Anyone using an MP3 player not called "WinAmp"?

Started by DocJon · 3 posts · 694 views

  1. #1
    I'm looking into making a skin for WinAmp. I've got a lot of the GFX done, and have inserted some into a skin - enough for bare-bones usage. However, I have a love-hate relationship with WinAmp.

    The early WinAmp was great. Small footprint, fast, powerful, easy-to-use, tons of skins and plugins.

    Time marches on, and they kept adding to it. Now there are multiple versions of skins you can make. V2, V3, V5. . . I'm running v5.05, and they're up to ~v5.5, and already there are skins I can't use because my version is too old.

    Shortly after my v5.05 version, the WinAmp folks started pushing ads to WinAmp as you used it. Somewhere in this forum there is a rant by me precipitated by having to watch a tampon ad while running a newer version of WinAmp. I uninstalled and went back to 5.05, and I'm pretty happy with it - except for my new skinning activity. I'm not happy with not using the latest version of the program for this. I suppose I could muddle through, even though much of the docs I find in the WinAmp forums are non-specific about versions, links to cool info are dead, etc. I'd BUY WinAmp, but it still sends you ads anyway.

    There are ways to circumvent the ads, but after a few days burying myself in WinAmp, I'm starting to smell the smelly smell of something that smells, and I wonder if it isn't time to stop using old versions, clicking on skins and plugins that don't work/crash my version, and stop digging into several revisions of skinning info that is incomplete, poorly labeled, and haphazardly hosted across the internet. In short, it may be time to cut ties and go with something better maintained, better documented, and less bloated with stuff I don't need and COMMERCIALS.

    FooBar2000
    http://www.foobar2000.org/

    XMplay
    http://www.un4seen.com/

    DBPowerAmp
    http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

    iTunes is out

    I'm playing with XMplay now, since it's portable and didn't require an install. Looks pretty decent on the surface, sounds good. I'm going to give Foobar a good look. I need something small, powerful, than can be skinned and has a bunch of plugins. Foobar seems to have the best rep.
  2. #2
    I've been playing with the portable version of this. . .

    http://www.aimp.ru/

    . . .and so far, it's impressed me. A lot. I'll need another day or so with it, so I can work with it thoroughly and see if there are any hidden dealbreakers, but it's giving a hell of a first impression.

    Ex - an 18-band equalizer, for better fine-tuning of your sound. Why settle for 10-band?

    It can use the Enhancer plugin for WinAmp that I love.

    Lot's of nice skins.
    Many nice little touches.

    It's giving me the same vibe that WinAmp used to give me 8 years ago.

  3. #3
    I used Foobar2000 for a while and that worked well. It is the ultimate customizable app.

    I use MediaMonkey right now and like it a lot. The free version does almost everything that I need.