The standard Linux Pulse Audio sub-system default will transcode audio by default.ĥ.1 audio is frequently reduced to stereo and then fake surround created. Until MS deceptive data-mining ‘forced’ me into Linux I loved the bit-perfect playback of foodbar 2000.
Linux Multi-media Desktops are about 10 years behind Windows especially the degradation in sound quality and networking speed. Many don’t and instead force crappy Pulse Audio. It’s essential to select a Linux music application which implements ALSA sound sub-system.
Audacious is an addition to the list of excellent audio players. I mostly use Musicbee/Foobar2000/MediaMonkey (sometimes AIMP or Winamp 2.95) on Windows, and Clementine/Cantata on Linux.
The Winamp skins worked flawlessly, including the roll-up player.Ī portable version of Audacious is available at the downloads page. The majority of my tests were done with headphones plugged in, but the speaker output was crisp as well. It never hiccuped once and the cross-fade is excellent. Closing WordsĪudacious was able to play any audio file I threw at it including FLAC lossless format audio files. Refer to Martin's article for more Winamp skins.
Note: You will need root permission to access the share folder. Place them in a folder and move it to the location mentioned above.
Download the WSZ, and convert all the BMP images in the archive to PNG (use Paint or any other editor). Note: The Windows version only supports PNG theme files.
How to add Winamp skins in Audaciousĭownload any Winamp Skin (.WSZ format), extract the archive into a folder, and move the folder to the following location. There are a few themes pre-loaded in the installer but you can add more. So, if you want the mini-player experience switch to the Winamp interface from Audacious' Settings. Winamp's minimal interface has always been my favorite. Note: The LyricsWiki plugin doesn't work on Windows. The lyrics are displayed in a pop-up pane but you can't customize anything related to it. LyricsĪudacious gets lyrics for the playing track from. Some plugins open a pop-up window to display additional elements (album art, visualization, lyrics.). To enable a plugin just click on its name. Plugins include decoders, visualization, audio effects, album art and more. One of Audacious' biggest strengths is that it has a lot of plugins all of the plugins are included in the installer. The View menu has toggles for various UI elements such as the menu bar, info bar, status bar. The record stream option is handy if you wish to save a streaming audio to your library. The services menu can be used to access the plugins, while the Output menu houses the volume controls, equalizer, and effects. Audacious supports resuming playlists, i.e., if you switch to a different track/playlist and come back to a previous one, it will pick up where you left off. The program's settings has more options for playlists and it features a title format and custom string selector. Export options support playlists in the ASXv3, Audpl, M3U, PLS and XSPF formats.
You can remove duplicates or unavailable tracks from playlists with a single-click. The playlist menu lets you create and manage playlists. Tip: Click on the search icon to disable the pane when you don't need it. You can also shuffle by Album, view song info (metadata), jump to a specific time stamp or set a custom repeat point (looping music) from this menu. The playback menu lets you pause/play, stop, jump to next/previous, repeat, and shuffle tracks. You can add files, folders and URLs, or search your library from the file menu.