I've had an annoying problem over the years. Winamp seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to volume control. The symptoms are usually one of the following:

1) A song that has a section with a lower volume and then suddenly intensifies in volume. The portion of the song with the lower volume will play fine but the volume will drop off a cliff when the louder portion of the song comes in. It's almost like Winamp is trying to even the volume out to be uniform across the song.

2) My bigger gripe. The volume seems to 'throb' on some faster songs. It's a bit difficult to explain, but if the song has loud noises that play in quick succession with quieter portions in the gaps the volume seems to go all haywire and the song sounds like crap. It's like

I'm guessing that this all has to do with some sort of volume smoother. I've been all over google looking for ways to disable something that could be causing all this. I don't have any plugins other than the ones Winamp installs.

So I first wanting to look at the cause of the problem and the solution. Comments like:

- Winamp is terrible. Use program X
- The mp3s are poorly encoded. Don't use variable bit rate/use variable bit rate (or some other setting) when ripping
- Disable Winamp option X
- Add plugin X to take care of the problem
- I don't know what you're talking about

4/18/2009 9:40:37 AM

preferences > plugins > output > directsound > configure

4/18/2009 12:05:18 PM

I'd recommend a clean install of winamp. I can't think of anything in the default installation package that would produce the symptoms you describe. It would help if you could compile a list of your plugins and their settings.

4/18/2009 1:49:51 PM

^^Been there several times. None of those options help.

Plugins list:
Whatever Winamp comes with. Nothing more.
Output:
Nullsoft Disk Writer 2.14
Nullsoft DirectSound Output 2.47 (d)
Nullsoft WaveOUt Output 2.11 (d)

^I'll have to give that a go.

[Edited on April 18, 2009 at 3:57 PM. Reason : -]

4/18/2009 3:46:18 PM