Gapless Winamp output without the use of a plugin.


Recommended Posts

I am a very big Pink Floyd fan. I pretty much listen to them everyday of the week.

They are also the only band that has more than 1 album that I love every song on.

The only problem is that most audio players have a small gap between songs, and when you're listening to Pink Floyd it can ger really annoying.

I tried many plugins but all of them didn't work too well and they didn't allow me to use my other DSP plugins.

I then started messing around with Winamp and found the trick to doing this without a plugin.

I only did this in Winamp 5 but it should work on just plain old 2.

Lets get on with the guide now.

1)Open Winamp and right click "Options>Prefrences" or just press ctrl+p

2)In the treeview on the side look for the group titled Plug-Ins. In that group there should be an Output selection. Click it.

3)You should now see a box in the area next to the treeview. In that box there should be things that say "Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in" and "waveOut output". Look for one that says "Direct Sound output". Click it and then press the configure button at the bottom of the window.

4)A new window should've popped up. Look on the top of it and click the tab "Buffering". This is the final part. all you need to do is Adjust the Buffer-Ahead on Track change to a high number.

There are 3 slider bars that allow you to adjust the Buffer settings.

Buffer Length

This adjusts the length of the buffer. This also limits the Prebuffer and Buffer-ahead.

Example: If I had a Buffer Length of 2400 ms then my Prebuffer and Buffer-Ahead could only go from a range of 0 ms - 2400 ms.

Prebuffer on start/seek/underrun

This tell Winamp how much data to eat before it outputs sound. I don't really understand what that means, so I can't inform you on this.

The suggested amount for this is 500 ms - 1000 ms.

Buffer-Ahead on track change

This is what we want to change. This tells Winamp when to start reading the next song to get a gapless transition. For me, I just set it to 5000 ms (5 seconds) but that is a bit to high for some people. I'd say anywhere from 1000 ms to 5000 ms is a good range. If you have low memory, a slow computer, or and outdated one, then set it lower, but not to low, or else it'll still have gaps.

The way this works is like this.

Example: If I set the Buffer-Ahead to 5000 ms, then Winamp will start reading the next song where the current song had 5 seconds left until it ends. This make it so winamp can trnasition them smoothly.

After that is all done, click the apply button on the window and then close the propterites window. Try it out! open two songs and set it near the end. If it worked then there should be no gap.

Waluha!

You know, I was wondering the same thing as you were and I too decided to fiddle around with those settings, because I have alot of Game soundtracks that loop. When I did it though I didnt think it was the best way to it though. Seems I was wrong.

Good stuff.

Oh, Ill also point out, It should be fairly obvious, but you cannot set the Buffer-Ahead any higher than the max amount winamp is allowed to buffer tracks. :D

which is what Dazza said.

OK folks, let's get this right:

When you get to the buffering tab, Whatever the value for "Buffer length" is is going to be the *MAX* you can make the "Buffer-ahead on track change" setting. So, if you leave "Buffer length" at 2000 you can't set "Buff-ahead ..." to any higher than 2000.

That is what Kenta meant when writing

  "Kenta" said:
Buffer Length

This adjusts the length of the buffer. This also limits the Prebuffer and Buffer-ahead.

Example: If I had a Buffer Length of 2400 ms then my Prebuffer and Buffer-Ahead could only go from a range of 0 ms - 2400 ms.

HTH

Hmmmm - RIO Karma - =costs money = I have to spend money

WinAmp = free = I can listen to it through my 210 Watt Receiver in my AV system which I have my computer routed through and add effects, set EQ, etc.... - And I don't have to pay for it.

Guess which one *I* am going for.

What's funny is that you're still using a plugin.

It's just that they plugin you're using *comes* with Winamp. =)

What you mean to say is that you're not downloading *another* plugin.

Just about *everything* in Winamp is plugin based. Input plugins, output plugins, DSP plugins, visualization plugins...

If you didn't have any plugins, Winamp wouldn't do very much...

Dazza: I daid it, but it wasn't in a very good position to read it from.

Superkicky: I could send you the updated Direct Sound output plugin to see if that works.

If you want it just PM me.

semifamous: Yes your right, but it's the way out language developed.

Think of it this way. If you had hot coffie and let it set on the counter for a few hours and then drank it, you'd say it's cold.

Then you do the same thing, but with an ice cold soda. When you go to drink it, you say it's warm, even though the soda and coffie are about the same tempature.

The same can be said with the included plugins and the 3rd Party plugins. But if we got technical, yes, they are just plugins.

I still notice one "little" gap in live recordings, to fix it, choose "remove silence at the beginning / end of track" in "other" tab.....

Use this trick, plus Kenta Guide, and you will no hear gaps between songs.

Edited by retri
  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...
  • 2 months later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Same, we had Macs. I had no trouble transitioning though.
    • Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The Premium Learn to Code Bundle drops to lowest price by Steven Parker Today's highlighted deal comes via our Online Courses section of the Neowin Deals store, where you can save $1,960 on this Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The 2024 Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle. This deal consists of the following items: Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 Learn to Code with Python 3 CHATGPT Series: OPENAI Fundamentals 2024 MySQL & SQL for Beginners The Complete Python Course: Learn Python by Doing in 2024 Google Assistant Automation IoT Development Computer Vision & Deep Learning with OpenCV and Python: Build 15 Projects JavaScript Complete Guide with Practical JavaScript Projects Web Development with Vuex (2024) Flutter & Dart: Complete Flutter Dart Programming Course Java Programming for Complete Beginners Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification Training ChatGPT for Salesforce Development 2024 Complete Ruby on Rails 6 Bootcamp Game Development and Coding for Kids 14 coding courses and nearly 244 hours of content.Here's deal: This Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The 2024 Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle normally costs $1,999, but you can pick it up for just $55.97 for a limited time, that's a saving of $1,943 (97%) off. For a full description, specs, and instructor info, click the link below. Use MSO8 when checking out for additional $8 off. Coupon Expires June 29. Get this bundle deal for just $41.97, or learn more Although priced in U.S. dollars, this deal is available for digital purchase worldwide. We post these because we earn commission on each sale so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin Whitelist Neowin by not blocking our ads Create a free member account to see fewer ads Make a donation to support our day to day running costs Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: Neowin benefits from revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site powered by StackCommerce.
    • I still use "Everything Search" for all my device searches including OneDrive. It just got another update. Extremely fast because when you open it for the first time after a Windows Boot it caches everything. Takes a few seconds, but from the 2nd open on it finds all searches in real time as you type what you are searching for in the search area.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Eternal Tech earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      Eternal Tech earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      HarryTaylor earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      HarryTaylor earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      habso earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      658
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      246
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      233
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      148
    5. 5
      +FloatingFatMan
      145
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!