably back around 1995 or so. Since then, I found Musicmatch's "free" (nag screen) version to be far easier to use but then again, I haven't tried Winamp in a long time. However, I like Musicmatch so much, I'll not be switching anytime soon. FWIW, back in the day, Musicmatch used a better ripper than Winamp. I don't know if that's still true.

Later,
Kevin

[clave]

I used MusicMatch for a couple of years, then went to Media Jukebox -- upgraded to Media Center this past summer. I think Media Center is better than MusicMatch, but that's due to their database organization and tagging options.

I also like Media Center's ripper, and there's support for a ton of file formats.

[shawn·m]

I used to be a Musicmatch user (wife still is). These days I rip with EAC, encode with RazorLame and playback with Windows Media. Despite having a 120 gig external dedicated to music, I don’t really have an interest in play lists and those kind of extras. If I were looking for an all-in-one solution, I’d probably choose WinAmp for its smaller size. Assuming WinAmp is still the smaller of the two.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I used to be a Musicmatch user (wife still is). These days I rip with EAC, encode with RazorLame and playback with Windows Media. Despite having a 120 gig external dedicated to music, I don’t really have an interest in play lists and those kind of extras. If I were looking for an all-in-one solution these days, I’d probably choose WinAmp for its smaller size. Assuming WinAmp is still the smaller of the two.

Shawn, EAC never used to come with a LAME encoder. Did it change? That was my only concern with using EAC, which is a great tool. I figure if I go with a pckaged ripper like Winamp or Musicmatch, the LAME "engine" will get updated if there is an improvement. EAC required me to keep up to date on encoders.

Kevin

[shawn·m]

They’re still separate applications. Both are very good at what they do, both are very small but loaded with options that I do use (some not available with WinAmp/MusicMatch. Lame updates fairly regularly, but I think the current version of EAC has been around for quite a while. Never, ever had a problem of any kind with this set up and the flexibility can’t be beat. Incidentally, EAC doesn’t require you to update Lame encoders, updating is just another option.

One nice feature of EAC? Comes with a wave editor.

[clave]

I don't need 90% of what's provided in Media Center, but the other 10% was worth the cost for me.