Maple MP3 Player – premium music player app; control pitch, speed, equalizer & more
by Paul Wilks
May 24, 2012 11:22 AM –
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
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.
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Maple MP3 Player – Player view
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Maple MP3 Player – Artists list
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Maple MP3 Player – Visualizer
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Maple MP3 Player – Equaliser
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Maple MP3 Player – Volume adjustment
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Maple MP3 Player – Alter playback speed
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Maple MP3 Player – Sleep timer
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Maple MP3 Player – Settings menu
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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.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
media,
MP3 Music Player,
MP3 Player,
Music,
player,
Songbird,
Winamp
Categorised in: Music
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