foobar2000 0.9.6 beta 5 is out and about!
A new foobar2000 beta just got released: 0.9.6 beta 4.
Just as I was downloading the new beta, I decided to take advantage and test the portable install option. It seems to have worked perfectly, and it’s now playing happily my favorite 4hero album 
The process is pretty straightforward (a few screens are included below).
Lightweight, but as well-equipped and charming as James Bond, foobar2000 has gone forward another step in its evolution cycle by reaching version 0.9.4 final.
So what’s new in this new release of the audio player that’s either liked or hated by most people? Well, for one thing, it starts and shuts down faster and the standard installer includes freedb support.
What else? Handling of MP3 files has been improved (”fix headers” and other useful tools), the LAME version/settings used to encode MP3s can be detected, ID3v2 workarounds have been added for some errors in MP3 files caused by buggy implementations. foobar2000 0.9.4 even knows how to work with WMA tags.
Something interesting happened to the “properties window”: it has two tabs, “metadata” and … “properties” (not so original, is it). The first tab displays all the information extracted from ID3 tags and the like. The second tab is all about the actual file: location, size, bitrate, duration, sample rate and so on…
Want to find out more? Check out the changelog below…
*** WHAT’S NEW IN FOOBAR2000 0.9.4 ***
- Properties dialog improvements
- Startup/shutdown speed optimizations
- Added LAME version and partial settings detection for MP3 files
- Replaced old “Fix MP3 Header” command with a new set of MP3-related utility commands
- “ID3v2 Writer Compatibility Mode” with workarounds for common bugs in other software’s ID3v2 implementations
- “Copy” button in components list
- freedb support now included with the installer
- Rewritten embedded cuesheet metadata handling
- Rewritten ReplayGain info editor dialog
- ABX bugfixes
- Added WMA tag editing support
*** RELEVANT LINKS ***
Download foobar2000 0.9.4 (.exe installer, 1.6MB, md5=28F2F9EA5BDD625DD59E2661A2DAF7D2)