Looking for Full Featured Android Music/Audio Book Player

[maverickronin]

So my Rockbox players are getting old, crusty, and slow and Rockbox for Android is dead so I started looking around to see if there are any Android apps that can actually replace Rockbox. Rockbox is amazing so I have a pretty stringent set of requirements. I'll be ok with either one app for both or one app for music and a separate one for audio books/podcasts.

In case you're unfamiliar with Rockbox, this will entirely for playing local files. No streaming at all.

• UI - Simple UI with the ability to turn off all album artwork. I think the visuals detract from the music.
• Sleep Timer - Sleep timer to stop playback after a fixed amount of time regardless of what's left on the queue/playlist. Bonus points for restarting the sleep timer on receiving user input.
• Bookmarking - Automatic bookmarking of position in audio book/podcasts.
• Auto Rewind on Pause - Automatically go back 20 seconds or so on pause so I can remember the context in audio books.
• Shuffle Entire Library - Ability to load the entire music library into one shuffled playlist. Must exclude audio books if a single app is used for both.
• Compressor - This is super useful. Great for music in a noisy car. Great for podcasts because quality of production is often inversely correlated with the quality of content. Great for super low volume background music while falling asleep.
• PEQ and Crossfeed.- Bonus points but not strictly necessary since my Qudelix 5K can handle it for now.
• Database and Folder Browsing - Must have tag database for browsing music and have folder browsing for picking books/podcasts.

I use foobar2K on my desktop, but the Android version is as basic as it gets with essentially no options. GoneMad lets me get rid of most of the album art, has a sleep timer, and bookmarking but no compressor, no auto rewind, and mixes up your music with your audio books and podcasts.

UAPP is popular around here for it's ability to bypass the system mixer but that's not super important to me and I couldn't find a demo version to check out it's other options.

 

[TiborG]

So my Rockbox players are getting old, crusty, and slow and Rockbox for Android is dead so I started looking around to see if there are any Android apps that can actually replace Rockbox. Rockbox is amazing so I have a pretty stringent set of requirements. I'll be ok with either one app for both or one app for music and a separate one for audio books/podcasts.

In case you're unfamiliar with Rockbox, this will entirely for playing local files. No streaming at all.

• UI - Simple UI with the ability to turn off all album artwork. I think the visuals detract from the music.
• Sleep Timer - Sleep timer to stop playback after a fixed amount of time regardless of what's left on the queue/playlist. Bonus points for restarting the sleep timer on receiving user input.
• Bookmarking - Automatic bookmarking of position in audio book/podcasts.
• Auto Rewind on Pause - Automatically go back 20 seconds or so on pause so I can remember the context in audio books.
• Shuffle Entire Library - Ability to load the entire music library into one shuffled playlist. Must exclude audio books if a single app is used for both.
• Compressor - This is super useful. Great for music in a noisy car. Great for podcasts because quality of production is often inversely correlated with the quality of content. Great for super low volume background music while falling asleep.
• PEQ and Crossfeed.- Bonus points but not strictly necessary since my Qudelix 5K can handle it for now.
• Database and Folder Browsing - Must have tag database for browsing music and have folder browsing for picking books/podcasts.

I use foobar2K on my desktop, but the Android version is as basic as it gets with essentially no options. GoneMad lets me get rid of most of the album art, has a sleep timer, and bookmarking but no compressor, no auto rewind, and mixes up your music with your audio books and podcasts.

UAPP is popular around here for it's ability to bypass the system mixer but that's not super important to me and I couldn't find a demo version to check out it's other options.

FiiO Music and Hiby Music will help you. Free with rich settings.

 

[TonyJZX]

the is essentially something that could be done on a middling mobile phone with the requisite apps

good luck finding those apps tho

 

[Jimbob54]

UAPP is popular around here for it's ability to bypass the system mixer but that's not super important to me and I couldn't find a demo version to check out it's other options.

Free trial

www.extreamsd.com

Cant answer how well it deals with audiobooks though- suspect not something the dev has given much thought to. Great for music and has the crossfeed and PEQ you need. Dont think it has a compressor. And of course only works with local files (inc DLNA/ UPNP servers) , Tidal or Qobuz

 

[maverickronin]

the is essentially something that could be done on a middling mobile phone with the requisite apps

good luck finding those apps tho

Yeah. I think I'm going to need to look into how much work it would be to update the Android port of Rockbox to work on new phones. I'm not a "real" programmer though, so I don't think it's going to go very well.

Free trial

www.extreamsd.com

Cant answer how well it deals with audiobooks though- suspect not something the dev has given much thought to. Great for music and has the crossfeed and PEQ you need. Dont think it has a compressor. And of course only works with local files (inc DLNA/ UPNP servers) , Tidal or Qobuz

I eventually did find the demo version. No compressor and I didn't like the GUI.

I found a few audiobook specific players that were ok except for the lack of a compressor.

 

[maverickronin]

FiiO Music and Hiby Music will help you. Free with rich settings.

No compressor and I can't stand either GUI.

 

[Jimbob54]

Yeah. I think I'm going to need to look into how much work it would be to update the Android port of Rockbox to work on new phones. I'm not a "real" programmer though, so I don't think it's going to go very well.



I eventually did find the demo version. No compressor and I didn't like the GUI.

I found a few audiobook specific players that were ok except for the lack of a compressor.

I suspect you will need a music app and an audiobook app. I havent really investigated but you could look at Neutron and Poweramp on the music side- see if either have compressor. I know Poweramp were working on a PEQ solution but not sure what other DSP they do. To the best of my knowledge both have trial versions on the Play store.

 

[maverickronin]

I suspect you will need a music app and an audiobook app

Yeah, after thinking about it 2 separate apps would be best.

I havent really investigated but you could look at Neutron and Poweramp on the music side- see if either have compressor. I know Poweramp were working on a PEQ solution but not sure what other DSP they do. To the best of my knowledge both have trial versions on the Play store.

I missed it before, but Neutron seems to be the first one I've seen with a compressor. Unfortunately the GUI is pretty marginal and it won't let me hide all the album art.