14 DAY TRIAL // One tendency in making MP3-playing software (other than "multimedia-center-izing" everything) is simplifying everything down to a point beyond which people like me can't see almost anything: I mean, how simple can a good and decent MP3 player software be? Cutting down lots of features and GUIs, so you go below the 512 KB limit while still managing to issue a player with very good sound is one thing I have been seeing for some time now.
When it comes to the proper products...some developers can do it and some can't; some get to write quite good code and others can't manage but producing laughable (at best) programs. Well, Leebies Simple MP3 Player belongs to the first category: a dead-simple (I wonder what else could be eliminated further on) program, perfectly fit for absolutely anyone. As the developer's state on the website says that everything they produce is "simple software for the whole family" - so it is: I guess even my grandfather could learn hot to use it in no more than a few moves, and he's 83...
The Looks
Given the very simple software, a complex and flashing GUI would have been ridiculous and I assume you'll agree with me. Leebies Simple MP3 Player has 2 windows and this is all: the main window, which is properly the player window and another one which acts as a playlist and playlist manager.
The player window is small and its size is fixed, but it looks very "warm" and cozy: a blue gradient background with a calm, non-violent color, round or rounded buttons and a text display screen. All graphic elements in this small window are very intuitive and there are no buttons or representations to mislead even the newbie user. Small tags also appear as the mouse hovers over the buttons. The text displayed is rather small and, unfortunately, only the song name appears, while the artist's name does not. Also, info on the type of file being played is shown as well as bitrate and frequency, elapsed and total time.
The playlist window does not have any visual styles at all and looks very Win98: the classic grey color, with rectangular grey buttons. The tracks loaded are displayed with their complete path and - since the size of this window is also fixed - this is rather annoying, because you practically can't directly see the name of the files without scrolling to the right.
The volume is regulated by two (round as well) buttons with a plus and a minus on them: don't take them for add/delete files... Leebies Simple MP3 Player won't go to the system tray, but instead it has some sort of "auto on top" and this is about all about the looks.
The Works
Little can I say about the Leebies Simple MP3 Player's working, since it will play only MPG, MP1, MP2, MP3, OGG, WMA and ASF files. Some might object that this list is too short, but I'd say it's pretty decent for such a small, free software. Of course I am confused by not including WAV in the list of file formats supported, which is very, very weird!
Well, Leebies Simple MP3 Player does not sport an EQ and no repeat function at all, thus, if you want to use it to listen again and again to your newly-bought favorite CD it can be a bit annoying. You can open one single file from the main player window or you can drag and drop multiple files in the playlist window; do not try to drop entire folders here as the result will be silly: the tracklist will display the local path of this folder but you won't be able to play anything.
Once you have loaded the files you want in the playlist, you can save it in M3L format, so you'll be able to load it some time later and play its contents directly. Note: double-clicking an item in the playlist will not trigger playback, nor will pressing Delete remove a selected file. These are some features which I guess were not removed, but rather not implemented at all...and they should be!
Finally, even though there is no seekbar (and this will result in a lower mark I'll be giving), the sound is pretty OK, especially as you are listening to good-quality audio.
The Good
The best things about the Leebies Simple MP3 Player are that it is freeware and very easy to use, while being very small.
The Bad
I didn't like at all the lack of a seekbar (which in my opinion is vital in any player); as well, the folder drag and drop should be mended in future versions.
The Truth
You can of course give it a spin and maybe even grow to like Leebies Simple MP3 Player, so I will recommend that you download and use it; it is very suitable for small systems, because it will work on low resources.
See the few screenshots I made for Leebies Simple MP3 Player below:
