How to Get Started With Winamp

Winamp is a fast, powerful and advanced media manager and player that is great for people who are new to digital music, want to manage their collection or are looking to replace iTunes.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An internet connection
• A small amount of free space
• A music collection to manage

1. 
    
   Downloading Winamp

   Head over to http://www.winamp.com and download the latest version of Winamp. The full version is all you need, but you can download the bundle.
   
   A nice note:
   Winamp is only 9.5 MB to download compared to iTunes' 67 MB download.

2. 
    
   Turning off a few features

   Run the installer, and stop when you reach the Choose Components page. Here is where you can turn off or on various features of Winamp. I recommend turning off Winamp Agent.
   
   The settings here are up to you, start with all of them and disable them later if you wish.
   
   I turn off the following:
   
   Winamp Agent
   
   Multimedia Engine > Signal Processor Studio
   
   Winamp Library > Core Media Library Components > Bookmarks, History, Now Playing
   
   Winamp Library > Replay Gain Analysis Tool, Winamp Dashboard
   
   User Interface Extensions > Extended Jump To File Support, Nullsoft Tray Control

3. 
    
   Disable extras

   Uncheck all the items on the Get The Most Out Of Winamp page.
   You might want Winamp Remote but I do not recommend any others.

4. 
    

   Launch Winamp, a window titled Winamp Setup will open, select the Bento Skin and associate Winamp with all its supported file types.
   
   These settings are up to you as well.
   The Winamp Setup will only run the first time Winamp is started.

5. 
    

   Winamp's media library allows you to create a catalog of your music that automatically updates itself when new media has been added to what it calls Watch Folders.
   
   To add media to your library, click the Library button and click Media Library Preferences.

6. 
    

   Select Local Media, and then the Watch Folders tab in the window that opens.
   
   Settings on this tab also up to you, I recommend having Rescan folders at startup and Automatically remove missing files checked.

7. 
    
   Adding Watch Folders

   Click Add folder... and select the folder where your music library or part of your library is held and click Add. Repeat as necessary. Once all folders have been added, click Rescan Now and let Winamp scan your folders for media.

8. 
    

   Click Close and select Audio under Local Media from Winamp's main window.
   
   Winamp will list all the audio media it found by artist and album, this view is customizable along with many of Winamp's features.

9. 
    
   Milkdrop in Desktop mode

   Winamp is ready to go. Although we've barely scratched the surface of its abilities.
   
   Here's a list of things to try:
   
   
   Browse the preferences (Options > Preferences)
   -Nearly everything within Winamp is customizable, along with the skin behavior, color and font.
   
   Global Hotkeys (Options > Preferences > General Preferences > Global Hotkeys)
   -Global Hotkeys let you control Winamp without actually focusing on it.
   
   Use milkdrop for your visulizer (Options > Preferences > Plug-ins > Visualizations)
   -Milkdrop is one of the best and most advanced visualizer around, with tons of presets and features.
   
   Playlist Generator (Options > Preferences > Plug-ins > Media Library)
   -Creates a playlist containing songs similar sounding to the reference song.
   
   Auto-Tagger (Right click a song > Send To > Auto-Tag)
   -Attempts to determine the title, artist and other info by analyzing the song, careful it occasionally makes mistake. Similar to iTune's Genius, but it came first and does not need to send any information.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are switching from iTunes, your music will most likely be under My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\
• Winamp supports iPod and many other Mp3 Players
• Winamp can handle files without tags very well
• Winamp supports extensions via plug-ins
• If you've purchased songs on iTunes, Winamp might not play them

Resources

• Winamp

[starlet67]

on 3/14/2009 Excellent article on Winamp!Good tips