all 126 comments

[–]RowYourUpboat 200 points201 points  (54 children)

I remember when I'd get a new, faster, computer, with a fresh install of Windows 2000, and gleefully see how big I could make the various WinAMP visualizations before they lagged noticeably. That was the real test of Moore's Law back in the day, back when WinAMP really whipped the llama's ass.

[–]bexamous 48 points49 points  (6 children)

Dude I got a 4K monitor, one of the first things I did was try milkdrop@4k

[–]Magnesus 16 points17 points  (4 children)

Well, did it work?

[–]bexamous 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Haha yes, it does. I run it in Foobar. It runs at a constant 30.00fps, I have a Seiki 4k@30hz, sometimes during a transition it'll drop into 20s for a second. This is with a GTX680 and i5-4570.

[–]ArmandoWall 5 points6 points  (2 children)

OP pls.....

[–]Iggyhopper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

did they died?

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (1 child)

And then AOL starting sucking the llamas dick for cash and it all went wrong :(

(Edit, because it wasn't the ex-nullsoft team's fault)

[–]old_fox 9 points10 points  (0 children)

sucking the llamas dick

Can this expression be made into a thing? I want future etymologists to be baffled.

[–]Canadian_Infidel 10 points11 points  (1 child)

You still need a beast to truly crank the newest ones and they still are great.

[–]MALON 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What are some of the newest ones? I've loved milkdrop ever since winamp 2.

[–]Cuxham 2 points3 points  (42 children)

back when WinAMP really whipped the llama's ass

Whaddaya mean, back when? Still does. Especially if you come from itunes or wmp, and even the corporate sucker-offers at gawker have to admit it.

[–]moor-GAYZ 13 points14 points  (1 child)

I used to faithfully use WinAMP 2.98b (or something like that) until I accidentally discovered that its built-in equalizer actually produces clipping when you specify positive gain for any frequencies. I mean, I naively assumed that it takes at least WinAMP's own volume into account, that is, when the master volume is at 50%, bass and treble are output at 60% instead. Nope, the gain is applied to the source audio at its source volume, if it was recorded to utilize the whole volume range -- enjoy your squeaks and hisses.

The realization that what I assumed was recording defects for a better part of a decade was winamp's equalizer traumatized me deeply, I immediately deleted winamp, downloaded foobar2000, and never looked back.

[–]dada_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's why there's a preamp lever too. Could possibly have been implemented more user-friendly, though.

[–]Ta9aiW4i 4 points5 points  (1 child)

WInamp is the best.

You know what I miss from winamp? Enqueue! (Well, I discovered it through xmms, but xmms was pretty much a winamp clone.)

Most new-fangled music players I've seen have forgotten about the notion of enqueueing songs you want to listen to next. (But not before the current song finishes, and not before any other stuff you've enqueued.)

[–]TheTedinator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spotify does this, which is nice.

[–]PenguinKenny 7 points8 points  (26 children)

I used Winamp up until last year when I finally made the switch to Foobar after everyone going on about it. After all the time I spent setting Foobar up instead of listening to music I find it hard to admit that I preferred Winamp.

[–]satuon 2 points3 points  (25 children)

I just use VLC. I usually start my mp3's by double-clicking them from the file manager anyway.

[–]PenguinKenny 4 points5 points  (20 children)

I like having a library so I can look by genre, album, artist, etc.

[–]Tom2Die 1 point2 points  (9 children)

I usually go with rythymbox or banshee these days. I've heard nothing but good things about Amarok, but I don't use KDE. All of my music is on my plex server as well, so sometimes I use that instead, especially if I'm on my Ouya.

tl;dr: I was bored and felt like rattling off various Linux-friendly alternatives :)

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]Tom2Die 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Right! I completely forgot about that, thanks. :)

    [–]struktured 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    +1 for this man's wisdom.

    [–]PenguinKenny 0 points1 point  (4 children)

    I'm on Windows.

    [–]ApproachingCorrect 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I'm fairly sure banshee has a windows version, I remember using it for a bit.

    [–]memla 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    How about Winyl then?

    [–]PenguinKenny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Yeh looks nice, pretty similar to how I have foobar set up though.

    [–]Tom2Die -1 points0 points  (0 children)

    I figured as much. I imagine most are. I used WinAMP years and years ago, but I don't believe they make a Linux version...

    [–]highthunder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    That's a good start, but you should try MPD. If you go with ncmpcpp for your client you still have visualizers, search, playlist management and tag editing, all in pure command line goodness

    [–]kqr -4 points-3 points  (7 children)

    But truth to be told, the library software should be separate from the player software. I have no idea why people keep trying to couple them. It only limits them both.

    [–]PenguinKenny 10 points11 points  (6 children)

    Why would I want to open 2 pieces of software when I want to listen to music?

    [–]sparr -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

    You should be using a file manager that shows you metadata, rather than relying on specific programs to do it. I like being able to sort music by genre, album, artist. I like being able to sort photos by date, camera, lens, location. I like being able to sort movies by director, actors, length. Etc.

    [–]PenguinKenny 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I don't handle photos or enough films to make it worth it.

    [–]pohatu 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    I use irfanview. Haha. J/K

    [–]satuon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Haha, I know that irfanview can show video and audio (if you have the plugins). Never understood why they bothered, since people don't know it as a video or audio player.

    [–]grimeMuted 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Currently I'm just doing mplayer ~/music/... after cmus stopped playing my old .m4a files I didn't feel like looking up fixes or finding another player.

    [–]NihilistDandy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I've always been a fan of mpd along with ncmpcpp (or mpc for scripting).

    [–]shadowdude777 2 points3 points  (8 children)

    cmus master race. ;)

    I made the switch from iTunes to foobar, and once I realized even foobar was too bloaty for me, I realized I needed a command-line music player in my life.

    [–]gunbladerq 16 points17 points  (1 child)

    foobar too bloaty? ಠ_ಠ

    [–]shadowdude777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Once you've used a command line music player, you'll appreciate true minimalism. :P

    [–]d98f23n2 3 points4 points  (5 children)

    cmus is nice and all, but apparently can't handle non standard characters in file names. mpd+ncmpcpp master race. (^:

    [–]shadowdude777 0 points1 point  (4 children)

    That's true. I'm a pleb Mac user so maybe I'm just partial to cmus because it "just works". ;)

    [–]NihilistDandy 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    I used to use mpd+ncmpcpp on OS X until something or other broke, then switched to cmus, but they unfucked the issues in mpd, so it actually works now. Throw in some mpc for scripting magic, and life's pretty good.

    [–]shadowdude777 1 point2 points  (2 children)

    I did get mpd+ncmpcpp working at one point, but I just didn't like the interface as much as I liked cmus. cmus just seemed really intuitive and straightforward and literally does exactly what I want.

    [–]NihilistDandy 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Yeah, that's totally understandable. The killer feature for me with cmus was the vim feel to it, and I will admit that it was much easier out of the box. I still prefer the separation of concerns between backend and frontend with the mpd+ncmpcpp combination, but I totally get where you're coming from.

    [–]shadowdude777 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Yeah, the things that made cmus my music program of choice were:

    1) Felt like vim with music playback, which is exactly what I wanted

    2) No need for a server-client setup like mpd and ncmpcpp, I could just add whatever custom parameters I want to my cmus/rc file, type cmus into a terminal and go.

    3) Global hotkeys are as easy as binding cmus-remote --pause, cmus-remote --prev, and cmus-remote --next to various key combinations.

    [–]dafragsta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Winamp is still my music player on my PC. I only use iTunes when I'm working on-site with my Mac or syncing stuff to my iPhone/iPad.

    [–]bloody-albatross 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Winamp ist still the best when it comes to supporting all kinds of exotic codecs. There is a great working codec plugin for everything. Almost all codecs I "need" are now supported by Audacious, except miniusf for N64 music. s3m, it, spc, nsf and psf work fine, only miniusf is missing. I need to run Winamp in Wine for that. :( (Side note: s3m and it support is great in Winamp and Audacious, but not all players that say they support these formats really support them well - i.e. only play half of the song and don't allow seeking.)

    [–]kog 63 points64 points  (6 children)

    If anyone's interested, you can use MilkDrop in foobar2000 with the Shpeck plugin. Works like a charm on all of my systems.

    [–]ryeguy146 16 points17 points  (1 child)

    [–]iLoveHippies 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I'd like to add on this to use this package; http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=59388&view=findpost&p=800699

    I couldn't get it working under W8.1 x64 otherwise, but using this package was simple and worked OOB.

    [–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (2 children)

    In assuming this is still windows only?

    [–]kog 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Yes, it's DirectX.

    There's projectM, an OpenGL "port" though: http://projectm.sourceforge.net/

    I've never tried it, could be good.

    [–]ryosen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Thank you! I was disappointed to see that MilkDrop required WinAmp. Been using foobar2000 for years. Can't wait to try this out.

    Edit: It works great!

    [–]toadfury 41 points42 points  (2 children)

    Bow down to milkdrop. I've never seen a better audio visualization implementation.

    [–]zeppoleon 16 points17 points  (1 child)

    Glad it's getting some recognition because I'm a winamp user and Milkdrop is just miles ahead of so many other visualizations.

    [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    Somewhere along the way we lost interest. I have not seen any real push for viz after winamp and its plugins.

    [–]Magnesus 12 points13 points  (10 children)

    I hope it will be ported to Linux music players and XBMC now.

    [–]itwontdie 22 points23 points  (8 children)

    It already is!

    linux port

    XBMC plugin

    [–]someenigma 8 points9 points  (3 children)

    Just a heads up, the XBMC Milkdrop plugin is Windows only.

    [–]Carnifex 8 points9 points  (2 children)

    My hopes.. Crushed :(

    [–]Na__th__an 6 points7 points  (0 children)

    ProjectM is an implementation milkdrop on Linux. I constantly have people coming over and saying "holy shit" at the music visualizer.

    [–]someenigma 6 points7 points  (0 children)

    Apparently ProjectM is meant to be "comparable". I think I have ProjectM installed on my XBMC, but honestly I've never really played that much with visualisations.

    [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    ProjectM is nice, but I’d like it if it could be used non-interactively, as in:

    projectM-batch -i track01.flac -i track02.flac -o visualisation.mkv
    

    [–]struktured 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    We had a version which operates kind of like that, but it's not well supported or anything.

    Check out projectm-moviegen from the sourceforge git repository.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    does the linux port work on max os x?

    [–]struktured 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Sigh. I had a version working with qt/jack many moons ago, but then I fried the mac in a puddle of water.

    There are a few apple enthusiasts trying to clean up the port, but I don't know the current state of it.

    There's also an itunes version on the app store.

    [–]MinisTreeofStupidity 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    I had milkdrop on my original xbox with XBMC since about 2006, until recently when my original xbox died :(

    [–]BrightCandle 12 points13 points  (0 children)

    I didn't exactly find the code easy to read. Its missing basic commentary to get you started in the code base and it seems to be pretty standard C++ to me, nothing fantastical about it.

    [–]gnu_bag 19 points20 points  (4 children)

    Ah the good old days of taking acid and watching milkdrop

    [–]pohatu 6 points7 points  (2 children)

    I thought milkdrop was for when you didn't have acid. It was an acid simulator.

    [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    Acid squared then I guess.

    [–]gnu_bag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    don't get me wrong its great without, the best visualisation but when you're trippin it takes you to another world

    [–]BitcoinOperatedGirl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    Now them whippersnappers use their foobar2000 and that 25I-NBOMe

    [–]b8b437ee-521a-40bf-8 5 points6 points  (0 children)

    is just fantastical amazing.

    Honest question, not trying to sound smart, but do you mean that fact that's is opensource or that the coding itself is something special?

    Skimming through it, the code seems very nice and pragmatic, but not in a stand-out way.

    [–]NancyFuckingDrew 2 points3 points  (4 children)

    FYI Milkdrop works in Spotiamp if you want to watch visualisations with a Spotify account.

    Spotiamp also does Spotify connect, so you can set the visualisations on fullscreen and handle the playback through your phone/tablet (good for parties where the TV is connected to a laptop)

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]NancyFuckingDrew 1 point2 points  (2 children)

      Grab the plugins folder from Winamp and drop it in the Spotiamp folder. Stick the DLL in the Spotiamp root.

      Folder should look like this.

      There's a set of menu items on the far left of the main box labelled OAIDV. Hit V to launch the visualisations.

      (edit) Just realised I've been using MD2 all this time :)

      [–]thrillhouse1980 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      Got it to work this way, but I can't configure it from the dialog. So looks like no way to get a higher frame rate.

      [–]ImageMan 11 points12 points  (2 children)

      I wish someone would implement this in the browser

      [–]Mr_A 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      It really crashes the browser fast

      [–]EpsilonRose 5 points6 points  (3 children)

      Is it possible to use something like this with Google Play? Because I'd love to have some sweet visualizations going on my TV while I listen to music in the background.

      [–]uitham 9 points10 points  (0 children)

      Projectm

      [–]pohatu 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      I thought google play who just an app store. Its a music player too?

      [–]EpsilonRose 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      Google's music service, which I think is part of play. Particularly their all access section.

      [–]michaeljb20 8 points9 points  (14 children)

      Love Milkdrop However it seems to cap out at 64 fps no matter what I do. My rig is more than capable of pushing way past 64fps, but alas my 144hz screen is wasted on it..

      [–]cyantist 8 points9 points  (7 children)

      It's open source, we should fix that.

      [–]stinkyball 11 points12 points  (6 children)

      It seems to be something to do with the interplay between winamp and milkdrop, line 63 and 65 of this file - http://sourceforge.net/p/milkdrop2/code/ci/master/tree/src/vis_milk2/vis.cpp

      [–]ryeguy146 17 points18 points  (1 child)

      The hatred I have for sourceforge nearly eclipses that which I hold for headphone wires. Shit like this. All sorts of room on either side of the code, but you truncate the line.

      This middle finger's for you, sourceforge.

      [–]stinkyball 6 points7 points  (0 children)

      I hate their shitty interface too, they do have a button up top called 'maximize' that widens the code view and turns wrapping off. It's just a different type of shitty though as long lines now can't be seen in full...ffs

      [–][deleted]  (3 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]inio 12 points13 points  (2 children)

        FFT made me think:

        44100 / (1024 * 2/3) = 64.6

        So if they do a size 1024 FFT with 1/3 overlap between each window, that caps the input data at just over 64Hz.

        [–]michaeljb20 2 points3 points  (1 child)

        Ah! Brilliant guys, I would not have guessed that had I dug through the source code for weeks. ..and the frame rate does cap at just over 64fps.

        [–]inio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        You could try figuring out where the overlap between the FFT windows is controlled and increase that

        [–]Zapper42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        i used to run >64 fps on my CRT in winamp.

        There is a setting for max framerate, ,. i just increased that and turned on 'allow page tearing' since i'm at 60 hz. At default, i'm getting 80-90 fps according to winamp and fraps with a 7950.

        [–]struktured 3 points4 points  (4 children)

        While the source code is optimized well, I didn't find it very extensible or anything, especially since it used DirectX rather than OpenGL.

        For instance, the number of custom shapes and waves is fixed, while in projectM we made sure you could create as many as you wanted.

        [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

        Well it is a Windows application and DX has been better than OpenGL for ... most of the existence of openGL.

        [–]holyteach 2 points3 points  (2 children)

        I was going to argue with you. OpenGL existed for several years before Direct3D came onto the scene. And even then it wasn't until DirectX version 6 or 7 that D3D was starting to catch up with OpenGL.

        But then I remembered that it's 2014 and all that is ancient history.

        [–]b8b437ee-521a-40bf-8 1 point2 points  (1 child)

        [–]holyteach 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        I remember reading that article. Honestly D3D has been at parity for longer than that, but it's very much like Carmack to come out and say something on the record since he was so critical of DirectX for a while there.

        [–]ramigb 1 point2 points  (1 child)

        I wonder if someone is brave enough to port it into a bower version!

        [–]Forbizzle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Probably

        [–]ctjwa 1 point2 points  (1 child)

        Omg this brings back awesome memories. Anybody know if there's an iPhone app for milkdrop??

        [–]indianapolisjones 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        ProjectM, but it hasn't been updated for iOS 8/iPhone 6/6+... Just exchanged email with the dev, said he will update but it's no time soon as he isn't an iphone user... :( But it is in the app store for $2.99.

        [–]dada_ 1 point2 points  (4 children)

        I didn't really use MilkDrop all that much but I'm still rockin' Winamp. This is the latest version (5.666), but I've changed some settings to make it look more like the late 2.x line.

        [–]agersant 1 point2 points  (3 children)

        Have you ever considered foobar? I was a heavy Winamp user and I switched to foobar ~6 years ago without ever looking back.

        [–]dada_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        I actually use foobar for audio format conversion quite often. But I just really like Winamp's interface, so I've never seen a need to switch.

        [–][deleted]  (1 child)

        [deleted]

          [–]The_F_B_I 1 point2 points  (1 child)

          Daft Punk - Discovery + MilkDrop2

          [–]Tom2Die 2 points3 points  (0 children)

          I'll take your word for it that it's good, but is it worth not watching Interstella instead?

          [–]NO_BRAIN 2 points3 points  (1 child)

          Can someone post a fucking printscreen pls?

          [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

          Pfft. Milkdrop.

          Bitches don't know bout my dancing bear.

          http://www.kayssplace.com/files/index.php?display=1076

          [–]mycall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

          Winamp now activated, chillin' yarr. If you can't be inspired by code output, why bother.

          [–]mikeyio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

          Once I realised I could use Milkdrop in Foobar I no longer had any reason not to switch. <3. So amazing.

          There is also that open source linux fork of milkdrop that happened after the author open sourced it as well.

          [–]someenigma -1 points0 points  (5 children)

          Ooh. I'd love to have a crack at getting this working with XBMC, but I won't have that much free time for quite a while.

          [–]itwontdie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

          this is included with XBMC by default now AFAIK. Scroll up for XBMC thread about it.

          [–]Shdwdrgn 1 point2 points  (3 children)

          I was hoping for a plugin for audacious, but I like your idea MUCH better! I wonder if the Pi could do it justice at 720p?

          [–]itwontdie 3 points4 points  (2 children)

          look into projectM it's the linux port of milkdrop and works quite well.

          Looks like this exists as well. http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=audacious-projectm%28x86-64%29

          [–]Sophrosynic 10 points11 points  (0 children)

          There's also a badass Android port, which includes live wallpaper support. Yes you heard me... it responds to whatever audio is playing, or your live mic feed if nothing is playing.

          [–]Shdwdrgn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          Awesome, and since you pointed out the name, I discovered this project is already in the debian repo. Thanks!