
Winamp 5.8 Release – First update in 5 years - Jhsto
https://www.winamp.com/
======
adzm
Interestingly, I just recently got Milkdrop building from source, and working
on making it a standalone application. ProjectM is milkdrop-compatible, but
does not have a handy Windows board, and sadly OpenGL support on Windows is
not always the best.

I've got low-latency streaming input from the loopback device via WASAPI so it
works with anything playing audio, but still having some obstacles getting the
audio data from those buffers into Milkdrop properly. But still progressing
well enough for something I can only hack on occasionally after hours.
Whatever it is I'm doing wrong with the PCM data shouldn't be too difficult to
figure out eventually.

I initially started porting it from DX9 to DX12 but figured getting the audio
streaming input is more valuable to start with. Thankfully the kodi team
already did a lot of the work with the DX12 migration, but used an older
version of the Milkdrop source which doesn't seem to handle the HLSL/shader
presets.

If there is interest I would happily put the work-in-progress up on GitHub.

~~~
arthur_pryor
i'd also be super interested in seeing this put up. if i'm being honest with
myself i probably wouldn't be able to contribute (lack of time, don't have
much C++ experience and even less graphics experience). but i always loved
milkdrop, and i'd very definitely use a version that ran as a standalone app
off any audio input.

------
pronoiac
Non-Windows peeps, I got you fam: [https://webamp.org/](https://webamp.org/)

You can drag local files into the queue.

And look, over 5k skins:
[https://archive.org/details/winampskins](https://archive.org/details/winampskins)

~~~
sangnoir
Is this open-source or is there a plan to make it a Desktop PWA? Late 90's me
wouldn't believe this would ever be possible _without using plugins_. What a
time to be alive.

~~~
brazzledazzle
[https://github.com/captbaritone/webamp](https://github.com/captbaritone/webamp)

------
xvf22
Forbes [0] has a rundown of what was fixed/changed in 5.8 along with Windows
8.1 and Windows 10 support.

[0]
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/10/19/winam...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/10/19/winamp-5-8-has-
been-officially-released-and-supports-windows-10/)

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
>* Removed: All former "Pro" licensed functions (Winamp is now 100% freeware
again)

Now if only it would be FOSS so that I could get it running on Linux, I could
drop Audacious and return to my first love.

~~~
Quekid5
No idea what Audacious is doing for you (never used it), but I find that Quod
Libet is somewhat in the WinAMP tradition (IIRC) in that it's pretty simple:
It has a "library", "queue" and you can basically configure it down to a
search field, the list of matches (from your library) and a queue.

(Graphically, QL is probably the most boring music player ever, and that's not
quite what WinAMP gained popularity for, but functionality-wise I think
they're quite close.)

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
I organize my music library at the file level rather than at the tag level
(although I still tag my files, because I have a particular naming scheme I
like for everything). This is because I have so much music that it's kept on
an external HDD, and I wouldn't be able to properly tag everything to my
liking if I spent a hundred years on it. So I've always resisted using the
iTunes-like programs that try to organize all my music for me, both due to
tagging issues and having the database explode if I disconnect the drive. My
music _is_ organized according to my own system, and it works for me.

In Winamp, when I wanted to play an album, I opened the directory containing
my music, find the artist, right clicked on the album, and selected
"Play/Enqueue in Winamp". Winamp would launch, I would immediately minimize it
to the system tray, and it would be out of my way except occasionally popping
up notifications on Play/Pause/Stop or when tracks changes. It was perfect for
my needs.

Audacious is the app I found that comes closest to replicating that workflow.
I select a folder, "Open With -> Audacious", it kicks off, I close (to tray),
and it plays on with occasional notifications. That's all I want. It's also
got MPRIS integration so I can control playback from the bar, so that's pretty
sweet too.

~~~
Quekid5
This actually sounds very close to my personal preference -- I just configure
Quod Libet to only show full path and the "search everything" functionality
lets me just search for the album name and have everything match + Ctrl+A +
right-click + Enqueue.

------
ivoras
So nostalgia, much wow!

But to be useful at least for me, it'll need to both accept streaming inputs
(i.e. be a client for Google Play or Spotify) and to stream its output to
Chromecast.

It's a different world now.

~~~
koolba
Is there a generic “Chromecast output” virtual device for Linux? Not just an
app that can cast but an OS level device so I can route audio from any app on
the fly.

~~~
crankylinuxuser
Pretty sure this is what you're looking for. It's a plugin for Pulseaudio that
adds arbitrary DNLA/Chromecast devices.

[http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/how-to-stream-audio-to-
chrome...](http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/how-to-stream-audio-to-chromecast-
or.html)

Edit: And if you use Wine with Winamp, you can then steer Winamp to use
chromecast as well. And as an aside, I also used Wine to make Windows programs
(not the desktop) remote-run by running ssh crankylinuxuser@server -X -f "wine
winamp.exe". And with Pulseaudio, redirection is trivial.

~~~
koolba
This is exactly what I was asking. Thanks!

~~~
hiisukun
I've used this a reasonable amount, and found it works but is unstable in
certain circumstances. In particular, seeking, volume changes, and latency
weren't great. YMMV. : )

------
mahmoudhossam
I grew up using Winamp, but I wonder how it will fare in the age of Spotify
and streaming services that bring their own player? (and maybe even frown upon
using a 3rd party client to access their services).

~~~
romwell
>I grew up using Winamp, but I wonder how it will fare in the age of Spotify
and streaming services

Fares wonderfully to play my MP3 collection (...which includes hours of music
I made myself and isn't available elsewhere).

EDIT: to clarify, that's to say that in the age of Spotify and streaming
services there's still a place for something that's just an MP3/audio player.

~~~
mikewhy
With Apple Music you can add your own tracks to iTunes and is available on all
your devices. I wouldn't be surprised if Google Music works the same.

~~~
GFischer
iTunes used to be extremely crappy and noxious on Windows, I wonder if it's
changed.

I'm STILL using mainly Winamp. I've tried some alternatives but for my old MP3
collection it's unbeatable.

------
iask
The EQ and plugins in Winamp is amazing. I’ve yet so see any of the other
players come close. You notice the difference when you play this through a
PA/DJ system.

Back in the days the tools were Winamp, Audiogrbber and Xing MP3 encoder.

~~~
roel_v
But many of the plugins are dead. For example there used to be an OSD plugin,
but I haven't been able to get it working for at least 5-6 years.

------
pjmlp
Feeling nostalgic, the wasted hours looking for the perfect skin and
visualization plugins.

------
lotonoro
Is Winamp still around? Have switched to Foobar many years ago and never
looked back...

~~~
stevewillows
I'm in the same boat. Foobar2000 is basically perfect with unlimited ways to
customize it, a healthy DSP repository, etc etc. I run it on my windows box
but also under WINE for OSX. Nothing else comes close as an all-in-one package
for audio.

~~~
Crontab
I haven't tried it myself but there is a version for macOS now. The newest
version was released on Sep 27th 2018:

[https://www.foobar2000.org/mac](https://www.foobar2000.org/mac)

~~~
stevewillows
yeah -- its getting there. That last release was a result of me mentioning
darkmode. It was easily the fastest 'can I post a bug somewhere?' to release
I've ever seen. The total time was no more than a few minutes.

While the mac version is promising, its still missing the powerful
organization features that I use the most.

Foobar2000 is probably my favorite and most-used piece of software.

------
partiallypro
I installed it and was confused, I guess I assumed this was supposed to be the
'new winamp,' it's not. It's just the same WinAmp I had when I ran XP years
ago but with some bug fixes. The new WinAmp won't be released until next year.

~~~
ukyrgf
The download button is _below_ a block of text explaining that this isn't new,
this is old code that someone leaked, and they're releasing this so you don't
download some spyware-riddled version.

------
kumarvvr
Such a nostalgia whack.

I fondly remember the days when I would spend hours editing metadata of songs
so that they would show up correctly in winamp.

The absolute fun of listening to shuffled music from winamp in the background
while reading text heavy web pages (thank you 2001 internet in India, dial-up,
with super fast 128 kbps connection)

------
diimdeep
I tried it on Mac with Wine

Works:

\- Drag and drop from Finder

\- Icon in Dock

\- Audio device selection from within preferences

Visualization don't work sadly.

------
eltoozero
Somewhat related for ‘old school’ Winamp fans, if anyone knows what ever
happened to Brennan Underwood and monkey radio[0], I’m two decades later still
trying to get a full copy of the playlist.

I ripped the stream for several nights onto minidisc for chill portable music
in high school.

[0]:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040616141942/http://monkeyradi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20040616141942/http://monkeyradio.org)

------
galfarragem
Nowadays, I hardly ever listen mp3 but this is a gem:
[http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html](http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html)

------
eps
I would take this supposed "leak" with a big grain on salt.

AOL sold WinAmp to acompany called Radionomy (back in 2014). For some reason
the latter is now aggressively marketing and hyping the "revival" of WinAmp,
dropping the llama ass references and otherwise milking the legacy of what
stopped being a truly notable player at 2.95 release 15 years ago.

~~~
yetanotherjosh
> what stopped being a truly notable player at 2.95 release 15 years ago

Bingo. After it went downhill with AOL I dug up the 2.95 installer and kept it
around for many years like a sacred scoll. I probably still have it in my
archive. Long live WinAmp 2.95

------
mclightning
Winamp, that music player you started up, once you installed windows, audio
and video drivers and ready to chill with a nice music.

------
msoad
There is the web version:

[https://webamp.org](https://webamp.org)

They are working on an electron wrapper too

~~~
dzek69
What for? Winamp works just fine. I don't remember how heavy v5 is, but be was
super light. Electron app will never be even close to light

~~~
captbaritone
We're mostly doing it as a curiosity. Once you have a web app working, it's
pretty easy to wrap it as an Electron app, and it's cool to see a Winamp UI
floating around on your Mac desktop. Webamp was never intended as more than a
novelty and the Electron version is being done in the same spirit. It's fun to
see it work and we're learning a lot along the way.

------
sys_64738
Can it do anything VLC can't? I haven't used WinAMP since the late-90s.

~~~
avinassh
I tried and for me, I will use it only for reasons of nostalgia. There is some
thrill to hear that old intro voice.

Technically, I really don't think it can do anything more than VLC. And if you
still want to stick with VLC, you can always try Winamp skin for VLC [0]. It
works but it's not that smooth.

[0] -
[https://www.videolan.org/vlc/skins.php?sort=downloads](https://www.videolan.org/vlc/skins.php?sort=downloads)

------
nstart
Did anyone else notice the tag line at the bottom of the site? "Cast. Play.
Sell"

Has it always been that? If not, does this signal a new direction for the
winamp product that includes a streaming service?

------
superasn
A very useful Winamp feature was automatically tagging and updating all mp3s
using Gracenote(?). Then suddenly this feature stopped working. Hope they
fixed it in this latest release.

~~~
dcbadacd
You can always use MusicBrainz Picard?

~~~
zmix
Jaikoz, while Shareware, is the most powerful amd (Java) cross platform. It
also uses MusicBrainz.

------
koroocy
I remember Winamp had something called AVS, where you could code some simple
VJ effects. Is there something similarly accessible out there nowadays?

------
syntaxing
I might have to install this for nostalgia reasons! But then again, all the
streaming services have made my digital library pretty small and obsolete.

------
jedberg
So the new Winamp is basically trying to be a not terrible iTunes?

~~~
recursive
It _has_ been a non-terrible iTunes since long before iTunes was even a bullet
point on an internal Apple strategy presentation.

~~~
jedberg
Not really. It doesn’t do podcasts. It doesn’t manage video. It can’t load
songs into my iPod.

Right now iTunes is still better because it has a lot of features that Winamp
lacks. But the new version should address that hopefully.

~~~
boomboomsubban
It does do podcasts and video, and it can't be blamed for Apple locking it out
of your iPod. No idea what other features you find it lacking, the best
comparison I'm aware of[1] doesn't show a huge difference, but I've never seen
the appeal of iTunes.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_player_sof...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_player_software)

------
hestefisk
Oh the glory days of X11Amp.

------
sytelus
Quick question: Is this really free from malware?

------
jeffnappi
It really whips the llama's ass! [0]

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaF-
nRS_CWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaF-nRS_CWM)

~~~
kbumsik
What does llama means here?

~~~
core-questions
A literal llama. The animal.

> Mike the Llama is the company's mascot; this is frequently referred to in
> promotional material (especially for Winamp) citing llamas. Frankel
> introduced the llama in Winamp's startup sound clip, inspired by the lyrics
> of Wesley Willis: "Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass!"[1]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft)

------
qubax
It really whips the llama's ass!

Wow, I haven't heard of or used winamp since the early 2000s. What's next?
mIRC or napster?

~~~
unstuckdev
mIRC is still under active development.

------
fx1994
Switched to Aimp already, too late :/

------
atum47
Just for Windows? Lame.

~~~
mahmoudhossam
With a "Win" in the name and it being a primarily Windows-only product for all
of its ~20 years of its existence, I'm hardly surprised that it is.

~~~
tracker1
There was an Android version, which was incredibly good... and IIRC there was
a MacOS version at one point.

~~~
glenneroo
I stopped using the Android version several years ago because it stops
playback of Shoutcast streams when running in the background (or when the
screen is off). Have you gotten around this somehow?

~~~
tracker1
No... but usually when running it, was in the car with the phone on the
charger, so a non-issue... I stopped when the news they were shutting down
came out.

Here's hope that they'll pick things up again.

