DeaDBeeF is a modular music player that works across multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, macOS etc. What it means by modular is that you can extend its functionality or add new features just by adding new modules/plugins to the player. For example, using the archive plugin you can make it read inside the various archive files like ZIP, TAR, RAR etc.
If you are trying to use DeaDBeeF on your Windows PC, then you will not get all the features working in the DeaDBeeF player. These features such as plugins, CD audio playback, conversion from one format to another, FFmpeg support won’t be available to Windows users. A simple workaround is to install Linux on your system in dual boot configuration and then use the Linux version of DeaDBeeF.
DeaDBeeF supports all the common audio file formats. Not many people will find an audio file that cannot be played on DeaDBeeF music player. It supports audio file formats such as MP3, OGG, M4A, APE, AAC, WAV, FLAC and more.
DeaDBeeF is able to not only recognize the metadata information embedded inside the audio files, but it can also edit and write the metadata in the audio files. It supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis Comments, Xing Info, Apev2 and many more.
It comes with an advanced audio file converter (only on Linux and macOS) that can be used to convert a number of audio files to a different audio file format. It appears that the converter is using FFmpeg in the background. Since FFmpeg is a conversion giant itself with support for all the media file formats under the sun, DeaDBeeF also supports conversion of many audio file formats.
Conclusion: DeaDBeeF is a lightweight compact audio player that can be customized by installing various plugins. If you were looking for a modular audio player then you should definitely give it a try.
You can download DeaDBeeF from https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/ or https://github.com/DeaDBeeF-Player/deadbeef.
There is a special Windows fork- DeaDBeeF for Windows (https://github.com/DeaDBeeF-for-Windows/deadbeef – compiled binaries can be found in releases page). Last time I tested it (about several months ago) it crashed while loading .CUE files (Cue sheets) which are actually supported. I rarely come across a program initially released for Linux that works well on Windows and DeaDBeeF is no exception (unlike Clementine).