Winamp Plugin

Hi Shamousi!

I’m afraid because of Winamp’s dwindling popularity, making a dedicated Winamp Plug-in has become a low priority.

However, you can actually use Breakaway for only winamp — you don’t have to run it system wide.

It’s easy.

When you install Breakaway, make sure to select Safe Mode. After that:

If you are using Vista:

Open Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound. Select your sound card as the default device.

If you are using Windows XP:

Open Breakaway Settings, uncheck "Manage". Then, open the control panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, and select your sound card as the default device.

Finally, in Winamp, press CTRL-P, Output plug-ins, DirectSound output. Click Configure, and select Breakaway Pipeline as the audio output.

Done!

Best regards,
///Leif

@ Shamousi

If you are really looking for a high quality normalization only (without bad side effects and without extra enhancement), you should try Compressor & Wider 1.5 (dsp_compwide.dll ) a free Winamp plugin by Martin Pesch the author of mp3DirectCut
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/misc.html

It comes with a few presets.
But these presets are not good (in my ears).
But you can create your own presets.

Here are 3 very good presets:

Dynamic:
Stereo separation 0 (normal)
Input HP cutoff off
Max amp 2.3 x
Amp raise 5130 ms
Amp reduce 0.4 ms
Threshold off

Medium (Loud):
Stereo separation 0 (normal)
Input HP cutoff off
Max amp 3.0 x
Amp raise 1111 ms
Amp reduce 0.4 ms
Threshold off

Very Loud:
Stereo separation 0 (normal)
Input HP cutoff off
Max amp 8.0 x
Amp raise 301 ms
Amp reduce 0.4 ms
Threshold off

If you want more (extra enhancement) there are ways of chaining multiple DSPs, but it is a little bit complicated, because of compatibility problems of the multiple DSP stacker plugins.
It is necessary to combine them to make every (known) DSP work.
And it only works with Winamp (not with foobar2000 or ffdshow DSP adapters) !

The (free) DSP Plugins you need:

1. DSP Stacker 1.6 by Spacial Audio Solutions
2. Multiple DSP Plugin (aka Stacker) 1.01
(you need both)

MuchFX does not work for this, but it is necessary if you want to use
DX-Plugins with the free VB:FX-4 DX Manager Plugin – so these two are only additional options but not needed for the standard chain.

3. YouWaShock
4. StereoTool 3.55 (the free unregistered version is ok)
5. Compressor & Wider 1.5

How To:

1. choose DSP Stacker 1.6 as DSP in Winamp preferences

2. load Multiple DSP Plugin 1.01 with DSP Stacker 1.6

3. press configure Multiple DSP Plugin 1.01 inside DSP Stacker 1.6

4. load YouWaShock with Multiple DSP Plugin 1.01

5. set YouWaShock to 45 minutes (12 light segments on, default mode A)
this is a good starting point for your own tweakings
(it defines the grade of spectral enhancement)

6. load StereoTool 3.55 with DSP Stacker 1.6

7. inside StereoTool select the preset
"VOLUME COMPRESSION – Normal Compression" !!!

8. two small changes to this preset:
Pre Amp 1.0 (instead of 3.00)
enable Noise Gate (On) with 2.90 %

9. load Compressor & Wider 1.5 with DSP Stacker 1.6 and use my presets:
"Dynamic" (I prefer this)
"Medium"
or "Very Loud"

extra info:
YouWaShock is incompatible with DSP Stacker 1.6 (you can load it, but it will be permanently bypassed), that’s why you have to use Multiple DSP Plugin 1.01.
VB:FX-4 DX Manager Plugin is incompatible with DSP Stacker 1.6, too.
If you want to use it, you have to use MuchFX as an extra adapter inside DSP Stacker 1.6.
Multiple DSP Plugin 1.01 is incompatible with StereoTool, that’s why you have to use DSP Stacker 1.6.

If you (Windows users) want to compare this DSP chain with Breakaway, don’t forget to bypass Breakaway !
And of course enable "Play unmodified sound" in DSP Stacker 1.6
when you turn Breakaway enhancement on !

My DSP chain has the disadvantage that it only works with Winamp and not like Breakaway as a system wide processing.
On the other hand you can use the DSP chain with any Winamp (output) writer plugin !
StereoTool 3.55 eats a lot of CPU (too much, maybe a broken multi core usage).
So if you want to use a writer output plugin (have an old computer anyway) consider to use version 3.40 which is much more CPU friendly (much faster on my Athlon 6000+ Dual Core system).
I use Breakaway (bypassed) and its oscilloscope for visual monitoring.
Though bypassed, there still seems to be the limiter active inside Breakaway.
So I have checked my processed files (disk writer output saved as WAV) with Adobe Audition 1.5.
There is no clipping with files processed by my DSP chain (even with my Comp & Wider preset "Very Loud") !

What is better (audio quality enhancement) ?
Well, it doesn’t matter what I tell you here, if you don’t try my DSP chain with your own ears.

My personal ranking:

DFX = crap
YouWaShock = nice, but you have to tune it up and down for different music
StereoTool = good
Breakaway = very good
YouWaShock-StereoTool-Comp & Wider DSP chain = for those with an eye for the finer details

I don’t believe that many Windows users will (be able to) try my chain, so I think Leif has not a problem with this subversive post.
But to all you Linux freaks out there:
It (the chain) is very easy to build.

Touche !

But this is only a proof that Leif has an eye for the finer details.
Salute !

I took these words straight from the cover of ‘FGTH – Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
I know from the heart of an audio engineer (and his technical background knowledge) this chaining must be inferior.
Please don’t waste your time, don’t try my chain !

Imagine a world without dogmas.
It’s the same thing like the people at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org know for sure,
that they even never try anything like Breakaway.
In their eyes (sorry Leif – their ears) any kind of processing is devil’s handiwork.
They think day and night about lossless audio and making jokes about people
using MP3 at 128 kbps.
They do not realize that a lossless representation of a crappy (original) WAV
is still crappy.

Don’t trust me or any other expert on the internet or anywhere else.
The Wallstreet was (and still is) full of experts.

Trust your own ears and eyes ! 😉

Indeed. I will happily leave them to maintain their bit-accurate representations of horribly clipped CDs. 🙂

///Leif

[quote author=”aleph99″]And I do miss the round full bass Breakaway provides. I guess to an audiophile’s ears it would look (or sound) a bit excessive, but it does sound good in my earphones. Would you know of a way to accomplish something similar using one of the tools in the chain?

Thanks.[/quote]Search for other Winamp DSPs (EQs) and add it to the chain.

It seems as if you have to rebuild the chain after every reboot (or restart of winamp ?) step by step:
This is not intended.
The whole DSP chain should be saved automatically by Winamp (and the stackers by saving ini files).
And this is the way it works for me.
There might be a corruption of an INI file of the stackers.
Check and identify every INi file of the stackers inside your Winamp (plugin) folder and delete them all.
Then rebuild the chain.
I remember that the INI files of MuchFX and DSP Stacker 1.6 can corrupt if Winamp encounters an unexpected error or an unattended closing.
Deleting the INIs should help to start with a fresh and stable basis.

What Winamp version do you use ?
2.9x or a new 5.5x version ?
What is your operating system ?

I use Winamp 2.95 on a Win XP Pro SP2 system.

As mentioned in this forum you will run it like so (very simplified but it gives you the idea)

1: Winamp Music ➡ 2: SQR Crossfader ➡ 3: Breakaway Pipeline 1 ➡ 4: Edcast (Shoutcast DNS Replacement) http://users.tpg.com.au/radiorio/ ➡ 5: Shoutcast DNAS Server ➡ 6: Listeners