Desktop MP3 players
A guide to finding and storing your online music files
By Kathryn Yu
MP3 technology allows music to be stored digitally in a manageable size; file sharing programs like Napster and Gnutella allow music lovers to swap their favorites. But you still need a desktop MP3 player to actually play the files.
Almost all desktop MP3 players are free and can handle everything from MIDI files to CDs. Even though MP3 files are inferior in quality to CDs, a good MP3 player can bridge the gap.
A good audio player is similar to a physical stereo. But with them you can also create playlists and send them to your friends—try that with your CD player! And there's a wealth of plug-ins to enhance both the audio and visual.
One multimedia player, K-jofol (kjofol.org), is designed for many formats but still performs well when playing MP3 files. This
With Desktop MP3 players you can create playlists and send them to your friends-try doing that with your CD player.
futuristic-looking player has the ability to turn transparent if you're running Windows 2000. K-jofol also supports Internet
Relay Chat (IRC), so everyone in a chat room can be automatically alerted to what you're listening to.
Three Top Players
One of the top MP3 players around is Sonique (sonique.lycos.com). The player boasts stylish skins, a wealth of plug-ins and amazing audio quality. Sonique's unique interface isn't very intuitive, but you'll love all the useful features, help and links to music news and concert guides, and web-based MP3 search engines from Lycos and Hotbot integrated into the application. Sonique has 20 bands on the audio enhancement control
MusicMatch Jukebox offers a "smart snoop" that recommends music you might enjoy. You can download it at musicmatch.com.
to perfect equalization settings.
Winamp (winamp.com) is the most popular MP3 player on the market, but it's not necessarily the best. Getting beyond the basics can be confusing, since most of the advanced functions are buried and require a couple of clicks to access. Winamp also makes audio files sound flattened and muddies the lower register certain audio plug-ins can remedy this problem. Your eyes will be happy, though with the huge number of plug-ins producing psychedelic effects.The player can be collapsed into an extremely compact form by double-clicking on the title bar.And running Winamp isn't a huge drain on your computer.
The Jukebox Option
If you want something more, go for a jukebox. They have all the standard MP3 features, but can keep track of your entire music library, so you can sort according to band, song title, year, genre, even album and track number. You can add information such as mood (comatose to wild), tempo, even rank how much you like a certain song Jukeboxes even offer a place to store lyrics, biographies, notes, album art, even links to artists and CD stores.
MusicMatch Jukebox (musicmatch.com) has an interesting recommendation feature. If you're willing to give up some of your privacy and let the jukebox snoop through what songs you're playing, the MusicMatch guide online gives you recommendations on what you'd likely enjoy.
Show us some skin: A sampling of some of the skins you can download at Sonique.com
Realjukebox 2 Basic (real.com/rjcentral) is a powerful MP3 player with good but not great audio quality. It's easy to search for that certain song you're sure resides somewhere on your hard disk. Also experiment with the extended information options offered especially for classical or jazz fans. The player collapses into two tiny strips that intersect at the bottom corner of your screen, saving space because they lie on top of where scroll bars normally go.
Windows Media Player (microsoft.com/windows/windows media/en/default.asp) has been redesigned and pumped up by Microsoft in a bid for domination (what else?) of the desktop media player market. That dinky piece of software from a few years ago is back, as a full-fledged media player designed for perfect integration with the Internet. With a clunky yet cool look, this supports almost every media format. It comes with several creative skins—everything from alien heads to giant eyeballs.And sort through the approximately two dozen visualizations included so you can have your very own laser show on your computer.
Find the complete guide to desktop MP3 players and other useful music sites at www.steamtunnels.net.
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