What's a WinAMP "skin"?  It's an outer visual style that can be changed by the user at will.  Early during the life of WinAMP -- one of the more popular audio MPEG (MP3) players -- people started taking the released player, reverse-engineering the graphics scheme, and creating alternate graphics for the player.  It worked exactly the same, it just looked different.  The folks at WinAMP liked the idea, and rather than making life difficult for "skinners", they published a template for the skins and some rudimentary instructions on how-to-do the process.

I started out doing it just to learn how -- I guess I bore easily! -- but I've steadily improved on my techniques.  The process isn't exactly well-documented, but if you're a computer programmer and graphic artist like myself, you can figure out the nuances and start making skins.

Here's my collection to date.  Click on the images for larger versions and links to the .ZIP files, which you need to place in the \SKINS directory under your copy of WinAMP.

Note:  These are considered "classic" (Gen 1) skins, and do not support some of the newer features of WinAMP.

TweedAmp was my first attempt at a skin.  It's an attempt to capture the look of mid-50's tube amps by Fender, Danelectro, Carvin, and others.  It received four stars from one WinAMP reviewer, and three stars from another.  This revision is v2.0. It's a lot cleaner, and it's easier to read and access the controls.

  
     

I'm especially happy with the results of the VoxAmp series, particularly the the BlondeVoxAmp version.  Amplifier afficionados will note that Vox produced various color schemes of their classic AC30TB amp over the years, and my collection addresses most, if not all, of the variations.  Interestingly, the v1.0 of VoxAmp received four stars, even though it was pretty cluttered and had a couple of minor graphic bugs.  The cleaned up version only got three stars.  Go figure!

Blackface was my final skin, created by popular request.  It copies the look of mid-60's "Pre-CBS" Fender amps.  Although this revision is v1.0, it benefits from the experience of creating the other two series.  It also received three stars from the WinAmp staff -- who appear to be less enamoured of the old-school designs I like to create.  (Generally, WinAMP users lean towards other genres -- fantasy, actors and models, sports, etc. -- and skins that copy guitar amps don't generate as much enthusiasm.)  Oh well, to each his own ...