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Topic: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski (Read 3942 times) previous topic - next topic
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BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Dear Peter Pawlowski, here is my humble and extremely grateful tribute to you and your team for the great work you have done and are still carrying on with.

It was one of those nice evenings at home.
For whatever reason, my wife is fascinated by a piece. She plays it on the piano in its entirety or just parts of it; sometimes fragments only.
Last night, it was Schubert, Impromtu No. 2, A flat major, Deutsch-Verzeichnis 935, Op. posthum 142
-   We started with Edwin Fischers Abbey Road Studios recording from 1938 (Edwin Fischer is always a good place to start from)
-   … moved on to Andras Schiff (my personal all-time favorite)
-   … stayed for a while with Uchidas Philips recording
-   … had a try at Wilhelm Kempff
-   … and then rested at Radu Lupus Decca recording
Always circling between the piano and f2k.

I turned 60 recently.
I began collecting music at the age of 20. Starting analog; soon switching over to digital, first on CDs, followed by rips on HD, NAS, and finally cloud storage.
The collection grew over time (own rips from LPs and CDs/SACDs, bootlegs from concerts I attended, subscriptions to high-res download services … … …). Today, that’s in the vicinity of 20Tb.

Not using meta-tagging meant that I had to have accurate file-path nomenclature to keep the overview.
Solely for the nomenclature of music, I formed an online workgroup (3people, a son of a famous Japanese conductor, a leading figure of today's dominant streaming service, and -last but not least- myself) for specifically that purpose.
The development and, especially, the re-adjustment of nomenclature led initially to a lot of re-work. My first “larger” digitalization effort was the Bach2000 collection, edited by N. Harnoncourt, which I reworked at least 10 times. My family-live and relationships suffered during that time.

Approximately 10 years ago I upgraded my Hifi (now just amp (Accuphase), speakers (Dynaudio), DAC (Accuphase) to be able to handle high-res audio appropriately. That is today still my setup.

F2k features that have most impacted me are

-   F2k is a long term solution
-   Your strict design principles, like the separateness of the player (f2k) and its music library
-   Versatility & high degree of customizability of f2k.
-   Not influencing the “sound” in any way
-   Ability to handle a wide and growing variety of formats
-   Ability to handle very large libraries
-   Continuous growth of user-base
-   Acceptance in high-end hifi circles

and many more

Peter, I want to expressively thank you for your long-term dedication and commitment (may I call it “obsession”?) to f2k.
Be aware that your work has influenced the life of many people, it certainly has influenced mine.

All the best, Andreas


Dr. Andreas Helget
Heusteg 3a
91056 Erlangen
Tel.: +49 162 1733394
Andreas.Helget@gmx.de
www.linkedin.com/in/ah99/

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #1
I want to second that emotion.
I'm using foobar2000 since 2003 and I'm still amazed by its design principles.
It can also imagine it took and takes a lot of dedication - most others would have abandoned the project at some point or sold it.
Yet it's still being actively developed - and we can use it for free.

Thank you so much!

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #2
I have to offer my thanks and gratitude, as well. I have been using fb2k since 2004. It is the best and most customizable audio player out there. Thank you, Peter and everyone who share their components with us.
Surf's Up!
"Columnated Ruins Domino"

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #3
The other comments pretty much summed it up as Foobar2000 is the gold standard of music playback/basic conversion etc programs!

I am not sure how long I have been using Foobar2000 but I would guesstimate somewhere around the mid-to-late 2000's (my first computer at home was in 1995 which I would say is about 3-5 years before computers really went mainstream) as before that, off the top of my head, I think I was mainly using WinAMP Lite since it was a simple/compact program that played MP3 etc well enough as I remember at the time liking it because it 'looked' better than Foobar2000 (and was more compact on screen), but once you moved beyond the look, Foobar2000 was just all-around superior and once I got used to it, I would rather avoid using anything else.

p.s. it's nice that Foobar2000 works on Linux (I am currently using Mint v20.3-Xfce) through Wine (currently using Foobar2000 through PlayOnLinux with '6.13-staging' 64bit version of Wine) to as it's simply better than any native program available on Linux. I don't use Wine for much but the small amount of things I use (Foobar2000/ImgBurn/KProbe etc and a limited amount of games), it works well on.
For music I suggest (using Foobar2000)... MP3 (LAME) @ V5 (130kbps). NOTE: using on AGPTEK-U3 as of Mar 18th 2021. I use 'fatsort' (on Linux) so MP3's are listed in proper order on AGPTEK-U3.

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #4
It never ceases to amaze me what ethical people can accomplish and how inspiring they can be.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #5
I think it can be said that much of fb2k magnificence comes from strict technical correctness and discipline. I hope that it made Peter more than financially stable.

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #6
I have used foobar since the very first start and the player is truly one of a kind!!
With the old (2013), beautiful and aesthetic theme DarkOne v4 by tedgo, and WilB's biography... :D
Thanks...

What is the opposite of music?

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #7
It never ceases to amaze me what ethical people can accomplish and how inspiring they can be.

What have ethics got to do with this?!

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #8
What have ethics got to do with this?!
Everything of course. Freeware is an ethical philosophy. A community of contributors happens because of the ethics involved. Foobar2000 and Hydrogen Audio itself would not exist if not for the ethical outlook of their creators and supporters. Just look at the unethical business practices of Microsoft and WMP for a counter point that demonstrates unethical exploitive development.

Ethics underlies everything and quality and ethics are intrinsically related. One cannot have high quality without an ethical underpinning. Obviously.

According to the MOQ, everything (including ideas, and matter) is a product and a result of Quality. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirsig%27s_Metaphysics_of_Quality#Quality
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #9
What have ethics got to do with this?!
Ethics underlies everything and quality and ethics are intrinsically related. One cannot have high quality without an ethical underpinning. Obviously.

This is profoundly untrue. And who's set of ethics? You mean 'ethics that are similar to your own'? And what measurement of quality? This forum is off the rails now: We went from some dude telling his life story, to someone linking me to a half baked metaphysics article.

This is insane. Conversations like this don't make the forum look 'highbrow', but a ramble of pseudo-intellectual nonsense. You people need to get out more (or take fewer drugs).

I need to learn to engage less.


Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #11
What have ethics got to do with this?!
Ethics underlies everything and quality and ethics are intrinsically related. One cannot have high quality without an ethical underpinning. Obviously.

This is profoundly untrue. And who's set of ethics? You mean 'ethics that are similar to your own'? And what measurement of quality? This forum is off the rails now: We went from some dude telling his life story, to someone linking me to a half baked metaphysics article.

This is insane. Conversations like this don't make the forum look 'highbrow', but a ramble of pseudo-intellectual nonsense. You people need to get out more (or take fewer drugs).

I need to learn to engage less.
Profoundly untrue? Ethics are different than morality. I'm not discussing morals here. Ethics are not mine nor yours. If anyone is going off the rails, with all due respect, it's you sir.

Philosophy is involved in everything people do, and ethics are a part of that. There most certainly are both ethical and philosophical considerations in terms of software and its development. Certainly the developers can choose which software licences to adopt and this choice is both a practical and a philosophical one.

If you think ethics are 'pseudo-intellectual', I'd suggest you investigate further. I'm sure my philosophy professor, who taught a course on ethics would have been shocked to hear anyone make that statement openly. Just saying.
. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics

half baked? see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance#Reception
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #12
Someone needs to be cheered up...

have more fun...

learn to engage more...

and take a breather...
Best regards
What is the opposite of music?


Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #14
... oops, forgot:



And, this thread was posted in the wrong subforum, and I take the opportunity to suggest that it stays here until it has faded out of sight, and then becomes bumped by a "Moved to the right place" :-)

 

Re: BIG ThankYou to Peter Pawlowski

Reply #15
so-so