An Evaluation Of Nullsoft Winamp Essay Research

Paper

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high fidelity music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV and other audio formats. Winamp also supports custom interfaces called skins, audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. Nullsoft also provides a high quality website at http://www.winamp.com. The Winamp homepage provides support, information, software downloads, and music downloads for Nullsoft?s music products. Winamp is a high quality music player for your personal computer.

The first thing to look for when considering a program to play music on your computer is sound quality. Nullsoft Winamp has the ability to play CD quality sound from MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV and other audio formats. Winamp has a ten band graphic equalizer and built-in pre-amplifier that allows the user greater control over sound quality even before the music passes through a sound card or speakers. If you are not comfortable with changing the equalizer settings yourself, Winamp has hundreds of preset settings which are categorized by music type. Examples of this include Jazz, Rock, Reggae, and many more. Winamp users even have the ability to create and save song-specific pre-amplifier and equalizer settings.

Another important factor in choosing a music program for your computer is customizable features. Winamp meets this criterion well. The ability to customize your music player makes the program easier to use. The user has the ability to make a ?Play list? from the music files that are stored on the hard drive of the user?s computer. Play lists are easy to load and are not difficult to create. The Nullsoft Winamp website has a Plugin and Skin collection available for downloads to further customize your copy of Winamp. There are hundreds of different plugins and skins to choose from. Plugins for Winamp range from audio visualization oscilloscopes to audio effects like distortion and surround sound. Skin categories range from different colors to cartoons and artwork. Technically advanced users can even create their own skins.

Customer service and technical support services are important with any product, especially when a user is unfamiliar with the product. The Winamp program can be difficult to learn and use without some instruction. However, Nullsoft Winamp provides a stable and easy to navigate website that includes many helpful services. Customer service and technical support are available through chat and via email from the Winamp homepage. Customers have the ability to read step-by-step instructions on how to use Winamp and all of its custom features by clicking on easy to see links. Nullsoft also provides free downloads of Winamp and upgrades whenever they become available. Plugin and skin downloads are not only available from the Winamp website, but from hundreds of other sites on the Internet. To find Winamp on the Internet, just search for the keyword ?Winamp? on the search engine of your choice. All Winamp products are considered freeware and, as the title suggests, free of charge.

Nullsoft Winamp is a versatile music player for your personal computer. It has the ability to process several sound file types including MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV, and other audio formats. Winamp has many customizable features. Users have the ability to create their own play lists, and the Nullsoft Winamp homepage has hundreds of skins and plugins to choose from. Skins and Plugins are also available from various websites on the Internet. Winamp may be slightly difficult to learn to use, but customer service and technical support are easily available from the Nullsoft Winamp homepage. Winamp is an excellent music player for your computer.