| AmigaAMP 2.6 |

AmigaAMP 2.6 - MPEG-Player for the Amiga

Description:	MPEG layer 1-3 player (also often called MP3) Freeware
Author:	Thomas Wenzel http://amigaamp.amiga-software.com wenzel@act-net.com
Distribution:	Aminet or homepage
Machine used for testing:	Amiga 4000-060/PPC-233 MHz 80 MB of RAM 0,5 IDE + 1,2 IDE + 4,5 UW-SCSI GB HD 6x NEC SCSI-CDRom CV-PPC VLab-Motion AGA flickerfixer 3Com U.S.Robotics 56k modem
Test tools:	mouse keyboard many MP3s on CD and HD stereo system

What is AmigaAMP in fact?

For all those who don`t know it yet: AmigaAMP is a MP3 player, which can play compressed audio-data (MP3s), and much more! What`s best about AmigaAMP is its fine graphical interface (whose Appearence can be altered using "skins") on the one hand, and the fact, that its development still continues; without the author to want one penny for it on the other hand - voluntary donations are of course welcome :-)

Since our last test a lot has happened...

We`ve had version 2.0 about half a year ago, since then a lot has been improved: (most important new features)

visualising also in the 68k version (spectrum analyzer)

asynchronious requesters

adjustable stacksize for playing

internal crossfade: When two AmigaAMP`s are run at once, the crossfade can be activated by pressing SHIFT during altering the volume.

shuffle play

editable playlist, which can be loaded and saved via menu

display for time remaining

plugin-system for visualising

optimised 68060 version

NewMouse support (Aminet:hard/misc/NewMouse11.lha)

better support for MPEGs with variable bitrate (vbr)

ID3v2 support (read access only at the moment)

new decoder plugin system, configurable via AmigaAMP

graphical equalizer (PowerPC only!)

windows can be backdropped and fixed (immovable)

pitch-shifter: four steps per halftone

tooltype PLAYLIST specifies the playlist loaded on startup

files can be pulled into the playlist-window, to add them to the list

It`s obvious, that the author is really very diligent. He`s also currently working on some other projects e.g. MPEGit - a MP3 player card for the Amiga. His homepage is worth a visit.

Recommended configuration

AmigaOS >3.0

Amiga with 68060 CPU or PPC, a 68040 CPU is also acceptable, if you lower the quality a bit, with a 68030 it`s cruel... as long as you don`t get MPEGit, because MP3´s can even be played with a "naked" 1200 with Fast-Mem, then

a graphic-board

perhaps a sound-board (which is not absolute neccessary due to AHI - good old Paula!)

mpega.library (Aminet:util/libs/mpega_library.lha)

asyncio.library (Aminet:dev/c/AsyncIO.lha)

AHI audio system (Aminet:mus/misc/ahiusr.lha)

Installation

Unpack LHA archive and copy it anywhere, that`s it - if you`ve got AHI installed, that is. AHI is a must and shouldn`t miss on no Amiga nowadays. In previous versios of AmigaAMP the author was so gentle to add ready-to-run prefs for the PAULA-soundchip, unfortunately he seems to have forgotten this file in the newer versions.

A last hint for AHI

Always select the highest quality on 68060/PPC Amigas, on the AHI homepage a so-called AHI-PPC trailer can be found in a 68k version which gives a first taste of the quality of the PPC version. We often hear reports about AHI eating up lots of CPU resources, which I did not notice even with the large-scale trailer version - the CPU usage of my 68060 remained at under 5% while playing MP3´s. Most of the cpu time (ca. 3%) is used for the drawing process of the realtime spectrum analyzer. Main thing is that the sound "roars" out of the speakers :-) A tool from Aminet made to calibrate the Paula-chip promises another improvement in quality. As every Amiga posseses a slightly different tone (due to tolerance of production) one should compensate these differences by calibration - the reward for about one hour of work is an audible improvement in sound-output.

Music!

Just pull a MP3 onto the player and it starts. The quality is really amazing and there shouldn`t be a lack of of music titles, as it`s now possible to put your whole cd-archive on HD per MP3. Several servers offer free excerpts or whole songs for downloading e.g. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/music/download/download.html/ref=b_ bh_ln_mu_2/002-6322725-7177646

http://www.mp3.com is also worth a visit. Note, that these two sites above offer MP3s legaly unlike many others with illegal contents.

What comfort does AmigaAMP offer?

It`s possible to create so-called playlists, save and load these, and a randomizer offers some change - about 170 songs, or about 11 hours of music can be burned onto a CD (rule of thumb: at 44.1 kHz and 128 bps 1 min. of music needs about 1 mbyte). The new equalizer offers the pleasant possibility to alter the tone, when playing via Paula it is recommended to higher the treble, as the Amiga-chip tends to cut the trebles due to its 14-bit-character. Thanks to AHI it`s of course possible to use every AHI-supporting sound-board with the Amiga.

One can also use skins from the PC WinAMP-version, as long as the needed datatypes are installed. Converting it to IFF shouldn`t be a problem anyway.

To be able to use the 24-bit IFFs, you always need the 24-bit datatypes delivered with the CyberGFX4-package! In the Internet one can find thousands of skins for everybody`s taste, too.

Conclusion

A nice piece of software, with an easy-to-understand documentation, a diligent programmer (I had to rework the test report of version 2.5 when the public beta version 2.6 came out.) and an informative homepage. It`s one`s own decision wether to use AmigaAMP or Amplifier, I personally prefer AmigaAMP. With the new equalizer the quality advances to WinAMP/PC-standard.

Robert Niessner
Jan-Henning Leenen

AmigaAMP - archive (LHA; 523K)