Audacious Media Player
23 May 2010, 12:00 am

A simple, yet efficient media player for linux systems. One might say that Audacious is the Winamp of Linux, but having tested it today I'd still prefer using Winamp.

If you are looking for a media player that supports a wide variety of codecs then Audacious is definitely an option. Out the box, Audacious will support the following file formats:

• MP3
• OGG
• ACC
• ACC+
• FLAC
• WMA
• Musepack
• TTA

Additionally, Audacious is extendable through plugins, and contains other useful features like LIRC support and support for last.fm.

Installing Audacious on ubuntu is as simple as any other application or package.

sudo apt-get install audacious

  

There are some nice features available, such as playlist management. Adding or removing playlists and files within a playlist is as easy as clicking the "ADD" or "SUB" button respectively. You can create multiple playlists and switch between them with the simple click of a button.



I did notice that, although extremely clear, the music was not very loud, even with the volume turned all the way up on the player. This was quite annoying because I like to play my music rather loud, and it just wasn't happening here. I guess it's a compromise between sound quality and volume.

Something else I didn't entirely like was that hovering over any of the buttons did not reveal any additional information. Looking at all of the controls, it is not immediately obvious what the control is intended for. For instance, I was trying to adjust the volume but soon realised I was adjusting the speaker balance. That could definitely be improved.

There are a number of options available in the preferences screen. It is from here that you can add/remove themes, select the player font, as well as add additional plugins and codecs.



Overall, I think if I were to use a media player on my linux machine I would stick to something like Rhythmbox. Although a bit scratchy, I can crank it to a volume more suitable to my listening pleasure.



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