WINAMP SETUP GUIDE

[Steve]

Winamp has been my favourite music player for years. I like the way it looks and it's easy to use, yet still pretty powerful if you dig deep into some of the settings. A lot of people talk about using old versions because they are "the best", but quite frankly that just isn't true. This guide tells you how I personally set up Winamp and the plug-ins that I use. I use Winamp Pro, but the free version is just the same except it has limited CD burning capabilities. I don't use the CD burning features at all, so that doesn't matter to me anyway.

 

 

1. Installation

 

You can customise the installation and install just the components you need. I would definitely recommend NOT installing the modern skin support. The skins look nice, but they just eat resources. You can still use classic skins. Here are the options I select: -

 

 

Notice that I don't use the Winamp Library. I keep my mp3 collection well organised in folders instead. The library has some powerful features though, so perhaps take a look at it if you've never used Winamp before.

 

 

2. General Preferences

 

Press Control & P to open the preferences screen. Here are some options I recommend changing: -

 

General Preferences - Uncheck the boxes to check for new versions of Winamp and to report anonymous usage statistics.

 

Titles - Uncheck the box to use advanced title formatting if you decide not to use tags (see section 3 below).

 

Global Hotkeys - Enable them! This is great if you have a cordless keyboard. I often lie on my bed listening to music and I have full control of Winamp using the hotkeys.

 

Classic Skins - Uncheck the box to use skinned mouse cursors if you have customised the cursors within Windows itself.

 

 

3. Tags

 

I don't use tags at all. Most of the time when you download mp3s, the tags that have been attached are total garbage and need to be edited or removed. I prefer Winamp to display the file name itself. To do this follow these instructions: -

 

Open Preferences by pressing Control & P

In the Plug-ins section on the left, click on Input

Double click [in_mp3.dll] on the right hand side and another new window opens

Set the options exactly like the screenshot below then hit OK: -

 

 

 

4. Plug-ins

 

There are 3 plug-ins that I think are invaluable: -

 

MP3-Splice - This allows you to play back any files with no gaps at all. They don't have to be LAME encoded mp3s. To enable it, bring up the preferences and in the Plug-ins section, click on Output and select MP3-Splice as your output plug-in. There's nothing to configure at all. You may need to restart Winamp or re-open any files you were playing for the change to take effect.

 

MPC Plug-in - This lets you play Musepack (mpc) files which are far better quality than mp3. You'll occasionally see mpc files amongst the downloads on this board.

 

MP3CUE - This plug-in is so good, I wrote a whole thread on it. Check it out HERE.

 

To save you time, you can download all 3 plug-ins here: -

 

Winamp_Plugins.rar

 

 

5. General Operation

 

Winamp is dead easy to use. Either double click files to play them, or right click entire folders and play or queue them up. Each section of Winamp can be independently minimised. To do this, just click on the title bar for any particular section.

 

That will turn this: -

 

 

Into this: -

 

 

I keep all the sections minimised to keep the player super-compact. I can maximise them if I need to access any of the controls, but nearly everything can be done in the minimal view anyway (or via hotkeys).

 

Another option I always have switched on is "Always on top" mode. If you look at the expanded image above, you'll see that to the left of the track time are the letters O, A, I, D and V. These stand for Options, Always on top, ID3 tags, Double screen mode and Visualisations respectively. Select Always on top and then you can drag Winamp to a corner of the screen where it's inconspicuous, but all of the features are still easily accessible.

 

 

6. Managing Playlists

 

I use the simple Playlist Editor cos it does the job. If you want something more complex, then check the option to install the Winamp Library on installation. Here's a screeshot of the Playlist Editor in expanded view: -

 

 

To resize it, point the mouse at the bottom right hand corner and drag it to the height and width you prefer.

 

Adding items to the playlist is simple. Either drag files and folders into the window, or right click them and choose "Enqueue in Winamp". Once you have added some songs, you can re-order them by left clicking them and dragging them around. To remove a song, either right click it and choose delete, or left click it and hit the delete key on your keyboard. There are also four buttons on the bottom left of the editor: -

 

Add - Here you can add files hosted on the web or whole directories and sub-directories of files stored on your hard drive.

 

Rem - Using this button you can remove duplicate items, files that are missing, or you can crop the playlist to remove large amounts of unwanted tracks in one go.

 

Sel - This button allows you to invert your highlighted selection or return to the 0 point in the playlist.

 

Misc - The Misc button allows you to sort the list by title, by filename or by full path and filename. You can also reverse the order and randomise it. There's also an option to view information on the selected files.

 

As you can see, there are some decent features for creating and managing lists. I usually use the simple method of dragging and dropping or right clicking.

 

Once you're happy with your playlist, hit the List Opts button on the bottom right and choose Save List. Pick a name and location and you'll end up with an M3U or PLS playlist depending on the option you chose. Double-clicking that will start Winamp and load up your selected tracks.

[Steve]

Added a section on setting up and managing playlists.

[Steve]

Now we can all be like Steve

DISCLAIMER - This guide will not make you fat and middle aged.