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Winamp Skin Museum

skins.webamp.org

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61–69 of 69 posts

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#61

Post by SoleilAbsolu »

zen928 wrote: post #55
zthrowaway wrote: post #16

The thing about back then that was so amazing is the amount of personalization you had with your desktop environment. Windows 95/98 had different skins/themes you could use. Winamp and many other apps allowed skins. You used to be able to make your computing experience your own. We've lost that and really need to get it back. There's the ability to do this with Linux DE's of course, but that's not enough.

I think its commonly cited how we "used to have so much customization" and now we dont, and i see that more as an issue with motivation over missing proper functionality. Android phones and iphones to an extent are extremely customizable in almost every facet of how you use the phone, and yet outside of social influencers selling an aesthetic no one really cares to take the time to customize. Even when entire theming…

One thing I loved about WinAmp was its ability to use audio plugins that were if not full VST (a Steinberg-originated format), a very close VST subset. So I could use the same plugins I would in my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for music production to apply custom EQs beyond the built-in graphic EQ, compression/limiting, and lowpass/highpass filtering.

I had a job where I was stuck at a desk 4-6 hours a day and this let me have the best possible sound out of cheapo soundcard and speakers. This made a significant improvement to my work experience and state of mind. Allowing standard plugins to snap-in is a brilliant move, and lets those who have the time/need to do so without the app developer having to spend their energy creating native custom EQ, compressors, etc. This philosophy has carried over to REAPER (Winamp dev Justin Frankel's DAW).

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#62

Post by pseudalopex »

deadbabe wrote: post #39
captbaritone wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an idea that 3D artists have been playing with for years. I've collected 63 different artists imaginings of this here: https://jordaneldredge.com/physical-winamp/

…yea, so why doesn’t someone build one?

Your reasons were what?

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#63

Post by shmeeed »

zen928 wrote: post #55
zthrowaway wrote: post #16

The thing about back then that was so amazing is the amount of personalization you had with your desktop environment. Windows 95/98 had different skins/themes you could use. Winamp and many other apps allowed skins. You used to be able to make your computing experience your own. We've lost that and really need to get it back. There's the ability to do this with Linux DE's of course, but that's not enough.

I think its commonly cited how we "used to have so much customization" and now we dont, and i see that more as an issue with motivation over missing proper functionality. Android phones and iphones to an extent are extremely customizable in almost every facet of how you use the phone, and yet outside of social influencers selling an aesthetic no one really cares to take the time to customize. Even when entire theming…

What I'm missing is the leisure, energy and attention span I had in my teens to care about customizing a program as an end in itself. Back then, Winamp was something you just spent a lot of time with anyway, hearing your newest mp3s and playing with plugins, showing off your cool stuff to your buddies... it was a thing.

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#64

Post by DaanDL »

ssl-3 wrote: post #58
gapan wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, same thing as today then?

Yes, except it was much more colorful and vibrant. We had pixel art instead of the the deliberately-monochromatic committee-directed stick-figure horrors of today.

Correct, nowadays it's accidental and boring inconsistencies, because they're all trying to be more minimal than the other app.

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#65

Post by netsharc »

deadbabe wrote: post #14

If someone is looking for an insane project, please make Winamp player as a tactile real world physical device, with all the same features. Maybe with a little E-ink display too.

E-ink would be too modern, needs an analog matrix display, like https://i.imgur.com/wgnCKrh.png (but miniaturized).

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#67

Post by ktosobcy »

DaanDL wrote: post #19
ktosobcy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the customization of the OS but I hate when the app developers are feeling creative and can't fit into (my OS of choice) Look&Feel :/

The thing is, back then, it worked, because every app looked completely different from each other, and so it was a clusterfuck anyway :-D

Hmm… my memory may not be the best but apart from WinAmp almost every other app kinda stuck to the OS? ;o

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#68

Post by sharts »

eitally wrote: post #33
zthrowaway wrote: post #16

The thing about back then that was so amazing is the amount of personalization you had with your desktop environment. Windows 95/98 had different skins/themes you could use. Winamp and many other apps allowed skins. You used to be able to make your computing experience your own. We've lost that and really need to get it back. There's the ability to do this with Linux DE's of course, but that's not enough.

This was also true on the comms apps sides. Back in the days of ICQ & Jabber, there was a huge ecosystem of chat apps, many of which (like my favorite, Miranda IM -- which has been revived for Windows as Miranda NG: https://miranda-ng.org/about/ ) were also fully customizable.

Cheetah Chat!

Re: Winamp Skin Museum

#69

Post by jihadjihad »

captbaritone wrote: post #37
jihadjihad wrote: post #7

I'll have to spend some time trying to find it if it's on there, but I had one at one point called "Pimeer" where the text was rendered in such a way to look like a Pioneer stereo. Fooled me at the time.

Looks like that was a "modern" Winamp skin, which are unfortunately not displayed in the museum: https://winampheritage.com/skin/pimeer-v2-2-ultime/142664

Wow, indeed, this is it! Great sleuth work, detective!
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