DBpowerAMP
dBpowerAMP is a collection of fully-integrated audio software from Illustrate, written by Spoon.
There are two main dBpowerAMP products that Illustrate has released, with many additional add-ons available for download as well as a couple other related pieces of software.
- dBpowerAMP Audio Player (dAP)
- dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC)
dMC is integrated into dAP, but neither depends on the other and each can function without the other's help.
Both are fully compatible with Windows 95/98/ME NT4/2000, Windows XP and Linux (using WINE).
Products
dBpowerAMP Audio Player (dAP)
dBpowerAMP Audio Player was created as a means to promote dMC(dBpowerAMP Music Converter), although it has grown quite a bit since.
It is based on a music collection that is being randomly played, and at any moment you can Enque any number of songs after the currently playing one. Also features freeform skins, previously-played songs list, most played list, newest list...
dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC)
The dBpowerAMP series originally started with the Music Converter, a program designed to convert any audio file into any format. dMC is free to use, with an optional commercial upgrade called "PowerPack". The program is implemented into the Windows shell, so you just right-click on a music file and select convert to. Also, due to licensing issues, the PowerPack is now required to encode to mp3.
Aside from the actual MusicConverter, there are some other various programs available that depend on dMC.
dMC Audio CD Input
- Freeware
- Rips audio CDs
- Included in dMC
dMC Auxiliary Input
- Freeware
- Records audio from Line-In or from internal loopback to a file
- Useful to digitize tapes, LPs, and the like
- Included in dMC
dMC File Selector
- Freeware
- Converts directories of files
- Included in dMC
dBpowerAMP CD Writer (dCW)
- Shareware
- Burns audio CDs, mp3 CDs, Ogg Vorbis CDs, etc.
- Available for 30 day trial
- Available for $19 purchase
Power Pack
- Shareware
- Includes various enhancements to dMC, such as faster CD ripping, auto-start and auto-stop for Aux. Input, and many other features
- Available for 30 day trial
- Available for $14 purchase
- Now required for mp3 encoding.
Sveta Portable Audio
- Shareware
- Tranfers audio files to a portable player and can transcode on the fly if needed when sending
- Available for 30 day trial
- Available for $24 purchase
- Note that this is now separate from the normal PowerPack purchase.
Also, there are various bundle offers available that will save you money.
Codecs
All codecs are written for the program so there can't be any errors in importing codecs from other programs. The dBpowerAMP products come already equipped with the mp3 and wav codecs. With the appropriate codecs installed, dBpowerAMP can automatically recognize, play and manipulate the following extensions:
aa, aac, aiff, aifc, ape, asf, au, cda, fla, flac, m4a, mdz, mod, mp+, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpa, mpc, mpg, mpga, mpp, mpx, nvf, ofr, ogg, ra, ram, rm, s3m, s3z, sap, shn, snd, spx, voc, vqf, vtm, vtx, wav, wave, wma, wmv, wv, wvc, xm, and xmz.
In addition any command line external codec can be configured for use with dMC. Also, many Winamp codecs can be used to allow dMC to DECODE other, non-supported files when used with the dMC Winamp Input Decoder codec.
This is not a definitive list; you can check codec central for official updates.
Development
Illustrate's products are always in development in one form or another. Currently, work is being done on a new version of dMC: release 12. Currently in alpha, this release will include many new features and updates to dMC, currently at release 11.5. New features include support for 64-bit shell additions, a new secure CD ripper, command-line conversions, an updated mp3 encoder (LAME 3.97), better multi-core support, a gapless mp3 encoder, full unicode compatibility for both filenames and tags, album art support (both in tags and in folders),and an entirely new Codec system.
However, as dMC r12 is in alpha, many current features in r11.5 are not supported, such as the File Selector or the ability to interface with dCW and Sveta. The download thread for dMC r12 says what features will be added, are currently added, and what is not supported yet.
Also, dAP has many bugfixes in its release 3 beta 6. This version is regarded as perfectly stable and is the recommended version to use. It is still beta due to the developer (Spoon) still wanting work done on it before making it a final release.
Codecs are normally updated when new versions come out, but normally a final non-beta version of the codec must be released before an update for dMC is released. For example, dMC's AAC/mp4 encoder was switched from FAAC to Nero's AAC encoder after spending some time in beta while bugs were worked out.
For all beta versions, the dBpowerAMP forums have a beta section. Anyone is allowed to beta test dMC, although sometimes betas are restricted, either by date or you have to own the current version. The latter restriction normally only applies to dCW.