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 If you have low memory, a slow computer, or and outdated one, then set it lower, but not to low, or else it'll still have gaps.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

    • I am linking it for anyone that runs Windows 11 that isn't specifically you that is following our conversation, since it is likely that others have the problem. As you can see, it isn't the slightest bit pointless at all.
    • Firefox 139.0.4 by Razvan Serea Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. It offers great security, privacy, and protection against viruses, spyware, malware, and it can also easily block pop-up windows. The key features that have made Firefox so popular are the simple and effective UI, browser speed and strong security capabilities. Firefox has complete features for browsing the Internet. It is very reliable and flexible due to its implemented security features, along with customization options. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online. Download: Firefox 64-bit | Firefox 32-bit | ARM64 | ~60.0 MB (Freeware) Download: Firefox 139.0.4 for Linux | 64-bit | ~90.0 MB Download: Firefox for MacOS | 127.0 MB View: Firefox Home Page | Release Notes Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Joplin 3.3.13 by Razvan Serea Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. Notes exported from Evernote can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported. The notes can be securely synchronised using end-to-end encryption with various cloud services including Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive and Joplin Cloud. Full text search is available on all platforms to quickly find the information you need. The app can be customised using plugins and themes, and you can also easily create your own. The application is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. A Web Clipper, to save web pages and screenshots from your browser, is also available for Firefox and Chrome. Features Web Clipper for Firefox and Chrome. End To End Encryption (E2EE). Note history (revisions). Synchronisation with various services, including Nextcloud, Dropbox, WebDAV and OneDrive. Offline first, so the entire data is always available on the device even without an internet connection. Import Enex files (Evernote export format) and Markdown files. Export JEX files (Joplin Export format) and raw files. Support notes, to-dos, tags and notebooks. Sort notes by multiple criteria - title, updated time, etc. Support for alarms (notifications) in mobile and desktop applications. Markdown notes, which are rendered with images and formatting in the desktop and mobile applications. Support for extra features such as math notation and checkboxes. Choice of both Markdown and Rich Text (WYSIWYG) editors. File attachment support - images are displayed, other files are linked and can be opened in the relevant application. Inline display of PDF, video and audio files. Goto Anything feature. Search functionality. Geo-location support. Supports multiple languages. External editor support - open notes in your favorite external editor with one click in Joplin. Extensible functionality through plugin and data APIs. Custom CSS support for customisation of both the rendered markdown and overall user interface. Customisable layout allows toggling, movement and sizing of various elements. Keyboard shortcuts are editable and allow binding of most Joplin commands with export/import functionality. Joplin 3.3.13 changelog: Fixed: Fix printing (#12244) (#12240 by @personalizedrefrigerator) Download: Joplin 3.3.13 | Joplin Portable | ~300 MB (Open Source) Download: MacOS | Android | Linux | iOS View: Joplin Home Page | GitHub project page Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Apple: lets take our inspiration from Windows 7/Vista and call it innovative
    • Nice! My $100 refurbished iPad 8 that I bought last year for a small project (and still runs like new cuz it's been mostly in storage the past several months) will get this v26 upgrade. I'm definitely gonna scope out OS26 on this device before upgrading my also-supported refurbished iPhone SE 3rd Gen (only got it for the 5G UW support).
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Rookie
      CHUNWEI went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Enthusiast
      the420kid went up a rank
      Enthusiast
    • Conversation Starter
      NeoToad777 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Week One Done
      VicByrd earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      506
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      267
    3. 3
      +FloatingFatMan
      257
    4. 4
      Edouard
      203
    5. 5
      snowy owl
      178
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!