Saturday, 20 June 2009

Songbird 1.2.0 - 10-band Equalizer Now Included

It's been a while since I had a look at Songbird, and that was when 1.0 came out. The new release was put out a little earlier this month and comes with a brand new equalizer, a new mode to auto-organise media files included in the collection and Last.fm radio integration.

However, the most awaited feature is probably the 10-band equalizer and it is available using the Controls -> Equalizer menu option (or Ctrl+E). Here's how it looks:



As you can see, unfortunately there are no default presets available, but maybe the next version will include some.

A pre-compiled Linux version is available for download on the official website, so you can just uncompress the file you downloaded, copy the Songbird directory somewhere inside your home folder and run the songbird script to start it.

Songbird 1.2.0

The metadata editor is somewhat similar with that of Amarok 1.4, and you can use Alt+N and Alt+P to switch to the next and, respectively, previous track:

Editing tags

A very useful add-on for Songbird is the mashTape extension, which retrieves various information about the currently playing song: mashTape show Last.fm artist biography, reviews from various specialised websites, news, photos and even videos.

Some other noteworthy features which come with Songbird are:

- the ability to fetch album covers
- integrated, fully functional web browser based on the Mozilla browser
- support for themes, called 'feathers' by Songbird
- Last.fm and Shoutcast radio (available through two add-ons which can be installed when Songbird starts for the first time or afterwards, from the official website)
- Songbird displays concert dates for artists on demand
- it offers a huge number of fields to sort the playlist
- integrated 7digital music store

MashTape configuration

Still, there are several drawbacks which don't look like they have been fixed: the fonts are too small and it doesn't seem to be a method to increase their size; the cover art is not retrieved from local folders.

Overall, 1.2.0 is a new step in the development of Songbird and it surely cannot dissapoint its users.

Official homepage

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Songbird equalizer default presets :

you need to install this add-ons:

Equalizer Presets

http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1620

by going to the Tools menu, then Add-ons..

Arkadi Viner said...

I use that music player all the time.
In my opinion it is the greatest player ever! It look's beautiful and has all functions I ever wanted from a player...

Unknown said...

Any off-chance that they've got podcast/subscriptions working yet? (Without that, for me, Songbird is just another porky program kicking around). I went through all the pain twice before to find out ... they hadn't fixed it. I'm probably not going to fall for that again.

mbbuy2014 said...

Thanks, Anonymous for the link to the equalizer presets.

Songbird is currently my favourite music player.

bruno said...

Agree with Arkadi. For me this is/will be the greatest player ever. And more, the development of new features is extremely fast so.

J Story said...

There is a lot going for songbird, but it has a fatal flaw that makes me put it aside after an hour or so: abysmal audio.

There has been an open bug since forever on this skipping, clicking, popping, whatever. I would much rather that the developers spent time getting this showstopper nailed than adding yet another feature.

steven said...

Songbird is a good music player. Is there any PPA for this songbird in ubuntu ?