A plea for help

[vonrobak]

Hello Ryan and Geiss Github team

I didn't find any other way to write directly to you. In the Winamp era me and my friends were HUGE supporters of Milkdrop and used it extensively, even developing our own scripts and presets.
To our amazement, there still is no comparable software out there. I'm considering trying to develop it on my own. With your expertise and resume, how would you build a similar visualization software that can use audio directly from the OS as input, alternatively using audio from Spotify or Tidal?
It is over 15 years since the peak Winamp era and a lot has happened with graphical technologies. What building blocks are now available to vastly improve the experience of music visualization?
If this is the wrong place to ask, are there some channels where you can provide insight? This is a field where it feels like the building blocks are available and it's up to someone to put together the pieces.

Thanks for all the experiences you've had a hand in creating for me and my friends. Some magical moments has occured watching Milkdrop throughout the ages.

[hartwork]

Hi @vonrobak for a quick and partial reply, let me share a few related links:

• MilkDrop 2 source code — https://sourceforge.net/projects/milkdrop2/files/
• projectM — https://github.com/projectM-visualizer/projectm
• lv-tool and/of Libvisual — https://github.com/Libvisual/libvisual
• Multiple loopback audio drivers (to read audio playback by other applications) exist:
  • ALSA — kernel module snd-aloop
  • PulseAudio has loopback built in, pavucontrol for the win
  • BlackHole for macOS Open Source — https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole
  • VB-Cable for Windows (donationware(?)) — https://vb-audio.com/Cable/

PS: My GitHub profile has my e-mail address, @geissomatik's can be be found at https://www.geisswerks.com/contact.html .

[musback]

Hi @vonrobak
I was in your exact same situation a few days ago, but I discovered someone had recently released "Milkdrop 3" which works with every music player.

Now that I run MusicBee sporting this version of Geiss ànd Milkdrop, man, I feel like I'm back in 2000! I love it!

@hartwork - thanks so much for this updated Geiss DLL by the way! Absolutely awesome!

[stuaxo]

Hi,
@musback it's worth documenting that Milkdrop 3 is an entirely different project, which while it has some nice features has just adopted the Milkdrop name.

(Not saying it isn't a project with nice or compatible visuals, it's just worth noting).

Cheers
S