Winamp Community Update Project releases first Winamp Preview

[Karlston]

WACUP -- the Winamp Community Update Project -- released a preview version of the music player to the public yesterday.

 

WACUP is a third-party modified version of the music player Winamp that is based on Winamp 5.666 patched and not the recently leaked Winamp 5.8 Beta.

 

Radionomy, the owner of Winamp, released the beta officially as a reaction to the leak to provide interested users with a clean copy of the application to avoid malware abuse.

 

The company revealed that it had plans to release a new version of the music player in 2019; whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen. Considering that there have not been any new releases, except for the release of the leaked beta since Radionomy acquired Winamp, it is anyone's guess whether 2019 will see the release of a new official Winamp.

Winamp Community Update Project

 

The first preview release of WACUP requires Windows 7 or newer. The program will install Winamp 5.666 patched on the system if not installed already as it requires that version. The lead developer of the project suggests that users install the preview into a separate directory to avoid conflicts with existing Winamp installations.

 

WACUP is provided as an installer at this point in time that may install Winamp WACUP edition on the system or copy it for portable use.

 

It includes the following features that set it apart from Winamp 5.666:

• Includes crash and security fixes.
• Support for Big Bento modern skins and native cPro skins.
• Tweaks that improve the loading and shutdown time of the program.
• Plugin, command-line, and media format support improvements.

You find the most recent changelog here.

 

WACUP displays a skin selection screen on first run. It features classic and modern skins for Winamp. Note that there is also a checked box that allows the program to check for updates for tools used by WACUP; you can disable that and either update manually only or run manual checks for updates in the application.

 

 

The player opens with the iconic Llama Whippin jingle and the classic Winamp interface (using the selected skin).

 

 

If you used Winamp before you will feel right at home; nothing changed interface-wise, every feature and button is still there.

 

What you may notice is the improved startup and shutdown speed, and better stability while running the audio player on the system.

 

Obviously, you have to integrate your music library in the player again if you did not upgrade an existing installation of Winamp on the device.

 

The project team plans to release bi-weekly beta versions and new preview versions once a month.

Closing Words

WACUP is an interesting alternative for Winamp users if the project team continues development and manages to release new versions regularly. There is certainly a market for classic media players like Winamp.

 

I stick to AIMP and MusicBee for now.

 

Source: Winamp Community Update Project releases first Winamp Preview (gHacks - Martin Brinkmann)

[csicsu46]

WOW ! What a great update !..amazing !!!

[Mutton]

Wow - WinAmp - what a blast from the past (and not so distant past). I used WinAmp on my very first audio PC build, so long ago that it had 10Mb/s coaxial ethernet, and a home-made optical converter soldered to the sound card to get the signal into my stack's DAC.

 

I only stopped using WinAmp about three years ago on my main listening system, due to needing a good PE plugin thanks to an ear problem and switching to Foobar2k and NightOwl headphones. An ancient copy of WinAmp is still on the speaker-connected system in my office.

 

I'll watch developments in this with great interest!

[steven36]

Its just a updated version of Winamp Redux same dev over the project  DrO , as  you can see here the old link for Redux  reverts to WACUP it use to be open to the public before and they closed  it.

 

http://winampplugins.co.uk/Winamp/

 

It will be interesting to see how long they can keep it public again before  Radionomy  comes after them for patent infringement .

 

The thing Winamp don't have going for it is it's closed source and still a 32 bit installed program and is a iE depended for shoutcast  when you can install  Tray Radio or Add-on:SHOUTcast 2  for kodi  non ie dependent methods to get shoutcast.

 

A lot of people switch to Foobar2000 now  while its customizable  it never had the ease of use out the box that winamp and then AIMP 3 had,  I never liked AIMP 4  because you needed a skin to make it look  like AIMP 3 again.  Now  Windows  i just use Winyl 3.3.1 x64  it runs circles around most players for windows as far as speed and i tried  them all before  On Linux I'm still using Clementine but the same player on Window is not fast like it is on Linux .