Even if some people still prepare to simply backup their Winamp settings folder, the tool is the better choice. Because the Winamp settings folder only holds settings for the native components (exluding Winamp Pro Registration Data, Skins, Vis Presets and especially 3rd party configuration files). For Winamp fans, let me tell you, it does not look anything like Winamp and does not offer a mini-mode, but you would get everything that Winamp offered in a slick, fluent design language. The songs, artists, albums, labels– all are neatly laid down on the home page itself giving a distinct and clean look.
Introduction
Winamp Website
This is a MAD input plug-in forWinamp 2. It replaces the MPEG audiodecoder functionality that comes with Winamp to provide superior sound for MP3and other MPEG audio files. It supports output resolutions from 8 to 32bits.
Please note: There is not yet available a plug-in forWinamp 3.
Hear the Difference
The following sound samples demonstrate the audible difference between MADand most other decoders. These samples were created at an 8-bit resolution sothat the difference is readily apparent; naturally the quality improves withmore resolution, but the difference remains.
- Sample decoded by Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder 2.666:sample-nullsoft.wav (711K)
- Sample decoded by MAD plug-in 0.7.0a:sample-mad.wav (711K)
You may want to turn up your volume to really hear the difference.
How it Works
High-quality output begins with a highly accurate decoder. MAD fullysatisfies the ISO/IEC 11172-4 computational accuracy requirements forcompliance. However, accuracy alone is notenough.
Internally, MAD represents the decoded audio signal with high precision.Combined with a form of dither, this allows output samples to be calculatedwith less objectionable quantization noise and more audible dynamic range thanmost decoders produce today. The result is unusually high-quality output thatis a more faithful reconstruction of the signal encoded in MPEG audio than youmay have realized possible.
Compatibility
You can use this plug-in with any sound card using either 16- or 8-bitoutput resolutions. Output is dithered so that you will perceive an increaseddynamic range even at these low resolutions.
If your sound card supports higher resolution output, you can choose tohave MAD produce output directly in 24- or 32-bit formats.
High-resolution output also depends on support from your Winamp outputplug-in. At this time, 24-bit output is reported to work with Nullsoft'swaveOut plug-in if the 'Max blocksize' and 'Min blocksize' configurationparameters are set to 16kB and 4kB respectively.
24-bit output is not reported to work with the DirectSound plug-in.
It is not yet known if any combination of output plug-ins and sound cardswill support 32-bit output. If you are able to try this, please report theoutcome. Note that the sound quality from 32-bit output is identical to thatof 24-bit output; the samples are simply padded to a 32-bit word length forcompatibility with hardware that requires this.
Status
A beta version of the plug-in is available fordownload. Source for the plug-in is available in theregular source code release of MAD.
Preliminary streaming support is implemented, but you may wish to leave thedefault decoder installed for more complete handling of play from URLs untilfull streaming support is available.
Mailing Lists
To receive announcements of new releases, you may subscribe to themad-announcemailing list.
To discuss MAD in general with other users, you may subscribe to themad-usermailing list. This list also receives announcements frommad-announce so it is not necessary to subscribe to both.Pre-release versions of the plug-in are sometimes made available tosubscribers of this list in order to get feedback on new or experimentalfeatures before an official new release is made.
Winamp Browser Homepage
Both mailing lists are for MAD in general, not just this plug-in, so pleasebe sure to identify your use of the plug-in in your messages.
Copyright and Author
Winamp Homepage
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
Send inquiries, comments, bug reports, suggestions, patches, etc. to the author, or visit the SourceForge project to contribute to the public forums or submit bug reports or patches there.
Description
Winamp Homepage Download
Tired of losing your library database? Do you need the ability to move your Winamp config from one PC to another? Enjoy the ultimate Backup Tool for Winamp!
The tool was written by Christoph Grether.
A lot of people posted in the Winamp.com forums, that they have lost their library database, so I had the idea to create a Backup Tool, using NSIS as program language. The main idea was, that NSIS provides a step by step wizard for installers and already has a built-in localization system. So I decided to write the tool in 2010.
Since I'm using Winamp for a very long time, I was aware about all dependencies with saved settings for the native components and for 3rd party components. Though, there were a lot of other problems, so I asked Paweł for help. He wrote a lot of backend code and code for the GUI, so that I had enough time to work on the main backup system.
As of today, the tool is the best and most safe way to save all Winamp related settings, databases, skins, visualization presets etc. Even if some people still prepare to simply backup their Winamp settings folder, the tool is the better choice. Because the Winamp settings folder only holds settings for the native components (exluding Winamp Pro Registration Data, Skins, Vis Presets and especially 3rd party configuration files).
Thanks go to Paweł Porwisz, who helped during the 1.0 period with a lot of code and Darren Owen.