ALSong Editor's Review

For some of you ALSong may be another Winamp, but if you will look closer to this product, you will see that it has some unique features that makes it very interesting.

Besides the fact that this is an mp3 player with all the classic features (equalizer, playlist), it can be used also as a karaoke machine. I know that this idea is not new, and there were some plugins and programs which transformed winamp in a karaoke machine, but this one has everything integrated in it.

In comparison with EvilLyrics, this player has its own database, and can provide and synchronize the lyrics of a song from it. Despite EviLyrics which was just a search engine for lyrics and it could not synchronize the lyrics with the song very well. The existence of the data base has good and bad parts:

- The good parts are: correct synchronization with the song, fast search function;

- The bad parts: because it's a new application, the data base is not very consistant, so you won't find lyrics from underground music; if the tags are not correct completed, you will have to search manually the data base for the lyrics;

For creating a bigger data base, they integrated also a lyrics editor along with a 'language learner'. If you don't find any lyrics for your favourite song, you can edit them. With the help of 'language learner' you can listen very carefully to the song to recreate all the lyrics. You can edit the start and end point of a loop if you couldn't understand some words from the lyrics. It includes also a pitch meter and a speed one. You can even listen to the song in reverse mode.

For further usage, you can even create your own albums, from different sources. You can also edit the label of the album, from your pictures collection. The songs will be saved in SAB format. This will allow you to listen to any song by just clicking on it like on a hyperlink from a website. This means that the interface of the album that you had created is active and works like a player.

Like all the new mp3 players, you can listen to any favourite radio station, if you know the URL, or listen to the one provided by ALSong. If you have enough bandwidth you can also broadcast you own playlists which will be integrated in ALSong Web Radio Broadcasters.

Pluses:karaoke feature, lyrics editor, lyrics data base, free;

Drawbacks / flaws: the lyrics data base is not very consistent, the skins are not high quality;

In conclusion: A good competitor for Winamp and Jukebox, but not so popular.

version reviewed: 1.52