Winamp plugins and additional useful stuff

[brotherS]

Since we discussed Winamp plugins in various threads I think I should start a topic that focusses on this.

I'm using these plugins for Winamp 5.x:

Toaster, a great track change notifier plugin - I don't like to have Winamp waste desktop space, it's minimized to the tray almost all the time: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138586

DFX - a great quality sound enhancement (DSP) plugin (not just an equalizer!): http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1030468205/1

PaceMaker - a nice tempo/pitch DSP plugin that allows me to listen to recorded radio shows at 177% of the original speed: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=12689&show=reviews

Winamp Advanced Controls: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2295.0

Mute Hotkey - assign one "global hotkey" to mute/unmute: http://www.nunzioweb.com/daz/

MuchFX - originally I wanted something to switch between the two DSP plugins mentioned above, but this plugin even allows me to run them both at the same time! Just one not-so-cool side-effect: PaceMaker's keyboard shortcuts are disabled when using MuchFX - some info: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3078.0

And of course I *have to* mention Skrommel's IdleMute - it's not a plugin, but a real help if you are (for example) using your PC to play music late in the evenings: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1580.0 / http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/

[nudone]

Toaster, yes. but i probably need to look more into the configurations to get more from it.

Winamp Advanced Controls, yes. got to be the best tray controls for winamp (or any media player). smallest footprint but all the major buttons and a slider that you need, without having to click through a menu.

pacemaker, i've got saved but don't really have a use for it at the moment.

mute tools, don't really need them either at the moment.

DFX, i tried this many moons ago but i've settled for Ozone by iZotope http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/media/ozone.html - too many options as far as i'm concerned but the one that i use 'warm and airy' makes pretty much everything sound a thousand times better (i've got a creative labs card with the crystalizer thing on it but it's a joke compared with what Ozone does to the sound).

so what can i suggest...

Amorak. well, i did mention it on the site about a week or two ago and absolutely no one showed any interest in it at all http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2935.0 it lets you 'bookmark' individual parts within a track.

Dynamic Library http://nunzioweb.com/joonas/dl/ can be useful for browsing your music collection.

other plugins i've removed for the moment.

anyone into the 'visualization' plugins may like this: milkdrop 1.04 (i think it comes with winamp) but remove everything out of the mildrop plugin folder except for 'fiShbRaiN - white scream firefly.milk' then play your favourite 'electronic' music. i say this as 'white scream firefly' is, without doubt, the best graphic equaliser i've seen. it's more like watching the greatest stage light show ever produced (if you have it full screen) or, dare i say it, like staring into the face of some kind of electronic god. shush, i'm sure my computer is trying to communicate something to me right now via the language of light...

(other fiShbRaiN plugins are worth a look - witchcraft looks pretty good to me too.)

[nudone]

here are a few very, very, small screengrabs of 'white scream firefly'.

[superboyac]

brothers, i think I tried pacemaker once and I thought the other plugin, chronotron, did it more easily and better.  I love toaster.

[brotherS]

@superboyac: I like PaceMaker, it has nice options to avoid the 'chipmunk effect' when speeding up mp3 files. I tried that other plugin you mentioned (and others) too, but PaceMaker worked best.

Amorak. well, i did mention it on the site about a week or two ago and absolutely no one showed any interest in it at all http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2935.0 it lets you 'bookmark' individual parts within a track.

anyone into the 'visualization' plugins may like this: milkdrop 1.04

I must have missed your post about Amorak... how does it work? I suppose not by manipulating the mp3 files itself, right? Could you add one or two screenshots to this thread? Winamp's Amorak plugin page doesn't have much details either...

If you like visualisation for the music you play you HAVE TO try BeatHarness! I didn't mention it above because I use it only rarely, but it's pretty cool. You can add cam input (!) and even video files!!

http://www.beatharness.com/

[nudone]

Amorak doesn't change your files, instead it creates a bookmark that is initiated when the matching file name appears in winamp again.

in the screengrab the bottom right panel is 'Amorak'. you can see i've named two 'bookmarks' for the 'Mojove Plan' track. clicking on one of the bookmarks will jump to that time within the track. unfortunately, Amorak doesn't auto jump when it detects a track with bookmarks in it so it's not the 'complete' solution. i would have preferred a method that automatically knows when to jump 'into' a track and when to jump 'out' of a track. like editing on the fly i guess.

i've just downloaded 'beatharness' so i'm going to try it now...

[nudone]

oh, forgot to say, you can have Amorak display lyrics for you. i haven't tried that so can't comment on how well it works.

just had a quick go with BeatHarness. very nice but not my cup of tea. i don't really like the 'random' splodgy type visualizers - i go for the symmetrical type of thing, just makes me think i'm seeing a representation of both right and left audio channels (though, that's probably not entirely what is happening).

'white scream firefly' looks like a more up to date version of the old traditional style 'bar graph' graphic equalisers, not one of the swirly throbbing blobby things that tend to dominate the visualizer scene.

[brotherS]

I updated my first post above to now include MuchFX!

Amorak doesn't change your files, instead it creates a bookmark that is initiated when the matching file name appears in winamp again.

in the screengrab the bottom right panel is 'Amorak'. you can see i've named two 'bookmarks' for the 'Mojove Plan' track.

I'm trying Amorak too now. It's a shame it looks as outdated as MuchFX. Besides the looks, Amorak really needs an update: I can't use the very useful autosave option since that throws up error messages when listening to streams... also Amorak doesn't support Winamp 5's very useful global hotkeys.

[brotherS]

I updated the MuchFX part in first post above.

[vegas]

The one plug-in that is an absolute must with any winamp install.  WinCue (www.wincue.org). ; It indexes all the music on your hard drive and makes a very fast as-you-type search results box.  It also has a party mode which it will randomly play songs from the results list, and there are many options you can set.  Once you try it you cannot live without it The website is a little broken but version 1.40 is the last, and works flawlessly.  Cheers.

[brotherS]

An update: meanwhile I use Pacemaker (see first post) to listen to some radioshows that I recorded at 215% the original speed.

Love it! 

[Nighted]

Album List is cool if you want to see all your albums by cover. It's like picking through your cd collection!

[CWuestefeld]

I don't use WinAmp, preferring MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com), but plugins are (mostly) compatible. I wouldn't switch to anything that doesn't support WA DSP plugins because of one thing: Alessandro Tomassini's Sound Solution. I used to use DFX, but SoundSolution produces so much richer and (seemingly) more alive that there's just no comparison. It's extremely complex and I only understand a bit of it, but right out of the box with minor tweaks, I'm stunned.

http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=120741
http://www.soundsolution.it/index.php?option=com_remository&func=fileinfo&filecatid=103 (latest version)