Are you tired of your stock music app? Do you wish your music app could do more or even lesser depending on what you prefer? If your answer is a silent yes, then read on as I review the app that deserves to replace your stock music app. This gem of an app is the handiwork of a developer from Philadelphia, US who is unnamed and has worked on it for almost three years.

I do not exaggerate when I say GMMP and your personal music collection are a match made in heaven. GMMP, or GoneMAD Music Player, now at v. 1.5.0.5 is a music player that is supports handsets running  Android 2.3+ and is available on trial before you choose to stay with it. PowerAMP, which came highly recommended turned really confusing after a point and I guess, it’s the frustration that led me to GMMP.

Once installed, the  built-in file browser scans all the audio formats and I’m talking, aac(mp4/m4a/m4b), mp3, ogg, flac, opus, tta, ape, wv, mpc, alac, wav, wma, adts(4.0+), and 3gp(4.0+).  The highly optimized library is designed with libraries that have more than 50,000 songs and supports almost every audio format there is. Browsing by artist, album, song, genre, playlist, or folders is a breeze. A powerful search engine scans every file when prompted to give you relevant results. If there’s a Nina Simone track you love, but don’t seem to remember the title, type in your search words or just the year it came out, and you’d have it. For the visual artist who loves individual cover art, a tag editor is included to add the much-needed visual element modern-day music has. Automatically find and download album art or use embedded music art if needed.

With flawless gapless playback on most devices, crossfade, smart playlists (m3u, pls and wpl) supported, bookmarking and ratings in, the buck doesn’t stop there. A high-powered 2 to 10 band graphic equalizer with 3 quality settings, left/right audio balance control, 16 built-in EQ presets and the ability to create your own make it a music lover’s delight. Customisable skins and widgets and top-notch gesture support make this the ideal player. The gesture support alone is probably the biggest reason I love this player.

Touch based controls allow you to play/pause, increase/decrease volume, change tracks, add music to a playlist and select the random/repeat options from the default screen.

Set your queue to avoid repeating tracks or cue in a new album once your current playlist and add bluetooth/headsetpreferences to do what you want when you plug them in. With tons of more customizations, the backup is probably my favourite one. After I’m done making all the changes, a backup makes it easy for me when I install an update later.

Looking as good as it does on the tablet as on the phone, there are two extensions that work with the app. The DashClock extension adds tracks to your clock on the home screen, and the Floatifications extension which as thename suggests, floats notifications. While not really useful as the app itself, the extensions show you a dimension that the developer is taking to turn this into an app fully equipped with its own notifications.

Take the time to try this app and see just how smarter your smart phone actually turns with your personal music collection.