Just the other day there were some college students who wanted to a project under my guidance. Something that made me go back to a subject called ''Signals and Systems'' and another off-shoot ''Digital Signal Processing'', subjects that were beyond my understanding, subjects that I barely passed. Today when I see its developments, I regret my past attitude. The biggest and most popular application of DSP that gives me immense joy is its application in music - MP3!
MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) swept the world by its feet. It rose to great popularity because it could compress a 20-30 MB wav file into a 3-5 MB MP3 file and still retain the clarity, crispness in the sound quality (of course depends on encoders capability and algorithm). This also meant 150 songs in a CD compared to 15. The second reason was of course - free music?.
MP3 craze led to handheld players like discman, MP3 mobile phones, now MP3 players that look like VCD players and hi-fi's adding MP3 playback.(like Philips). But all of these are pretty expensive. I would avoid it simply because of the Internet and Multimedia!
It's pretty stunning! I searched the Net for MP3 players (software), and the list it gave me was huge and shocking. The famous ones are Real Player, Real Jukebox, Windows media player, Musicmatch Jukebox, UltraPlayer, Sonique and the list goes on. Each one boasts of varied features including VCD, DVD playback too.
But the very first one that I came across and still swear by is of course -- Winamp from Nullsoft. Frenkel my have started it as plain decoder for playing MP3 songs, but it has come a long way and still stands tall amongst the competition. Winamp has a huge global penetration with its installer being free and available on all music sites and download sites like CNet, ZDNet, Galt, Download etc. and is present on all CDs circulated through computer magazines. What a mass appeal!
Why does it have such a strong appeal? (Axe Effect??) Here's my reasons:
Installation: It's a breeze!
The latest version (as on 5/4/02) is 2.79 and Winamp 3 beta testing is going on. There are three types viz., Full version, Standard version that does not support WMA format and a Lite version that does not have ''Visualizations''. I recommend the 1.88 MB full version that downloads and installs in 3 minutes (over 56K modem). Some intervention is required to select file associations and placement of icon on desktop, quick launch or system tray etc.
Appearances: They aren?t deceptive:
Winamp right from the beginning has the same looks and structure like the modular hi-fi player components that are mounted on top of each other. It consists of basic player, equalizer settings, play-list editor, mini browser that are separate windows, which can be ?docked? over one another. There are a few points:
a) For a busy PC user who likes music in background, Winamp scores several times over other players. This is because these separate windows can be closed or minimized into thin strips (dockable). I prefer to place this right at the top of my screen with ''always on top'' setting. It fits within the title bar and still its functionality is not compromised. One can see song being played and player and volume controls too. Thus one need not switch between applications to access Winamp.
b) Winamp has skins - 1000s of them. I have a strong feeling that they were the ones to come out with this concept. Skins are small files lesser than 400 KB that download and installs itself and applies the skin too. The basic player can look extremely stunning with cool graphics and cursors and lighting (colour) schemes. My favourite are ''Nucleo_Alienmind'', ''Garfield'', ''Coolblue''. Check them out on Winamp.com. While some are awesome, some are total garbage. I hate those that obscure the buttons such as ''Crypt''.
c) While skins make Winamp look good, it is just like a covering on basic player, which is rectangular in shape. If one has to compare it with WMP (Oh! I already have a review on it) or Sonique for skins, Winamp loses badly. These players come in weird shapes and odd designs that make the skins very creative and fascinating. But then they block the screen and if one has other work then the creativity lies in background or in taskbar i.e. renders it useless.
d) I have still to figure how to remove an unwanted skin from Winamp. It's not straightforward.
Sound Quality: Its music to my ears
Winamp 2.79 has switched to the new codec developed by Fraunhofer IIS institute, which I believed to be the best. So even the primitive sound card can do justice to songs. Then there is a 10-band equalizer (Sonique has 20, wow!) and a pre-amplifier - the combination that allows one to customize music as per ones liking. The effects are easily discernible. If this ain't enough there are presets like party, classical, bass, full treble, dance, pop, rock etc. If you want a hi-fi player without spending Rs. 30,000 I would suggest an amplifier and a good speaker set that will cost a maximum of Rs. 10,000. Plug it to your sound card and use Winamp in conjunction with some DSP plug-ins that can be downloaded for free. So get your songs to sound as in a large hall or pub or as in stadium. Be a bass or treble freak.
[Be careful though, since plug-ins are codes from other users which may not be perfect and cause Winamp or system to crash. Better read the comments on each plug-in before any download]
Song Management: No big talks...just efficient action
If audio files are associated with Winamp, they can be opened or ''enqued'' in Winamp from Windows Explorer. A separate playlist editor helps in sorting songs, adding some, removing some or all songs through small buttons at the bottom of the editor. Unlike WMP or Jukebox, it does not support ''media library''. This means less system resources, faster playback and no tracking of users activities (WMP has this bug).
[Winamp3 may have this feature]
Cool Stuff
If you seek something more than sound, one can make use of visualizations. These are spectrums, graphic files that splat colour on screen, electrifying the monitor with brilliance and flashy patterns that seem to change with the music being played. More such stuff can be downloaded from Winamp site such as the Aphrodite and Dancing-babe plug-ins. Check the grooves the babe has..!!! One can also download game plug-is like racing car and one tetris-like gem master, which can be quite addictive.
Some other things worth a mention are:
a) You can burn MP3 CDs through Winamp (Adaptec software)
b) It plays streaming media and Internet Radio-Stations
c) It does not rip audio-CDs i.e. no MP3 encoding (but maybe a plug-in can be made available)
d) Original artist can encrypt an MP3 file, attach password or engrave copyright information using ID3V2 tag editor. Winamp may not play such files and thus prevent piracy...sigh!
Overall, it's a software one should really have. If you don't, download it right now!
Winamp 3 beta has many changes though and one can read mailhackers review on same topic.
