As in previous versions, The Winamp Player is a flexible and sophisticated application for playing and managing your music. With the latest release, the player is easier than ever to use with a new, powerful and intuitive interface.
The screenshot below is of Winamp with the Winamp Modern skin active.
Point to a part of the image to learn more about each part of the Winamp interface:
The screenshot below is of Winamp with the Big Bento skin active.
Point to a part of the image to learn more about each part of the Winamp interface:
MP3 is the most popular for music on the Internet because its small size and high quality.
To play an MP3 file, do one of the following:
To play a CD
Other methods of playing Audio CDs
Note
This method is required for playing Enhanced CDs.
Note
If you are connected to the Internet, Winamp will connect to the CDDB database to find matching CD information.
Want to have your CDs available on your computer? Winamp lets you rip (transfer and compress digitally) your CDs to your computer hard drive. This means you can listen to them without having to pop in the CD. It also means you can create your own playlists using individual tracks from different albums.
Note
Before ripping tracks to your computer, you should first configure the CD ripping settings. For more information, see Library Preferences: CD Ripping.
To rip CD tracks to your computer hard drive
Insert a CD that has tracks you want to transfer to your computer hard drive. Open the View menu in the Winamp main window and click Media Library.
For further in-depth information, a full comprehensive CD Ripping Tutorial by Gaekwad2 can be found in the Winamp Forums.
Winamp makes the joy of burning (creating) your own music CDs even easier with built-in CD burning. Add individual tracks, a folder, or just burn the playlist you're listening to right now.
To burn tracks to an Audio CD:
Note
You may have to double-click Rip & Burn to see your list of CD/DVD-RW drives. If you don't see the Rip & Burn node, then go to: Winamp -> Preferences (Ctrl+P) -> Media Library -> Tree Options tab and checkmark "Group CD Drives under the 'Rip & Burn' parent"
Note
As you add tracks to burn, the used and available time is displayed above the list. Make sure you do not exceed your blank disc's capacity.
Note
You can also add files by right-clicking Local Media or Playlist entries, and using the Send To submenu (eg. Send To > CD Burner on X:)
Note
This action will queue all the playlist items into the CD Recorder view. The Media Library should automatically switch you to the Recorder view.
Winamp5 uses the same, ever-lovin' skinning engine available in the Winamp2 versions of the player. But fear not. You can also use free-form skins designed for Winamp3.
To change skins
To get more skins
By default Winamp uses the Modern skin, but you can choose among countless skins available online:
To create your own skin:
With some design and programming skills, you can create your own skin that will change Winamp's appearance the way you want. More information about creating skins can be found in the dedicated Winamp Developer Section.
Tip
If you are a master of the right-click, you can right-click on the Winamp main window and get to the Skins menu.
A playlist lets you keep a list of tracks to play whenever you want. You get to keep your choice and order of tracks.
To open the Playlist Editor
To load a playlist
To load a playlist from the Media Library
The Winamp playlist organizes your music files, your videos, favorite internet radio stations and all of your media resources into a single, intuitive interface. If you are using Winamp for the first time, then the playlist may be empty. You can edit your playlist in any of these ways:
Add Button: Click this button for track addition options.
Rem (Remove) Button: Click this button for removal options.
Caution
Using this option will permanently remove the selected tracks from your computer and they will be irrecoverable.
Sel (Select) Button: Click this button for selection options.
Misc (Miscellaneous) Button: Click this button for miscellaneous options.
Manage Playlist (Miscellaneous) Button: Click this button for list-related options.
Once you've got the tracks you want in your playlist, make sure you save it for future generations.
To save a playlist
To save a playlist in the Media Library
Searching with Jump to File:
To search a large playlist, whilst the Playlist Editor window is in focus, hit the 'J' or 'F3' key on your keyboard to open the 'Jump to File' dialog. The entire playlist will initially appear in the search results, and will be filtered-out as you type into the Search field.
Tip
By default, the search results will match any of the Artist, Title and containing Folder criteria. To fetch results for Album or any other fields from the file tags, first you will need to adjust your Advanced Title Formatting syntax for the Playlist Editor accordingly.
Note
The JTF dialog can be configured to taste via the Jump to File Options.
Queueing songs to be played next:
To queue up a song in the Playlist Editor, either highlight the playlist entries and press the 'Q' key, or hold down the Alt key and left-click your selection, or right-click one of the selected entries and click 'Enqueue selected' via the 'Jump to File' submenu.
Note
You can manage the Queue via the "Enqueue List" page in the Jump to File Options, or via the "Jump to File" dialog (see screenshot below). Click the large "Search mode" button to switch the dialog to "Manage mode".
Using 'Jump to File' to Queue Songs: