Load Winamp’s
Preferences menu and select the DSP/Effect tab. The plug-ins
listed provide support for a variety of effects processing.
Given the features
available with DSP/Effects plug-ins I’d recommend you check
out
Winamp.com's listings to see what interests you.
Personally the only such plug-in I use (with headphones) is
Crossfeed; To help reduce listening fatigue caused by
the unnatural stereo image provided by headphones, Crossfeed
processes the left and right channels of stereo audio
signals with a filter that mimics the sound absorption
characteristics of the human head.
After running through
this filter, it then mixes a delayed portion of the left and
right channels with each other to simulate the delay that
occurs when listening to audio signals through stereo
speakers positioned approximately 60 degrees apart from each
other.
General
Preferences
Load Winamp’s
Preferences menu and select the General Preferences tab.
Language.
In the event you require non-English language support for
Winamp, additional language packs can be
downloaded here. Use the drop-down menu to switch
between languages as appropriate.
Internet
Connection Settings. Configure
the three available Internet connection options as
appropriate for your connection.
Show splash
screen. Ticking this option
enables the display of the Winamp logo when launching
Winamp.
There’s no point to
this beyond increasing the time it takes to load Winamp.
Leave it Unticked for fastest start-up time.
Allow multiple
instances. Ticking this option
allows you to load more than one instance of Winamp. An
example of where this could be useful would be if you wished
to play a video file and audio file simultaneously. A single
instance of Winamp could perform one of these actions, not
both. Unticking this option limits you to a single instance
of Winamp, which should be sufficient for most users.
Check for new
versions of Winamp at start-up.
Ticking this option allows Winamp to check for updated
versions of itself. If you don’t require such notifications
then Untick this instead.
Allow Winamp to
report anonymous usage statistics.
Ticking this option enables Winamp to upload certain
application use statistics, which may or may not be of use
for future Winamp development. Considering the scaling back
of the Winamp team of late that’s not very likely, just
leave it Unticked.
Recycle
permanently deleted files. Ticking
this option specifies that when using the Physically
remove select item(s) option, selected files should be
sent to the Windows Recycle Bin. When Unticked selected
files will be permanently deleted immediately. As such it
would generally be preferable to leave this option Ticked in
case you make an error during selecting files to be removed;
in which case you can retrieve them from the Recycle Bin.
Show Winamp in.
This feature allows you to specify where the Winamp program
button is displayed, two options being available:
Taskbar.
Ticking this option specifies that a Winamp button is
displayed on the taskbar (this is the bar that contains the
Start menu link). Unticking this option disables this.
System tray.
Ticking this option specifies that a Winamp icon is
displayed in the System Tray (This is the area beside the
system clock). This provides a smaller icon and requires
less space than the Taskbar button. Untick this option to
disable this.
The image beneath
illustrates both options in effect. Note – With both options
Ticked the Taskbar button disappears in the event Winamp is
minimized (and re-appears when Winamp is restored).
Scroll title in
the Windows taskbar. When
Winamp’s taskbar button is visible (see above), Ticking this
option allows the current track’s title to scroll across the
taskbar button. This is of questionable usefulness and
somewhat irritating, so I’d recommend disabling (Unticking)
this option.
Disable always…
are focused. When Ticked this
disables Winamp’s Always On Top feature whenever other full
screen applications are selected (recommended).
Priority class.
This slider determines the thread priority level for Winamp,
and it’s recommended to leave this set to default unless
experiencing choppy playback, in which case try increasing
the priority level. You might find it useful to lower the
priority level if you have more critical processes running
(though only if faultless playback is maintained).
