The Lonesome Road

There are some software with which you get so comfortable that moving away from them seems alomost painful. One of them - for me - is Winamp. Been using it for such a long time that it seems like a permanent fixture on my computer.

Then there came a time when music management seemed to be required. I wanted lists, songs arranged by certain criteria - basically the whole media manager bowl of wax. So, I started experimenting. The first one was MediaMonkey, which I used for quite some time. Worked well, but ultimately, was not for me.

Then I moved on to MusikCube - which is a nice piece of work. Supports ogg and mp3 from the get go, can play internet radio, has some nice plugins to help extend it’s functionality. But most importantly, it’s fast and very light on system resources.

I must also mention Foobar, which I did try. While it lives upto it’s claims of speed and low memory requirement, it also lacks features that I want it to have. Was a bit disappointed - specially considering the glowing reports some people wrote about it. May go back and play with it some other time.

One of the major problems I initially had with both MM and MK was that when you search for a song, they take you to a new screen - and keep you there. You will have to come back manually to the library (iTunes is better on that score). Secondly, after a search if you double click on a song, it will play the sond AND add it to now playing - and replace all that was already there. Very bugging. Thankfully, MusikCube offers an enqueue feature. Finally, I am addicted to keyboard shortcuts - they just make my life easier. MediaMonkey has none, and MusicKube has a really wierd key setting to make it work. Winamp by far has the easiest set of the lot - or it’s just that I am too used to it.

Finally, I decided - enough is enough. I need something to play music - not manage it. Downloaded and installed WinAmp, created my multiple playlists - and I am in a happy place. You just cannot beat the convenience. Press J - the search screen comes up - even if the Playlist Editor is closed. Type what you need - press play/enqueue/repeat - and there you go. Instant gratification. The annoying thing about the enqueue in MM and MK was that in these software, enqueue simply moves the song to the position following the current song. In case shuffle is on (which on my player(s), it is by default), they will NOT play that song next. Winamp will. And for all the times a song is stuck in your head, open the playlist editor, find the song and press “Q” with it selected. It will repeat that song once for every Q-press.

I just want one feature back in WinAmp. In version 3 they had this extra colomn in the Playlist Editor which kept track of all the created playlists. It was really useful as I could switch playlists at will. I don’t really care about their media library - I just want this feature re-implemented.

Until next time : “Winamp - it really whips the llama’s ass”
[PS : That’s not me - that’s what plays when you start WinAmp for the first time]