Playback

The play bar at the bottom of the window plays the real audio in your files through the system’s default output device.

Formats

flac, mp3, wav, and m4a files encoded as AAC or ALAC play correctly. Other audio formats the library knows play if the decoder supports them; a track that cannot be opened is skipped and the next one plays.

The play bar

• The play key switches between playing and paused. Space does the same wherever the focus is, except in a text field or an open context menu.
• Drag the position fader to jump to where you let go. While paused, a jump only moves the position; it does not start playing.
• With the volume fader all the way right, the output level is exactly the file’s: no boost, no cut.
• The two rows of level lamps follow the sound that is playing: the louder, the more lamps. The last 2 red lamps light only near full scale. All lamps go dark while paused.

Next and previous

Next and previous follow where playback started:

Started from	Next
An album card or album details	The next track of that album; after the album, the next album in the albums page’s current order
The library page’s song list	The next song of the list as it was when playback started; after the last, back to the first

When the current track has played for more than 3 seconds, “Previous” goes back to its start. With shuffle on, the next track is picked at random from the same source; with repeat on, a track that ends starts over. Tracks that cannot play are skipped.

Output devices

When the default output device changes, for example when headphones are unplugged, playback continues on the new device. With no output device at all, the play bar rests paused and shows no error.

On macOS, when the output device supports a track’s sample rate, the app switches the device to it before playing. With the volume all the way right, 16-bit and 24-bit stereo lossless tracks reach the system unchanged: no resampling, no gain change.

System media controls

On macOS, once something plays, Control Center and the lock screen show the current track in “Now Playing”, and the keyboard’s media keys, headphone remotes and AirPods buttons control playback. On Windows and Linux, this version does not connect to the system’s media controls yet.