When comparing Winamp vs Song Director, the Slant community recommends Winamp for most people. In the question“What are the best audio players for Windows?” Winamp is ranked 5th while Song Director is ranked 38th. The most important reason people chose Winamp is:
Modern features are essential for power listeners nowadays, proving that Winamp (while an old app) still offers features users look for in a modern player.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro RSS, Atom Podcasts, and Internet Radio streams (among other modern features) are available
Modern features are essential for power listeners nowadays, proving that Winamp (while an old app) still offers features users look for in a modern player.
Pro A huge selection of skins are available
Winamp allows skinning the interface and there are thousands of community created skins available.
Pro Functionality can be extended via plugins
A wide variety of DSP, input, and visualization plugins have been created by the community.
Pro Great search and Playlist functionality
Considerable functions to search and develop playlists.
Pro Good sound quality
The sound quality of Winamp is good, especially with DSP plugins like enhancer.
Pro HTTP streaming support
HTTP streaming is necessary for both live and on-demand content, which it can deliver without lengthy buffering or waiting periods. It is also less susceptible to network hiccups than other forms of streaming.
Pro Easy to use with powerful organization options
Song Director is easy to use due to the many tasks that can be completed with a click of a single button. It provides more extensive organizing and search capabilities than iTunes and WMP.
Pro Customized play searches
Song Director allows for extensive sorting options such as the amount of beats per minute, bitrate, length, etc.
Pro Automatically enters your information into a database
Pro Locate songs or artists instantly
Pro Edit songs without using File Explorer
Song Director permits the user to rename, copy a file, or move it to a different folder without having to search for it in File Explorer.
Pro Create categories for your music
Pro Press one button to do what you want
Pro Can edit file tags
Pro Compatible with Microsoft Windows
Song Director is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.
Pro Song Director will be adding new features with each new version
Pro Can find and insert information about songs, artist, album art
Cons
Con Relatively poor quality audio
Compared to other players, Winamp doesn't offer high quality audio.
Reason for Winamp's lesser audio quality compared to other modern audio players is that it uses deprecated audio output interfaces (APIs). In fact since Windows Vista onward, those APIs Winamp is using (such as DirectSound, WaveOut) are emulated in software mixer for compatibility purposes further distancing the audio path from the hardware.
Modern audio players support modern WASAPI audio output for direct access to the audio hardware (especially in WASAPI exclusive mode). For more info see Wikipedia's entry on DirectSound.
Con No Major updates
There are no major updates since version 5.
Con Heavy
At the beginning it was simple to download and install, now it has so many things it became very heavy to download.
Con Cluttered interface
With all controls, skins, and options it's hard to find the basic commands.