I use Winamp for years now. Today, when I’m writing these words, I’m surprisingly aware that You may not know what Winamp is (!). The reason I find it surprising is that years ago it was recognizable as iPhone today - and it seems that - in a way - I’ve never left that time. So, in case You don’t know Winamp - it was (and it is, because You can still use it) a music player - which is highly customizable, light and fast (given You use the 2.x release line - lines 3.x and 5.x are not that great anymore).
When it comes to Winamp customization, it boils down essentially to plug-ins and skins. Through plug-ins You can extend Winamp features to a high degree - through skins You can give it a fresh, new look&feel.
Although so-called classic skins (i.e., dedicated for the 2.x line) seem to be somewhat confined in terms of designers’ creativity when to compare them with so-called modern skins (for 3.x and 5.x) - there were a great many of them, and among this gigantic set You could find a real treasures. One such example is KalaK Amplifier - my favorite Winamp 2.9x skin to this day.
I don’t remember when I stumbled upon this skin. It looked impressing, elegant and futuristic. One thing, however, intrigued me: when I looked at screenshots of this skin, it had multiple color variants which I found very attractive and nicely diversified. But I couldn’t figure out how to switch to them - and for a long time it was a bit of a puzzle.
Then, years after, another time I felt eager to solve this mystery (it was too tempting :) ). After a little bit of a research I’ve finally found the solution: a set of color-diversified KalaK Amplifier versions, beautiful looking and working like a charm. You can also download the skin directly from here.
This is a real joy to behold every time I see this app on my Windows 7 desktop :) . Moreover, since both my Sweetheart and I like to use Winamp - we have our own favorite color versions, which look even better when placed next to each other :) (it is done thanks to multiple sound cards: while one provides a sound through loudspeakers, the other I always use with headphones - this way we can listen to our own favorite music played simultaneously on a single PC :) ).
P.S.: An interesting article on the old times of Winamp You can read here.
Filed in: software /63/ | Windows /37/ | Winamp /1/