Winamp 5.9 Final Released

[DJ Egg]

I tried to install this new winamp beta in Win11 sandbox and it immediately crashes on launch (after installation).

It's probably a weird directx require thing, but i still wanted to complain about it.

please let me know if you need tech details.

Hmm, I'm not certain, but I doubt if Winamp can ever work from within the Windows Sandbox.

I'll need to do more research and try it myself, but Winamp has core Windows dependencies and requires direct access to Windows system files (kernel32, user32, shlwapi, comctl32, gdi32, rpcrt4, ole32, comdlg32, msacm32, DirectX, Media Foundation, drivers, etc.) - so if Sandbox blocks full access to any of those files/features, Winamp isn't going to work.

[gulbis37]

Crashing in Shoutcast DSP v2.4
Were you broadcasting at the time?

to https://www.internet-radio.com/ and https://www.shoutcast.com/

[MrSinatra]

He is saying that users are figuring out how to use *his* plugins in 5.9 against his express wishes. <snip> Personally I think its a bit petty to complain that he made/upgraded plugins for 5.666 (3516) but doesn't want them to work on 5.9 (9999) because he didn't work on that team and doesn't like the new company.

<snip>

Agreed and in my opinion I think he's complaining about nothing.

i'm shocked! ha.

Darren, if ur reading this, dude, u gotta learn to relax. u turn ur biggest fans, like i was, into beefs. everyone knows you're a gifted programmer, the problem with you isn't that.

also, imo, ur lucky radionomy isn't suing you.

Making them work again for the next release (by fixing the Winamp manifest) is a bug fix - and maintains backwards compatibility.

If only we'd realised sooner that VS2019 broke the manifest (d'oh!), then we obviously wouldn't have needed to mention it :-(

this worries me, like was said in some earlier posts, it won't be clear which release is the LATEST release, so please allow me a suggestion:

include the RELEASE DATE in the filename. for example:

winamp_2022_07-July_28_5.9-RC.exe

This is precisely why we went from internal beta to RC status before going Final :-)

since for some reason, i wasn't chosen to be a beta tester, in spite of my long history for finding bugs and their causes and how to reproduce, i will probably sit out 5.9 for now...

if i could make another suggestion... winamp often seems to allow for perfection paralysis, where it wants everything to be done and perfect before its released. another way of saying is, is don't let the perfect be the enemy of the pretty good.

the delays with winamp releases in past years bc of stupid things like CD ripping or burning, lack of gracenote replacement, lack of jtfe replacement, and on and on was imo, a HUGE mistake.

its great that 5.9 is out now, but just keep chipping away at stuff, don't delay releases bc of whatever isn't perfect yet.

for jtfe expicitly, get one of your devs to reverse engineer 2 or 3 features and release an open source version of it, and allow the community to help build it so it eventually replaces all the missing features. i would argue most of jtfe isn't used by hardly anyone, but of course it has a few nearly must have abilities.

another suggestion i would make, is DL and look at EAC, exact audio copy. it has a plugin system for cddb / gracenote like features, so you can use free sources or paid ones or whatever you want, musicbrainz, etc. the point is you have more than ONE source available to you to audiofingerprint or whatnot. EAC also has a pretty sweet album art retrieval system.

congrats Egg, i'm sure this is very satisfying for you!

[Mikey7]

i'm shocked! ha.

Darren, if ur reading this, dude, u gotta learn to relax. u turn ur biggest fans, like i was, into beefs. everyone knows you're a gifted programmer, the problem with you isn't that.

No kidding. His problem is that his Discord is an echo chamber for him and Eris. I'm still a patron - paying to offset development, right? Wrong. I *dared* to ask him about how WACUP could be packaged as a product, maybe with Eris' "declassified" skins. Then all hell broke out. Eris, along with their sycophants went after me asking me who the hell I thought I was "telling them how to run their server and what to do with their respective programming," both of them yelling at me in all-caps and swearing to take their respective balls and go home. I told 'em both off in a comment and never looked back. I said I was pulling my patronage (but didn't). He kicked me out of the beta program.

also, imo, ur lucky radionomy isn't suing you.

No kidding! I did everything I could to support both of them emotionally and ask questions and make suggestions to pull WACUP in the right direction (so they were untouchable). Neither wanted to hear about it. Silly me, I'm still not going to pull my patronage because like you said, he's a great programmer. I won't tell you what I think of the other party. His best bet is to continue to write (or in most cases, update) great plugins that work in both his eventual clone AND in 5.9.x. There are plenty of clones and they don't get sued by Winamp's owners for constantly running their mouths and throwing them shade.

(snip) this worries me, like was said in some earlier posts, it won't be clear which release is the LATEST release, so please allow me a suggestion:

include the RELEASE DATE in the filename. for example:

winamp_2022_07-July_28_5.9-RC.exe

since for some reason, i wasn't chosen to be a beta tester, in spite of my long history for finding bugs and their causes and how to reproduce, i will probably sit out 5.9 for now...

if i could make another suggestion... winamp often seems to allow for perfection paralysis, where it wants everything to be done and perfect before its released. another way of saying is, is don't let the perfect be the enemy of the pretty good.

the delays with winamp releases in past years bc of stupid things like CD ripping or burning, lack of gracenote replacement, lack of jtfe replacement, and on and on was imo, a HUGE mistake.

its great that 5.9 is out now, but just keep chipping away at stuff, don't delay releases bc of whatever isn't perfect yet.

Agreed. I have 3 choices. I can run 5.666 with certain 3rd party plugins (see above) or I can run WACUP 7236 with those same plugins, OR - I can run 5.9 RC1 with some older plugins that get me 95% of the way there knowing that RC2 will let me run the others. I choose to run 5.9 RC1 to extricate myself from the private little world of WACUP and encourage others to do so to the best of my ability because I believe in the project and team. Winamp 5.9.x is the real deal. Why run a clone with features that only appeal to retro gamers and retro OS enthusiasts when you can move into the future with the Llama? Personally, I'm embarrassed I let myself be so negatively influenced before waiting to see what was actually delivered.

for jtfe expicitly, get one of your devs to reverse engineer 2 or 3 features and release an open source version of it, and allow the community to help build it so it eventually replaces all the missing features. i would argue most of jtfe isn't used by hardly anyone, but of course it has a few nearly must have abilities.

I've never used it and see no use for it but I've read comments here suggesting that it is so important to some that they'd rather go back to 5.666 rather than move ahead with 5.9. Therefore, I agree with your suggestion.

another suggestion i would make, is DL and look at EAC, exact audio copy. it has a plugin system for cddb / gracenote like features, so you can use free sources or paid ones or whatever you want, musicbrainz, etc. the point is you have more than ONE source available to you to audiofingerprint or whatnot. EAC also has a pretty sweet album art retrieval system.

congrats Egg, i'm sure this is very satisfying for you!

Great suggestions, Cheers!

[musicf8]

Glad to see that there is development on Winamp. Couple questions regarding this release-

1. Why is this called RC? From my understanding RC stands for Release Candidate which usually falls between Beta and Gold/Final but based on the number of known issues and issues in the thread it seems this should be labeled Beta (or Alpha even). It seems odd to me that the 5.8 beta has less issues than 5.9 RC1

2. Is there an update on the plan for future of Winamp? Originally it was stated that 5.8 isn't an ongoing project and it was then generally assumed that the next version was 6 which would be completely different. So, what's the plan now? Will Winamp as we know continue past 5.9 (as winamp classic or something) or is the plan to get 5.9x feature complete before changing over to whatever winamp6 will be, or has all the future plans completely changed due to everything the past few years?

[Mikey7]

Glad to see that there is development on Winamp. Couple questions regarding this release-

1. Why is this called RC? From my understanding RC stands for Release Candidate which usually falls between Beta and Gold/Final but based on the number of known issues and issues in the thread it seems this should be more labeled Beta (or Alpha even). It seems odd to me that the 5.8 beta has less issues than 5.9 RC1

2. Is there and update on the plan for future of Winamp? Originally it was stated that 5.8 isn't an ongoing project and it was then generally assumed that the next version was 6 which would be completely different. So, what's the plan now? Will Winamp as we know continue past 5.9 (as winamp classic or something) or is the plan to get 5.9x feature complete before changing over to whatever winamp6 will be, or has all the future plans completely changed due to everything the past few years?

It seems to me that the answers to your questions have already been addressed either in the release notes or this thread. From the perspective of a Windows 11 user, this product is pretty polished. I have no issue with it being named Release Candidate #1 especially knowing *what* will be fixed in RC2. Eqg and the rest of the developers are human - they missed a manifest entry from 5.666 that didn't make it into 5.8. They used 5.8 as their model go-forward due to licensing issues. Almost all the bugs are known and being actively addressed.

That leaves the issue with gen_ff and other components not loading into Windows 7/8.1. It would appear that issue didn't exist in the Beta and is a recent glitch. I have no doubt it will be addressed. Considering they're going for backwards compatibility from Windows 11 all the way back to Windows 7 including plugins, I'd say they're pretty darn close and I can't imagine the challenges in trying to cover all those years and all those Windows releases.

They were pretty clear IMHO that Winamp 6 was strictly an Android product with funding via their NFT initiative. With as much negative feedback as they've received, I'm hoping they change their minds about that sort of monetization but in any event, it has nothing to do with 5.9.x DJ Egg has been very clear on this Forum regarding the future of Windows-based Winamp, picking up where 5.8 left off and again, due to licensing issues that exist with features included in 5.666.

I hope this helps.

[heavyoak]

I very much want to test this but I have too many plugins and a working setup.

I'll wait for final release.

Glad to see winamp come back.

[ECraig]

As far as I can see everybody's talking on this forum about bugs and added/lost functionality etc. but no one seems concerned about improving the quality of reproduction.
Since any non-audio processing impairs the sound to a degree, I can see some space for improvement in Winamp.
I suggest an option to disable the seeker (for instance by Ctrl+click on it, etc.) and even the timer too.
When you start a playlist and sit (or lie down) to listen, the sound quality is the only thing you're interested in, and the seeker or timer are of no interest at all.
(I tried disabling the seekbar in foobar2000, and you can hear a slight improvement in sound, so I suppose the same would happen in Winamp).
I guess it would not be so hard to implement.

[Mikey7]

I very much want to test this but I have too many plugins and a working setup.

I'll wait for final release.

Glad to see winamp come back.

I run several instances of Winamp, from Winamp 3 through Winamp 5.9, including 5.666. Just tell the installer where you want to install the Winamp 5.9 files - instead of ...\...\winamp\, choose \winamp59 or even a separate drive if you want. You can only associate files to one of them of course and for now, perhaps that will be 5.666 if that's your Winamp of choice. Otherwise, you'll be able to run 5.9 just fine this way.

[yodaUT]

Hmm, I'm not certain, but I doubt if Winamp can ever work from within the Windows Sandbox.

I'll need to do more research and try it myself, but Winamp has core Windows dependencies and requires direct access to Windows system files (kernel32, user32, shlwapi, comctl32, gdi32, rpcrt4, ole32, comdlg32, msacm32, DirectX, Media Foundation, drivers, etc.) - so if Sandbox blocks full access to any of those files/features, Winamp isn't going to work.

I thought I would mention it because I'm still using 5.666 build 3156 (i'm old) and it installs and runs fine sandbox

[lucashubner]

is there any chance to have a working version for linux?

[Mikey7]

is there any chance to have a working version for linux?

Linux users typically run Winamp in WINE.

[0xc83470]

Always excited to see Winamp updates. I have been using it near daily for ~20 years. Thank you all for the hard work. Been meaning to try out developing plugins for random things.

I have a Windows 7 SP1 laptop, and it gives me an error about the modern skin support. Did a test with a dependency walker, and it complained about tataki.dll. Must be that the Shared folder is loaded explicitly: when I added it to my path, it didn't complain of any errors. Doesn't appear to be a dependency issue (given a cursory look and my not being a Winamp developer...).

Happy to try out anything else to help diagnose.

[DJ Egg]

I thought I would mention it because I'm still using 5.666 build 3156 (i'm old) and it installs and runs fine sandbox

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the info. Ok, we'll look into it.

[Mikey7]

Always excited to see Winamp updates. I have been using it near daily for ~20 years. Thank you all for the hard work. Been meaning to try out developing plugins for random things.

I have a Windows 7 SP1 laptop, and it gives me an error about the modern skin support. Did a test with a dependency walker, and it complained about tataki.dll. Must be that the Shared folder is loaded explicitly: when I added it to my path, it didn't complain of any errors. Doesn't appear to be a dependency issue (given a cursory look and my not being a Winamp developer...).

Happy to try out anything else to help diagnose.

Please read this reasonably short (5 pages) thread. All of this has been discussed and they're actively working on it.