Why should I use Foobar when I can play normally? Is there a benefit.

Time to share!

• How do you run Foobar? Desktop/Laptop/Mini PC/Mobile/Other?

• What solution do you use to remote control Foobar?

• How do you access your Library when you are out and about? Subsonic? Mobile Sync? Other?

Curious to learn more about your setups!

Not so much looking to be convinced, as you can be sure I am a Foobar2000 true believer after the last 10 or so years of enjoying this top-shelf music player. I went from Windows Media Player to Winamp to Mediamonkey (and maybe briefly tried a few other random things I cannot remember) and finally found my perfect music player and organizer to be Fb2k.

I'm mostly interested in hearing differing views on why /you/ have elected to use this niche player. For me, more than anything, I enjoy the ability to create my own tags and then use those tags for views, searching and organizing and just general information note-gathering about my favorite artists and songs. Secondly I love the wide range of plugins the community have developed and generously shared with us all. I really like the erector-set approach of building the player that works for me, discarding or ignoring what doesn't, and constantly getting a better user experience. Although it has been a long, slow process to get things how I want, and at times I have experienced some frustrations. (I've learned to make backups of setups before I go a'tinkering....)

I sometimes get FOMO, thinking I'm missing out on some new feature or killer component that would take my listening experience, song, and playlist managing to the next level -- and then I dive into the forums and the component lists (or this reddit) and try new things. Usually something new gets added that sticks. A lot of the time I add things and never really habituate to using them.

But, as I said, its all about the TAGS for me. I like that I can put in the Keyfinder -derived music Keys, Camelot Keys and Virtual DJ -derived keys (as the don't always agree, of course, and having all three helps me pinpoint what the key actually might be). I like using informational tags I've added like the Place an artist is associated with, Related projects of the artist, what Language(s) are used in the vocals, the characteristics of the Vocals (like masc, femme, duet, robotic, rap, spoken, and so on), the Publisher of the music, as well as things like what would be a good Occasion to play a song, what I might spontaneously imagine it would be cool to mix with (to be experimented with later when I'm looking for ideas--I search for my MixW tag). I have tags for an arbitrary description of Melody, Beat, Texture, Timbre, Dynamics and Quality (subjective description with pointers for eq settings, not just the bitrate or whatever). Recently I'm thinking about adding a Format tag, to describe what the tracks was taken from (Album, CD, Tape, Vinyl, Youtube Rip, and so on). That might help me upgrade stuff I really like, or for comparing when I have duplicate tracks.

Anyway, that's my story. Why do YOU love Foobar2000?

Foobar2000 is an extremely customizable and lightweight media player. You can customize it in any way you want. It can be far more powerful than iTunes, Winamp and MediaMonkey if you know how to use it. The problem is that it is fucking difficult to learn how to use. The learning curve is pretty much like a brick wall. This thread will hopefully introduce you to many of the basics.

They best way to explain foobar's possibilities is with a demonstration of my own foobar set up. Take a look: http://bit.ly/iUtPIB

Warning Foobar is not easy to use. It is unlike other media players that will work out the box. It will take some learning. This tutorial will take 20 minutes+ to complete, think of it as a cool project. The pay-off however is worth it; you will soon learn how awesome foobar actually is!

THE BASICS

STAGE 1 [INTRODUCTION]

• Step 1: Download foobar: Go to http://www.foobar2000.org/download. I am using v1.1.6

• Step 2: Install foobar: Make sure you check standard rather than portable instillation and that all the optional features are selected (some are unselected by default).

• Step 3: Open foobar. A 'Quick Appearance Setup' window will open, select 'Album List + Properties'. This is a very basic layout.

• Step 4: Importing your music: Click, File>Preferences>Media Library>Add, then select your media folder. It may take a few minutes for all the files to be added (depends how much music you have).

Once it has finished you should be left with something looking like this: http://bit.ly/mUkjtA

Over the next few stages you will learn how to customize things how you like and how to make the most of the software's awesome features.

STAGE 2 [CREATING A LAYOUT - THE HARD PART]

Foobar comes with its own set up customization tools. These are fine, although they are a little basic and many find them quite complicated to use. Nowadays most foobar uses opt instead to use a different customization system known a Columns UI. This system is far simpler to understand and has much greater support. We will be using Columns UI today.

Installing Columns UI

• Step 1: ColumnsUI is a foobar component (you will hear more about these later). Download the component here: http://yuo.be/columns.php. I am using v0.3.8.8.

• Step 2: Unrar and save 'foo_ui_columns.dll' anywhere on your PC (saving to desktop is easiest).

• Step 3: In foobar open Preferences (hint: press Ctrl-P), click Components>Install, then find and select 'foo_ui_columns.dll'. Press Apply and then Restart.

• Step 4: When foobar reopens select Columns UI from the list that appears.

• Step 5: When asked if you want to choose a premade layout click Cancel. Learning how to make your own is important. I don't want to make things too easy.

• Step 6: Open Preferences (Ctrl-P), click Columns UI.

• Step 7: Under the tab 'Main', unselect 'Show Toolbars'. Under the 'Status Bar' tab unselect 'Show Status Pane'.

Your foobar should now look something like this: http://bit.ly/lwf3D4

Creating a layout

After each of the following steps make sure you observe the changes taking place (and click Apply if possible). Columns UI creates a layout by using horizontal and vertical splitters to divide up the window and then allows you to add panels (ie. playlists, filters, artwork so on) within each section you create.

• Step 8: Select the 'Layout' tab. Click 'New', and title the layout what ever you like.

• Step 9: You will find within the 'Layout' tab a box containing the words NG Playlist. It is within the box that we will create our layout.

• Step 10: Right click 'NG Playlist' and select 'Change Base'. From the menu select 'Vertical Splitter'.

• Step 11: Right click on 'Vertical Splitter' and select 'Insert Panel'. From the menu select 'Horizontal Splitter'. Do this three times to add three 'Horizontal Splitters' under the 'Vertical Splitter'.

• Step 12: Right click on the first 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert 'Buttons', then 'Volume', then a 'Seekbar'.

• Step 13: Right click on the second 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert three 'Filters'.

• Step 14: Right click on the third 'Horizontal Splitter' and insert an 'NG Playlist'.

• Step 15: Individually select each panel and splitter and ensure the box 'Show Caption' is unticked.

Sit back. You have created a basic foobar layout.

Your layout settings should look like this: http://bit.ly/mt3sjF

And foobar should look like this: http://bit.ly/k7YUU3

EXPERIMENT! Take some time and mess around with the settings. See if you can make your own layouts. If you are still having trouble then skip to the section below titled 'Layout Examples and Advice'. Try some of those out. Understanding how this works is by far the hardest part configuring foobar. See what you can make then move on to the next section. You have done well to come this far!! It gets more fun from here :D

STAGE 3 [COMPONENTS]

This is where it gets really cool. Out the box foobar is a very basic media player. Components are basically add ons that can add new functions to the player. There are some very cool components out there. Some components act as new panels that can be added using Columns UI, whilst others add more general functions. You install components in the same way we installed Columns UI - through the Preferences>Components. I will list some of my favourite components, what they do and links to download.

• Quick Search Toolbar - foo_quicksearch - http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_quicksearch This basically search box that can be added as a panel allowing you to search your library.

• Ipod Manager - foo_dop - http://yuo.be/ipod.php This allows you to sync foobar with your ipod/iphone/ipad.

• Lyrics Grabber - foo_uie_lyrics2 - http://www.mediafire.com/?jyqoi5fht8b5z9h This will automatically pull lyrics down from the internet and display them in a panel as you play your music.

• Biography Grabber - foo_uie_biography - http://www.mediafire.com/?zqytdtze21h#1 This will automatically pull down the artists biography from last.fm and display it in a panel.

• Discogs Tagger - foo_discogs - http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_discogs This allows pulls down song and album tags from the internet. I find this very useful. Once installed right click on the songs you want to tag and select Tagging>Discogs. More on this later.

• Windows 7 Shell Integration - foo_w7shell - http://wintense.com/plugins/foo_w7shell Click the link for details. This adds a cool effect when you hover over foobar in the W7 taskbar.

• Audioscrobbler - foo_audioscrobbler - http://download.mp3tag.de/foo_audioscrobbler-1.4.7.zip Adds your plays to your Last.fm. Goto Preferences>Tools>Audioscrobbler to set it up once installed.

• Waveform Seekbar - foo_wave_seek - http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_wave_seekbar This is the seekbar I use (see my setup at the top of this post). It looks good and is pretty useful as well.

EXPERIMENT - See what you like and try things out. There are literally thousands of Components available. These are just some of my favourites. A great source for Components is this link here: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components

EXTRAS

LAYOUT EXAMPLES AND ADVICE

If you are having trouble with making a layout then give one of these examples a go. None of these examples use any components and are still rather basic. Try and understand what is happening as you put these together.

General Guidance Remember that splitters divide the window. The higher something is on the layout list the further to the left/or to the top of the screen it will be depending on the splitter that that is dividing it. MESS AROUND WITH THESE LAYOUTS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS! EXPERIMENT!

Long Columns Layout

• Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this: http://bit.ly/ifO1df

• Step 2: To change the filter types right click on the filter headers (ie. album, artist, genre) and select the filters you want from the drop down list.

• When complete it should look something like this: http://bit.ly/lBu8rz

Itunes Layout

• Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this: http://bit.ly/kPC07Y

• Step 2: Goto Columns UI > Playlist View. Tick the box 'Display Artwork In Groups'

• When complete it should look something like this: http://bit.ly/iiZgd0

Mr Lex's Custom Spectacular

• Step 1: Goto Columns UI and set up the layout like this: http://bit.ly/ixXceh

• Step 2: As shown in the above image, click on the final Horizontal Splitter and choose to rename it 'Filters'.

• Step 3: To change the filter types right click on the filter headers (ie. album, artist, genre) and select the filters you want from the drop down list.

• When complete it should look something like this: http://bit.ly/knLpU9

If you are still having trouble then ask in the comments and perhaps I or someone else can help you out.

HELPFUL LINKS

Foobar is great because of the community that uses it. Never feel shy asking for help, even the most advanced users are learning and putting together new stuff by constantly asking for help and working with others. Here are some useful links to get you started:

Official Forums

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showforum=28

Components Lists

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components

http://www.foobar2000.org/components

I originally made this guide for another forum I used to visit. I myself am still a beginner really and I am sure there are many mistakes in this guide. Hopefully it can help some people get over that first hurdle though and start using this awesome media player!

If people have any other questions feel free to ask. Hopefully we can use the comments as a general help topic for beginners.

I recently started listening to FLAC files and wanted a hi-res audio player for experiencing them fully, therefore I gave Foobar2000 a try. It sounds good enough but it has a a lot of problems due to which I just can't use it (music pausing randomly for a second every minute or so, themes just don't work for me). It's just too complicated to use. I used Groove Music on windows as it supports FLAC files, but wanted to know others' input on this, thanks!

I'm a really long time foobar2000 user, and I just found out that a new v2 has been released.

The thing is: I like it the way it is, everything is 100% working for me. So I'm worried about interface changes that would be disruptive. And I didn't find any documentation on the differences.

I'm considering just staying in v1.

So, what has changed?

I searched endlessly (read for about 5 minutes or so) for a good beginner's guide to Foobar. Didn't find one. What...what do I do with it? It seems pretty nice. Simple. Interesting. But I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do next. I've heard tale that it can manage iphone/ipod libraries, and that sounds nice.

iTunes sucks.

I'm really just curious, I almost want to like it, but it looks so ugly to me. Why do people say it's so good? And if you don't think it's good, what do think is better?

EDIT: I get it. I get it Reddit. Now I know why everyone likes Foobar200. I've been using it for like 5 hours now and I'm in love. This is the skin I'm using and I absolutely love it. Thanks everyone.

I've been messing around with Foobar2000 and downloading higher-quality music files recently. Part of me wants to make the switch from Spotify as I do hear a quality difference, but the other part wants to stay as I can easily access music across multiple devices, Spotify wrapped at the end of the year, etc. What are the opinions here? Is better quality audio worth switching away from something that's by far more efficient and user-friendly?

If you're still using it, what theme do you have? If not, what have you switched to?

Good day! I'm new to hi res audio. To give you an idea, I'm using a laptop as the source and paired to FiiO FH3 with a xDuoo Link dongle.

I bought my 1st flac files from HDTracks and I've really enjoyed it compared to spotify quality.

I just have this question. Does the foobar2000 really makes any difference compared to other music players in terms of sound quality?

Thanks in advance!

I see that there's a 2.0 in the changelogs but no link?

Hello there,

I'm a ripened audio engineer and new to foobar and would like to use it to play back my local collection of music.

To me, having everything in one folder, especially when installing custom themes sounds less invasive than doing a standard installation and in case of failure having to manually delete things in various places.

So, probably asked many times but what are the critical downsides running it standalone?

I'd like to use it with my Lynx Aurora (n) converter btw.

Oh and also I'm on Windows 11.

Thanks in advance 🙏

Hello people,

How would you recommend installing Foobar 2000 on a Windows 11 system? In Standard or Portable? Would Portable cause issues with components such as ASIO interfaces? Having everything in one folder sounds enticing to me. Or is Standard more reliable since it probably ties into Window's registry?

I found this to be a good place to ask the question since Z has been using it forever but did a tutorial video a long time ago and I don't know how things might have changed till now especially with V2?

This might be an astronomically stupid question, but do y'all just use Foobar to play FLAC? Or do you play MP3's too? And if you just play MP3, why use Foobar rather than iTunes?

Thankas