Long story short:
I have a Galaxy S8 with Samsung Music and a huge music library on my PC as AAC files in iTunes (I used to have an ipod). I downloaded them as MP3s but converted them to AAC to use in iTunes.
I would put the music on my S8 by connecting it to the PC, using Windows Media Player and moving my new songs over to the Sync tab on the right sidebar and click the green Sync button. Presto! Songs are added to Galaxy S8 as WMA files and play fine on Samsung Music.
Cut to: the other day, I just bought the Galaxy S22+ and it took 13 hours to transfer over my apps, music, etc, however none of the music will play in Samsung Music on the S22+. After Googling all day, I found out that Samsung Music (or is it Android) won't play WMA files on phones made after 2021 and because they won't add/fix a codec. Someone else posted about it in the Sammy forums, Samsung responded to get a third party app and seemed to not care we weren't using their own app. The Samsung Music app still works and loads my songs on my S22+ but the songs don't play. I'm curious if changing the file extensions on the WMAs would help.
I just want to keep using Samsung Music on the S22+ and don't want to install a third party app (like VLC or Poweramp). But so far, I've tried a variety of music players to no avail. Muzio (my 2nd favorite) gave the same error as Samsung Music and I couldn't play anything. The only one that kinda works is VLC, but the UI is very buggy and not intuitive. In fact, it's a pain to use.
Last night before I made myself go to bed after pulling my hair out all day, I downloaded Musicbee and was considering just transferring the AACS over to the S22+ even though doing so will take up a lot more space as my average AAC file is twice the size of its WMA counterpart. My phone is only slotted 256mg since I got the S22+.
Please, please help me, I am desperate and love the phone but having no music on it is a deal breaker for me and I don't have a lot of time left in my return window if i decide to go back to my S8 (which i'd rather not do cause I kinda like the S22+).
Poweramp, paid version. Been using it for over 2 years to manage my 212 gb wav/mp4 music database.
It's a complicated setup, a steep learning curve and it's the best, most customizable music player there is. Supports unlimited playlists.
Always keep a exported backup of the settings saved off of the phone!!! Keep a backup carbon copy of the library as well as it's needed for playlist reconstruction by Poweramp.
Library folder layout: Artist/Album/Song, folders for each artist and album.
In the future you sould use a higher resolution format as close to 24 bits as possible especially if paying for it.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I've already tried a lot of the most suggested players. Muzio was 2nd to Samsung Music because it felt the same, but it too was plagued by the dreaded codec issue. The next best one (and that's not saying much) was VLC, which is buggy, slow and had the tendency to refresh the entire library if you're not careful.
You're right, Poweramp has a tough learning curve and it's not a very intuitive UI even with customization.
I'm really just trying to find a somewhat painless way to get my music either into Samsung Music or even Muzio, but I know that's tough because of the codec issue. I'd take the long time to convert my music if it would be close in quality, but going from Mp3 -> AAC -> Mp3 makes me think I'll lose a lot of quality a s would be better starting from scratch (which would take months and months of constant painstaking re-downloading and headaches.
blackhawk said:
Poweramp, paid version. Been us for over 2 years to manage my 212 gb wav/mp4 music database.
It's a complicated setup, a steep learning curve and it's the best, most customizable music player there is. Supports unlimited playlists.
Always keep a exported backup of the settings saved off of the phone!!! Keep a backup carbon copy of the library as well as it's needed for playlist reconstruction by Poweramp.
Library folder layout: Artist/Album/Song, folders for each artist and album.
In the future you sould use a higher resolution format as close to 24 bits as possible especially if paying for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Androideka13 said:
Thanks for the suggestion, but I've alrea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a tough pill to swallow but Poweramp is rock solid with no issues and near bulletproof. I spent quit a few hours setting it up but the only time I spend on it now is just adding to the playlists or the occasional backup file export.
It's graphic equalizer is second to none and is a must have if using the Buds+ to listen to music.
Have you tried retro music player or clean music player? Been my two music players over the years.
Home - Retro Music Player
Retro Music Player - The best Material design offline music player for Android.
retromusic.app
Clean Music for Android - APK Download
Download Clean Music apk 9.9.1 for Android. simple, fast, and elegant audio player
m.apkpure.com
Would changing the extension on the WMA files (to mp3) on the S22+ work? Someone mentioned this to me but I haven't had the time to try it.
sometimes it can work. but there are times when you get a corrupted file.
blackhawk said:
It's a tough pill to swallow but Poweramp is rock solid with no issues and near bulletproof. I spent quit a few hours setting it up but the only time I spend on it now is just adding to the playlists or the occasional backup file export.
It's graphic equalizer is second to none and is a must have if using the Buds+ to listen to music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried playing around with Poweramp in my S8 and it's just OK. I mean, if nothing else works, I guess I could try using it for a while. I'm mostly concerned about re-doing all my playlists (none of them came over) and being able to add new songs onto the new phone (S22+). One would think it would be the same way as I did with the S8 but the way things have been going lately, I'm not holding my breath.
Last night, and only for a few minutes bc I was so tired and stressed, I plugged the S22+ into my PC to see if the sync function on WMP turned green (ready to sync) and it didn't, which makes me skeptical that itll work and I'll be back on here, trying to find a new way to add songs.
Do direct folder copy and paste only. I manually sync the music database to avoid hard to detect screw ups.
Never clone or compress media files as the null marks are important.
The music database should be the identical across all copies.
Your playlists may be lost and the database gets first priority. Planning ahead will save a lot of suffering and time. My database is 16 yo now, still in it's original file structure layout. Be thoughtful about it and well organized...
Setting up Poweramp is time consuming, no way to get around that. The reward is a superior player customized exactly as you want it. After which it can easily be reincarnated onto any Android or after a factory reset if you preserve the music database and the Poweramp export settings. The license also carries over seamlessly. It was a snap to set up on my second N10+; install app/unlocker, copy music database, import settings, scan music library command.
I was hoping to be able to add songs "the old way" by adding the mp3 to iTunes, converting to AAC and then syncing with WMP so the files are consistently WMA and it's the way I'm used to. I won't be home for another 5 hours so I won't know if it will even lley me sync "the old way". Also, if I'm just gonna drag and drop then I'll be dropping the AAC files, which was a problem since they're so big. If I leave the songs as Mp3s and drag and drop, then I'll have inconsistencies in files and volume.
Just tried listening to the same song on SM and on Poweramp and Poweramp sounded dull, flat and lower. Granted, I have the Smart Volume on in SM but I couldn't find anything like that in Poweramp. Another strike against it I guess.
I really just want SM to work, it sucks because I'm not asking for a lot, just for a SAMSUNG app to work on a SAMSUNG product. What a concept, right?
Adjust the graphic equalizer, it gives you far more control than a one button fixes all. By fault it's setting is neutral so it's not the problem.
Check it's Audio Info page and output settings.
blackhawk said:
Adjust the graphic equalizer, it gives you far more control than a one button fixes all. By fault it's setting is neutral so it's not the problem.
Check it's Audio Info page and output settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea how to read, let alone set an equalizer. I like one size fits all for volume so I'm not constantly fiddling with it up, down, etc.
Androideka13 said:
I have no idea how to read, let alone set an equalizer. I like one size fits all for volume so I'm not constantly fiddling with it up, down, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the Galaxy store install Sound Assistant, it will allow up to 100 volume increments to be set.
Adjustments of the equalizer bands is done by ear. It will vary depending on output driver(s) and listening area as well as the source music.
Generally it should be a smooth wave across rather than abrupt ups and downs.
You can set multiple profiles and assign by song or folder.
This is the profile I generally use for the Buds+
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Thank you for replying and being so quick with suggestions - I appreciate all the back and forth we've had today. If I wanted to forgo Poweramp and just use SM, what would you do in my situation?
. Convert the AACs (which started out originally as Mp3s) into Mp3s using iTunes?
. Use Musicbee to move the AACs over to the S22+ even though it'll take up twice the space as the WMAs?
. Change the file extensions of the WMAs to Mp3s on the S22+ and cross your fingers?
I ask because the Poweramp learning curve is still very tough, even after playing with it all day. Plus I'm now concerned with adding new music going forward to Poweramp on the new phone because something tells me it's not going to be easy since I'm not even sure my S22+ will connect/sync with WMP.
Keep the music in it's original format. Converting it can end up degrading the audio quality.
I can't say what I would do other than what I have done. Got tired of screwing around which why I use Poweramp. Many of the other players can't be configured correctly to meet my needs or have other issues.
You're not going to throw Poweramp together in a day or two unless you already set it up before and saved the settings.
You need it first to display the database correctly.
Then the audio setup, equalizer, etc.
Then create the playlists.
There are many settings to explore beyond the default ones as time permits. As you build it up remember to backup the settings so if you "break" it somehow playing with the settings you only loss the time to the last backup.
blackhawk said:
Keep the music in it's original format. Converting it can edd up degrading the audio quality.
I can't say what I would do other than what I have done. Got tired of screwing around which why I use Poweramp. Many of the other players can't be configured correctly to meet my needs or have other issues.
You're not going to throw Poweramp together in a day or two unless you already set it up before and saved the settings.
You need it first to display the database correctly.
Then the audio setup, equalizer, etc.
Then create the playlists.
There are many settings to explore beyond the default ones as time permits. As you build it up remember to backup the settings so if you "break" it somehow playing with the settings you only loss the time to the last backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already gone through Poweramp and gotten things mostly the way I like them. There's a few things I still can't figure out, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm definitely going to keep my phone and will probably fork over the money for the full version of Poweramp. I plan to keep messing with it and try to forget SM...for now.
On the side I may try to convert the AACs to Mp3 via iTunes and see for myself how bad they sound in comparison and try to get SM eventually. I'm definitely taking a break from all things phone music for a few days to get my head back on straight.
Thank you again x 1000 for all of your replies and support, you've saved me from going COMPLETELY insane over this.
Thanks again,
Brian
You're welcome.
Take your time and think it through first.
I would not convert those files, use as is.
Read this and do some more searches ie aac vs mp3 etc.
Never go to a lower resolution format and avoiding converting altogether is the best plan.
If you rip a CD to hard drive always save as a wav and -nothing- else. Many CDs are in fact HDCDs and possess up to 22 bit resolution. It is contained as subtext on the wav file. Converting a HDCD wav file will destroy the HDCD encryption and render it as a 16 bit image or lower. It must be saved as a wav file to preserve the HDCD encryption! 22 bits vs 16 is a lot.
A 24 bit or higher DAC can glean up to 90% or so of the encoded subtext. No HDCD converter is needed however if available, use it as it will glean 100% of the HDCD encryption.
The data stream must remain in the digital realm until input into the 24 bit or higher DAC or HDCD converter! Either electrical or optical toslink (highly preferred for ground loop blocking isolation) can be used between devices like the PC and stereo preamp to stay in the digital realm vs a analog signal.
Tony Harding of Denon Electronics was kind enough to patiently teach me about HDCD technology back in 2004.
blackhawk said:
You're welcome.
Take your time and think it through first.
I would not convert those files, use as is.
Read this and do some more searches ie aac vs mp3 etc.
Never go to a lower resolution format and avoiding converting altogether is the best plan.
If you rip a CD to hard drive always save as a wav and -nothing- else. Many CDs are in fact HDCDs and possess up to 22 bit resolution. It is contained as subtext on the wav file. Converting a HDCD wav file will destroy the HDCD encryption and render it as a 16 bit image or lower. It must be saved as a wav file to preserve the HDCD encryption! 22 bits vs 16 is a lot.
A 24 bit or higher DAC can glean up to 90% or so of the encoded subtext. No HDCD converter is needed however if available, use it as it will glean 100% of the HDCD encryption.
The data stream must remain in the digital realm until input into the 24 bit or higher DAC or HDCD converter! Either electrical or optical toslink (highly preferred for ground loop blocking isolation) can be used between devices like the PC and stereo preamp to stay in the digital realm vs a analog signal.
Tony Harding of Denon Electronics was kind enough to patiently teach me about HDCD technology back in 2004.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info! I'm getting used to Poweramp but there's a few things I'm still not on board with. One is the volume leveler we briefly touched on. The other is that when I'm scrolling through tracks or albums, info go the slightest bit off center in my swipe, I get taken back to another part of the app. Similar thing happens when I hit the Back button on my phone and it exits the app instead of going back to the main screen or to the album I'm playing.
I'm also trying to find a way to remove songs from playlists like "recently added" or "recently played" but it only gives me a prompt to delete the song completely. That's annoying.
I'm not 100% on board with Poweramp but it works bettwr than I originally thought (thanks to you) and it works for now, or until I find a better solution.
Also, when it comes to converting the AACs (back) to mp3s, I had someone else tell me that as long as I started out with a good, high quality file, that then conversion shouldn't hurt sound quality too much, if not much at all. Most of my Mp3s that I converted to AACs were 320mbps and they converted to 128mbps AACs. Idk, just something I was told and want to see for myself.
You need to get used to it's navigation, lol it still tags me sometimes even now. Lol, I need to explore Poweramp more as there may be better ways to interface with it.
When you remove a song from a playlist it should remain in the library. I tested it and it doesn't remove it on my copy.
You can also move songs up/down on the playlist.
If the format is playable there's nothing to gain by converting it except potential data loss. When initially downloading or buying though always choose the highest resolution native format.
Otherwise you'll end downloading or buying the same song many times to get better sound quality. Once you hear the difference you can't go back to the ignorant bliss you once enjoyed
Open room listening with two stereo speakers (or more channels/speakers) is quit different from listening to headphones or buds. In the former the audio waves interact with each other to reproduce the sound stage present where it was recorded. You are electro-acoustically coupled, like voodoo magic.
The better the recording, playback equipment and listening area acoustics the more realistic the sound stage reproduction.
If a 50khz audio wave collides with a 40khz wave, a 10khz wave is created. While you can't hear the primary waves of the first two, you can hear their byproduct. This is why you never want to limit inaudible frequencies; they create the sound stage. Thousands of these interactions per second across the audio wave bandwidth produces the sound stage as if you where there.
You'll hear sounds coming from midair all about you... not just the sound sources.
Because of this you want high resolution recordings that faithfully record from 10hz to at least 50khz or higher. Then it will truly suck to only have a flat sounding MP3... they sound like crap compared to a sparkling HDCD.
Yes, well... welcome to the fking planet
blackhawk said:
You need to get used to it's navigation, lol it still tags me sometimes even now. Lol, I need to explore Poweramp more as there may be better ways to interface with it.
When you remove a song from a playlist it should remain in the library. I tested it and it doesn't remove it on my copy.
You can also move songs up/down on the playlist.
If the format is playable there's nothing to gain by converting it except potential data loss. When initially downloading or buying though always choose the highest resolution native format.
Otherwise you'll end downloading or buying the same song many times to get better sound quality. Once you hear the difference you can't go back to the ignorant bliss you once enjoyed
Open room listening with two stereo speakers (or more channels/speakers) is quit different from listening to headphones or buds. In the former the audio waves interact with each other to reproduce the sound stage present where it was recorded. You are electro-acoustically coupled, like voodoo magic.
The better the recording, playback equipment and listening area acoustics the more realistic the sound stage reproduction.
If a 50khz audio wave collides with a 40khz wave, a 10khz wave is created. While you can't hear the primary waves of the first two, you can hear their byproduct. This is why you never want to limit inaudible frequencies; they create the sound stage. Thousands of these interactions per second across the audio wave bandwidth produces the sound stage as if you where there.
You'll hear sounds coming from midair all about you... not just the sound sources.
Because of this you want high resolution recordings that faithfully record from 10hz to at least 50khz or higher. Then it will truly suck to only have a flat sounding MP3... they sound like crap compared to a sparkling HDCD.
Yes, well... welcome to the fking planet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a mistake, the stock playlists like "recently played," etc. are the ones that prompt me to delete the entire song. Playlists I create allow me to just remove the track from the playlist.
I wasn't questioning your knowledge regarding the AAC conversion, just throwing out a different bit of knowledge I heard. I'm not very knowledgeable with audio and the technical side, but I know what my ears like so it's good to know even a little bit of the tech of it all. I usually listen to my phone music either with buds or in my car so I'm not that much into the surround aspect of it all, but it's good to know. I think I'm going to still keep trucking with PA for now.
I have given myself the day off today but tomorrow I'm going to try to sync a newly downloaded WMA file to my new S22+ the old way (iTunes -> AAC -> WMP -> Android) and see what happens. The other day, in my stressed-out haste, I plugged the S22+ into my PC and tried to move over a Mp3 with that method and the sync button in WMP didnt even turn green (allowing me to sync). I'm not sure if it's because it's a different phone than my S8 or what, but I'm really hoping it doesn't happen, because even with PA, I want to be able to add new songs and I just want uniformity and ease, but don't we all?
Related
lack of decent mp3 player on android for several years now is getting really absurd
there is not one mp3 player that combines all the basic features of other multimedia devices
features like:
1) folder play + choosing which folders to scan (not the player deciding my whole SD card is one huge mp3 library thus listing video game and gps navigation music files..)
2) equalizer (+presets)
3) visualization (album art is fine, but kind of static..)
4) volume control
5) music streaming
1) organising my mp3 library of 4+gb by using ID3 tags is nearly impossible since it would be too time consuming
i know mortplayer allows for folder playing, but its sound quality is abysmal - i have 12mb 320kbps mp3 that sound like utter s*it when played in this player, but sound fine in music mod
i know of one other mp3 player that allows for folder play and will check it out, but by the looks of it, its nothing special
2) probably the most needed function of all, i mean how hard can it be? its been 2 years now and until now there has been only 1 player with this function - its in beta, and doesnt save your presets, so once you reboot you have to change it all over again...
you could have the best headsets in the world, but it wouldnt mean crap without proper equalizer to tune them with
3) a gimmick, but a nice one, and a standard for, what, 10 years now?
4) HOW HARD CAN IT BE? instead of using hardware buttons, to have software sliders for fine tuning the volume
5) internet/LAN support
these are all basic functions
i have top of the notch android device (HTC desire) but it gets overshadowed by my puny 50€ (at the time) 4 year old sony mp3 player which supports everything on that list except for streams
i wish winamp would make android port..
concerning video support
if there were not for 3rd party developed rockplayer all of the platform would be quite useless on the multimedia side of things..
i love android, i love my cellphone
but i find it odd that even with its open nature, there are still basic functions missing even after all the years and numerous devices on the market
any notions on googles part that things might change soon?
I agree with your frustration. Coming from win mobile and pocketplayer I was very disappointed. Am currently using a cyanogen rom and it does have a dsp/equalizer but have yet seen a player with a comprehensive feature list. It was also nice to make your own skins and have a larger font size to see outdoors.
Have you searched xda, some pretty good music apps have been spawn from here, well members...
The whole sd scan is annoying, but I believe if you drop a ".nomedia" file in folders you don't want scanned they should be skipped, you might want to look into that as I'm not 100% on it...
But yeah, out of the literally dozens of music/media apps they all have there flaws I guess.
Sent from my phone.
hello
Furma said:
lack of decent mp3 player on android for several years now is getting really absurd
there is not one mp3 player that combines all the basic features of other multimedia devices
features like:
1) folder play + choosing which folders to scan (not the player deciding my whole SD card is one huge mp3 library thus listing video game and gps navigation music files..)
2) equalizer (+presets)
3) visualization (album art is fine, but kind of static..)
4) volume control
5) music streaming
1) organising my mp3 library of 4+gb by using ID3 tags is nearly impossible since it would be too time consuming
i know mortplayer allows for folder playing, but its sound quality is abysmal - i have 12mb 320kbps mp3 that sound like utter s*it when played in this player, but sound fine in music mod
i know of one other mp3 player that allows for folder play and will check it out, but by the looks of it, its nothing special
2) probably the most needed function of all, i mean how hard can it be? its been 2 years now and until now there has been only 1 player with this function - its in beta, and doesnt save your presets, so once you reboot you have to change it all over again...
you could have the best headsets in the world, but it wouldnt mean crap without proper equalizer to tune them with
3) a gimmick, but a nice one, and a standard for, what, 10 years now?
4) HOW HARD CAN IT BE? instead of using hardware buttons, to have software sliders for fine tuning the volume
5) internet/LAN support
these are all basic functions
i have top of the notch android device (HTC desire) but it gets overshadowed by my puny 50€ (at the time) 4 year old sony mp3 player which supports everything on that list except for streams
i wish winamp would make android port..
concerning video support
if there were not for 3rd party developed rockplayer all of the platform would be quite useless on the multimedia side of things..
i love android, i love my cellphone
but i find it odd that even with its open nature, there are still basic functions missing even after all the years and numerous devices on the market
any notions on googles part that things might change soon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any notions on googles part that things might change soon?[
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-myplayer-lightweight-music-player-t2892233
Have a try with this music player. It's still in beta but it's my favorite music player out all the ones I've tried and has quite a bit of what you're asking for.
Power amp is still the best on the market.
I was wondering if anyone has ever considered adding support to Android or Android's music app for replay gain. I've noticed that when playing music on my Nexus One, the volume tends to jump all over the place as I go from song to song due to individual tracks being mastered/encoded at different volumes. It can be quite jarring to go from a quiet track to a loud one and to have to quickly dive for the volume rocker on my phone.
I know it's possible to store replay gain values in the metadata of most digital audio files, so I don't think it'd be necessary to do the actual replay gain computations on the phone itself (and, in fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to as it could take a loooong time depending on how many music files are stored on your sd card). I think all that would really be necessary is to have the music app read those values for each file and adjust the playback volume accordingly. If I'm not mistaken, this is kind of how the "sound check" feature works in apple's ios.
Only thing is, I really don't know how involved it would be for a skilled developer to make this feature a reality. I suppose it might even involve some kernel modifications. In that case, I realize this idea might be a long shot.
Anyway, it's just an idea I had that I think would make using your Nexus One that much better as a quality portable media player. Feel free to chime in with thoughts/suggestions/reasons why this idea is or isn't feasible/etc.
If you want QUALITY audio you should start with ripping your CD's to a lossless format and avoid Normalization. You can Gain your audiofiles before putting them on your phone, but I strongly recommend to use Pro software and to be conservative as most recordings today are of a high standard.... (analyze the audio to get max peak level and gain acordingly to not exceed 0dB)
If you prefer to use MP3 or other lossy compression, well theres no point in discussing quality
cyberspaced said:
If you want QUALITY audio you should start with ripping your CD's to a lossless format and avoid Normalization. You can Gain your audiofiles before putting them on your phone, but I strongly recommend to use Pro software and to be conservative as most recordings today are of a high standard.... (analyze the audio to get max peak level and gain acordingly to not exceed 0dB)
If you prefer to use MP3 or other lossy compression, well theres no point in discussing quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this would be nice, if all the various music download services offered well and identically authored tracks. unfortunately, they do not. so, the OP's is still an interesting and valid request.
cyberspaced said:
If you want QUALITY audio you should start with ripping your CD's to a lossless format and avoid Normalization. You can Gain your audiofiles before putting them on your phone, but I strongly recommend to use Pro software and to be conservative as most recordings today are of a high standard.... (analyze the audio to get max peak level and gain acordingly to not exceed 0dB)
If you prefer to use MP3 or other lossy compression, well theres no point in discussing quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I definitely agree with you there and I appreciate the suggestions. Only thing is, I really don't buy CDs anymore. I don't pirate music either though. Instead, when I want a song or an album, it's just a lot more convenient to go and buy it online. I have a lot of stuff I bought from itunes a while back, but now I mostly buy from Amazon (since the Amazon MP3 app on the Nexus makes it so convenient).
Thing is, I'm not even talking about the QUALITY of the audio files. The music itself sounds fine to me (Not trying to start any audio file format wars. I realize some people can't stand the lower quality of lossy file formats like mp3 and that's fine. But even if lossy formats sounded noticeably worse to me, it really wouldn't matter since i usually use cheap headphones/speakers to listen to my music anyway ).
What causes problems for me is that since my music collection was all mastered at varying volume levels (again, not cause I ripped it myself and screwed it up cause I didn't know what I was doing; most of it was purchased from itunes or Amazon), as I skip from track to track (random tracks from varying albums by different artists all shuffled together) the volume tends to jump around, sometimes quite drastically. I may get to one song that's so quiet I can't hear it, so I turn it up. Once that song ends though, the music player might jump to another song that's kind of loud at a normal volume, but since I've already turned up the volume, now it's painfully loud.
I realize that the ideal solution would be to rip all of the tracks myself from their original lossless sources, but for me that's not an option. Additionally, I can say that using replay gain values to normalize the "loudness" of my music library works quite well in the software media players I've used in the past (such as Winamp and itunes). Even the "sound check" feature (which is just apple marketing for their glorified version of replay gain) built into the ipod touch's music player provides solid music playback of the same audio files without me having to constantly fiddle with the volume controls. If a 2 year old ipod touch can do it, I know my Nexus can.
Again, the basic idea itself isn't so complicated. While on a PC, a piece of software, such as Winamp, scans your music library, calculates the replay gain values (whether the "loudness" of each track/album is too loud or too quiet and what the proper offset should be in as a positive or negative db value) and stores them in a metadata tag in the audio file itself. From there, you load the media files (tagged with their new replay gain values) back onto your Nexus One. Then the music app would read the replay gain values for each track/album and apply them to the output volume.
The only thing I'm not sure of is how much work it would take to actually implement this idea in Android. But that's why I'm hoping to hear from others who might be interested in such a feature. Hopefully if there's enough interest, some of the devs with more knowledge about Android can chime in to let the rest of us know how feasible a replay gain feature would be.
This is definitely a feature I'd like to see as well, ReplayGain is practically essential for any music collection spanning more than a decade or so.
I hesitate to recommend this to anyone that ISN'T starting with lossless files, but it is possible (as a stopgap measure) to apply the gain stored in the tags directly to the audio data BEFORE encoding it for transfer to your device. Of course if you're starting from lossy sources this will cause a reduction in music QUALITY. My collection is largely lossless and I have done this for some time (the FLAC decoder has a useful --apply-replaygain-which-is-not-lossless switch) to create files for use on my phone.
Always glad to hear that there are others who would also be interested in a simple Replay Gain option for the stock Music app. It seems to be a common feature on portable music players these days. Certainly if apple can bundle it with their ipods, we can bundle it with our Androids. Right guys?
Mobiper.com
Thanks for the valuable discussion. Its very nice to read.
Fyi the Defy music app is prob best music app on the market..
Everyone should take a look at that and export it to all android os phones
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Get powerAMP, this one is totally awesome with equalizers, bass and trebela and stuff...totally awesome.
Is there a way to include additionnal codecs for the default player, instead of installing another music player?
For instance to add Flac, ogg and m4a support.
vanloque said:
Is there a way to include additionnal codecs for the default player, instead of installing another music player?
For instance to add Flac, ogg and m4a support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i haven't used the music player app yet - am waiting for my 16GB sdcard and car mount - but lack of flac/ogg is a bit of a no brainer for me - it's minimum requirement.
i guess i'd better start hunting around. I noticed WinAmp has released a beta that syncs over WiFi but i guess that will only be with WinAmp Windows version - i run Ubuntu.
I have tried pretty much all of the readily available players. Ended up with PowerAMP, as it's the only one where you have the equalizer so that you can compensate for some lousy headphones (yes, my DEFY is my main music player).
The builtin music player is intresting, but I feel everything is just tooo many taps away. Also I find it utterly confusing how you get out of one Album and search for the next one ...
Most of the other player apps are just rehashes of the existing players without anything new featurewise that makes them compelling.
BizzaBoy said:
I have tried pretty much all of the readily available players. Ended up with PowerAMP, as it's the only one where you have the equalizer so that you can compensate for some lousy headphones (yes, my DEFY is my main music player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking into getting a defy and I was only lurking these forums, but your post made me register. You say you use your defy as your main music player? can I inquire as to how long straight it can play music for? from 100%-0% (or close to) battery?
As I plan on replacing my mp3 player as well when/if I get a defy. I'm tired of carrying around both my phone and music player all the time.
The defy battery status is in increments of 10%... i have a one hour commute and didn't lose anything while using mp3 mode on airplane mode(bc i take the subway)
Sent from my DEFY using XDA app
so i guess it is right to assume you could get at least 10 hours then? this is acceptable... Id probably only use about 4 hours a day. pretty much set on this phone now... had any grievances with it?
As i use my Defy as my only mp3-player, i would like to inform you, that there is a equalizer in the phone.
Settings --> Sound and Display--> Audio-Effects for Media --> then the first one.
Sorry, my english is bad, my settings are in german language. Hope you find it.
For me, the sound is great, using the Equalizer with the filter "Bass-Schlag" (the 2. Filter).
Sorry for my English, but i think, this one is important.
Best regards
Stefan
Thank you for your input your english is fine.
stfnlg said:
As i use my Defy as my only mp3-player, i would like to inform you, that there is a equalizer in the phone.
Settings --> Sound and Display--> Audio-Effects for Media --> then the first one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is very basic and only has 5 presets but it's better than nothing!
I like the phone and I was glad to have DSP effects (it's supposed to have powerful DSP's).
Unfortunately when I tried them with Streamfurious, I could hear a fairly loud noise. It's only there with the EQ/DSP effects enabled and while the effect would be good with the earphones the noise is often unbearable.
Well whaddayaknow, it's pretty easy to extract, using the MotoDev software. And it installs on other Android devices just fine...
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Ironically, this was shot with an HTC Desire
stfnlg said:
As i use my Defy as my only mp3-player, i would like to inform you, that there is a equalizer in the phone.
Settings --> Sound and Display--> Audio-Effects for Media --> then the first one.
Sorry, my english is bad, my settings are in german language. Hope you find it.
For me, the sound is great, using the Equalizer with the filter "Bass-Schlag" (the 2. Filter).
Sorry for my English, but i think, this one is important.
Best regards
Stefan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man, your English is good. Thanks for sharing the tips. I never knew it before.
hi,
is there any way to get the music app to rescan the sd card for music files?
I changed my card from the stock 2GB card to a new 16GB. I copied all the files on the old card over to the new card then switched them over.
I have now switched on my Defy, the music files are all visible in astro and can be played by clicking on them but when i go into my library in the media player app i get a message saying there are no music files on the sd card.
edit : the gallery app picks up the photo's just fine so it appears to be only the media app
edit 2 : it appears to sorted itself now. i guess it was just taking a bit of time to rescan in the background.
I was looking for another player to be able to read ogg files, but the Defy reads them without issues!
So that's perfect, i'm gonna convert a ton of my Flac collection into Ogg, and get one of those huge µSD cards!
Only thing that could be better, is the fact that i have to put the volume at about half the bar to get a good volume, whatever earphones i use. I wonder if there's a way to make the player raise the sound volume a bit more?
Jt612 said:
I'm looking into getting a defy and I was only lurking these forums, but your post made me register. You say you use your defy as your main music player? can I inquire as to how long straight it can play music for? from 100%-0% (or close to) battery?
As I plan on replacing my mp3 player as well when/if I get a defy. I'm tired of carrying around both my phone and music player all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for this late respons.
Yes, I use the DEFY as my main music player. I have used my phones always for this, since my first D750i ;-) I cannot really say how much it runs with the music player on. Looking at the battery stats the player shows up in the very low range (<= 5%) compared to standy/idle, which are 95%. So I'd say you are more bound by other things. The phone itself survives for me 2 days without recharging.
Couple of more comments. I do use for our cars here either a 3.5mm connector to the stereo, or one of those cassette inserts (make sure you turn of the dolby noise reduction). With this setup, you have a hands free as well. The incoming call gets put onto your speaker system, and the mic is good enough to directly work. No fiddeling around required. The other thing is that with PowerAMP the Scullcandy kits for my Smith Ski helment works nicely. You can use 1 to 3 button pushes on the little control that comes with it to pause/play, forward, backward. Of course at the same time you can take phone-calls. Actually with PowerAMP you also can select a short-push/long-push setup as alternative, which I found easier to deal with if you ski in the trees and the current song just does fit your rythm.
Ah, one more thing. I am kind of old-school. I am using winamp to maintain my music database on the PC. Main reason originally was that the pro version thereof had good AAC-HE encoding. With that encoding you can use 64k over the normal AAC-LE with 256k. With most speaker systems you cannot tell the difference (at least I cannot). At the end of the day it saves however a HUGE chunk of space on the SD card. You might want to use mp3tag along with winamp.
As somebody else noted in the thread, there is some other setting available in the system settings. What I do there (or did there) is to add some bass so that other apps don't sound so ultra bad. This is very useful for listening to FM radio, or say pandora/last.fm/di.fm (online music, that plays rather nicely, even in the car).
Can't use radio with Chinese Froyo..
Is this version different than the one that comes with the Defy by default?
Sorensiim said:
Well whaddayaknow, it's pretty easy to extract, using the MotoDev software. And it installs on other Android devices just fine...
Ironically, this was shot with an HTC Desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shad0wboss said:
Get PowerAMP...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, its really nice, beautiful Bass...
I'm mostly using MortPlayer (beta), cause of the Pop-up.... than, I shouldn't go out of my App
Just wanted to share my experience with Ambling Book Player Pro.
For the longest time now I've been using PowerAmp. It's wonderful, it is by far the best music player available. Impressive EQ support, folder and playlist support, and a VERY clean and slick UI. Highly recommend it. That being said, when listening to an audiobook I always had to remember my place if I wanted to listen to music or say, flash a ROM 3 or 10 times a day. It got relatively annoying, so I went searching for an alternative. Everything I found was ok, but nothing was great.
I finally decided to give Ambling Book Player Pro a shot (since a lot of the books I listen to are .m4a and .mp3, and you need pro to load files from your SD card). It's wonderful. Support for .mp3, .ogg, .mp4, .wav, .wma*, .3gp, and .m4a. You can create as many bookmarks you want for each book and they save to the sdcard so you never lose your place. It has options for using the button on a headset as well, including play/pause and set bookmark. Another problem I have is that I listen to books all the time while doing other things and often find myself missing a section of the book, trying to skip back to hear what I missed was frustrating. The app has forward and back at 15 and 60 second intervals, which made tracing my steps very easy. It's not the prettiest interface, but it's so incredibly functional that I don't even care. Now I have PowerAmp for my music and ABPP for my audiobooks. If you find yourself in a situation at all like my own, give it a shot. Music and Audiobooks are, for me, one of my favorite things about smartphones.
Does it have speed control? I really utilize the ability of Astro Player to speed up audio books, it's nice because it doesn't increase the pitch (chipmunk), just the speed. I download with Audiobooks by Traveling Classics and listen to them with Astro Player. The combo is perfect I've found.
No it doesn't.
Not my cup of tea, it's nice to be forced to listen at a slow pace where I can really take my time imagining what I'm reading. Nonetheless it's a feature it lacks that you enjoy.
I use Audbilbe and their own player obviously. I love their app. I, however, like getting stuff for free so where do you go to find your audiobooks? If you are not allowed to post it (i don't know the specific rules for those things here) just send me a pm, thanks guys. I'll let you know after you hook me up how I feel about the Penguins!
I'm a bit of an audiophile and for me the music side of things really is lacking in Android. Its absolutely fine for example if you come home in the evening and want to listen to a few albums, its 110% no problems at all.
I listen to music on my phone 8-9 hours a day at work and its a let down.
Getting songs on it for a start is a nightmare, sure you can plunk all in a music folder again fine for listening to an odd album or whatever but there is no sort of organisation, Say I want a playlist with song 2 from album E followed by song 1 from album C and so on this is a nightmare to create on the phone, this is where iTunes comes into its element. Sure we have things like Doubletwist, on paper it should be fantastic, but the reality is it duplicates songs and playlist and isn't even smart enough to recognize duplicates in your library, there is also things like Winamp and its wireless syncing, it takes forever and again duplicates.
Then we have the problem with MP4 files, My Galaxy S2 can recognize many files but has issues with MP4 files, you get song name but artist info etc all unknown, it can't read the tags.
Then general sound levels, I've tried 3 android phones over the years and all 3 are to low, they are about 70% that of an iPhone and this is fine for general listening but if your fave song comes on you like a bit of a boost and well you can't, I also work in quite a noisy environment and machinery can he heard over the top of the phone on full, there are apps like Volume+ which claim can boost the volume and well they can but it distorts so all rather pointless.
Then there is finding a player, I've notice volume differs between them all, and some can't read the playlists you've created so in the end i;ve had to stick to stock player, although crap its the best of a bad bunch.
A feature I also liked on iTunes was Genius, I could pick a song say a rock song, hit a button and it would create a playlist similar, even if this was possible on android it wouldn't work anyway as all the MP4 tags are fooked.
So as I say I take music seriously and I suspect 90% of people won't care about these issues but I do and am hoping for some good advise as don't want to go back to iPhone but at the moments its looking like the only solution as Android is so frustrating to use for music.
First off, look at Voodoo sound control from the android market. It's often times included in custom ROMs. It will allow you to pump the volume up far beyond the stock ROM's capabilities. There's quite a few other tweaks it offers that I'm sure you'll find. The only catch with Voodoo is that it's only compatible with certain Kernels.
As for media playback, "Music" by Google is pretty powerful. It's not the same program that many phones run stock. It has support for FLAC playback, Song info lookup, even lyric support.
I recommend you take a look at PowerAmp. I am a music nut like you and it does everything and more! There is a full featured trial version and to buy it is only a few bucks. Check it out.
Sent from my DROID X2 using XDA App
I have to use music by G but I wish it has some more useful features like 'query' or 'play after this song' such.
There will probably never be a mobile player that will do Replay Gain on the fly so i suggest your grab yourself a copy of mp3gain for your PC. Plug your phone in via USB, drag and drop your music from phone to program interface, set level to 92db, Scan Tracks and then Apply Gain.
92db may be higher than some of your tracks already are and may be lower than others. Find a level that gives you the audio boost you need. As all tracks are set to the same level you won't have to adjust volume between tracks during playback.
There are plenty of players with Playlist support so that's covered. Try one of the ones mentioned above.
I think i've found the answer by accident, I was using Media Monkey I noticed it has a feature to analyze the volume of tracks, so I got them all analyzed and noticed most were in or around -10db, I hit level which brought them up to 0 to +5db and I have noticed a good improvement, It also sorted out all my tagging and artwork issues and even synced my playlists perfectly to my phone.