Winamp plug-in

[Anonymous]

You have to join things – e.g. eat Thai food 🙂
I know what are you talking about. Anyway, I’m voting for number 3 on your priority list 🙂
I will stay tuned, Leif.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Leif for all you’ve done so far. I see by just reading down the stack of topics, that there’s no present in-out pipeline solution but many remedies to this are on the drawing board.
Not to make your head explode or anything, but adding to the WISHLIST STACK is there a way to throw in DX or VST recognizable code onto one of these future plugins so they can be used to batch process files while being hosted by an audio editing program? Sorry in advance if I’m asking for too much. All I can say is Thank God I’m still on Win XP Pro! Looks like I dodged a nice bullet and didn’t become dissappointed with this wonderful application from its onset!!http://www.claessonedwards.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=2&t=32#
😀

[lpy7]

Hi Leif, appreciated all your work over the years i.e. mastermuxer etc..

I’ve been comparing this to Volume Logic, and it’s a great product, and like someone said in another topic, it does have a ‘cleaner’ sound (mid-range & high mid-range areas) compared to VL.

I’d love to make the switch, however, at this stage, I still prefer Volume Logic (mainly because I’m waiting for the winamp version), and I’ll explain..

-Firstly, the way VL works/functions as a Winamp plugin is exactly what I was looking for…will the Breakaway version function the same when released?

-VL by default has some sort of surround/stereo widening effect, which I think sounds excellent, especially when you’re sitting in between two nice speakers. Breakaway currently doesn’t appear to have that same sound…will it be included in the Winamp plugin version?

-The Bass Boost function on VL, even when on the lowest setting, gives an excellent smooth deep bass sound. What setting on Breakaway, if any, would be the equivalent?

I hope that’s not too many questions. Keep up the great work. Thanks.

[Leif]

Hi lpy!

Thank you for your comments.

I’m not sure about a Winamp version – the standalone version seems to be working really well for most people, so I’m not sure how many copies of a straight Winamp plug-in we could actually sell, considering that it would be very limited in functionality in comparison (it would work only with Winamp, as opposed to working with every app in the computer including Winamp). It’s not off the table completely, but a Webcaster version seems to be more important.

I’m interested to know, though, what do you prefer about having a Winamp plug-in as opposed to having it system wide, working with whichever player you choose to use? Maybe there’s something I haven’t thought of.

VL did indeed have a stereo enhancer, Breakaway doesn’t (yet). I was never completely happy with the one in VL, but I haven’t had an "eureka!" moment regarding a new stereo enhancer yet. When I do, I will definitely write a new one and implement it in Breakaway 🙂.

The Bass Boost function in VL was very simplistic compared to the one in Breakaway, and really not very good. It couldn’t boost the bass very much, and even with the moderate bass boost you got from cranking it up, it caused intermodulation distortion in the final limiter. The one in Breakaway is *much* better – it can create an insane amount of bass, without distortion.

Because they’re so different, there’s no equivalent setting, but if you just turn it up until you have the bass sound you want, that should take care of it. If just adjusting the Level doesn’t get you all the way, you can always adjust Shape too, to control the shape of the bass boost.

///Leif

[Anonymous]

[quote author=”Leif”]
I’m interested to know, though, what do you prefer about having a Winamp plug-in as opposed to having it system wide, working with whichever player you choose to use? Maybe there’s something I haven’t thought of.

///Leif[/quote]

Hi Leif, if I may comment my personal situation, I actually use winamp+VL to record mp3 with the setting applied for my car and portable music (using winamp’s "file writer" plug-in). As you know, we love the sound that breakaway delivers (steady volume and awesome sound), so in my case, this is "how" I would like to use the plug-in version.

I know that currently, I could use an audio recorder app to record "what u hear" to either wav or mp3 files (I think there is a thread already on this), but the problem is that you have to record in "real time". The file writer plugging, besides recording/encoding way faster than in real time, allows you to chose how to rename the new files usig the tags info, and also copy the tags to the new files. This is a must for me, as I do not want to wait hours and manually re-tag or rename files, to be properly displayed on my mp3 player.

I wish there was a Breakaway tool or player, that could output mp3 files with the music setting applied including tags, but I guess it would be too much to ask for. So while I keep my fingers crossed for the Breakaway plug-in to come out, I’ll follow the VL route.

Thanks

[lpy7]

Hey Leif,

No exact reason in particular as to why I’d prefer it as a plug-in…. I guess it’s just what I’m used to, although one difference I can think of is, when Winamp is running with a good crossfade plugin (the sqrsoft version for example), the plugin can "hear" the processing of the audio and works accordingly, whereas in its current form, it doesn’t affect any operation of Winamp’s plug-ins. Whether that’s reason enough to justify selling a plug-in version, I guess that’s what you’ll need to decide, as you mentioned.

Either way, I can definitely see an advantage of its current form. and it seems to be coming along nicely. I’ll be keeping an eye on its progress 🙂

Thanks.

[JesseG]

[quote author=”lpy”]I guess it’s just what I’m used to, although one difference I can think of is, when Winamp is running with a good crossfade plugin (the sqrsoft version for example), the plugin can "hear" the processing of the audio and works accordingly, whereas in its current form, it doesn’t affect any operation of Winamp’s plug-ins.[/quote]

Yeah, I see what you mean there. Although I prefer to have the cross-fade points relate to the dynamics of the music THEN get processed, as… to me… the fades seem to make a lot more sense, and are smoother and often longer.

If you load a DSP directly within SqrSoft it will process the audio AFTER cross-fading (and also use way less cpu), so i’m guessing that you’re running VL as a dsp in Winamp’s normal DSP section (or in a DSP chainer in that).

[Anonymous]

So I’m still using Octimax 😉

One thing I love about it is that I can run multiple Winamp instances and process both sound sources ie. One output for the Bedroom and one for the kitchen. Or even Bedroom, Kitchen, basement, outside =)

While it’s great to be able to use a virtual output to maximize ‘compatibility’, will there be a way I can use this over multiple rooms in my house? Another bonus of the plugin is that I can use different presets for each player. For instance, I really need to drive the ‘outside’ hard, but I don’t really process the basement. There’s a certain something extra breakaway brings to the table, and I’d love to be able to migrate towards it.

[Leif]

quote :

leifcast!

where I can download it?

What-cast?

I have never heard of such a thing 😉.

///Leif

[Leif]

Relax, relax, I’m just joking 🙂.

I will release it some day — just have to work out codec licensing first. It’s not released yet, so it’s not available for download 🙁.

///Leif

[lpy7]

Hey Leif,

Just tried to test BA on the computer I want to use it on (Internet radio), but it doesn’t recognise the Virtual Audio Cable program, only the sound card.

Is there a way to get this working or will I just have to wait for the Winamp plug-in? I won’t ask how its progress is going as I know programming can be a stressful task.

ANyway, I’ll defiantly be buying this the day it’s out as I can notice the difference compared to Volume Logic.

[Leif]

lpy, try Breakaway FM! It works incredibly well for streaming, even supports loading Winamp DSP encoder plug-ins, and it’s positively the best, most powerful sound available for streaming.

You can download the beta from http://bredband.leif.cx/browse/bafm and it should be available for purchase within just a couple of weeks. A dedicated streaming version should be available a few weeks later, but Breakaway FM will actually sound even more powerful than the stream-specific version. Breakaway FM will be slightly more expensive, and use more CPU than the streaming version.

///Leif

[lpy7]

Quite impressive there Leif, I see we’re on the same wavelength with virtual audio cable..but there’s a problem that I’ve experienced with two computers.

Using VAC 4.08/4.09, everything would run fine but then, randomly, the audio will start sounding choppy, just like a helicopter, and would only return to normal when I restarted the Cables. As I mentioned, it does this on both computers.

I then tried the older version, VAC 3.12, and it’s been running perfect since.

I had a feeling Breakaway FM would have the same choppy problem, and it does 🙁 So basically, I can’t use it (which isn’t really a programming fault on your part).

I don’t know why it does this, but unless there’s a solution, it looks like I’m still stuck with volume logic.

[Leif]

lpy, I’m aware of the problem — it’s a problem in virtual audio cable. I’ve been trying to get Eugene (the author) to fix it for a while.

It seems to work great on single and dual core systems, but not so well on quad core systems (which has been my development system for a while), and indeed Vac 3.x doesn’t have the problem.

If you have a vac 3.x, you could just set Breakaway FM to wave in/out and use vac 3.x instead. No need to settle for Volume Logic 🙂.

///Leif

[lpy7]

I’m trying stuff at the moment, but not with much luck.

Basically I want to not have to use a sound card at all. From my understanding, using a soundcard would work like this:
Digital (music source) -> Analog (sound card) -> Digital (encoder)

I don’t like the idea of digital being converted to analog and then back to digital.

My current setup is:
Digital (music source) -> Digital (VAC) -> Digital (encoder)

Eliminating the need for a sound card altogether.

BAFM sees the sound card (which I don’t want to use), BA Pipeline 1 & 2 (choppy), but not VAC.
Also, is the 16khz Bandwidth feature a 16khz brick-wall? If so, I understand exactly why that’s needed for FM, but isn’t needed for web.

I’m thinking I may need to wait for the webcaster version..

Thanks for all the help so far..

[Author]

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