Software MP3 Shootout

In order to play MP3s on your PC you need a software program to facilitate the format. In the early days of MP3, a program called Winamp was pretty much all that was out there. Today Winamp is still going strong, but you also have players from Real Networks, Creative Labs, Microsoft and many others in the pipeline. What’s nice about these players is that, unlike the hardware business, there is no such thing as a “high end” or “low end” as the quality of MP3 playback is identical. Best of all MP3 software is free.
Let’s look at a number of different players so you can choose which one best suit your MP3 needs:

Winamp (Nullsoft) – This is the original workhorse for your MP3-playing needs. It consists of a simple rectangle, which holds all of its features and controls of the program as well as a separate box for the play list. This play list box can be any size you desire; I keep it as a nice-sized right above the main player. If the main player is moved, the play list follows suit. The player can utilize skins (change the way the player looks) that can be downloaded from the Winamp home page; some improve its ease of use while others hinder it. In addition, different types of visualizations can be downloaded. These are usually animations that “move” to the best of the music. Some require the computer to have a video card with 3D acceleration capabilities before the animations can be used. All in all, there are very few faults with this player.

Sonique (Lycos) – This is a popular player, although not to the degree of Winamp. After spending some time with it, I can see why. Its file size is larger than Winamp but this added size allows it to have some features that Winamp is lacking. Sonique has the ability to playback fancy animations as the background of the player, which can also be maximized to the extent of your monitor. Also, the typeface is clean and easy to see. One neat feature of it is how you can right-click on the music-playing window to bring up the option menu-- normally, you need to select it from a title bar or a separate list of options. While Winamp does this, Sonique goes a step further and has the skin reshape the program instead of just the internal color scheme and patterns. All in all, it is a nice looking player, and is great for showing off its quality interface and special features, but for everyday use, I think I’ll stick with my trusty Winamp, due to its more efficient size.

Real Jukebox (Real Networks) – Real Networks became exceedingly popular due to the widespread use of their RealPlayer. This product allows you to watch CNN, Comedy Central, and other video stations over the Internet, as well as listen to radio stations streamed over the Internet. The Real Jukebox plays MP3s, and it also serves as an audio ripper and encoder. These features allow the user to take tracks from an audio CD and convert them into MP3 files. The only problem with their ripper/encoder is that the maximum ripping rate of the free version is only 96 kbps. If you need to go any higher, you must pay for the full-featured version of the Jukebox. The player’s file is also too large, and it still doesn’t look nearly as sleek as that of Sonique. I’d skip it.

LAVA Player (Creative Labs) – This player kept crashing when I tried running it. Creative Labs didn’t respond to my plea of help. It appears to have a main purpose of entertaining its users, not being a direct competitor to Winamp. Its trademark feature is that it reads the MP3 file and displays an animated character, which dances and spins to the beat of the song. The animation is very smooth and has had a lot of work spent on it. For this feature only, I’d recommend checking it out, but as an everyday player, I prefer Winamp or even Sonique.

Musicmatch Jukebox (Musicmatch) – The major selling point to this player is its abilities to rip music tracks at a maximum rate of 160 kbps. Its initial shareware release didn’t allow that, but with version 5.0, you can rip all you like and never pay a dime. The player itself is useable, although it doesn’t allow you to skip to an earlier or later part of the song by clicking on the appropriate section of the song’s progress bar. This is a useful feature that should have been implemented. Also, under the Options menu you can click on an option to “Add New Features”. I figured the program would have some neat plug-in animations, so I clicked this. Much to my avail, all that was there was an animated analyzer and nothing else. It does have options to control the attachment of a portable MP3 player, so you can use Musicmatch if your player’s software is sub par. This one is up there with Sonique and Winamp, although I’d choose the former two if I had a choice.

Windows Media Player (Microsoft) – I know everyone expects the almighty Microsoft to come with the absolute best software for every type of application. While I like Office and Windows products (not like I have a choice), their MP3-playing Media Player has a problem similar to that of the Real Jukebox: it’s huge. I don’t know about you, but I like to keep my tunes rollin’ in the background while I’m writing a paper or surfing the W³. Gates deserves some accolades for making good-looking and easily accessible visualizations and you can shrink the program into a small box with numerous shapes and sizes, but none are as nice as the aforementioned Winamp. Another feature is the ability to rip tracks from CD’s at a maximum rate of 160kbps, which is a much better rate than the Real Jukebox. Also, the left side of the full-screen allows you to switch from playing a media file, to listening to the radio, to viewing the current list of files you have on your portable MP3 player. Very cool-- all in all, it’s a good effort.

Conclusion
I’m going to stick with my Winamp. I do applaud the efforts by Lycos and Microsoft. Musicmatch is OK. Creative should work on making their player applicable for everyday use, but their animations are the best of the bunch. Other than its ripping capabilities, Real Player is at the bottom of the barrel.

By Russ Ain