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It's been a while since I had a look at Songbird, and that was when 1.0 came out. The new release was put out a little earlier this month and comes with a brand new equalizer, a new mode to auto-organise media files included in the collection and Last.fm radio integration. However, the most awaited feature is probably the 10-band equalizer and it is available using the Controls -> Equalizer menu option (or Ctrl+E). Here's how it looks:
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It's been a while since I had a look at Songbird, and that was when 1.0 came out. The new release was put out a little earlier this month and comes with a brand new equalizer, a new mode to auto-organise media files included in the collection and Last.fm radio integration.
However, the most awaited feature is probably the 10-band equalizer and it is available using the Controls -> Equalizer menu option (or Ctrl+E). Here's how it looks:
As you can see, unfortunately there are no default presets available, but maybe the next version will include some.
A pre-compiled Linux version is available for download on the official website, so you can just uncompress the file you downloaded, copy the Songbird directory somewhere inside your home folder and run the songbird script to start it.
Songbird 1.2.0
The metadata editor is somewhat similar with that of Amarok 1.4, and you can use Alt+N and Alt+P to switch to the next and, respectively, previous track:
Editing tags
A very useful add-on for Songbird is the mashTape extension, which retrieves various information about the currently playing song: mashTape show Last.fm artist biography, reviews from various specialised websites, news, photos and even videos.
Some other noteworthy features which come with Songbird are:
- the ability to fetch album covers
- integrated, fully functional web browser based on the Mozilla browser
- support for themes, called 'feathers' by Songbird
- Last.fm and Shoutcast radio (available through two add-ons which can be installed when Songbird starts for the first time or afterwards, from the official website)
- Songbird displays concert dates for artists on demand
- it offers a huge number of fields to sort the playlist
- integrated 7digital music store
MashTape configuration
Still, there are several drawbacks which don't look like they have been fixed: the fonts are too small and it doesn't seem to be a method to increase their size; the cover art is not retrieved from local folders.
Overall, 1.2.0 is a new step in the development of Songbird and it surely cannot dissapoint its users.
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