Lets take a look at WinAmp, the multimedia Player.

What comes to mind when you think of a digital multimedia player? Maybe you visualize Apple's music monarch, the iPod? Or perhaps Microsoft's new Zune player, designed to trump Apple's successful iPod reign and reroute its popularity to Redmond? What about the term "software multimedia player"? Maybe you've haven't given much thought to the program you assign to play your mp3s and movies, relegating that job to XP's default, built-in multimedia application, Windows Media Player.

Sure, WMP is convenient and it does its job, but you may be yearning for a multimedia application that packs a little more punch, dazzling you with a wide array of visuals and tweaking options. Look no further, as WinAmp is just a download away!

Surf on over to winamp.com and download a copy of this fine application. Installation is a breeze and customizable, its install dialog asking you various questions to make the WinAmp experience more enjoyable once it's installed and ready to roll.

Nullsoft's WinAmp

Once you've fired up WinAmp for the first time, you'll notice that the default interface is strikingly familiar. The WinAmp window is basically divided into 3 important sections. The top is for playback operations--play, pause, stop etc.--the middle for fine tuning bass, treble and suchlike via WinAmp's equalizer, and the bottom is your play list, where you can add and discard music tracks you wish WinAmp to play.

WinAmp's playback operations

Since the dawn of stereo equipment, operation buttons pretty much have had standard icons to denote their purpose. A quick glance at the top of WinAmp and you'll recognize the "Triangle" icon for "Play", the "Double rectangle" icon for "Pause", and the "Square" icon for "Stop"; nothing can be simpler than this.

Above the playback buttons, you'll see a seeker progress bar, which can be tweaked to jump forward or backward in your music; this is akin to fast forward and rewind in the ancient days of VCRs. Another slider bar resides above the seeker bar, which regulates the volume of WinAmp. There is also a useful time
display section above the seeker bar, which can be altered to display your music's elapsed time or the time remaining in the current track.

WinAmp's Equalizer

Let's face it; we all love music; this we can all agree upon. Individuals' taste in music is where the argument starts to get extremely subjective and contentious. Country, rap, techno, opera, classic, rock etc.: all have their moderates and haters and lovers. With this in mind, WinAmp makes it easy to customize its equalizer to cater to your particular preference of music, all in the form of presets.

Given a particular class of music--classic or dance, to give an example--WinAmp can automatically customize its equalizer for the best sound quality. For example, dance music sounds better when more bass and treble are applied, but the same cannot be said for some forms of classical music.

To load an equalizer preset, simply select the "preset" button above WinAmp's equalizer; from the pop-out menu, select "Load". An EQ list box will pop up, allowing you to select how you'd like WinAmp to configure the EQ based on your taste in music.

WinAmp's Play List

WinAmp's Play List is incredibly simple to use, allowing you to quickly add your music files by file, directory or URL. Select on the "Add" button below the play list to add several audio files. Rearranging your list is simply a matter of dragging around the track names to your satisfaction.

Along with listing your currently playing tracks, the play list can also save your track information into a "play list" file. You can create as many play list files as you want, loading and unloading them at your whim.

WinAmp is much admired program. The vast popularity of WinAmp stems from its configurability, sound quality and visual appeal. Happy listening!

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