Winamp : The Audio Converter

Many know Winamp as the best audio player but only some know it as audio converter. Winamp not only converts audio files but also converts videos into audio files. Winamp convert any audio file it plays into wma, wav, mp3 and more (AC3, ACELP.net, CCITT A-Law, CCITT u-Law, DSP, DTS, GSM, IMA ADPCM, Microsoft ADPCM, Microsoft G.723.1). It converts winamp playable formats (almost all) into any one of these formats.

To convert with Winamp follow these steps.
1. Open Winamp.
2. Click ctrl+P or Options> Preferences from menu bar. This opens winamp preferences window.
3. Scroll down to select Output under plugins.


4. Now select Nullsoft disk writer and click configure.
5. New window opens and there under conversion select convert to format. Click on the button below.


6. This opens another window and there you can select the format you wish. Some formats have low quality settings only, so see for high quality settings under each format. For example, MP3 format has only 56 kbps has highest in winamp where as wma has upto 160 kbps and wav (uncompressed). Now close all the windows by clicking OK or close.

Now that you've set your player as converter, you can start converting now. Play any song you want to convert in winamp. When the song is playing (plays faster than normal) no output is heard because winamp is internally converting the file. By default it saves the converted files into My Music folder. You can change the output folder from the window that described in step4. In this way you can convert any audio or video file into the above listed output formats.

Note : I noticed flv is not being converted, so there may be some more files which winamp cannot convert. But winamp converts majority of its audio and video formats.

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