5 ms·

What ever happened to Sonique?

dchest 14y ago
According to Wikipedia, sold to Lycos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_%28media_player%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_%28media_player%29
biomechanica 14y ago
I absolutely loved that player. I actually STILL use it. It runs really nice under wine. I thought about doing a clone of it and making it open source under the GPL but I'm still not quite as productive as I can be in C yet.
- LeonidasXIV 14y ago
  Then use something else than C? I mean, there is a ton of players written in Python using GTK and GStreamer.
  - biomechanica 14y ago
    I like C. I like its performance and its syntax. Call me crazy. edit: It's not that I don't like Python. I think it's a great scripting language. But for me, it's just too slow. Speed is important to me.
    - lmm 14y ago
      If you'd written the python version and had profiles showing it was too slow, I'd believe you.
    - swdunlop 14y ago
      A key part of a lot of these pygtk players is that they rely on gstreamer to do the heavy lifting. Organizing a pipeline of "this source, this format, that sink" is not a performance problem -- it's a plumbing task. :)
      - biomechanica 14y ago
        well, it's not just the "plumbing" thing. I still have to worry about animation, loading the application, playlists, etc. I understand Python could be a good choice and, yes, I agree it would be "easier". But jeez you know.. I just want to use C damn it. I want complete control over the memory. WHY CAN'T I JUST USE C?!! haha
bane 14y ago
For years it was the only player that could also handle digital tracker (.mod, .s3m, .xm, .it, etc.) files more or less correctly. In those days, downloading a 100k .mod file over my dial-up or a 5MB mp3 was a big deal and being able to find lots of cheap music that was also light on the bandwidth was invaluable. I loved Sonique.
- AJ007 14y ago
  In addition to trackers, didn't Sonique sound better than Winamp? In my very hazy memory, Winamp used less memory, but Sonique sounded a lot better.
  - gala8y 14y ago
    In addition to trackers, didn't Sonique sound better than Winamp? Same thing with XMPlay [0]. Much better sound (me thinks). [0] http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html

According to Wikipedia, sold to Lycos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_%28media_player%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_%28media_player%29

biomechanica 14y ago

I absolutely loved that player. I actually STILL use it. It runs really nice under wine. I thought about doing a clone of it and making it open source under the GPL but I'm still not quite as productive as I can be in C yet.

LeonidasXIV 14y ago
Then use something else than C? I mean, there is a ton of players written in Python using GTK and GStreamer.
- biomechanica 14y ago
  I like C. I like its performance and its syntax. Call me crazy. edit: It's not that I don't like Python. I think it's a great scripting language. But for me, it's just too slow. Speed is important to me.
  - lmm 14y ago
    If you'd written the python version and had profiles showing it was too slow, I'd believe you.
  - swdunlop 14y ago
    A key part of a lot of these pygtk players is that they rely on gstreamer to do the heavy lifting. Organizing a pipeline of "this source, this format, that sink" is not a performance problem -- it's a plumbing task. :)
    - biomechanica 14y ago
      well, it's not just the "plumbing" thing. I still have to worry about animation, loading the application, playlists, etc. I understand Python could be a good choice and, yes, I agree it would be "easier". But jeez you know.. I just want to use C damn it. I want complete control over the memory. WHY CAN'T I JUST USE C?!! haha

bane 14y ago

For years it was the only player that could also handle digital tracker (.mod, .s3m, .xm, .it, etc.) files more or less correctly. In those days, downloading a 100k .mod file over my dial-up or a 5MB mp3 was a big deal and being able to find lots of cheap music that was also light on the bandwidth was invaluable. I loved Sonique.

AJ007 14y ago
In addition to trackers, didn't Sonique sound better than Winamp? In my very hazy memory, Winamp used less memory, but Sonique sounded a lot better.
- gala8y 14y ago
  In addition to trackers, didn't Sonique sound better than Winamp? Same thing with XMPlay [0]. Much better sound (me thinks). [0] http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html