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The Winamp Debate: Apparently better than Vinyl...

24

Posts

  • ToyDToyD Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Winamp was awesome. Then AOL bought out their company and it sucked.

    ToyD on
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  • DekuStickDekuStick Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I use Windows Media Player. I feel like a heathen.

    32mb memory used. Not a big deal. Everyone who comes over knows it. Works well enough.

    DekuStick on
  • ToyDToyD Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I use WMP also. It's fine for what I do. Why search for and install a 3rd party app that will generally be a PITA.

    ToyD on
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  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Wait, .nsf? It doesn't need any plugins for .nsf playback? Because I used to play .nsf files with Winamp but I remember that I had to install a plugin to enable that feature,

    I didn't say it played it natively, just that as far as I know it has some great plugins for these file types. No hassle installing them either.

    It was also like one of three music players I could find with support for DS .2sfs.
    DekuStick wrote: »
    I use Windows Media Player. I feel like a heathen.

    32mb memory used. Not a big deal. Everyone who comes over knows it. Works well enough.

    Haha, I've used it quite a bit too. It's always there and it does work.

    UncleSporky on
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  • OgdillaOgdilla Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Winamp Lite is basically a stripped down version sans most of the junk. Listening to MP3s right now and it's using just over 10MB of memory.

    Ogdilla on
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    DekuStick wrote: »
    I use Windows Media Player. I feel like a heathen.

    32mb memory used. Not a big deal. Everyone who comes over knows it. Works well enough.

    There's nothing wrong with using WMP. The cool kids, of course, will scoff at you while they enjoy their wine coolers at their clubhouse behind the track field. But you don't care what they think, right?

    I use WMP for watching videos, since the Zune software, by design, only works with stuff you can play on the Zune, whereas WMP plays everything. I would consider using it for music (I don't need album art/collage that much) if I could somehow reduce the interface whilst only playing music, as oppose to having a big open screen with nothing but the visualizer.

    Anyone know if that's possible?

    Synthesis on
  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Synthesis wrote: »
    DekuStick wrote: »
    I use Windows Media Player. I feel like a heathen.

    32mb memory used. Not a big deal. Everyone who comes over knows it. Works well enough.

    There's nothing wrong with using WMP. The cool kids, of course, will scoff at you while they enjoy their wine coolers at their clubhouse behind the track field. But you don't care what they think, right?

    I use WMP for watching videos, since the Zune software, by design, only works with stuff you can play on the Zune, whereas WMP plays everything. I would consider using it for music (I don't need album art/collage that much) if I could somehow reduce the interface whilst only playing music, as oppose to having a big open screen with nothing but the visualizer.

    Anyone know if that's possible?

    For a long time it would run as a toolbar next to the system tray, but I don't know if that has been changed in Windows 7. I don't use that anyway because I don't like sharing the space with open/minimized windows.

    UncleSporky on
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  • logic7logic7 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I've been using Winamp since 1.x on my 5x86-133 powered Compaq ProLinea 4/66. I still use it. I have 2.95 on my current laptop (TP 570e w/P3-500, 320MB RAM, and 160GB HD) and I use 5.x on my primary desktop... Which I've been debating about keeping 'cause I never use an app to "organize" my mp3's and don't sync my lil Sansa mp3 player with any app (I just drag folders and files to it from windows explorer). This makes 5.x overkill 'cause all I need it for is to listen to mp3's, ogg, and the occasional FLAC files.

    for the record, I have 2.95 running right next to me on my laptop and it's memory footprint is just under 11MB.

    logic7 on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    A lot of "skins" you find for foobar out there (they're actually called "configs" because there's a lot more to a foobar setup than just the appearance) don't work because they're for old versions of the player or they depend on plugins that aren't being developed anymore. The point of foobar isn't to copy someone else's config though; it's to make your own. To get the most out of it you need to sit down and learn how it works and set up a config that reflects your listening habits. It's a little more challenging than most people are used to dealing with but if you give it a little effort, you'll eventually find yourself in possession of a very satisfactory music player.

    Winamp works well enough, I still turn to it from time to time, and I have nothing against people who still use it. I'm glad they're not having as much trouble with it as I have lately.

    Azio on
  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    logic7 wrote: »
    I've been using Winamp since 1.x on my 5x86-133 powered Compaq ProLinea 4/66. I still use it. I have 2.95 on my current laptop (TP 570e w/P3-500, 320MB RAM, and 160GB HD) and I use 5.x on my primary desktop... Which I've been debating about keeping 'cause I never use an app to "organize" my mp3's and don't sync my lil Sansa mp3 player with any app (I just drag folders and files to it from windows explorer). This makes 5.x overkill 'cause all I need it for is to listen to mp3's, ogg, and the occasional FLAC files.

    for the record, I have 2.95 running right next to me on my laptop and it's memory footprint is just under 11MB.

    This is why I kept using winamp 2.X until something like 2003. I mean people are going on about small memory footprints, winamp used to run on my old Pentium 200 with 32 megs of ram just fine.

    Now I just use WMP. It isn't as customisable, but the fact that options to play albums are built into file structures for W7 and the library system works through WMP makes it far easier to just stick with that.

    Blake T on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I was trying to make foobar pretty myself yesterday, I got the playlist window etc to look really slick (gray/black/red, verdana 10 pt) with a small plugin that also added in album covers and some more stuff, but the menu at the top was still Windows gray and I couldn't find any options to change it.

    Any simple plugin that changes that? I suck at coding myself, so a simple download that i can place in my components folder would be nicest.

    Aldo on
  • RizziRizzi Sydney, Australia.Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I just use Windows Media Player. :D

    Rizzi on
  • ZampanovZampanov You May Not Go Home Until Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I used to use winamp 'till fairly recently when I built my new computer. I wanted more minimalistic player, so I use foobar now. The thing that's still annoying me is that winamp had a plugin that allowed me to play any protected albums I bought on Itunes, but foobar doesn't seem to have one. Maybe VLC does, I'll have to check around.

    Zampanov on
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  • DigDug2000DigDug2000 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'm usually all about customizing the shit outta stuff. Foobar though, always seems beyond me. I either can't find the plugins I want, or I find them and can't get them to work right. Probably I'm just not enough of a music lover to really care. And I'm on OSX now, which really doesn't seem to have a nice really minimalist media player available for it.

    WinAMP is cool though. They kinda pulled a Netscape years ago with WinAMP3 by trying to rewrite the world and create an application platform. Maybe some day they'll pull a Firefox and actually do something with it that makes people go :^:. You gotta at least give props people doing something stupidly beyond what they could hope to accomplish.

    DigDug2000 on
  • Lord JezoLord Jezo Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Last time I tried to use Foobar I was told I needed to install a plugin just to get a volume control.

    That's a bit too minimal for my tastes.

    Lord Jezo on
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  • SeeksSeeks Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    ?

    Maybe I downloaded some weird bullshit version of Foobar, but it's got pretty much everything I need built in, except encoders. Which I tend to install before Foobar anyway.

    I converted a bunch of flacs to mp3s earlier today using it, without downloading a bunch of third-party shit. 4mb of ram, and I was even able to control the volume.


    Edit: But more on topic I guess, I still enjoy Winamp usually. In-built browsers and shit like that piss me off, but I only have to see them once, so no biggie.

    Seeks on
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  • clsCorwinclsCorwin Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I still use Winamp 2.x to this day. Its a small footprint, and it has global hotkeys. Most of the time I'm not even looking at Winamp, I just hotkey from whatever app I'm in.

    clsCorwin on
  • logic7logic7 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Winamp also had one output plugin I found invaluable a few years ago: ASIO output. Back then, my machine had only a Digidesign Audiomedia III card in it, and in order to get any audio out of it you had to use ASIO. Winamp was the only thing I could use to get this going, though it was shortlived. I eventually broke down and turned on the on-board audio and plugged a set of Bose Roommates to it for my non-professional audio stuff (i.e. games and shit).

    logic7 on
  • MayGodHaveMercyMayGodHaveMercy Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Winamp was super awesome when I had my Logitech Bluetooth keyboard. I could be playing drinking games in the living room with my keyboard next to me, look at the LCD to see what was playing, and control it with the built-in media control buttons on the keyboard. I haven't uninstalled it since then, so it's still my go-to player.

    MayGodHaveMercy on
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  • ImpersonatorImpersonator Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Wait, .nsf? It doesn't need any plugins for .nsf playback? Because I used to play .nsf files with Winamp but I remember that I had to install a plugin to enable that feature,

    I didn't say it played it natively, just that as far as I know it has some great plugins for these file types. No hassle installing them either.

    It was also like one of three music players I could find with support for DS .2sfs.

    I was talking about foobar. :P

    Also, Billy is amazing.

    Impersonator on
  • FremFrem Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I learned just enough about foobar2000 to install the facets plugin and change the layout to vaguely resemble iTunes. I am now content and see no reason to use any other Windows music player.

    Oh, right. I also added something that makes the album art and controls pop up in the windows 7 taskbar preview bubble thing.

    Edit: Billy does looks pretty spiffy though. Does it make any registry changes or anything? I mean, is it sanitary as a portable USB app?

    Frem on
  • ZellZell Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Lord Jezo wrote: »
    Last time I tried to use Foobar I was told I needed to install a plugin just to get a volume control.

    That's a bit too minimal for my tastes.
    If last time you tried foobar2000 was over two years ago, you really should try it again now.

    Zell on
  • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I use the Zune software to play music. Partially because it's just so easy to use 1 program to "store", organize, and play my music, partly because I have Zune Pass music, and partly because I love being able to browse the store, find an album that might be interesting and hit "play" and listen to it fully and then download it if I like it all from 1 place.

    ArcSyn on
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  • autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    foobar rocks

    autono-wally, erotibot300 on
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  • alf4lyfealf4lyfe Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Itunes is such a bad piece of software. I'm using winamp lite with it sitting at 8.8 megs used so yeah, I consider that small enough for my needs.

    alf4lyfe on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I downloaded foobar for the first time. It looks nothing, NOTHING, like the screenshots I've seen of people that use it.

    projectmayhem on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I downloaded foobar for the first time. It looks nothing, NOTHING, like the screenshots I've seen of people that use it.
    Like said before: you can tweak it to look like whatever the fuck you want it to. The problem is that some of these plug-ins folks use are lost in the sands of time.

    Aldo on
  • 101101 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    O hey a Winamp thread, thats lucky.

    Does Winamp have any known problems with Vista?
    I just got my new laptop, installed Winamp and tried to from a cd, however it

    a)Wont find and display the names of the songs like it usually does, and
    b)when i try to play a song (now listed as Audio Track) it won't play it. It shows E1, E2, etc in the now playing section and skips through the entire album till it reaches the end. (I've tried multiple albums, all with the same result)

    Has this happened to anyone before/does anyone know whats happening? Any help apprechiated.

    101 on
  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I've been using Winamp on Vista and now on Win7 without any problems.

    And people keep bitching about how AOL killed Winamp and it's all bloated and all those nerdy clichês, but my daily heavy usage of Winamp has found none of those issues.

    It's snappy, quick, responsive, has a very useful interface, plays a LOT of file formats, lets me sync my Ipod shuffle, rests neatly on the title bar, looks good... and all that before plugins. Foobar is like a cool app for the really cool people to feel cool and berate people who use other apps. It's like an unholy marriage of apple smugness with linux "it's-got-to-be-really-complicated" mentality. Strip the whole "aura" and it does nothing better than other music apps.

    Stormwatcher on
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  • SeeksSeeks Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Nope, it just does everything they do faster while using less memory.

    Seeks on
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  • elliotw2elliotw2 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I've been using Winamp on Vista and now on Win7 without any problems.

    And people keep bitching about how AOL killed Winamp and it's all bloated and all those nerdy clichês, but my daily heavy usage of Winamp has found none of those issues.

    It's snappy, quick, responsive, has a very useful interface, plays a LOT of file formats, lets me sync my Ipod shuffle, rests neatly on the title bar, looks good... and all that before plugins. Foobar is like a cool app for the really cool people to feel cool and berate people who use other apps. It's like an unholy marriage of apple smugness with linux "it's-got-to-be-really-complicated" mentality. Strip the whole "aura" and it does nothing better than other music apps.

    Well, when I used Winamp, it was the exact opposite, it was unresponsive, it liked to crash or freeze on startup, and at the time it ate up way too much RAM (90MB of 512MB) I found foobar2000, and it worked well out of the installer, and it still does. I've never had a problem with it's default settings, and the only plugin I ever download for it is edcast, so that I can use it to broadcast. If you want really complicated music players, try mpd with mpc, it'll make you think twice before you call foobar complicated

    elliotw2 on
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  • ZellZell Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Seeks wrote: »
    Nope, it just does everything they do faster while using less memory.
    Allowing you to sort and index your media library in whichever way you want is a very powerful feature that other audio players lacks too. Also it doesn't want you to pay for a "Pro" version for features like ripping CDs to MP3 or automatically updating its media library. And it supports tons of file types, which most other audio players won't; Winamp excluded.
    Foobar is like a cool app for the really cool people to feel cool and berate people who use other apps. It's like an unholy marriage of apple smugness with linux "it's-got-to-be-really-complicated" mentality
    That was totally uncalled for, run out of arguments?

    Zell on
  • 101101 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I've been using Winamp on Vista and now on Win7 without any problems.

    Hmmm. Well, it still plays music already on the computer, so for until i can be bothered to go looking for answers i'll just use a seperate program for ripping albums.

    101 on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Been trying out foobar for the last day or so and I rather like it. I dont have any crazy themes, everything is still at default but I do like it better for music playing than iTunes. The only things I wish it did are:
    A: When a new song starts playing, show it in the browser like iTunes
    B: Be able to start typing and band/song name and have it search withing in the browser instead of doing ctrl+f and bringing up a different window.

    projectmayhem on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Been trying out foobar for the last day or so and I rather like it. I dont have any crazy themes, everything is still at default but I do like it better for music playing than iTunes. The only things I wish it did are:
    A: When a new song starts playing, show it in the browser like iTunes
    B: Be able to start typing and band/song name and have it search withing in the browser instead of doing ctrl+f and bringing up a different window.
    There are plug ins that change the way you can search. I didn't get it to work right away, so I didn't bother with it (not that interested in searching), but it should be possible to make searching easier.

    Aldo on
  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Seeks wrote: »
    Nope, it just does everything they do faster while using less memory.

    you either have a very old machine or cyborg reflexes, because both players just start up and play music instantly for me. Itunes and WMP are a hell lot slower, sure, but Winamp and Foobar are both snappy as hell.

    But the whole "find as you type" thing is pretty important to me, and Winamp does that default. It speeds up the finding of stuff among 40GB of songs a lot.
    And Foobar is also taking longer to start and is fucking up Cd Art Display. Not to mention the lack of equalizer presets. Oh, and Winamp can download album art for me, if I ask it. Another thing, Last.FM is not detecting Foobar.
    Zell wrote: »
    Seeks wrote: »
    Nope, it just does everything they do faster while using less memory.
    Allowing you to sort and index your media library in whichever way you want is a very powerful feature that other audio players lacks too. Also it doesn't want you to pay for a "Pro" version for features like ripping CDs to MP3 or automatically updating its media library. And it supports tons of file types, which most other audio players won't; Winamp excluded.
    Foobar is like a cool app for the really cool people to feel cool and berate people who use other apps. It's like an unholy marriage of apple smugness with linux "it's-got-to-be-really-complicated" mentality
    That was totally uncalled for, run out of arguments?

    I ran out of explanations for why the hell people insist that Winamp is some terribly slow beast that eats up gigabytes of RAM when it's definitely not.
    It scrolls through more than 8 thousand mp3 file lists as fast as I can move the mouse. It starts playing any song in my library as soon as I double click. it jumps to the letters I type instantly. It eats up less than 100MB RAM, which is nothing at all. A "8mb of ram" player would have absolutely no practical advantage over Winamp at all on my PC. Maybe it runs bad on Pentium III's with 256MB RAM or netbooks. But a modern PC with a modern CPU and a modern amount of RAM running Win7 will have no trouble dealing with Winamp.

    The only explanation I found was some sort of Geek Cred thing. Both players are usable. Both players work fine on good PCs. But people will brag about how fucking awesome Foobar is and about how ridiculously superior it is to any other player and about how Winamp 5x is shit from a butt, when that's not actually the case at all.
    Blaket wrote: »
    Now I just use WMP. It isn't as customisable, but the fact that options to play albums are built into file structures for W7 and the library system works through WMP makes it far easier to just stick with that.

    Winamp integrates with W7 just fine. Any folders filled with music files (i.e., folders Win7 recognize as being music folders) will have a "play all" option that starts Winamp. And you can also add any files to the current queue using right-click menu.

    Stormwatcher on
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  • 101101 Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I quite like this Foobar player, so much so that i've gotten rid of Winamp. The major advantage for me was that it can play from a CD, though it still wont get the album information for me, this could lead to lots of typing D:

    101 on
  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    101 wrote: »
    I quite like this Foobar player, so much so that i've gotten rid of Winamp. The major advantage for me was that it can play from a CD, though it still wont get the album information for me, this could lead to lots of typing D:

    Well, I don't wanna be some kind of Winamp Shill or anything, but Winamp can play from cds probably since 1995 or something. And it does grab the cd info automatically.

    Stormwatcher on
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  • symbolsorsymbolsor Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'll set myself on the Winamp users side here. The search is wicked, I search for 1 song/album/genre/whatever and it pops out what I wanted from 30,000+ songs in less than a second. Amazing.

    +1 Winamp Shills.

    symbolsor on
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