Compare up to four mixes from one playback clock.
AB Player is a Windows desktop tool for deciding between bounces of the same music. Load up to four mixes, switch between them while they play in sync, match their loudness, look at their spectra, and test your preference blind.
Open or drop audio files into slots A to D. Every loaded mix follows the same playback clock, so switching with the number keys or X keeps you at the same moment in the music.
Drag across a waveform to select a loop on all tracks, or move one track’s section on its own so A can repeat the chorus while B repeats the bridge. Scroll to zoom in on the playhead; the bar underneath scrolls the whole comparison.
Trim starts and ends, draw fades directly on the waveform and bend their shape with a single lever. Set gain and a timing offset per slot so two bounces line up sample for sample.
Everything is non-destructive. The decoded audio is never modified, each drag is one undo step, and a hundred steps of history are kept.
Louder usually sounds better, which is not the same as being better. Match loudness measures every edited mix, or just the selected loop, and brings the others down to the quietest one with a single constant gain change. No compressor, no limiter.
The slot rail shows source loudness and true peak; the meter panel reads momentary, short-term and integrated loudness plus range for the edited audio, measured to ITU-R BS.1770-4 and EBU Tech 3342.
Frequency colors paint bass, mids and highs into the waveform itself, so tonal balance is visible at a glance. The spectrum view analyses every loaded mix at the same position: the listening mix is solid, the others dashed, with a running average building underneath.
Hover to measure. The ruler reads every pair at one frequency, so “A vs B +2.0 dB” means exactly what it says. Whole track averages each mix’s entire kept audio in the background.
Hold Alt and drag across the spectrum to hear only that range. Press X to compare the mixes through the same filter, then release Alt to return to the full mix.
Auditioning changes only what you hear. The curves, measurements, matching, edits and saved audio stay exactly as they were.
Start a blind test and the app hides filenames, waveforms, meters and edit controls. The starting mix and switching order are randomized. Switch as often as you like and record a preference when you have made up your mind.
Reveal shows which mix was which and how the votes fell. It is a preference comparison for your own decisions, not a statistical ABX test.
Choose any output the system exposes, including individual pairs on a multichannel interface, while the rest of Windows keeps using another device. The choice is remembered per machine.
Save a comparison as an .abplayer file with slots, edits, loops, match settings and output level. The app also keeps a local recovery copy, so a fresh launch can resume where you left off.
Space plays and pauses, 1 to 4 select a slot, X cycles mixes, L toggles looping, Home and End jump to the trimmed edges, and arrow keys seek by one second or five with Shift.
| Platform | Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.1.0 |
| Installer | MSI and NSIS setup packages |
| Mixes per session | Up to four, on one shared clock |
| Audio formats | WAV, MP3, FLAC, AIFF, M4A, AAC, OGG |
| Loudness | ITU-R BS.1770-4 integrated, momentary and short-term; EBU Tech 3342 range; 4x oversampled true peak |
| Spectrum | 8192-point Blackman FFT, 20 Hz to 20 kHz, channels averaged separately |
| Export | Edited mix as WAV at 16, 24 or 32 bit |
| Session file | .abplayer, with automatic local recovery |
| Minimum window | 1040 by 700 pixels |
Licensing and the final price will be confirmed before the store opens. Screenshots show version 0.1.0 with two demo mixes loaded.