Last updated 8/29/2006.
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats. (Quoted from official site until I can be arsed to write something different)
For extended help, there is an extensive wiki for foobar2000 on Hydrogen Audio.
Configuration Tips
-Advanced Configuration-
Blah blah blah.
Link to a craptacular music streaming guide, using icecast, oddcast and foobar. This site provides an overview of how all the parts of music streaming fit together.
Components
Below is a short list of my favorite components.
-Columns UI-
Make sure you are using at least 0.1.3 with foobar2000 0.9.
The default interface for foobar2000 is very, well, minimalistic. It is just a list of songs in the current playlist. Some people dig it, some people do not. Luckily, there is an alternative inferface plugin available, Columns UI. While still adhering to the principles of minimalism, it provides a lot of customization options for the user via panel configuration. There are numerous panels available, including an album list panel, album art panel, and a track info panel.
It's name stems from how it organizes track data into field columns, rather than putting it all in one "column." You can customize the columns, which use Tagz script to grab data from the media library. There is a good tutorial available for Tagz script.
With a bit of effort, you can make your foobar2000 look something like this:
-Masstagger-
Included with default installation.
Masstagger is a powerful tag editing scripting utility for foobar2000 which allows you to fix or add ID3/APE tags to many files at once. It can be accessed by selecting some tracks, right clicking, then selecting Tagging > Manage Scripts. It includes the ability to guess tag info from filenames, set tag info to specified values, an auto track numbering mechanism, and more. You can save common scripts for later use.
On a related note, you can also rename files based on ID3 tags by selecting some files, right clicking, then selecting File Operations > Move, Rename or Copy Files. The dialog presents numerous options for renaming, including the ability to move files into subfolders by adding \ in the appropriate location in the output filename format string. The formatting strings use the ubiquitous Tagz script.
-Freedb Tagger-
The Freedb Tagger allows you to add ID3/etc tags to your music files in an automated fashion. Complete albums can be tagged using metadata retrieved from an arbitrary Freedb server.
Using the component is fairly straightforward. Select all of the tracks in an album, right click on them, and select Tagging > Get Tags From Freedb. The component will then retrieve all of the entries for the selected album, allowing you to review them and choose the one you like best. You can also alter what will go into common tags, such as album name and genre, before you commit the changes.
-CD Burning Support-
This component requires Nero to be installed on your system. It will allow you to burn a selection of music tracks directly to CD from within foobar2000.