Should I switch to Poweramp?

[ErikG]

I have a few dozen CDs that years ago I uploaded to Google Play so that I can use my phone like a Walkman (yes, I am that old). I bought a few more albums directly on GPM. Now GPM is dead replaced by YTM. I transferred my library, but there are many things I do not like about YTM. So I'm looking to transfer my library both the CDs that I uploaded and the music files that I purchased, to something new. I'm not needing a subscription service like Spotify, Just something that I can keep music on my phone that I already own and then play it in my car through Bluetooth. Is Poweramp the way to go? How hard will it be to transfer my library from YTM? Thanks.

[John Doe]

While this will make me wildly unpopular, I think you'd be better off with Gonemad Media Player Classic. Make sure you get the Classic version as the new Version 3 is terrible, in my opinion anyway.

Gonemad has more friendly features, like if you shuffle a bands whole folder it will shuffle that folder, but if you pick another album folder and pick a song, it will not shuffle that folder. It will play the songs on that album, in order, starting with the song you picked. Whether it was the 1st song or the 5th song. It will only shuffle when you pick shuffle. Poweramp makes you turn shuffle on and off all of the time. There are more options in Gonemad, and it's way more customizable. Also, it doesn't have to rescan your library every time you add new music. People will say "So what, it can do it automatically", but if you're shuffling a 10 CD set, the scan will screw that up, and it will start shuffling just the songs on the particular album that happens to be playing at that time. And only those songs.

Poweramp is OK, but after I bought it several years ago, it wasn't long before I was looking for an alternative. When I bought Gonemad, I knew I got the perfect player. For me, anyway.

Poweramp 3 is a lot better than 2 ever was, but it's still not as good Gonemad Classic.

[ErikG]

Thanks for that, will investigate that as well. 

I don't ever shuffle my album contents, so I don't know if that will make a difference for me between the two players, but I'll take a look at Gonemad too.

The other question I am running into is how to move my YouTube music files into whatever I replace it with. That's looking like that could be pretty difficult....

 

 

[MotleyG]

24 minutes ago, John Doe said:

While this will make me wildly unpopular, I think you'd be better off with Gonemad Media Player Classic. Make sure you get the Classic version as the new Version 3 is terrible, in my opinion anyway.

Gonemad has more friendly features, like if you shuffle a bands whole folder it will shuffle that folder, but if you pick another album folder and pick a song, it will not shuffle that folder. It will play the songs on that album, in order, starting with the song you picked. Whether it was the 1st song or the 5th song. It will only shuffle when you pick shuffle. Poweramp makes you turn shuffle on and off all of the time. There are more options in Gonemad, and it's way more customizable. Also, it doesn't have to rescan your library every time you add new music. People will say "So what, it can do it automatically", but if you're shuffling a 10 CD set, the scan will screw that up, and it will start shuffling just the songs on the particular album that happens to be playing at that time. And only those songs.

Poweramp is OK, but after I bought it several years ago, it wasn't long before I was looking for an alternative. When I bought Gonemad, I knew I got the perfect player. For me, anyway.

Poweramp 3 is a lot better than 2 ever was, but it's still not as good Gonemad Classic.

Subjective opinion, I actually really like the UI in their newer version. I do agree it is much more elegant in the overall design, and flexible when it comes to customizing the UI and metadata display.

Regardless, Poweramp has a much more refined audio engine, especially for hi-res, the other only plays up to 48kHz using an older API. This for some is the key benefit of PA.

[MotleyG]

27 minutes ago, ErikG said:

The other question I am running into is how to move my YouTube music files into whatever I replace it with. That's looking like that could be pretty difficult....

 

Do you have a backup of these files anywhere? You will need them to be stored locally on your phone to have chess for Poweramp, or any other non-streaming service, to work. Besides the reduced usage of air time, the benefit is access to your library, even when offline or out of service areas.

[John Doe]

5 minutes ago, MotleyG said:

Regardless, Poweramp has a much more refined audio engine, especially for hi-res, the other only plays up to 48kHz using an older API. This for some is the key benefit of PA.

True, but as the original poster mentioned ripping a few dozen CD's and buying music from Google Music, I assumed that Hi Res Flacs probably wouldn't be anything for me to consider.

[John Doe]

10 minutes ago, MotleyG said:

Subjective opinion, I actually really like the UI in their newer version. I do agree it is much more elegant in the overall design, and flexible when it comes to customizing the UI and metadata display.

What part of this is opinion?

"Gonemad has more friendly features, like if you shuffle a bands whole folder it will shuffle that folder, but if you pick another album folder and pick a song, it will not shuffle that folder. It will play the songs on that album, in order, starting with the song you picked. Whether it was the 1st song or the 5th song. It will only shuffle when you pick shuffle. Poweramp makes you turn shuffle on and off all of the time. There are more options in Gonemad, and it's way more customizable. Also, it doesn't have to rescan your library every time you add new music. People will say "So what, it can do it automatically", but if you're shuffling a 10 CD set, the scan will screw that up, and it will start shuffling just the songs on the particular album that happens to be playing at that time. And only those songs."

[andrewilley]

Poweramp is an excellent audio player for handling local files on your own device, with oodles of features - which some people may find the learning curve to track down and understand all of them a bit steep, but your mileage may vary. Generally though, out-of-the-box its very simple to just pick an album, folder, artist, or individual song from the lists and tap to play.

Do you still have your original CD rips, as those will be better quality than YouTube uploads/downloads. Poweramp cannot play directly from Google Drive, iTunes, or YouTube Music, you need to get the MP3 (or FLAC, etc) files onto your local device storage first. This is not always easy, as companies are generally pretty keen to lock you into their own streaming ecosystems.

Andre

[andrewilley]

I just did some Googling and while it was easy to re-download music you had uploaded to Google Music, the forced transfer to YouTube Music now makes it rather harder, but not impossible.

There are other 'less official' ways to download from YouTube (some referred to in the above thread) but that's not really a subject to discuss here.

However the best answer is still to use your original CD rips if you still have them. which will be organised how you originally intended them to be.

Andre

[John Doe]

I understand that I'm in the 1/2 of 1% of the people who keep a tablet mounted in their car to use as a stereo / GPS. Sure, I could use my phone, but there's no denying that an 8" tablet with a 4:3 aspect ratio is much better. Anyway, I forgot to mention that you can use a split screen in Gonemad. This way you can do all of your navigating on the right side while what you're listening to is displayed on the left. You can set up a gesture where you can just single tap the artwork on the left to bring you back to the folder you're listening to on the right. Or double tap the artwork to play a random album. That's how I have it, at least.

Edited November 7, 2021 by John Doe

[andrewilley]

@John Doe Agreed, Poweramp is not particularly well optimised for using large landscape devices such as tablets. A dual-pane view option would be nice.

Andre

[MotleyG]

5 hours ago, John Doe said:

What part of this is opinion?

"Gonemad has more friendly features, like if you shuffle a bands whole folder it will shuffle that folder, but if you pick another album folder and pick a song, it will not shuffle that folder. It will play the songs on that album, in order, starting with the song you picked. Whether it was the 1st song or the 5th song. It will only shuffle when you pick shuffle. Poweramp makes you turn shuffle on and off all of the time. There are more options in Gonemad, and it's way more customizable. Also, it doesn't have to rescan your library every time you add new music. People will say "So what, it can do it automatically", but if you're shuffling a 10 CD set, the scan will screw that up, and it will start shuffling just the songs on the particular album that happens to be playing at that time. And only those songs."

Uh, most of that would be your opinion… I use both regularly so it isn’t a preference from my side asking.

MY opinion, I love the UI in GMMP, but there are many reasons I use Poweramp as well. Like you, I prefer the simpler interface in the car that GMMP offers, especially with the customizable metadata that Poweramp has yet to offer on the. Ow Playing window at least. But for headphone listening on my DAP I prefer the tuning and sound that PA provides. Navigating my library is somewhat similar between the two. Other than that there are definitely differences in how the repeat and shuffle modes work, and some other settings. But I wouldn’t say Poweramp has less options than GMMP.

[John Doe]

1 hour ago, MotleyG said:

Uh, most of that would be your opinion… I use both regularly so it isn’t a preference from my side asking.

Fact, not opinion. "Gonemad has more friendly features, like if you shuffle a bands whole folder it will shuffle that folder, but if you pick another album folder and pick a song, it will not shuffle that folder. It will play the songs on that album, in order, starting with the song you picked. Whether it was the 1st song or the 5th song. It will only shuffle when you pick shuffle. Poweramp makes you turn shuffle on and off all of the time."

Fact, not opinion. "There are more options in Gonemad" Sound options, yes. I'll give you that one. But for how the player can be setup to navigate and look, no.

Fact, not opinion. "...and it's way more customizable."

Fact, not opinion. "Also, it doesn't have to rescan your library every time you add new music. People will say "So what, it can do it automatically", but if you're shuffling a 10 CD set, the scan will screw that up, and it will start shuffling just the songs on the particular album that happens to be playing at that time. And only those songs."

I get it, you're a Poweramp person. But Gonemad Classic is a better choice. Poweramp is a fine backup player, but if you're only going to have one, it's not the one to have.

Edited November 7, 2021 by John Doe

[MotleyG]

2 hours ago, John Doe said:

I get it, you're a Poweramp person. But Gonemad Classic is a better choice. Poweramp is a fine backup player, but if you're only going to have one, it's not the one to have.

As I said previously, I use both regularly. Clearly you don’t but feel that coming here to post, on a Poweramp forum, your opinion here is warranted (fact?). I provided my pros/cons opinions, the OP can decide based on theirs.

[andrewilley]

3 hours ago, John Doe said:

Fact, not opinion [...]

Gonemad has more friendly features
[...]
There are more options in Gonemad
[...]
and it's way more customizable
[...]
But Gonemad Classic is a better choice

You are of course entitled to your viewpoint. But as a gentle warning, please don't abuse other forum members by stating that your unsubstantiated opinions are absolute fact and that theirs are wrong: these are just your opinions. Given your feelings, perhaps the Gonemad support forums might be a better suited to your requirements?

Regarding Shuffle... as discussed with you at length in another thread, PA has four main shuffle modes which you can easily cycle between by tapping the Shuffle button on the player screen (or long-press it for the full list). You can also switch directly into shuffled or regular playback modes using the 'Shuffle' or 'Play' icons at the top of any category or songs list. Or just tap any song to just start it playing immediately without changing the current shuffle method. Of course all apps do work slightly differently, and I'm sorry you are still having trouble getting used to PA's workflow. As I've said before, the details of all the options can be found in the FAQ: 

Andre