Step 2: Setting The Output

Now that you have opened the preferences dialogue, click on the item to the left side of the dialogue labeled "Output" under the Plug-ins category.

This part is pretty much up to you depending on the sound you want. If you select the standard "waveOut output", you will experience minor moments of silence in between songs. You do not want to select the options labeled "Nullsoft WMA Output plug-in" or "Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in" as these will create copies of the songs you attempt to play in different file formats on your hard drive.

Our recommendation would be to use the "DirectSound output" or the "Nullsoft Crossfading Output" but for the purposes of this tutorial we will be using the DirectSound output.

Note: if you do not have a soundcard installed on your computer, you will need to select the "Nullsoft NULL Output Plug-In" which will allow you to stream the music without getting error messages because Winamp was unable to find a soundcard. If you wish to follow along with the tutorial, select the plug-in labeled "DirectSound output".

Step 3 →