HIFD Winamp configuration

 

These configuration suggestions are designed to make it user friendly for recreational dance groups.

  1. To use the extra controls, the main Winamp window must be expanded.  The hidden controls and displays allow you to start a dance with a delay, and set memory and pause points.
  2. When installing Winamp there are a number of things you probably do not need for recreational dance groups usage.  By omitting them you may increase stability and speed.  Here is a list of possible omissions.
  3. When installing Winamp several things also have to be installed
  4. The safety plugins remove the “Play” options from most menu items.  Play unfortunately clears the playlist, so removing it prevents accidental list clearing.  Unfortunately this interferes with the Enqueue&Play plugin by DrO.  To install the safety plugins click on the link and put the contents of the correct folder in the zip file in the Winamp/plugins folder.  These are not necessary if the users do not use the right mouse button.  Several plugins are available according to the version of Winamp you are using.
  5. To get to the setup menus click on the small button in the upper left corner.
  6. Setup the Media Library preferences (Options/Preferences/Media Library tab:library options)
  7. Setup the fonts and font sizes (General Preferences/Playlist)

 

  1. Setup the internet (General Preferences)

 

  1. Setup the safety features (Plug-ins/General Purpose)

 

  1. Setup the tempo shifting plugin (Plug-ins/DSP)  I have tested the plugins on a variety of files including FLAC, MP4, Wave, and MP3, mono and stereo.  I have tested at 80% slowdown, and maximum slowdown.  It seems that all of the plugins have problems, and there is no clear winner for all applications.  Most plugins can change tempo by a maximum of 50%.  FLAC files seem to present problems to most plugins.

 

  1. Lyrics plugins – There are a number of these.  Be careful as some trash the files.  Some only work over the web.  This is an area which is extremely nostandard.  Lyrics entered in iTunes are generally now shown in any of the Winamp plugins.  A simple plugin which shows only text files might be the best until the jungle has been cleared.
  2. Load the library from the desired Music folder  (Preferences/Media Library/Local Media)

 

  1. Setup the display order for the playlist. (General Preferences/titles) (recommended)

 

  1. Setup the media library:

·        HIFD has labeled the dances as active or inactive by prefacing them with either A$ or I$.  Culls are labeled Cull$.  For convenience the library is divided into two sections, Active and Inactive.  To implement this, smart views are created labeled Active and Inactive.

·        Open the smart view by clicking on the left side of the Library window, and pull to the right to open the smart view window.

·        To create a smart view right click on Local Media, and click on Add Smart view…

Ø      Active smart view.  Type in the label Active

Ø      Click on the plus sign.

Ø      Then fill in the fields to select only files with A$ (filename, contains, A$)

Ø      Finally if you want to have the filter tools at the top of the library window, Click on the Filter tab and select the desired filters.

 

·        Then create the inactive smart view for files that contain I$.

·        Delete unwanted views (optional)

·        For each of the smart views format the items shown in the window.

o       Right click on the “Title, Artist…” titlebar, and set the order of the items.  Title, Artist, Genre, Album, Length are the suggested order.

 

  1. Now click on the arrow under the Config label to bring up the configuration drawer.

·        You can set various “comfort features”  Some suggestions are:

·        Options/SONGTICKER – Disable scrolling

·        Menus – Unclick the box to hide the text information at the top of each window.

·        Color themes

                                             i.      Easily visible ones are Windows Classic, Default, City Night, Mono Dark, MonoLite

                                           ii.      Garish but OK – Good ol Winamp, Rain Forest

                                          iii.      For people with vision problems you might find a good one.  De gustibus non disputandum

·        Options/MISC - Detach Vis Window & Detach Video

  1. In Winamp 5.5 the ratings are now very easily changed by clicking on them.  If you want to use the ratings, and prevent them from being easily changed, put the cursor over the ratings column and press Ctrl-Shift-r.  Then disable clicking.
  2. You can prevent users from permanently changing most configuration entries by making the Studio.xnf file readonly.  This will lock most features so they return to the defaults when Winamp is restarted.  This includes the location and size of windows.  However the playlist and media library can still be permanently be made visible or invisible with the PL and ML buttons.
  3. There are a number of features you may not need, so you can delete them to prevent confusion after setting up Winamp.  To do this go to options/preferences and then in the options window go down to the plug-ins.  You can delete the following without impacting the basic functions.

 

  1. At present Winamp can not do diacritical independent searches.  However, this can be kludged by doing the following:
  1. If you put files named picture.png, and logo.png in c:\program files\winamp they will be displayed in the central main part of the Winamp main window.  If you put a file named decorations.png, it will overlay the Main window as a decoration when selected.  The decorations are displayed as is with no modifications.  The pictures and logo should be in pure white against a transparent background for best visibility with all color schemes.
  2. If you add a track with the name ***STOP*** it will stop Winamp when it is encountered.  It is suggested that that it be a short blank track.
  3. It is possible to put lyrics & folk dance instructions into the tracks.  To do this you will need to download a Winamp plugin that does this.