Copyright © Olli Parviainen 2000-2003

• What Is Winamp
• Does Anyone Still Use Winamp
• Winamp 2.81
• Is Winamp Still Available

Visit the PaceMaker home page for more information & updates : http://www.surina.net/pacemaker

1. Introduction

Program Information of Winamp 2.81 Standard. Version Name: Winamp 2.81 Standard. File Size: 1.13 MB. Released Date: 21 August, 2002 (19 years ago) MD5 Checksum. Download: Nullsoft Winamp 2.81 Full (1.76MB) Meer info op Classic.winamp.com. About the Author. Thomas De Maesschalck. Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets.

PaceMaker is a component (plug-in) for Winamp3 player, enabling controlling the sound tempo, pitch and playback rate independetly from each other. That is, with PaceMaker it's possible to:

• Speed up or slow down the music tempo without affecting the music key (pitch)
• Change the music key (pitch) without affecting the tempo
• Change the music playback rate as if a vinyl record was played at a higher or lower rate than rated

The 'alpha' version means that this is a test release with still incomplete set of features. Please read a notice about future plans.

A leaked version of Winamp 5.8 recently spread over the Internet. Consequently, we have decided to make this new version available to you, revised by us. We therefore recommend that you download this version rather than any other as we guarantee it is safe for you to use. This version is not an ongoing project but be sure that we are currently. Must be cool but. It must be cool because I always like what analogX does. But it doesn't work at all in winamp 2.81 (it's the version I have). The plugin doesn't even show up in the Preferences window! Maybe the author should think of an update because maybe it worked with former versions of winamp.? - April 3, 2003 by Tristan DANIEL. After 2.81, if you are running WinAmp, and run any program that changes screen resolutions (games, etc), when you exit back to your desktop, WinAmp is in the middle of your screen, it won't stay docked where you left it. This is a bug from 2.82 to 5.02. So, pick your favorite plugins, and run 'em in 2.81.

2. System requirements

• PC with a 233 Mhz CPU or faster (see the troubleshooting section if you have too slow PC).
  
• Winamp player v3.0 or later. The Winamp player can be downloaded for free at www.winamp.com . Please notice that this version of PaceMaker isn't compatible with Winamp v2.x player; there's however another version of PaceMaker for Winamp v2.x that's available at the PaceMaker home page.
  
• Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP or compatible

3. Activation & Uninstallation

• To enable PaceMaker, click the 'PM' icon on Winamp3 'Thinger' window (see picture beside). The PaceMaker window should now appear on your desktop.
  
• If the 'Thinger' window isn't visible, click the Nullsoft logo at corner of the Winamp3 window to show the Thinger.
  
• To close the PaceMaker window, either click the close icon at corner of the PaceMaker window title bar or click again the 'PM' icon on Winamp Thinger.
  
• To permanently uninstall PaceMaker from your computer, locate the file 'pacemaker.wac' at your Program FilesWinamp3Wacs directory and delete it.

4. PaceMaker control window

• Control the Tempo, Pitch & Playback Rate settings by moving the sliders or pushing the -/+ buttons at the right-hand side of the sliders.
• Adjustment ranges are currently -50%..+100% for Tempo & Playback Rate and -12 .. +12 half-steps for Pitch (i.e. semitones, 1/12th of an octave).
• Pushing the 'Disable' or 'Enable button will temporarily disable/enable PaceMaker sound tweaking effects.
• Pushing the 'Reset' button resets the controls to zero settings.
• Pushing the 'Help' button displays help file (this page).

What Is Winamp

Usage tips

The sliders can be fine-adjusted with the mouse wheel or keyboard, just activate the desired slider first by clicking it (or its label) with a mouse button or use the 'tab' key to switch between the sliders. The currently active slider is indicated with green color.

• The Mouse wheel adjusts the active slider in small steps.
• The arrow keys on the keyboard adjust the active slider in small steps.
• The Page Up/Down keys adjust the active slider in larger steps.
• The Home key resets the current slider to center position.

5. Known issues

• There's a delay of a couple of seconds before the music reacts to changes made in PaceMaker control window : There are basically two causes for the problem:

Does Anyone Still Use Winamp

• Winamp3 cross-fader causes a delay of several seconds. To eliminate this delay, disable the cross-fading by clicking the button with an 'X' symbol on Winamp3 main window.
• Winamp buffers sound data for a couple of seconds to prevent skips under heavy system load. If you find the delay annoying, go to Winamp3 preferences and reduce the 'Buffer Size' setting in audio/DirectSound configuration page.

Winamp 2.81

• Winamp3 crashes when changing Winamp skin if PaceMaker window has been active. This appears to be a bug in Winamp v3.0. Nullsoft may fix it some day, but at the meantime the issue can be circumvented by using the following procedure when changing skins:

1. Close PaceMaker window
2. Restart Winamp3
3. Change skin
4. Open PaceMaker window

6. Troubleshooting & FAQ

Is there an expiration time limit in PaceMaker3?

No, this version doesn't have a time limit. There was an expiration date in the first alpha release of PaceMaker3, but it was removed because it's likely that this is also the last version of PaceMaker3 component for Winamp3 for the time being due to suspending of Winamp3 player development work by Nullsoft.

PaceMaker doesn't work with audio CD's played in my CD-ROM station.

PaceMaker processes the sound data that Winamp3 passes through it. If PaceMaker doesn't affect your audio CD's, ensure that 'Enable CD audio extraction' is checked in 'Audio CD Settings' page of Winamp preferences. If this doesn't help, it may also be that your CD-ROM drive can't extract audio data in binary format.

The music has breaks / My PC is too slow

Winamp3 requires quite a lot more CPU muscles than the good old Winamp2. If you have an older PC with say 150..300Mhz processor, you might be better off with the older Winamp version. You'll find Winamp 2.81 at classic.winamp.com and PaceMaker for that version at the PaceMaker page.

Is it possible to use PaceMaker routines in own applications / Is there a command-line tool for processing audio files in batch mode

Yes it is; Please contact the author if you'd wish to receive the source codes or otherwise have more information.

Please notice that I've released an open-source library having similar DSP routines than PaceMaker that can be used for doing sound processing in own applications. See the SoundTouch page for source codes and more details.

There have been queries on how the PaceMaker's DSP algorithms work; I've planned to write a description of the algorithms for quite some time, but have so far been too busy to compelete that. Will do so some day, hopefully...

7. Planned work

Notice concerning Winamp3 future: Nullsoft (the group developing Winamp) has obviously suspended Winamp3 development project. Unless Winamp3 development will be resumed, it's infeasible to continue developing PaceMaker component for a dying player platform, and in this light this will be the last PaceMaker component release for Winamp3 player for the time being. Future work among PaceMaker will concentrate around Winamp2 or some other actively developed player platform.

Original plans for the PaceMaker3 improvements included:

Is Winamp Still Available

• Storing current slider settings at exit or for each song if so desired
• GUI improvements (windowshade mode, distinct steps in slider movement, accept long clicks on +/- buttons)
• Configurable slider scales, precisions
• Support for 8bit audio

8. License & Warranty

The PaceMaker is provided 'as is' without any external support or warranty. This software can be used and further distributed for non-commercial purposes. When distributing the software, all files in the original installation package have to be included and kept unchanged. The software can be distributed as a part of a program collection or a publication, as far as no other payment is demanded except for reasonable delivery costs.

Use of PaceMaker plug-in module or the source code as a part of a commercial product without author's permission are prohibited. Please contact author for further details.

The author won't take any responsibility for mental or social problems the software may cause.

9. Contact information

Check for updates at the product home page http://www.surina.net/pacemaker.

The author can be contacted at <oparviai @ iki.fi>. When reporting bugs or missing features, please notice the above comment about the Winamp3 player future.