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Topic: Looking for an Android Music Player (Read 5386 times) previous topic - next topic
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Looking for an Android Music Player

For many years I've been happily using a Rockbox'd Sansa Clip as my portable player.
Unfortunately I lost it. (OK, let's fess up - I left it on a plane  :'( )

I reckon perhaps it's time to just bite the bullet and use my Android phone. So now the search begins for a worthwhile music player. I don't need anything fancy - I tend to pick an album and play it. No shuffle, no dancing spectrograms, no dynamic playlists. Ideally I'd like a compressor for use in noisy environments, but if not I can compress the files with FB2K prior to loading them on the phone, since I only ever listen to a portable in noisy environment anyway.

The first thing I tried was to just use the Google Files app which worked pretty well and had a very acceptable interface. But then I discovered it doesn't support gapless playback, even though my MP3 files have the appropriate LAME tags.
OK, let's see if it will play OGG files. Yes it does! But: it doesn't even support gapless playback of OGG, which I thought was one of OGG's fundamental requirements. IMHO if a player doesn't do gapless OGG, it's basically broken.

So does anyone have any recommendations for a simple music player on Android?

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #1 –
since you use desktop foobar, perhaps you'll want to try the android version too https://www.foobar2000.org/apk

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #2 –
I use Musicolet, mainly because it has tempo control.  Plenty of other options, but I've not explored them.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #3 –
I like Neutron player, especially for autoEq (having an embarrassing number of headphones, with 2 clicks I can do a neutral listening, or enjoying the natural color of the cans).

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #4 –
Quote from: radorn on
since you use desktop foobar, perhaps you'll want to try the android version too https://www.foobar2000.org/apk
Oh, never knew there was an Android version. Have tried it out and first impressions are good.
But a bit surprised to find it apparently doesn't have a compressor amongst the various DSP options. Have I missed it somewhere?

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #5 –
I use Poweramp also with AutoEQ via the wavelet app. I love it and highly recommend it.

I did use foobar mobile (which I still use it on my pc for too many years to mention) before a couple of years ago but it annoyed me with lack of some features. But that may be great if looking for a simple one. And I'm sure it's improved since I used it.

Neutron has already been mentioned.

There is also AIMP, but I've not used it myself.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #6 –
GoneMAD music player would also be a good candidate. Good amount of options for audio/eq and tons of UI customization.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #7 –
I use Rocket Player.  Supports theming, EQ (global and per track), replay gain, gapless and crossfading, plays lots of formats and has tag editing.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #8 –
OK, a few more comments.
  • Neutron: claims to have all manner of facilities (including a compressor), but blowed if I can find them. The interface is - how can I put this - very unintuitive.
  • Rocket Player: I fell at the first fence. Adding a folder to include in the library requires that you enter the exact file system pathname, and I have no idea what the pathname of the SD card in my phone is.
  • Musicolet: Actually quite nice, verified gapless playback works. But it has no features of interest to me that aren't also in fb2k.
  • Poweramp: my wife has this and I've been perplexed by its strange interface in the past.
  • AIMP: states that it is based around playlists and doesn't use a library interface. Not for me.
  • GoneMAD: Nothing of interest to me that isn't in fb2k.
So in conclusion, for now I'm happy with fb2k.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #9 –
Before using fb2k on Android I used to use DeaDBeeF player.
lossyWAV -q X -a 4 -s h -A --feedback 2 --limit 15848 --scale 0.5 | FLAC -5 -e -p -b 512 -P=4096 -S- (having set foobar to output 24-bit PCM; scaling by 0.5 gives the ANS headroom to work)

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #10 –
Warning that not all players handle all formats. Some players can only handle what is provided at https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats

I found out by way of https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,122768 , but ... does it not support ALAC either? Then realistically what is the hope for MuseWavPackApe ... except if Google chooses to support them out of spite against Apple (or maybe in order to kill off that unnecessary codec, I frankly wouldn't mind that).
 

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #11 –
The player I mentioned claims to support these formats, though I haven't tested them all.  I'd be willing to test if someone can provide samples.

"Play many formats (wav, ogg, mp3, 3gp, mp4, m4a, alac, tta, ape, mpc, FLAC, WV, and WMA)"  Doesn't support Lossless WMA.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Replica9000 on
Doesn't support Lossless WMA.
You cannot even trust Windows to do that ... https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=117275.0

Which puts WMAL users - if there are any left - in the following situation:
* convert away from WMAL while you still can
* If they are CD rips, then hope you can verify them by CUETools. If not:
. use Windows' decoder and ffmpeg and compare and hope the best. But ffmpeg is reverse-engineered, right? So there is no guarantee that it reverses precisely your encode? Or do we know that WMAL was encoded consistently?
. To be more safe: keep your WMAL because you don't know for sure whether you succeeded at getting the same bits out that you put into it

Meaning: get rid of your WMAL, but don't get rid of your WMAL.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #13 –
Foldplay: Folder Music Player https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pnhdroid.foldplay

IMO is the absolute best file/folder music player under Android.

Lean (1.5MB), fast, no BS permissions, no ads.

Its only issue is that it only plays audio formats which your Android supports, i.e. no fancy stuff like WavPack, TAK, Monkey's Audio, etc. etc. etc.

Since I only have audio in mp3, ogg vorbis, ogg opus, AAC and flac formats it works for me just fine.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #14 –
This foldplay is pretty cool thanks.

Poweramp has a similar mode called 'folder heirachy', though it
needs some tweaking in the settings menu for my needs.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #15 –
I've been using PowerAmp also, for years. Love it. Lots of settings and enhancements.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #16 –
I like Pulsar.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #17 –
Quote from: birdie on
Foldplay: Folder Music Player https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pnhdroid.foldplay

IMO is the absolute best file/folder music player under Android.

Lean (1.5MB), fast, no BS permissions, no ads.

Its only issue is that it only plays audio formats which your Android supports, i.e. no fancy stuff like WavPack, TAK, Monkey's Audio, etc. etc. etc.

Since I only have audio in mp3, ogg vorbis, ogg opus, AAC and flac formats it works for me just fine.
hi
+1
I miss only left/right balance

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #18 –
GoneMAD all the way.   8)
EZ CD Audio Converter / FLAC or WavPack

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #20 –
Is there some clever way to do that, or do you just mean subjective observation?
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #21 –
Quote from: fooball on
Is there some clever way to do that

... now it is midnight, battery is 100 %, I have put it in flight mode and I am setting it to play a .wav file on repeat. In 40 hours I'll see how much the battery meter has changed, and then I will recharge and try another player.


I'd say the "clever" way to do that, is to use your retired phone rather than the one you depend upon for everyday use ;-)

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #22 –
Try Settings > Battery and Device care > Battery > Details > Last 7 days
Tells you the duration and use by the apps
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #23 –
I'm not a phone power user so just have vlc, mpv and the player built into the file explorer. The built-in seems best for h.264 video as it seems to be hardware accelerated which is the ideal for battery life, vlc is usable for audio with playlists etc. I don't know which (if any) audio codecs are typically hardware accelerated on android, it'll depend on the SoC.

Re: Looking for an Android Music Player

Reply #24 –
Quote from: Porcus on
In 40 hours I'll see how much the battery meter has changed, and then I will recharge and try another player.
40 hours???  I doubt my phone would last anywhere near that, even when the battery was new, and disregarding that you must be very determined.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.