Welcome to another Winamp plugin-in spotlight. In this post, we are featuring iZotope Vinyl, a 3rd-party Winamp plug-in that lets you make your mp3s sound like vinyl.

If the rise of CD's didn't kill vinyl, the birth of the mp3 generation definitely drove a stake through its heart. With music now available at the click of a button, so many music fans whose earliest exposure to the Beatles came in an intricately packaged record case are now yearning for those days when cover art actually mattered--and, more importantly, when music had that intangible grainy quality to it. While it's certainly great, in some respect, to be able to listen to digitally remastered, crystal clear renditions of classic songs, there's also something to be said for that nostalgic bit of imperfect sound quality that was so specific to records.

But before you go getting all misty on us, though, you should know that you can get that same vinyl sound out of all your mp3s on Winamp. It'll take a little plug-in sleight of hand, but within minutes, you can rewind the clock, and pretend like you're listening to your favorite tunes like they sounded (or would've sounded) during your teenage years.

Step 1:

The first thing you'll have to do is download the iZotope plug-in, which you can find here. All you have to do is click on the "Download" button.

Winamp Plugin Gallery


Welcome to another addition of Llama Answers. Thanks again to everyone for all of your feedback. As promised, every-so-often we take your questions & post the answers on our blog. As always you can reference the help documentation and Winamp forums for further information or assistance.


No Sound
I have lost the sound on Winamp. The volume is on. I have visualization and can tell that the song is playing as it is indicated on the monitor. I have reinstalled the Free version and it still does not work?

It's difficult to tell why users are no longer hearing any volume with their audio files, but below are a few troubleshooting ideas that may be able to help you out.

The most obvious thing to check would be that the volume slider in the main Winamp window is up high enough. Sometimes you can accidentally/unknowingly zero it with the mouse scroll wheel.

You should also verify that the Main & Wave levels are up high enough in Windows Volume Control Panel. And obviously check to see that your speakers are on and up high enough to be heard.

The next thing to check would be that the Direct Sound Output is the selected Output Plugin in Prefs -> Plugins -> Output. Sometimes, users switch to DiskWriter Output and forget to switch back after they are done.

It's also advisable to make sure your soundcard is selected in the Device drop-down menu in DirectSound Output config (as opposed to the default "Primary Sound Driver" option), and recommended to checkmark "Enable hardware acceleration" (which is checkmarked by default, on clean installs).

One other possible thing to check (although unlikely cause, but you never know)...

Check or Uncheck "Allow 24-bit playback" in Winamp -> Prefs -> Playback
(e.g. may cause problems with old 16-bit soundcards if checkmarked. If you don't have an old 16-bit soundcard, then you don't even need to try this suggestion)


Rip MP3s in Winamp Pro
Do I have to go PRO to rip in the MP3 format?

Yes, you can only rip to mp3 with the Pro version. Winamp 5 comes with a Transcoding Tool for converting between MP3, WMA, M4A/AAC, OGG, FLAC and WAV formats (MP3 Encoding is available in Winamp Pro only). To use the Transcoder, right click the file(s) in the Media Library or Playlist window and select "Send To > Format Converter".

Select the MP3 Encoder from the drop down menu and adjust any other settings, if needed (e.g. destination folder, quality/bitrate, etc.) Then click OK.


Burning Audio CDs
Can I burn CDs Using Winamp? Also, will the track information such as Title and Artist also be transferred to the CD so it is viewed on the CD player?

Yes, but you can only burn Audio CD's with Winamp. The burning of MP3, Data CDs, and CD-Text writing is not yet supported.

Issues Converting to MP3s
I had a successful download of Winamp Pro, but cannot convert to mp3 (can not find decoder). Do I need to download one?

It depends on what file format you are trying to convert to mp3? Winamp can natively convert m4a, mod, ogg, flac, wav, & wma to mp3.

If it's any other format (ape, spc, mpc, etc.), then it depends on whether the 3rd-party input supports the Winamp 5.x transcoder api or not. Many 3rd-party plugins do not.

If the source format is one of the natively supported formats, then there are a couple of exceptions... Winamp cannot convert any drm-protected formats to any other format (e.g. licensed drm-protected wma files of the type purchased from Napster or Walmart, or drm-protected m4p files of the type purchased from the iTunes Music Store).

You might also experience a problem converting very low quality WAV files (e.g. 11KHz, 8-bit, mono) into mp3 if the selected mp3 bitrate is too high (in which case, try selecting a lower bitrate in the Format Converter settings).

If you are still having issues, you should verify that the source files actually play properly in Winamp.


Change default location where Winamp stores files
How do I reset or change the default location/folder where Winamp stores my media?

Winamp -> Playlist Editor -> Add button (+) -> Add Files

Browse to the desired folder
Select some files
Click OK

This setting should now be the same for the Media Library -> "Add media to library" dialog.

If not, close Winamp & go to your Winamp settings folder
Go to: Start -> Run
Type/Paste the following and hit Enter:
%appdata%\winamp

Open winamp.ini in Notepad

Scroll down to the cwd= line and edit the value accordingly (path to your desired folder)
--------------------------------------------------


If you are experiencing other general issues, check out our previous editions: Llama Answers 1, Llama Answers 2, and Llama Answers 3. Or check out the Winamp Support blog post for a list of general support related links.


If you want a cool, integrated way to show all of your buddies what you've been listening to in Winamp, check out the new Winamp Orgler Module. The Winamp Orgler itself has been around for awhile, and if you don't already use it, it's the plug-in that powers Winamp Charts. It lets you track, chart and share your listening history.

The new Orgler Module reads your Winamp play history and spits out a customizable embeddable widget, so you can post it in your blog, website, e-mail/forum signature, or pretty much anywhere else you want to put it. You can even snag an RSS feed.





Step 1
Download the latest version (Winamp 5.57 or higher).


Step 2
You'll need to know what the Orgler is. If you don't, first read this blog post. You'll also need to sign-in to your Winamp player using your Winamp.com username & password:
Options >> Preferences >> Sign In - Orgler >> Login

Don't have a Winamp.com username & password? Register here.


Step 3
Listen to some songs.

And the final step is...



Winamp... the Ultimate Media Player... just got better.
We thought we'd NOT be an Ebenezer and give Winamp users a holiday present... the new Winamp 5.57!


New Winamp 5.57



What's New? Video!
Winamp PRO 5.57 includes native video support including H.264 encoded video for the most popular file formats (MP4, MKV, & AVI). There are also updates to the Media Library that improve video metadata and organization. Now you can use Winamp PRO to manage both your music & video collections, while still enjoying all of the customizations you made to your player with skins, plug-ins, & visualizations.

There are also a lot of improvements to the standard free Winamp Media Player...

Windows 7:
Now fully Windows 7 compliant including new Win7 preview capabilities with the new Aero Interface.

New Online Services:
Which means new ways to use Winamp! We have worked with a few partners to launch some Winamp customized Online Services (web apps). These new services offer one click access to tour listings, tickets, music downloads and lyrics. Thanks to our partners Tour Tracker, Metrolyrics and 7digital, as you are listening to individual tracks, Winamp will automatically display concert tickets, lyrics and download information. Last but not least there is a new version of MP3 of the Day from Spinner, customized for Winamp.

Winamp Add-ons gallery:
Search, browse and install Winamp skins, plug-ins, visualizations, and online services from within Winamp to personalize the player to suit your needs.

Bring your own ID:

Track your music usage by signing in with any of the following accounts: Winamp, AOL, Google, Yahoo, Facebook or OpenID.

Charts/Orgler improvements:
Winamp's Orlger tracks your music usage and powers Winamp Charts. Charts, now features improved track matching, My History in real-time, All Time Top Charts and updated date ranges for filtering. We've also built a new slick Orgler Module, which lets you broadcast your listening history on your website, blog, or e-mail signature.

Podcast Directory redesign:
The redesigned Podcast Directory interface now includes quick subscriptions to popular podcasts, more ways to customize your subscriptions, and the ability to remember your last playback position.

More Features:
For a full list of all Winamp 5.57 features and improvements, be sure to check out the Release Notes.

Welcome back to Winamp. If you haven't tried us recently, you should. The Winamp team and development community have added a lot of great features and extensions, including a redesigned Winamp.com site, Charts, Now Playing, Orgler, Auto-Tag, great new skins, plug-ins, visualizations and much more.


We are excited to be just around the corner of the launch of the next version of the Winamp Media Player, version 5.57. Currently we are scheduled to release on Wednesday, Dec. 16, late in the evening on Wednesday so really Thursday.

How do you see the new media player? Well, we have just released a Preview Beta in the forums . It is still being tweaked and there are some known issues that we are actively addressing, but we would like you to try it and give us some feedback. Please leave comments directly in the forums, you can also review the detailed list of features, bug fixes and enhancements there.

Here are some highlights...

Winamp PRO 5.57 will ship with native video support for the most popular H.264 formats, MP4, MKV and AVI. So if you have been using Winamp for your audio library and something else for video, you can now do it all with one application, Winamp.

We have also been spending a lot of time working on our Online Services offerings.
You're probably already familiar with some our flagship services like SHOUTcast Radio and Winamp Charts. Our developers and partners have created some great new services that extend the usefulness of the Winamp Media Player:
  • * First, the new Tour Tracker online service, allows you to see current tour dates & purchase tickets for artists in real time, as their tracks are playing through your Winamp.
  • * Next for all of you wannabe rock stars, lip syncers and karaoke fans, our partner Metro Lyrics has built a service, so as you're beltin' out your favorite tune, you'll never miss a single lyric.
  • * Last but not least, be sure to check out the new 7digital Store, were you can browse and download new music from right inside your Winamp player. At launch the 7digital service will be limited to the U.S. and U.K but we plan to roll this out for more countries in Europe quickly.

The new Winamp 5.57 is fully Windows 7 compatible and takes advantage of some of the new preview features in the new WinOS.

The last big feature in the media player that we want to highlight in this post is the new "Add-ons" Gallery. We have made this a top-level node in the Media Library navigation and you can search and add any skin, plug-in, visualizations and online service directly from the media player. No need to go out to winamp.com anymore.

There are a lot of developer improvements coming on Dec. 16 as well. We have redesigned the Developer Profiles on winamp.com, improved the submission flow for Add-ons and we will be releasing an updated SDK.

Lastly, we participated in a local tech meet-up in Washington D.C. last week called TECH Cocktail, were we demo'd the new Winamp 5.57 client. You can check out some pix over at the TECH Cocktail site.

Apologies for the long-winded post, but there are so many features in Winamp 5.57 and there is so much more to talk about. Therefore, we are planning a series of posts after the launch to deep dive into all of the new features for the media player and winamp.com too. Stay tuned...


Next >

One part genius. Three parts llama. And a sprinkling of corporate AOL. That's what Winamp is all about.