[BC] Digital playback

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 09/07/2006 10:33:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
wirelessmedia at gmail.com writes:

 > I have to say... OTS does much more than WinAmp and is alot more stable.

Based on personal experience, I can vouch for WinAmp's stability. I have it
running 24/7 here at home. It's gone at least two *months* without a reboot,
when I forget. (I give it "hygenic" reboots now and then, usually when I
re-randomize the playlist.) Been running it for about 2 years, now. 
Changed PC's from
a P2/233 to a P2/500 about a year ago. The 233 was running ME, the 500 is
98SE. It sits up in my guestroom closet, feeding a little P15 FM transmitter.
It's a wonderful, very low-maint. jukebox.

 >  OTS replaced WinAmp with the segue plug in and one particular non-com FM.
 >  Crossfades are seemless now and sound like a real operator.  What's great
is
 >  that OTS sets its own segue points and, when I tell you it's right 99.9% of
 >  the time, I'm not lying.  There are a few you need to modify (and you can
in
 >  their edit software), but I guarantee once you try OTS, you'll never want
to
 >  use WinAmp again.

One of the *older* versions of WinAmp (3.x) had an absolutely *wonderful*
auto-segue plugin that did exactly what OTS describes. I used to 
*marvel* at the
fantastic mixes that puppy did! All I had to do was tweak a few little
graphical interface settings, and once I had them fine-tuned (about 4 
or 5 minor
tweaks over the course of a week) I could have sworn I was doing the mixing
myself. It was *that* good. Then the author updated the plugin, and 
it promptly blew
up, never to be recovered. <:( I can't remember the name of it, but it worked
in Winamp 3.x and was truly amazing. Needless to say, I was quite upset when
it crashed and burned, and I couldn't get it working again. <:( I did enjoy it
for a number of months, tho.

So now, I just live with the bult-in crossfader in WinAmp 5.x which is
"tolerable". I don't understand why they can't/won't incorporate that kind of
"intelligent" crossfading into WinAmp, itself.

 >  I can run an entire show using just OTS and a mic in a single instance.
Two
 >  faders, that's it and if you really know what you're doing, it is as tight
 >  as you can imagine.

That's pretty cool... and I do the same thing on the air every morning, with
two instances of WinAmp thru one sound card. Granted, it *would* be easier to
tailor the mixes if I had seperate sound cards & pots, but it works well. It's
just that it's a bit clunky to do the mixes via the mouse & dragging the
little on-screen sliders. It can be done, but it's not easy. Much 
easier to have
two pots on a board for precise timing & control of segue's.

 >  If you're generating playlists for automation, you can really tailor
 >  rotations with alot of accuracy and create a great on-air sound.

That's the weakest part of WinAmp, IMHO: The playlists. Very limited & basic.
No timed elements, no pausing, etc. It's either "let 'er rip" mode or manual
playback of each track. (I use manual at work, naturally.)

The strongest part has got to be the price: *Free*. They have a "Pro" version
which is pretty cheap, but I don't need the functionality it offers. (High
speed CD ripping.) I use the Free "CDex" and get very reliable, 
better than 22x,
audio CD rips. Can't beat *that* with a stick.

 > And stable
 >  is not the word for it.. we had one PC on the air that had totally locked
up
 >  (screen... everything..  it was on its last breath) and was STILL playing
 >  out music with OTS.

I would guess perhaps the video driver bit it, but the audio & the player
were still chugging along. I've had strange lockup scenarios a few 
times, too. It
*is* Windows, after all.  Still... my WinAmp jukebox has been superb for
two years and counting.

Willie...