Review and Requests

[usnbrendon]

This is basically a cut and paste from my RATING / REVIEW of Poweramp in Playstore (towards the end)....but I realized after posting that you (the developer) aren't likely to read or respond to comments posted to the BETA version of Poweramp given that it required subscribing to be a tester to access it within Playstore, and there weren't other comments posted at the time. 

 I have been a beta tester for Microsoft, Techsmith, Symantec, Zone Labs (now CA), Cakewalk and many Android apps, including Dropbox, MX player Pro, KeePass2, and have been actively supporting development & testing on ROMs, framework/libs, codecs, rooting & flashing etc, via XDA, TWRP, and the now defunct Cyanogenmod over the course of the last 19ish yrs.   

So.....I *should* have thought about it with my BETA TESTING cap on and realized my BEST resource and hope for reaching you and receiving feedback is......THE FORUM!    DUH.   (we all have those occasional moments we're not proud of....?)

Today, when I checked Playstore for last date that any Poweramp update was released in the BETA channel, I admit I initially got  very annoyed seeing last update was 2016.  Insult to injury....my review STILL had no Dev reply!  Grrrrr.   ?I thought damnit....I'm not beta testing for a dev who seems to have just ceased updating for a year and half!  Tossed my phone on the bed in disgust and walked off.   

Ahem.  ?  Then....an hour later it hits....WTF?!  I'm such a dumbass for cussing & muttering about the Dev quitting on is just when Poweramp was TRULY shaping up to be EPIC & untouchable among Android audio players, but I NEVER THOUGHT, JUST GO TO THE FORUM BRENDON!v [voice in head]  um....hello....that's how you've typically done this shit for how long now???   

*** the truly embarrassing moment came when I tried registering for the forum & suddenly realized, I HAVE a Poweramp Forum entry in Keepass2 and there it was:  my USER ID AND PASSWORD ...setup 8/18/2016.  Wow, REALLY?  ***?

 

First off :

THANK YOU for not giving up on further development of Poweramp and for building what is truly the most stable, user-friendly, feature-rich, visually pleasing and exquisite sounding audio player for Android.  Period. 

I've used it so many years now that I don't have any other audio player on any of my phones....even the stock players are just disabled (crystallized) upon completion of rooting, flashing & optimizing of ROM on a new device....next Titanium Backup Pro, Poweramp, MX player Pro, SD MAID PRO and app forth.  

Second:  without further commentary, here's my review from Playstore and I hope it opens further discussion from you and forum members!  Thanks again.

***  

With 30 years combined experience in the pro audio industry & highly specialized, hydro acoustically intensive field of Naval Sonar before that, I have a deep appreciation for audiophile quality hardware and the latest technological advances in software based digital audio processing.  

I am as impressed today as a beta (alpha) tester as I was nearly 8 yrs ago upon discovering the very first public release of Poweramp for Android.  Your level of dedication and the obvious hard work invested in Poweramp development is evident throughout and it remains superior in every way to other AOSP audio players I've tried since 2009 (back in HTC G1 days).  

I am devoted to Poweramp and my daily personal audio enjoyment....whether over BT audio to SYNC in my car, or over top notch, wired, in-ear monitors using the amazing DACs on my HTC 10, I am never disappointed.    Is a parametric EQ ever in the works by chance??  

I'd like far greater tonal control and ability to shape the response curves and overall sound field for various listening environments, i.e., my car vs playback over surround home theater, or for overcoming particularly pronounced & unwanted bumps or cuts in certain frequencies on a couple of different pairs of headphones (wired & BT).  

I like the graphic EQ but find it to be ineffective at providing the fine tuning I desire, primarily due to the limited number of bands.  I especially wish there were a greater number of divisions among bands covering the upper mid to high frequency range.  Even if you were only to develop a graphic EQ with 4-6 more bands to provide more granular control, I'd consider that a HUGE WIN and would appreciate the effort.  

I know I'm not the first person to be frustrated by the limits imposed by having only 1, 2, 4, 8 & finally 16kHz bands at the upper end of the spectrum.

[usnbrendon]

If you want my additional input for moving Poweramp many steps forward and what I'd really love to have (and what I just cannot plead enough that you add feature-wise), here it is:

 

Tagging is a love / hate thing for me in this and previous versions.  Album art is nice to have, but I'd rather it be deprecated and left in code graveyard if it is going to continue to be so limited as to how it can be changed....for instance, I rarely use my SYSTEM MEMORY the store ANYTHING media related.

So I wish to add or change album art....ummm, if it's not in my main device storage (root/sdcard/....or storage/emulated/0/...) it's NOT possible.  I see that Poweramp struggled with the new storage access permissions for external microSD that were imposed by Google with KITKAT...but I thought the issue had been resolved....then as of last night I couldn't "see" any other storage in my device...no external microsd .....definitely no USB-OTG access. 

Then there's the issue of my keeping MASSIVE amounts of my music library (lossless .FLAC mostly) stored on my media server at home and it is synced to my Dropbox giving me access to it anywhere, anytime, as long as there is a data connection. But I have to juggle moving or "staging" bunches of audio files to my 256GB EXTERNAL micro sd rather than wipe out system storage, and then I cannot play from there using Poweramp. 

I can sorta get around it by marking as "make available offline" within Dropbox certain audio files I want available to me....but this isn't a REAL SOLUTION or viable workaround b/c that only downloads the content to the device storage under 'Android/data/DropboxapknameI cannotrecall/etc etc etc'

....which can then be added to the list of folders Poweramp should read and/or scan for audio files & *bam* they can be played.  But again, I DO NOT, DO NOT DO NOT want all my audio in device storage so I need Poweramp to handle cloud storage access and to tackle the storage access permission thing once and for all to really make my audio experience AWESOME & HASSLE FREE.

 Google Music....oh please PLEASE hear my plea...I'm begging:

Give me the ability to use the Poweramp AUDIO ENGINE and WORLD CLASS DSP, LIMITER AND EQ, etc when I'm wishing to access my GOOGLE MUSIC.....

I detest how lifeless and underwhelming my music sounds when played (direct or streamed) via GOOGLE MUSIC in-GUI crap Player that takes my joy in life and suffocates it slowly and makes my ears and heart begin to ache for Poweramp.....oh I can't tell you how many times a song I have on device AND in G drive starts playing through Google Music and my immediate reaction is to reach over and check my car's SYNC Audio settings...then no.....wait, it's gotta be a wrong preset or DVC LIMIT turned off in Poweramp--so I grab my phone out of habit and double tap..

.....expecting to see Poweramp GUI on screen..... I drop an F bomb and stomp the floorboard, then either toss my phone in the cup holder or passenger seat in total disgust BECAUSE GOOGLE MUSIC GUI is up and I'm immediately and painfully aware of the f*ck¡Ng problem.....THE SONG ISN'T PLAYING THROUGH Poweramp!  **DAMNIT**

or, I REALLY wanna hear the song the way it's SUPPOSED TO SOUND and I have to quit Google Music, open Poweramp and pull up the song .....and PLAY.......mmmmm.   

 I gotta have a fix... I admit I've become totally and completely smitten and enamored with Poweramp....I'm addicted, I'm dependent and I suck at using why other player.  I suck at giving up my favorite audio quality, my optimized DSP settings for different car audio systems, as well as the perfect presets I've painstakingly tweaked to perfection for play through my home stereo, desktop PC and 3 different types of headphones I use based on my environment or planned activity.  

 That's where I'm at with Poweramp beta testing....

If I jumped the gun and posted to WRONG THREAD ...you may admonish etc...but it seemed to fit here so I gave it a go.

"alpha-build-703-play"

^^Where are we going from here ^^

 

[andrewilley]

Moved these messages to their own topic, more likely to be seen that way.

Andre