When comparing MusicBee vs foobar2000, the Slant community recommends foobar2000 for most people. In the question 'What are the best music players for listening to high quality audio (FLAC etc)?' Foobar2000 is ranked 1st while MusicBee is ranked 2nd. I've tried loads of them, the best three for me were MusicBee, Songbird, and Foobar2000. I use MusicBee now and see no reason to change. It does everything required. Foobar2000 is simple, but the playlists kept messing up for me. I spent hours organising everything, and it all garbled itself.
There is no limit on how much a music player application can do. From customizing its looks, to changing equalizer settings in a jiffy to correctly identifying tags from their music libraries. They always demand more.
Over the years, I’ve tried many players, right from Windows’ own Media Player to the much loved (and missed) Winamp.But, rather than remiss the ol’ days let’s talk about 2 modern players and which one of these you should choose.or? Who will win this battle? MusicBee over Foobar2000 More FunctionalityThere’s just way more things built into MusicBee. Not only can it manage all your audio media files, but it supports all major audio formats including MP3, AAC, M4A, MPC, OGG, FLAC, APE, Opus, TAK, WV, WMA and WAV.
It can manage and create new playlists, also has the ability to make its own ‘smart’ playlists based on custom filters and also has integration for Podcasts (much ).Right below, there are also tabs for Audiobooks, Radio, Inbox and History. The others are self explanatory, with the History showing your recently played music and so on, except Inbox. I didn’t quite understand how we are supposed to send and receive messages via this application.
Anyway, it’s not like I want to, I’ve got plenty of mailboxes to worry about another.It doesn’t end there. MusicBee also allows you to control your equalizer settings a lot better than others.
Hit that EQ button on the bottom right and another pop-up window will show you what you can do here, including importing your Winamp settings to customize your DSP output just the way you want.There are presets available too, in case you don’t want to spend too much time here. There is also an option to adjust the EQ to a 15-band channel rather than the default 10.
A nice touch.What’s more, there is also an option to switch to a Mini Player by hitting the MusicBee icon on the top left, then going to View and selecting Mini Player.The default view only shows you the name of the song playing with the artists name, but hover your mouse over it and you get even more controls, as shown below.Here, you got more controls like skipping tracks and managing the volume. Hitting the hamburger icon opens a pop-up window which shows the Now Playing queue. This is handy to choose which song in your long queue you want to jump to without losing the Mini Player view. Little Things MatterIf you’re like me and love customizing things just the way you want, then you won’t be disappointed with MusicBee. Right-click on the panel on the right which shows the Track Information and then click Customize Panel Settings and you’ll see how you can pretty much change the whole look of this player.You can change the font, the opacity of the floating window and the placement of panels.
There literally is so much going on here that you can perhaps spend an entire day customizing the player just the way you want.If the looks aren’t a big deal for you, then there’s still more. (Yes, no jokes). Just like the default Windows Media Player, MusicBee also gives you a nice option to pause the music playing by simply hovering your mouse over it in the taskbar. A handy option especially when you want to take a call or switch over tofoobar2000 doesn’t have this feature, which made me wonder why did those guys did not include it?Also, once a song finishes (and assuming the application is minimized to the taskbar) there is a pop-up on the right bottom corner which gives you the details of the new song that started playing. Foobar2000 over MusicBee Good Things in Small Packagesfoobar2000 is a favorite among a lot of audio enthusiasts I know personally,. These folks are the ones who don’t want too many features, but more granular control over the files they are listening to and doing things quickly.
Looks can be deceptive, though.foobar2000 is light weight, launches quickly and within a second of hitting the song you want, it will start playing. That is not always the same with MusicBee, with it taking more than 5 or more seconds to load a song. It might not seem like much, but people are known to be impatient in this world of. (Or so I’m told). Customizations Should Be EasyThe basic DNA of this application seems to be simplicity. Yes, you can customize foobar2000 as well, but it won’t take a whole day. Go to View Layout Quick setup and here you can change the layout colors, how the layout should look and playlists layout.There is a nice option to view different albums by genre or by artist and so on, easily done from a drop-down menu.
Right below that is the Spectrum which keeps jumping along with the current song that is being played and shows the values in dBs. Right below it is a nice addition, details of the file being played without clicking anywhere. It’s a persistent notification and something I missed sorely in MusicBee.Like Foobar2000? Then try out to make it more awesome and don’t let the minimal look fool you. Drumroll for The Winner!With its myriad of options and Podcasts, Radio and other integrations (it has too, but I just couldn’t figure out how to get it working!) there is no doubt in my mind that MusicBee is the clear choice here. Granted, there are many ways to optimize foobar2000, but that takes quite a bit of tinkering.But, that’s just me. If you think otherwise, let me know which player you prefer and while discussing it in the comments section below.Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018.
Foobar2000 music player for Windows is not for the faint hearted. It’s for the tinkerers, the curious and the patient.
If you get the hang of it, it’s. Don’t believe it?.Foobar2000 is like Lego for music players. It’s built with bricks (referred to as panels and components interchangeably, in layman’s terms) and you’re free to arrange the bricks however you please. But this also brings a challenge because an empty canvas is overwhelming.We’ve already talked about the best ways to build a UI suitable to your needs in the linked article above, so today let’s focus on adding functionality and components. How To Install Components (Plugins)All the supported components are listed but you’re free to download it from anywhere. Once downloaded, to a destination you rememberOpen Foobar2000, go to Library - Configure and select Components from the left menu.
You can either select the Install button and browse to the location of the downloaded file or just drag and drop the file to the components list. Select Apply to install the components, you should know that it will require restarting the app. How To Configure Plugins In The Default InterfaceSo you downloaded some plugins to and other stuff. How do you add them to the UI? Let me show you.Go to View - Layout and click Enable Layout Mode. This means you’re now free to move the Lego bricks around. Now go to any panel you want to switch out or add stuff to, and right-click on it.Click on Replace UI Element and you’ll get a list of app level functions and at the end will be your downloaded components under the Utility banner.
Select the one you want, click OK and the panel will be replaced.If don’t want to replace it, select Splitter from the list. It will split the panel into half and give you a blank panel. From there right-click and add a new component just like you did above. The Best Plugins For Foobar2000 1. Columns UIThe first recommended plugin for any Foobar2000 beginner is the one that brings a different take on the UI. Takes a columnar approach to the layout and makes it much easier to swap out or add new components. After you’ve installed the plugin, go to Layout and select Live Editing.Now right-click on any component and you get options to switch out panels, add separators and new components directly in this menu, as you can see in the screenshot below.
It’s much easier this way. Lyrics Show PanelNo power user’s music player is complete without a lyrics plugin and is the best option for Foobar2000. AudioscrobblerUse and discover new music? For Foobar2000. Graphic EqualizerEvery sound system can use a bit of customization, especially the computer speakers. Get the audio output just the way to want with. Podcatcheris an easy way to download and listen to the latest episodes from.
You’ll have to input the RSS feed manually but once you’ve done that, you’re all set. Discogs TaggerThe last thing you want in a superbly customized music player is songs without proper metadata. Uses the website’s generous repository of song metadata to bring your song collection up to date with data and album art. Playlist OrganizerOrganize your playlists in a branched tree fashion (like folders) for easy navigation with.
Your Foobar2000What does your Foobar2000 look like? Out of this world? Show us in the comments below.Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018.