MediaAMP

Sure enough you launch a media player in order to enjoy a song or two after a long day’s work. You most likely have a preferred audio player by now, but it’s also possible you’re looking for something new. If this is the case, there are tons of third-party alternatives available over the web, and MediaAMP is a suitable example.

One of the first things you notice is that you’re not taken through a setup process to make the application work, so it’s good to go from the moment download is done. Moreover, it fits on a thumb drive to always have a personal audio player wherever you go, without having to worry about the stability of the target PC, because registry entries are not modified during runtime.

By default, the application starts off in a pretty compact main window, with the possibility to resize it, but with no actual enhancement since you only reveal empty space. On the other hand, it comes with a variety of skins which you can change with little effort, and even the possibility to add your own by adding custom pictures in the skins directory.

As for file support, the application is only able to play MP3 files, which is rather disappointing. There’s a built-in playlist manager, but you can’t just drop files over it, so you need to rely on the browse dialog, which only lets you pick a file at a time. Playlist can be saved, but under the program’s own format, namely U8.

Playback controls are straightforward, with a set of buttons to start, pause, stop, and navigate through playlist items. Volume is adjusted through a dedicated slider, and you can also skip through content. However, there are no implemented hotkeys for more comfort.

All things considered, we can say that MediaAMP is a little underprepared to be a suitable audio player on the long run. More emphasis is put on aesthetics than actual functionality, but even the visual design leaves much to be desired.