Sounds Playing Over Winamp

[rfinger]

On my old machine, I was able to play Winamp and have any sounds from any other program, such as Instant Messenger and Eudora, be silent while Winamp was playing. Now, I have IMs and mail notification sounds playing over Winamp while I'm playing MP3s. How do you correct this? It has to be a software issue, but I don't know what it is.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

You really can't. It's susposed to do that

RE: How to prevent other sounds from playing simultaneously (eg Windows events)
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=48242
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....324#post351324

[DJ ANTarctic]

Your soundcard may have an option (In Control Panel->Multimedia or Control Panel->System->Multimedia Devices->*Your Soundcard Name Here*) to change how many voices are active. If you set that to just one, then IM's etc should just come out as a little beep through your computer speaker if Winamp is already playing.

[Budgie]

Modern soundcards are able to handle multiple soundstreams at once, even when using the Windows Wave Output . Old soundcards only can do that when using DirectSound Output, which does not do anything else but mixing every soundstreams together before sending them to your soundcard.

You can, of course, bypass that problem by switching off all other applications' sounds while having Winamp play.

Alternatively, get PP's Alternate DirectSound plugin for Winamp. It's a mo bettah output plugin that also offers an Exclusive Mode, which does not mean anything else but using your soundcard solely for Winamp playback.

Just unzip the file called out_ds2.dll in your Winamp/Plugins - directory while Winamp is not open. After doing that, start Winamp and press both CTRL-P to make the Winamp preferences window to appear. Then you go to Plugins -> Output -> doubleclick on Experimental DirectSound output v1.26. A new configuration window should pop up. In there, you should checkmark the option that says Exclusive Mode. When that's done, close all windows and see if your problem is gone .


Peace.

[DJ ANTarctic]

I am one of the unfortunates who has a slow computer and an old soundcard. For once in my lifeI will say what my soundcard is: Sound-Blaster 16.(Don't laugh please...)

Is there any way to make your computer's system sounds run through Direct Sound?

[Budgie]

Hmmm, well, just switch from Wave Output to DirectSound Output in the Winamp preferences -> Plugins -> Output. If that does not work for some reason, you could try PP's Alternative DirectSound Plugin I have linked to in my post earlier. It might work, as the SB 16 does have DirectSound support, as far as I know.

The SB 16 is an old card, consider upgrading. Some places still sell the decent Soundblaster PCI 128 for $20 bucks or so. It's a decent PCI soundcard, nothing special, but good frequency range, S/N ratio, 4 speakers output .


Peace.

[edit]Yay, 700 posts ![/edit]

[=BOK=insaNity]

wave out will depend on 1) your OS - especially 2K/XP will mix sounds
2) Your sound drivers. Even a cheap $5 sound card will often mix sounds when a more expensive one wont.

[DJ Egg]

As previously mentioned above....
There's a way to limit the amount of simultaneous wave playback,
but it all depends on your soundcard & available options.
eg. SBLive/Audigy -> Audio HQ -> Device Controls -> Wave tab:
Adjust the "Maximum Simultaneous Wave Playback" slider.
Options range from 0 to 32
Try setting it to 1 when you're using Winamp.
You can always adjust it back later.

Most other modern soundcards should also have a similar option.

Apart from that, the only other option is to either install some older soundcard drivers or replace your soundcard with an older model which doesn't support multiple audio streams.
It's either that, or temporarily disable the other sounds in the Sounds Control Panel, as explained in the links provided by Sawg above.