Description: AstAmp is a media player control component for Aston Shell 1.9 and above. With this plugin you can visualize and control the playback of your music while running Aston. Plugin is highly customizable and flexible enough to be a part of any Theme.
User comments
Date:02.20.2004 Name:killdadj Rate:9
oooh...very sexy
a step up from the last astonWA or whatever its called :)
Date:02.20.2004 Name:^ Rate:9
got a bit of a problem with staying on top...it doesnt seem to want to...
still good though
Date:02.25.2004 Name: Rate:6
When there will be a management of hotkeys for this plug-in?
Date:02.27.2004 Name:moonboy Rate:7
it is quite nice. but a auto-hide feature would be great. and how about a way to change the color of the whole skin? great work, nonetheless!
Date:03.05.2004 Name: Rate:7
Um, anyone care to help me set it up? When I installed it, it said something about the main window not found and go to choose skin, I did and still confused. Halp!!!
Date:03.08.2004 Name: Rate:1
Yeah I get the same problem as LordSwing.... WTF!?!?
Date:03.08.2004 Name:Red Rate:
2 LordSwing2 + madcat75: This plug-in doesn't have a default skin. For using this plug-in You should add this plugin via A-master and launch ...\AstAmp_Skin\Insignia_AstAmp.apc file.
Date:03.10.2004 Name: Rate:10
A historic plugin for AstonShell. The fact that this thing is alpha-blendable is a skinners dream! Thank you!!!
Date:03.15.2004 Name:Sirat Rate:
This plug is beautifull, though I can't get it to play music, lol.
It runs winamp, yet won't make a sound. Bollocks. :)
Date:03.17.2004 Name: Rate:10
The Best Plugin&Skin for Aston ever made!
Date:03.24.2004 Name:EverPure Rate:
same as sirat SO Sweeeet :) but i cant make it work :P i think my problem is the player path can anyone help?
Date:03.26.2004 Name:Dee Rate:
i DONT KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT WORK!! CAN SOMEBOY HELP ME?
Date:04.02.2004 Name: Rate:5
I unfortunately cannot make it work either... it would be nice if it included installation instructions neh? For example where to put the skins directory so the plugin can read it? I'm lost.
Date:04.02.2004 Name: Rate:10
*cough* *cough* um... yeah... well I didn't read all the comments... don't I look like a fool? It would STILL be a good thing to have an installation text... it wouldn't have to be more than 2 lines long even.
Date:04.10.2004 Name:EnsignR Rate:
OK so i figured out that you need to set the 'item' to the Insignia Astamp (in the skin dir from the zip) to get the plugin to become visible.
Now tell me this, wot do I set the player to?
"AstAmp is a media player control component for Aston Shell 1.9 and above." suggests to me Windows Media Player. But when I provide the path for media player (S9) it the plugins buttons just blindly launch media player
nice lookin shell tho, albiet with a bit of a lack of documentation
Date:04.11.2004 Name:Budtske Rate:
bah even though i read all the comment , setting the item to the skin dir or pointing direcly to Insignia_AstAmp.apc has no effect
Date:04.11.2004 Name:budtske Rate:
"Configuration:
SETTINGS: Items: Skin's name and configuration."
this is what the author says and i think its waaaay too fuzzy :p
Date:04.11.2004 Name:budtske Rate:
*shrug* nm .... "running it" dident have anything to do with aston properties or anything but just executing the file *.apc file ..... that seemed waaaay unlogical
Date:04.14.2004 Name: Rate:5
The darn thing installs but cant get it to work what's up with that.
Date:04.15.2004 Name:krexx Rate:5
seems nice, but won´t react to "open file". have set the path to both winamp and mediaplayer, but still no reaction. anyone have any tips?!
Date:04.18.2004 Name: Rate:
managed to get it to show... to do so:
1)go to properties of the plugin (use the aston master) 2)click File, Load Settings 3)select the file Insignia_Astamp.apc, it will be in the directory where you unzipped all the files before installing 4)click ok and exit properties 5) you should now have at least a visible player, but getting it to work is another matter...i havent managed to make it play any music using windows media player 9. it even very temporarily hangs my computer everytime i try to open file or display playlist or whatever..
hope this helps, and any help will be appreciated.
Date:04.20.2004 Name:Duminas Rate:
I don't think it's meant for WMP, pgtg Try using Winamp instead.
I'm still trying to figure out how the blazes you make a skin without copying the same exact name as another, since I CANNOT make a new theme to start with. Period.
Date:04.21.2004 Name:kojev Rate:9
Cool !!!
But there is one little bug :(. A've made my own skin with long window for a song title. If songs name is shorter than this window, Plug doesn't redraw it (plug doesn't show a NEW title). But then I click on it - it's OK.
Date:05.08.2004 Name:Styrakaar Rate:1
How do you get this damn thing to play music?! Everytime i wanna open a file my system hangs for about 10 sec. and nothing happens! HELP!
Date:05.08.2004 Name:wayne Rate:
Everytime I start the plug-in, my CPU raises from 5% to 85% and everything is really slow. can you help me ???
Date:05.08.2004 Name:wayne Rate:
Everytime I start the plug-in, my CPU raises from 5% to 85% and everything is really slow. can you help me ???
Date:05.18.2004 Name:Blommen Rate:
To make the player work: 1)Start A-Master 2)click "Plug-ins" 3)Click "add" 4)Add the AstAmp.plg file
I started out by placing the AstAmp.plg file in the plugin dir. in Aston. but im not sure its necesary. "have fun"
Date:05.25.2004 Name:tomokatsu Rate:7
For your information, Blommen, most people found out how to install the plugin, it is making the plugin interact with a Media player that they (and myself) are having trouble with.
Date:05.29.2004 Name:Speedster Rate:7
Happy to see this plugin available, always wanted to connect my winamp to my desktop that smoothly, seeing as Winamp5 skins use up too much cpu, downside for this plugin is it doesn't work properly with winamp 5, it eats CPU like crazy, so i run it with winamp 2.x, another downside, I'd be happy if the writer would append a 'close player(winamp)' feature, because even when not playing songs it eats up 10-20% cpu in aston task as long as winamp is open and communicating with it, and with the speed winamp opens i was just gonna make the stop button the, 'close winamp' button :P would be very happy to see that put in.
Date:06.02.2004 Name:gub Rate:2
I was completely lost until I read Speedster's Comment- If I can't use it with the version of Winamp that I can download, what good is it 2 me? the same stuff happens- no open file, hanging, you've heard it b4- It will work kindof if i have winamp open, playing a file- but then... why do i need this plugin; i couldn't give it a one because it does look really cool and if it worked like i think it is supposed to- i'd give it a 16
Date:06.02.2004 Name:gub Rate:
last comment premature- this helped: http://www.astonshell.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1787&highlight=playing+files+astamp
Date:06.03.2004 Name:Fred Rate:8
Hi. nice, but one bug for me. I can display the title of the song. The time too. Can you help me? i dont know what i have to put in "MusicNameRect". I know that's the coord, but dont know more. Thx
Date:06.06.2004 Name:vintendo Rate:1
ive been trying to get this to play music since christ was a cowboy. this stinks on ice.
Date:06.11.2004 Name:Brutus Rate:
Damn! This thing get 50% from processor time. When i turn it off cpu usage dropped 1-2%! FIX IT!!!
Date:06.11.2004 Name:Brutus Rate:
I meant that when plugin disabled, cpu usage is 0-2% (alone winamp). But when i turning on plugin, cpu usage = 50-70%. Please fix it =)
Date:06.13.2004 Name: Rate:8
nicely put together. thumbs up
Date:07.04.2004 Name:cyberdick Rate:
cool plugin but eats CPU like hell, when running it eats 20% of my 2.8C P4 procesor.. wud be nice if this was fixed.
Date:07.05.2004 Name:Elvenfox Rate:10
Wo-o-oW! Very impressive! Very beautiful... I've just plug it to frozzzen's theme Extazy. I have no words.
Date:07.08.2004 Name: Rate:6
very nice tool, but i have a big problem with it. When its not running and i listen to music with winamp my cpu is 10% needed. But when i start this plugin the cpu is at 90% (AMD Thunderbird 1400MHz). When this is fixed its perfect
Date:07.15.2004 Name:BlackWand Rate:6
This AstAmp seems to take some CPU. It surely uses 5-7% CPU of my 2.6ghz. When i turned this plugin off, it went down to the level it should be at. Just so that you know...
Date:07.18.2004 Name: Rate:8
Goooood
Date:07.22.2004 Name:Dman Rate:
Is it only for me that it lags like a bitch? I mean insane cpu usage...
Date:07.24.2004 Name:Firebert Rate:
K, i know people have asked this but i still cant figure it out. Its still just a gray box and says 'Main window Skin Not Found' I typed in Insignia_Astamp.apc in the little spot and it didn't change anything, could somebody help?
Date:07.26.2004 Name:Firebert Rate:
wow, that was a little anticlamatic, well i finally got it to work, by going to the Insignia_AstAmp.apc file (in the Skin folder thing) and right clicked it, and hit setup and voila, my own astamp, fun fun.
Date:08.01.2004 Name:eric Rate:8
i gave it an 8 this is great. but like other people have, its eats your CPU big time. i got 1gb ddr and it was up to 95% once i killed it, it dropped down to under 5%.. basically.. im not using it anymore
but its nice besides that!
Date:08.06.2004 Name: Rate:
very well
Date:08.08.2004 Name: Rate:10
Awesome tool, works flawlessly on my system. Sleek, clean, small, fast, and it works - can't ask for anything more!
Date:08.15.2004 Name:Glycerine Rate:
Great plugin, but I'm experiencing one little problem. When adjusting the skin, the display won't move. I can move the display and glass for display items, but the text doesn't move with them. Any solutions?
Date:08.18.2004 Name: Rate:
ok...im having a problem with the install, When i try to run the .plg an error appears saying that the file is not an aston plugin. WTF!? and yes im a total n00b to AstonShell tis my first day using it
Date:08.27.2004 Name:gijluiaard Rate:
It seems it doesn't play with RealPlayer... (or it that my fault?)
Date:09.04.2004 Name:afecelis Rate:2
couldn't get it to work.
these plugins should be fool-proof... for fools like me!
Date:09.25.2004 Name:maniac Rate:5
few suggestions: transparent background in playlist deleting tracks from pls drag&drop on pls support for windows media player (very important)
Date:10.15.2004 Name: Rate:9
First, here's the unofficial way to get this set up on your desktop.
1) Download the file and extract all the files into your Aston/Plugins folder.
2) Now using A-Master, click on plug-in's on the left. Then click Add and go to your Aston/Plugins folder and load AstAmp.plg
3) Now go to your Aston/Plugins folder and click on Ast Amp_Skin, then right click on Insignia_AstAmp.apc and select "setup"
4) The media player will automatically change the skin.
5) Now go to
http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=winamp
and download WinAmp 2.x and install it.
6) Violla your skin now works.
I have a couple complaints. First, no winamp, I hate it. I want a built in player, not something thats essentailly external.
I don't have the CPU problem. My CPU % doesn't go over 10% at all when using it and talking on aim at the same time and browsing the net. 2.8c here
Date:10.15.2004 Name:Roknrol Rate:6
Tried Winamp 1-5...still can't get it to work properly. It works fine if I double-click on an MP3, but I still can't load music with the player, and after the song stops I can't even get it to start playing again - like the buttons don't work. I've tried tweaking and playing with the settings, still can't get it to function properly. Has ANYONE gotten this to work? If you have, how the hell did you do it?!?!?
Other than that, not bad...would have gotten better marks for being functional :/
Date:10.21.2004 Name:KhaoZ Rate:5
It's decent, but I think it would be nicer if it supported iTunes. I don't think anyone uses winamp anymore? Not since all the issues with winamp3. Thanks.
Date:10.22.2004 Name:Jbardi Rate:
No one uses winamp anymore? Whatever dude... I don't know what statistics your looking at, but if you are attempting to tell us that most people are using iTunes, your nutz! iTunes is a piece of crap anyway, and since when did it suddenly become the front runner in media players! I can't stand RealMedia, but more people are using that than iTunes, unless you run Mac only.
Date:10.26.2004 Name:maccy Rate:
ok guys..i got it all skinned and the play forward pause etc all work.. BUT.. i cant get anything to appear in the playlist.. or that top bar.. help?
Date:10.31.2004 Name:$age009 Rate:10
Perfect plug-in. no CPU eating on my system, supports Winamp 5 no problem.
Date:11.08.2004 Name:Alpha1 Rate:10
Good
Date:11.20.2004 Name:Darkhorse Rate:1
Just deleted the piece of shit from my hard drive.Needs a hell of a lot of work before I would ever even look at the crap
Date:12.01.2004 Name: Rate:6
runs well in winamp 5. it should have close winamp button. there is no add/remove button in playlist box. when is the update coming?
Date:12.05.2004 Name:Andy Rate:10
Zach Thax Alot man, i got it worken now :)
Date:12.30.2004 Name:Phiber Rate:10
It's really cool! :)) Respect!
Date:01.23.2005 Name:psy Rate:
NICE :D THNX
Date:02.17.2005 Name:CaptJake Rate:5
Still a few notches from finished. Eats processor power like mad (as previously said) which caused my music to skip a few times. Running a 2ghz OC AMD, and its eating 30-90% processor (constantly in motion).
I agree a pure player would be nice, looking into adapting grdamp from Lite-step, that might be small enough to use.
Date:02.17.2005 Name:CaptJake Rate:7
Found a way to reduce CPU usage, though its not too terrible useful. Enter skin-edit mode, and the CPU's drop to 2% and stay there. Granted, a nasty pink outline is on the skin and you cant hide the playlist, but you reclaim your processor power.
This leads me to believe that the CPU crunch is coming from the transparent portion that lies around the player. In edit mode, it turns to pink, and the CPU stops crunching.
Date:03.01.2005 Name:rat1x Rate:10
i made my own skin for the theme "techno dream" and it look great :D
cpu usage never passes 2%
but .. will be EVER an update for this plugin ? latest release is frinkin old and im tired of that tiny playlist, i use 1280x1024 and its hard to see the song names, and because of its tiny size and the lot of songs i have is hard to scroll :\
Date:03.14.2005 Name:Jeremy Rate:
well i got it working with winamp 2.x
but when i add to playlist or play flie it just opens winamp
thats all
its like a shortcut key thats all
Date:03.25.2005 Name:David Rate:
Aww! This plugin ROCKS!
Date:03.28.2005 Name:Martin Rate:10
Been using Aston for about 6-8 months and this plugin has become an absolute must.
Never had a problem with installation, it found winamp without me even specifying a path.
CPU usage is Nil.
Created a beautiful skin based loosly on Dominant-Negative with a few moderations - used in conjunction with the vertical-panel as a playlist manager this is an awesome plugin.
Date:03.28.2005 Name: Rate:8
wassup. very nice plugin, but i have a request. i use QCD instead of winamp, and i was wondering if the author could do one of the following: 1.) include complete functionality with QCD. currently you can pause, play, stop, next track, and go to previous track, but you cannot doubleclick the playlist to start playing that song. i was wondering if you could fix that in the next version...or 2.) allow me to see the files u used to make this plugin so i could make the changes myself. *im not trying to steal your Intellectual property, i just wanna make a change*
great plugin tho!
Date:04.03.2005 Name: Rate:10
hw do i set it up
Date:04.25.2005 Name:Kambusha Rate:8
Hey i think the plugin is great but I was wondering if the playlist could function like how winamp works.. if u press J u can search for a song and play it. If not that then at least make it so u can browse the playlist.. i cant seem to do it.
Date:08.20.2005 Name: Rate:10
Nice plug in! To bad it doesn't work with media player... Does anyone know a solution? And eum... I have the Techno Dream skin for aston. It would be nice if I had a skin for astamp that looks like the techno dream skin. Kan anyone send me this? I would appreciate it! grtz
Date:08.26.2005 Name:boomboom Rate:
can´t open files.... only make if put in wiamp first....
Date:11.16.2005 Name: Rate:
i have the bladeAmp skin for astamp for the domininant negative theme, and i got the playlist to work with the revision of the theme, but i dont know how to SCROLL DOWN THE PLAYLIST!! can someone help?
Date:11.21.2005 Name: Rate:9
This plugin works through winamp and not independently. You must first open winamp. It only controls winamp and displays it in aquazzz style. That's all.
Date:07.04.2006 Name:Bricksn Rate:8
It's nice but the only reason I gave it an 8 is because I can't change the size of the playlist window. Please work on that. Otherwise it's a great plugin.
Date:07.08.2006 Name: Rate:10
Very nice plugin. After about five minutes of reading on it, I got it working with MediaMonkey (which uses a Winamp style player). Thumbs up guys. :)
Date:08.08.2006 Name:Kaliovic Rate:9
Great plug-in! However, I have some problems with it...:-( If I pick "Open File(s)" nothing will appear, just my computer freezes for a while...:-( I have done everything right I think - coppied the whole content of .rar archive to Plug-ins, set "add" in Aston Master and installed Winamp... Please help!:-(
Date:09.12.2006 Name:McROi Rate:4
when i installed it i got this -> Skin not found and two gray rectangles... wtf ??? I just extract the archive into the Plugins directory
Date:10.15.2006 Name:CrucialxChanges Rate:
I cant seem to open any files in the playlist, it doesnt play anything at all.. someone help!
Date:12.18.2006 Name:Viruson Rate:
This plugin does not working with Windows Media Player 11...
Date:02.13.2007 Name: Rate:10
Very good. One of the greatest plugs to come for Aston.
Viruson: Try using WinAmp, that's what it's made for.
Date:12.21.2007 Name:gavnone Rate:
It may be that I'm completely alone in this opinion, yet I have previously tried WinAmp and found the program sorely lacking in functionality. As a result of this, I will not be using WinAmp again and, in my opinion, I will not be missing much. If someone knows of a compelling reason to advocate WinAmp above all other choices then, by all means, enlighten me. My email address is gavnone2007@gmail.com