Thursday, 02 May 2019

When I play MP3 files, can I mix one song into another ?

If you just want the songs to merge together somewhat, with a new song coming up as the old one fades away, you can use the Nullsoft Cross-Fader Plugin, which you can download from www.winamp.com under Plugins / Effects. You’ll probably need to get the new version of Winamp also – but that’s alright, it’s free now. And BTW, when you download and install the Cross-Fading Plugin, oddly enough the cross-fading effect seems to be turned off at first – go to Preferences (Ctrl-P), select Output, and then select the Cross Fader Plugin, then press the Configure button… now check the «No gaps on stop or next» box to activate the cross-fading effect. BTW, I find the cross-fading plugin is just generally a better output plugin than the default Wave Out plugin, even if you don’t want the cross-fading effect… it manages priorities better, and plays under load without stuttering better, and it gives you more control over the playing parameters (buffer size, read ahead, block-size can
all be set manually).

Now if you’re a purest DJ type and you actually want the beats of the songs synchronised, well the cross-fading plugin won’t do that. There is a program called Virtual Turntables, from a company called Carrot, that will allow you to do actual DJ type effects going from one MP3 song to another… but it’s essentially for DJing type uses, and requires manual control. Also it’s not free, although I think there is a trial version…

There is also a Winamp plugin available free from www.winamp.com which blends each song into the next on a playlist (it doesn’t match beats or anything through). It’s called the Nullsoft Cross Fading Plugin (experimental), and I believe you’ll find it under Plugins / Effects. BTW, oddly enough the «cross fading» effect is disabled when you install the plugin – select it as your output plugin, press the Configure button, and check the box for «No gaps on stop or next» to enable cross fading.

Another program that I haven’t actually tried is Visiosonic’s PCDJ at (available from www.mp3masterlist.com/sw/). It’s supposedly an MP3 player which also let’s you «mix two tracks like a DJ».

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