X-Clementine

When it comes to listening to music, devices used can vary a lot, ranging from dedicated MP3 players, to mobile phones, PCs and whatnot. For the computer enthusiast, an application is required to process all songs and deliver sound at best quality. If you’re looking for an alternative to conventional players, X-Clementine is surely amongst the ones to try.

The name might not tell you much, but before anything else, you need to know that this is the portable version of Clementine, which means you can carry it around with you on an USB Flash drive, along with a few songs or the entire collection. This also keeps your PC from running into any compatibility issues, since registries are not touched.

On the visual side of things, the application is pretty well-structured, with a side panel used for accessing different navigation areas like search, library, files, Internet, and devices, contend displayed in a tree view, and actual content stored in a list with details such as title, artist, album, length, and more.

All playback controls are in a bottom toolbar, with options to start and stop sound, shuffle the list in several ways, as well as repeat on certain conditions, the visualizer can be fitted with a few different styles, even one that uses Nyan Cat’s trail to exemplify sound. An additional viewer can be brought up and it too is equipped with a rich library of preset effects.

Files can be added by dragging them over the main window or making the application look in a specific directory and creating a library for you. However, these are not the only sources, and you can play songs from network computer or devices, and even from the internet by using your credentials to log into specialized services like SoundCloud.

Online music can’t be downloaded, so you’re in legal terms. On the other hand, the application comes with a built-in converter that can be used to change audio files between formats like FLAC, MP4, OGG, MP3, SPX, WAV, and WMA. Destination can be set the same as input, with configurable settings for quality.

Paying a visit to the settings menu is most likely a good idea. There, you can set hotkeys for quickly managing playback controls, just so you don’t bring up the main window every time you want to change a song or pause.

When not used, the application gets minimized to the system tray, with progress being neatly displayed through the icon itself. A configurable On screen display can be enabled so you know what plays next.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that X-Clementine is a fully-fledged audio player on which you can rely to play your favorite tunes. The set of features is impressive, with hotkey customization, plenty audio sources to look for music, great visualizers and a lot more. If you’re not convinced, just try it out to see for yourself.