Does everyone still use Winamp for VGM?

Hey all, it's been a while. Long story short, I've had to upgrade from an old Windows 7 computer to an ultra modern Windows 10 computer (with a 4K display). I've been out of the loop for a while, but even so, it feels like all of the software I'd been using for emulation and whatnot is roughly a decade old. Winamp hasn't had a true update in a couple of years, and I've personally not touched NotSo Fatso's source code in I don't even know how long.

Is Winamp still the preferred media player of choice when it comes to playing emulated video game music (NSF, GBS, VGM, USF, GSF, etc.) or has everybody moved on to something else?

Yes I do, and I co-use it with Foobar2000 as each one has formats the other does not support.

I still use Winamp 5.666 Build 3516, a.k.a. winamp5666_full_en-us_redux.exe. These are the plugins I use for general video game music playback:

NSF: in_yansf / NSFplug/NSFPlay (rainwarrior's version)
VGM: in_vgm / VGMPlay
SPC: in_snes / SNESAmp

in_vgm is pretty cool because it (understandably) handles both Genesis/MegaDrive rips as well as many 80s arcade rips, since they both tend to use the .vgz or .vgm extension/format.

For SID (C64) playback, I use Sidplay/w, which are some DLLs and a pair of Windows executables: sidplay2w.exe and sidplay2w-int.exe. The former uses resampling (more CPU intensive), the latter interpolation (less CPU intensive).

Winamp for most formats, XMPlay for .MOD files/EaglePlayer and .SID. Also, Hoot for Japanese computer game music not readily available in more convenient formats.

It's quite ironic to use a retro media player to play even more retro music.

Yes, still using winamp to play them but I may not have re-installed the plugin since my last install ^^;;; These days I listen to them on my phone with modizer, which is quite convenient.

Linux user here, but all of these have Windows versions:

NSF: repeat, NSFPlay
VGM: VGMPlay
GSF: mednafen
others: Audacious (many formats but many of them are iffy, hence the above instead)

I love Winamp for MP3 and use it constantly for this. (FLAC as well.) For a lot of VGM formats though I use other stuff, either because I don't like how formats that have multiple songs interact with Winamp, or because there's some other player I like better that doesn't have a Winamp plugin.

Here's a bunch of VGM players that I use regularly. All of these seem pretty good to me:

• NES: NSFPlay (does work with Winamp but I use the stand-alone)
• SNES, GB, MSX: FooGEP with Foobar2000.
• PC-88/98: Hoot
• SMS, Genesis, Arcade: VGMPlay with Winamp
• C64: sidplay2w
• Atari ST: Jam
• ZX Spectum: ay_emul
• MOD / IT / S3M / XM: XMPlay

NSF: NSFPlay 2.4 beta 8
SPC: SNES SPC700 Player
MOD: in_openmpt and OpenMPT 1.27.09
AYM: ZX Spectrum AY Emulator
GEN: in_vgm and VGMPlay
ARC: in_vgm and VGMPlay
SID: sidplayv2
GB: nezplug
HES: nezplug + Ootake
X68: MDX Player for X6800 (aka MMDSP)
MP3: Winamp, VLC
WAV: Winamp
M4A: Winamp, VLC
AHX: in_thx by Abyss THX/AHX Player
SAP: in_asap
STR: in_vgmstream (Streaming VGM also BFSTM)

I dunno whether to be happy or scared, but never the less, it looks like not much has changed, so that's a relief!

I was using:
- NotSo Fatso
- NEZPlug (ugetab's version with the updated GB core)
- Alpha-ii SNES
- Highly Advanced
- Highly Experimental
- 64th Note
- SMS Power! in_vgm
- (some kind of 2sf plugin, was it vio2sf?)
- (some kind of deprecated brstm plugin)

Kinda upset that I have to ditch the Winamp classic themes because they're microscopic on a 4k screen, but eh.

I'd also like to find Pitchfork again, it was a DSP plugin that allowed you to speed up or slow down playback (changing both pitch and tempo), but listening to music at different pitches is a pasttime I'm unwilling to discard. I don't even know if it'll display correctly on 4K. (Edit: It's looking like Pacemaker might fill this void)

Don't forget about Winamp's double-size mode (hit Ctrl-D). It'll at least be twice as large as normal.


Why third-party? Winamp provides this capability natively through it's own DSP plugin dps_sps.dll. Configure the plugin: Enable processing, Load file justin - simple pitch and tempo (half-2x) control.sps, click Show Editor, and have fun with the slider, else change the formula in the editor yourself.

Why should it requires a newer version unless it is broken? A players that play files unless not supported with current OS should still be working, no matter what

"unless not supported with current OS" is one. Staying on Winamp discourages someone from switching from Windows, and a lot of these legacy plug-ins won't operate in an all-64-bit or ARM environment. I'm not even sure if it's easy to find a compiler compatible with whatever version of the C runtime library Winamp requires for its plugins. In addition, there have been numerous scares about Winamp becoming no longer available for lawful download.

But the core complaint is that Winamp is proprietary software. If Winamp were free software, enthusiasts could take up the maintenance, porting, and distribution effort.

Well for one thing, I don't believe 4k monitors for PCs were common a few years ago, so this is a case of something about the environment changing which causes something about Winamp to need updating, and if there's nobody around to do the updating, then there's problems. Thankfully, there's been a patch to help, but there's still some lingering DPI issues. (In fact, I've noticed lots of DPI scaling issues in many of the programs I use, even modern up-to-date ones!)

koitsu: Wow, I didn't know about the DSP studio plugin, thanks!
Also, double size mode is still too small to comfortably use (4k is very very very large), plus the skinned mouse cursors are TINY! It's ok though, the modern skin seems to be good enough, and at 300% zoom, is nice and comfortable to use. Tooltips are still tiny though, but oh well!

Tepples: Man, Winamp opensourcing would be the dream solution here, but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon.

Hmm, well I use Droidsound E for Android and it has at least some of the plguns mentioned in this thread, like NSFPlay, Nezplug, highly advanced/experimental, some USF plugin that I forget the name of at the moment, etc. And almost all android phones are ARM. Not sure about 64 bit though. @Banshaku how do you think modizer compares to droidsound e? I've never used it before

At some point I realized it's harder for me to keep track of a library of NSF's and software to play them than it is to type the name of the video game into Youtube. So....my answer is I don't use anything anymore. I just search for the soundtrack and listen on youtube.

(ducks and runs before everyone tells me all the reasons I'm doing this incorrectly)

You're perfectly fine! I do the exact same thing when I'm driving to/from work and want to listen to a game soundtrack; it's much easier to open YT and find a playlist that way. That and when I'm away from my usual machine (like at work for example).

Hmm... droidsound? I've never thought about an android solution for emulated music, but it makes sense that an ecosystem exists.

I mostly use WinAmp (2.95) + NotSoFatso. If that can't play something (non-60hz or certain expansions) then I use NSFPlay. I'm on Windows 10.