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[Sebastian_Mares]

Greetz!  
I have just downloaded BASS and I am really impressed! It can handle so many formats, which the standard Media Player control can't play, including XM, OGG Vorbis and others. The only thing that would be cool is MIDI and VQF support, but as Ian said, VQF is used by a few people only and for MIDIs I could use MCI.

I was wondering how BASS can play so many audio formats. The first thing that came across my mind was DirectSound, but that isn't the only thing BASS uses. I mean, it has to have an OGG Vorbis and MP3 decoder, right?

Anyway, I also downloaded XMPlay and tested it right away. It is really a very good audio player with lots of cool features. It isn't that good as Winamp or Windows Media Player, but I like it and it will stay on my HDD a few months.
The first thing I noticed that is different than the examples was the cool shadow effect of the Vis. window. I was wondering how I could do that in VB. Also, the VU meter at the top of the player. Could someone help me on that one?
Finally my last question: Is it possible to create an oscilloscope like in Winamp?


Thank you in advance!

[Olego]

Anyway, I also downloaded XMPlay and tested it right away. It is really a very good audio player with lots of cool features. It isn't that good as Winamp or Windows Media Player, but I like it and it will stay on my HDD a few months.

How so?  In my opinion, it's better than those two, because WinAmp is a huge download and it doesn't play MODs too well (XMPlay's engine is better than WinAmp's borrowed one), and WMP is an immesely-huge download with too many skins and too little customization and supported file formats.

But I'd like to know your opinion.

~Olego~

[Jcl]

How so?  In my opinion, it's better than those two, because WinAmp is a huge download and it doesn't play MODs too well

Gotta agree on the MOD playing part, but Winamp has tons of features not found in XMPlay (yes, like if you are going to ever use them, but hey, they are there )

WMP is an immesely-huge download with too many skins and too little customization and supported file formats.

WMP can't definitely be compared to XMPlay at all, nor with Winamp (maybe with Winamp3... then again WA3 sux, doesn't it) and it has some really cool features (automatic codec downloading and installing, perfect WMV9 streaming without prebuffering, and many others) which make it really cool.

My option: I use WMP for video, WA2.8 for mp3/ogg, and XMPlay for modules =)

[Torkell]

My option: I use WMP for video, WA2.8 for mp3/ogg, and XMPlay for modules =)

Mine: WMP for videos (mplayer2.exe, not WMP7 or whatever), RealPlayer for anything Real-format, and XMPlay for everything that it supports.

[Sebastian_Mares]

I said that it isn't that good as Winamp or Windows Media Player because it really isn't. Let us start with Winamp:

Supports audio CDs and can connect to CDDB
Supports plugins (visualisations, input, output, DSP, general purpose)
ID3v2.3 tag editor (although very basic)
Is more user friendly (in my oppinion)
Has got some other cool functions like "stop with fade-out" and stuff like that

Windows Media Player:

Supports plugins and skins
Can play audio CDs and has the ability to download album information
Has really cool radio stations
Supports CD grabbing
Supports CD burning
Supports transfering of MP3s to other devices
...


As you can see, XMPlay is a cool audio player, but not more.
I will use it for MODs, but for MP3, WMA and OGG I will still use Winamp. QuickTime for MOVs and RealPlayer for RAs. Finally, WMP for AVIs, MPGs and WMVs.

[Sebastian_Mares]

BTW, any answers for my questions regarding to the VUs and spectrum analyzers?

[Olego]

There was an old thread for this:

http://www.un4seen.com/music/YaBB.cgi?board=bass&action=display&num=1023896001

Hope it helps!

~Olego~

[shadow2xp]

If you took the time to explore you would see that XMPlay has plugin support for MANY other music formats as well as skins.
If you want 'Stop with fade out' get a dam mixer.  

XMPlay is SOOO dam small with huge amount of features!

You shouldn't compare to WMP because it is a whole other catagory.

In short XMPlay is better than ALL because of it's size (easily fit on 3 1/2" floppy) and many music formats support via plugins.

Winamp will never load on this computer! (yuck) Also don't forget the reason why XMPlay was created.

[Olego]

Heh,

XMPlay does offer a lot of great features such as plugins and skins and sonique vis.  It's lacking somewhat in plugins and vis, such as there is no full-screen vis and no DSP plugins, but overall I only use it because it plays all my music quite well.  That's why I am keeping it.

~Olego~

[Sebastian_Mares]

Hey ~Olego~, thanks for the link, but do you know how to translate that to VB? I really don't know Delphi.  :-/

[Olego]

Sorry, I myself am not a VB person, but there are other people here (VB is beating C for the API poll!) who might.  I don't really remember, but it might've been translated already...  (Sorry, VB and Delphi are too similar in my mind: they are not C and while I can read them I can't write in them.)  Anyone?

~Olego~

[bigjim]

Yeah I'll have a go at the translation for you as I used to be mainly VB but now Ive swapped to delphi as I found it more feature rich, effiiecient and faster- Ive also got my own vis code more or less based on the ideas of the above thread.

If you look on page 2 of the above thread there is a vb translation but I'm not sure how complete it is.

I'll see what I can do to improve the vb version;D

[Olego]

*shakes your hand*

You're a good person.  Thank you.  

~Olego~

[bigjim]

*shakes olegos hand*

I confused myself... my translation is based on something I got from a bass player class- I cant find the files at the moment but ....

.....found it
http://digilander.iol.it/Kappe/audioobject

I modified this for my project in delphi....
but im sure i can get it to vb almost done....however i'm trying recording with vb (6) and im missing the use of pointers- any points or tips..