Maple MP3 Player – premium music player app; control pitch, speed, equalizer & more

by Paul Wilks May 24, 2012 11:22 AM – 6 Comments

Install

Maple MP3 Player is a premium music player for your Android device. In addition to the typical functionality you would expect (playback, playlists, widgets, etc.) you also get some incredibly sexy features including: variable playback speeds, pitch control, visualizer, bookmarks and useful playback history.

Price: Free for a 10 day trial, then ~$4.95

Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Nice UI!
Standout enhanced features (playback speeds, pitch control, bookmarks, visualizer, etc.)!
Themes!

Cons

Navigation isn’t as user-friendly as it perhaps could be.

Features:

Maple MP3 Player is a slick and fully-featured music player for your Android. What makes it stand out (and scream over the huge choice we already have in the Google Play Store) is the inclusion of some superb premium features. More on those later.

From the moment you open the app you’ll see all the usual functionality you have come to expect; playlists, library, playback, lists, etc. and the player works very well, displaying the album artwork in a nice UI. In fact the UI is very good; it looks great, comes with four different themes to suit your own preferences and there are even 3 widget sizes to select from for your homescreen.

Once these boxes have been ticked you can move on to some very cool features indeed. Firstly the app includes 4 toggles which are displayed below the album artwork. These are: Equalizer (a 5 band adjustable graphic equalizer), Speed (which permits you to customise playback speed in a variety of ways). Pitch (alter the pitch of the music being played) and A-B Looping (which replays a small loop from the recently played track). These toggles actually open the setting for each feature, and you can make adjustments all while the music is being played back. Additionally there is a visualizer which presents the music being played in vivid neon sound waves, pretty cool.

The settings menu is also a trove of cool tricks. You can change the theme here, enter scrobbling options (Last.fm and Scrobble Droid are supported), configure headset settings and also alter the read buffer size and audio buffer size. I would say then, that this is the app for the music connoisseur, for someone who likes customisation and needs a professional level application.

Watch on Mobile

I really like Maple MP3 Player but it does have its niggles (for me anyway). Navigation takes a bit of getting used to and is perhaps not quite as user-friendly as the likes of Winamp Pro and Songbird. Where there are tabs for artist, song albums and playlists, there isn’t one for genre. If you want to search for a song, you just have to scroll through your songs, there’s no means to search for tracks specifically which is tricky if you have a big music library on your device. Lastly, it would be so much better to have the option to add a song to a playlist while you’re playing it. You can’t do this currently unless you bookmark the song and then add it to a playlist, which isn’t as intuitive.

These small issues aside, Maple MP3 Player is a superb alternative to the music player you are currently using and certainly worth adopting if these extra features are of value to you. The app comes with a free 10 day trial to really test it out for yourself, and then you have to get the Unlocker app which lets you use the app beyond this time.

: Maple MP3 Player – Player view

: Maple MP3 Player – Artists list

: Maple MP3 Player – Visualizer

: Maple MP3 Player – Equaliser

: Maple MP3 Player – Volume adjustment

: Maple MP3 Player – Alter playback speed

: Maple MP3 Player – Sleep timer

: Maple MP3 Player – Settings menu

: Maple MP3 Player – Looks great in landscape mode

Usefulness:

It can replace your normal music player, so it’s great for listening to music and audiobooks, etc. while on the go. Additionally it comes with various extra features that really make stand it apart from other players in the market. Things like the equalizer, visualizer and the ability to alter the speed and pitch of the music in various increments are key.

Ease of Use:

After a lot of time playing with the app it becomes easier, but it’s not the simplest of apps to navigate. An example of this is, while on some screens there are 3 useful navigation buttons: Folders (which opens your devices folders), Player (which takes you to the music player itself) and Library (All songs, Albums, Artists, Playlists tabs). With Folders and Library this is fine, but selecting Player removes this form of navigation and you have to use menu. There’s no harm in this, but it’s not as intuitive. It perhaps would be improved if navigation options were universal throughout the application.

Frequently Used:

This will always depend very heavily on the user. Some users will use their music application throughout the day, others less so. the app is certainly functional and stable enough to use as much as you like.

Interface:

The interface is quite minimalist, so ideal for people who don’t want lots of distractions. The interface is, however, highly responsive and the additional features listed above are easy to customise.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (4.3 out of 5)

Should you Download Maple MP3 Player? Maple MP3 Player is an excellent alternative to your existing music player. The extra functionality detailed above is very cool to have and I know many music fans will love the intricate sound configuration the application offers. It’s not the simplest app to make the most of and I think navigation could be improved a little, but this aside Maple MP3 Player is still an extremely good option. If you’re unsatisfied with your existing music player, or fancy giving the enhanced sound features in Maple MP3 Player a go, definitely give it a try.

Tags: Android App, Android Apps, AndroidTapp.com App Review, media, MP3 Music Player, MP3 Player, Music, player, Songbird, Winamp

Categorised in: Music

6 Comments

By SQR5 on June 22, 2012 at 1:52 am:

PROMO SALE!

Maple MP3 Player Now On Sale For Only $0.99 Till July 7th

Reply
By Kim M on September 22, 2012 at 6:59 am:

The navigation icon that you are looking for in play mode to get you into folder/album/librar etc is the disc icon at the top left of the screen. It’s not obvious until you find it, but it’s there.

The speaker icon on the top right will take you to the volume control. And here is an important feature that you didn’t mention. The Maple player has left/right balance control, something lacking in most phone mp3 players. I need more volume in my right ear to balance some industrial noise damage, and I know I’m not alone in that. I use a bluetooth headset while riding a motorcycle so there is sometimes wind noise to conquer. This player works for my particular hearing loss.

Reply
- By Antonio Wells on September 22, 2012 at 12:29 pm:
  
  @Kim you bring up an excellent point with the left/right balance options. I wasn’t aware of it and interested in trying it now.
  
  Reply
By Gandalf8081 on November 19, 2012 at 12:50 pm:

I’ve been waiting for this app for years! As a guitar player learning difficult passages, its amazing being able to slow down a tune I’m trying to learn, then putting the passage on A-B repeat, which will keep playing back just the selection, so I can learn it note for note, and practice repeatedly. Audacity does this on the PC, but its not as easy as this, plus its on your phone which saves all sorts of hassles in getting the PC out, etc. Well worth the price paid for it, that’s for sure.

Reply
By Leon on November 20, 2012 at 5:14 pm:

Hi I just got this app on free trial on galaxy s3 and I can’t figure out how to change the folder path to get my music onto it.

Leon

Reply
- By eita on November 21, 2012 at 8:47 am:
  
  Hi Leon,
  You can select music folder in the settings.
  (Maple settings -> Music Folder)
  
  Samsung Galaxy S3 has an extrenal SD card slot, which is mounted to /mnt/extSdCard.
  
  when your audios is in sdcard:
  /mnt/extSdcard
  
  when your audios is in internal storage:
  /mnt/sdcard
  
  if your audios is in both sdcard and internal storage:
  /mnt
  
  Reply