Hi, this is a long awaited (although not fully finished) conversion and improvement of my previous updated in_mad plug-in.

The notable new features/fixes (that I can remember from notes) include,
* Re-written/ported to C++ to 'enable' better WA5 compatibility
* Fully Unicode GUI
* Icecast mp3 streaming fixed
* WA5 Global Configuration supported
* Improved basic and advanced editing
* Slightly improved ID3v2.3 support
* 32 bit output uses full internal 28 bit representation
* Advanced-style Basic formatting for WA2
* Non-Unicode backward compatible for WA2 (not fully tested)
* Multi-lingual dialogs (once someone translates!)
* Re-designed APE tag support including Unicode

The playback and EQ backend is mostly the same except ported through to C++ and into a class structure.
However some things are incomplete,
* New Binary editor disabled
* EQU2 tag editing and writing disabled

The latest DLL can be downloaded from http://www.zen23652.zen.co.uk/in_mad_2b.zip.
Source code is now separate from http://www.zen23652.zen.co.uk/in_mad_2b_src.zip

This version is great, most importantly special characters are now displayed properly. Thank you.

As a note, I've only tested this on Windows XP SP2. With the new Unicode interface, I don't know how it will behave on Windows 98. I'd recommend deleting the previous plug-in settings from the registry (after backing them up in case you want to use the previous version) from HKCU\Software\Winamp\MAD Plug-in. There are also now 2 files in the package, both are needed. The in_mad.ini file is actually a file of strings for the dialogs saved in UTF-8 format.

If you used the previous plug-in and don't delete the settings, you'll need to change the Basic title formatting setting back to the new default by deleting whats there in the settings, or copying
into it.

Other than that, I've been sat on this for a while now - just having no time to work on it really. I've been using the Debug version for some time and I hope it will have mostly no problems.

Great work, as usual : ) !

Hi Mo,

first off, thanx a lot for maintaining the plugin ...


Now, I seem to struggle with your new title formatting.

My purpose is to check whether a given tag field is present and print it with additional characters for enhanced formatting and better readability.

With your previous release, I used this syntax:



resulting in playlist entries like this:

01. Deep Purple - 01/10. Money Talks - Rapture Of The Deep - 2005
02. Yello - 11/14. Unreal - The Eye - 2003

where the first numbers are representing their playlist position

...

trying to translate it into the new syntax, I ended up with using $if(A,B,C):




for easier trouble shooting, we could just focus on the first entry:



I expect this to check for a valid artist tag and only if one is found, it prints the artist tag, followed by " - ".

If no tag is found, it shouldn't print anything at all, but unfortunately I get something like this:

01. Deep PurpleDeep Purple - 01/1001/10. Money TalksRapture Of The Deep - Rapture Of The Deep2005 - 2005
02. YelloYello - 11/1411/14. UnrealThe Eye - The Eye2003 - 2003

so effectively all queried and existing tags get printed twice

Would you be so kind and give me a pointer how to solve this or what I'm misunderstanding ?

TIA,
Maggi

OK, that one bug already! I'm uploading a fixed version now.
May I recommend using,

as its a shorter syntax.

Thanks for spotting that! I might get round to finishing other parts soon.

I tried to run Winamp 5.35 under Win98. UTF characters found in the current codepage are displayed correctly, others are replaced with question marks. File Info box is nonfunctional. Preferences box behaves as if the lang pack in_mad.ini would not be there, Prefs dialog is also nonfunctional.

I have not set the Winamp installation directory anywhere, just copied all the files. For some reason winamp can't find whatsnew.txt too. UniCows v1.1.3790.0 is present.

I think compatibility is important with Winamp. If you take that away there is little point using winamp.

True, I was hoping Windows 98 wouldn't have a problem with the Unicode if Unicows was there. When I get chance I'll fire up a virtual machine to have a look. Thanks for testing it, I've not had chance too on other systems.

As another note, as I changed to C++, the development environment I moved to is now Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 C++ Express Edition with the Platform SDK, if anyone wants to have a look in the mean time and feedback.

I just checked to see if Unicows was linked with the DLL, and it wasn't. I've rebuilt it and uploaded it, so maybe now the Windows 98 problem is solved - I've still not had time to test. The current DLL version number is 0.2.0.2.

Thanx a lot, Mo !

I wasn't aware, that I could add random characters into those angled brackets ...

Kudos to you and keep up the good work !
Maggi

Winamp 5.51 on Windows XP.

The new version of this plugin never uses ID3v2 tags for title formatting, it does not matter whether you're using Advanced or Basic. The tags are displayed fine in the info dialog however. It does not make any difference which order the tags are listed

I've created a few test files (15KiB) so this can either be confirmed or I can be told where I'm going wrong. In these files I've set the artist, album, and track title fields to the name of the tag format used; in addition the track number on ID3v2 tags is padded with a 0 which the ID3v1 tags won't have. There are five files in the RAR:
No Tag — Control, Winamp should display the filename, and does.
ID3v1 Only — Winamp should use the ID3v1 tag, and does.
ID3v1 & ID3v2 — Winamp should (under the plugin defaults) use the ID3v2 tag, but the ID3v1 tag is used instead.
ID3v2.3 Only — Winamp should use the tag, but instead displays the filename.
ID3v2.4 Only — In case the problem was in the ID3v2.3 support. Winamp should use the tag, but instead displays the filename.

It's important to not that under ATF mode Winamp will use the media library info in preference to the plugin, which is why the problem may not have been noticed yet, and why I created these tests to remove the media library from the equation.

I've not found any bugs elsewhere yet, keep up the good (and very much appreciated) work.

Edit: More bugs.
The input buffer field accepts 5 characters, but only seems to save the first four.

Also, would it be possible to unlock the file once it's fully buffered (I usually have a buffer large enough for this to always happen straight away) as I'm often cleaning tags on a new batch of MP3s while listening to them and it's a pain having to stop Winamp every time I apply changes.

I've uploaded a fix for the tag reading problem. It was to do with the tag order preferences, under my setup it wasn't showing! I'll fix the buffer dialog later and it should be possible to close the input once the file has been buffered.

Edit: I've also had chance to test Windows 98 compatibility with this last upload, and in my virtual machine it now works fine.

Would there be a way to fix it so when streaming music and the stream fails winamp wont hang ?

Ohh and keep up the good work, this is a great plugin

Hi Domin, in what way does it crash when the stream fails - winamp completely stops responding? I've been testing it by playing back then pulling the network cable out and it goes to the next track silently leaving a message in the File Info box as to why it failed.

I'm slowing messing with it. Cheers for feedback on problems and improvements. I've implemented the file unlock once its been read too and improved the tag read opening/closing files per query, that will be in the next release.

turkish character I,İ,Ş,Ğ ID3V2 not display plase !! thankyou...

I've uploaded another update, this adds support for Winamp new Unified file information box. I've also been messing with other bits and pieces - files are now unlocked once fully buffered and maybe streaming will work better.

Has anyone tried the new format Advanced editors? you click on the field you want to edit and type directly into it. I'm also interested in if the new Unified info box will work properly.

Cheers for all feedback. The version now is 0.2.0.10 .

@kerimcem, can you check that the titles are saved in UTF-16 or UTF-8 format and make sure your using a Unicode compatible winamp.

The latest in_mad now fails to load under Win98. I tried to use WA 2.95 and WA 5.35.

Under my virtual machine on WA 5.35 it works well. I've got Windows 98SE with the UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a. Perhaps the question is what processor is it running on?

EDIT: I can't see any processor specific options under Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition. I'm probably missing them - i'll keep looking.

Select the project file (i.e. not a source file) in the tree view, then menu : " project - properties "

In the new window, unfold "Configuration properties, C++ , code generation".

The option related to processor is "Enable enhanced Instruction set".... Errm...

That's not the option... looks like they removed it.. indeed.

Maybe there is some DLL missing on your system? Here you'll find a dependency checker.

Where can I find out exactly what this plugin is supposed to do? I find lists of added features, but is there anywhere that summarizes what it is for, for those of us who haven't been following its development?

This plug-in is an alternative mp3 decoder plug-in for Winamp, using libmad and libid3tag.

It started off as an improvement of the original in_mad project code (found here) which hadn't been touched since 2001, and lacked some, now basic, functions. The improved code, plug-in and it's details can be found in the thread titled
Updated in_mad Winamp MAD MP3 input plugin. It was more an exercise for me to practise GUI programming, and learn a mp3 decoder - but I added ID3v2 support, APEv2 support, a more advanced tag editor etc. but struggled to get Unicode working.

This new plug-in, is pretty much "new" in terms of the same basic GUI but a re-written C++ backend, giving more chance to support Unicode and making it easily expandable. However, as the latest Winamp is starting to support APEv2 tags I am starting to wonder about its usefulness other than for legacy Winamp versions.

In much older versions of Winamp (before 2.7), the built-in MP3 decoder was not standards-compliant. It cut quite a few corners to be able to run on low-end systems that were the norm in 1997-1998 when Winamp was first being developed. Alternative plugins based on MAD and MPG123 become widely used due to numerous decoding bugs in Winamp. From 2.7 (November 2000), Winamp uses an MP3 decoder created based on Fraunhofer's source code. The alternative plugins lived on because they implemented features not present in Winamp's implementations, such as gapless playback and replay gain.
Since these features are important to me, I started to implement them when I took over maintenance of the product.



Sorry I'm not purposefully trying to eliminate its usefulness

Its nice for the latest Winamp versions to have these features for the people who might not necessarily know what they are or how to enable them, but their encoders provide it and the music is tagged with the information. It all aims to make Winamp sound and function better in the long run.

A new update has been uploaded, mainly GUI bug-fixes for the moment. The version is 0.2.0.12.

@j7n, did you manage to get it working under Win98 on your machine? I'm interested in why its having problems. I've tweaked a few settings in this build but I don't think there is much else I can do. I might dig out the old 400MHz computer from the garage with Win98 on it to test on the real thing.

By the way: can I disable dithering in standard in_mp3 plugin? 'Use dither' checkbox does nothing with mp3.

Thanks for Unicode file/pathname support![hr]
Strange behavior with ReplayGain (plugin versions 0.2.0.4, 0.2.0.12):
MAD can't see (or use) ReplayGain in most files. File contain ReplayGain info (checked in File info->APE->advanced), but nor ReplayGain gain nor Preamp not applied.
Screenshots:
File info->APE->advanced
File info->Statistics
MAD Plugin properities

FILEVERSION 0,2,0,12. I tried Dependency Scanner and it said something about KERNEL32.DLL. Then I installed KernelEx update and now it loads and plays properly. Service Pack v2.1 was installed before but it apparently does not include KernelEx, 48bitLBA, NUSB and some other useful stuff.

Special characters present in active 8-bit codepage are displayed, others are replaced with question marks. This is very nice, cos now that APE is supported I can just upload some of my files managed in Foobar to users who are only familiar with Winamp, and have proper metadata.

Thanks to the updates at MSFN you can have proper Win98 installation on up to i915 at 2.66 GHz and a modern video adapter.

EDIT: Tried again on another computer. Plugin didn't load until KernelEx was installed. No other changes were performed to the system during the test.

I set it up in Mediamonkey and it seems to work fine and sounds great. This may a dumb question but what does resolution do and what should it be set at?

Hey, MoSPDude,

thank you so much for the plugin! Great work!

I just have two questions: when I installed the plugin that can be downloaded here I could pick a 24 bits resolution, now with this new version I cannot! Where is the problem?

Also, why can't ReplayGain be enabled and should I delete these files from the Plugins directory that came in that previous version archive:



Thanks!

Hey, I've uploaded an update to fix the ReplayGain in APE tags. The new version is 0.2.0.14.

The resolution is just the decoder output bit depth - its best left on 16 bit if you use DSP plug-ins, otherwise you can experiment with high bit depths especially if you've got a good soundcard.

@Sylph, are you using WA5.x? If so, you can enable the 24 bit and ReplayGain globally for Winamp playback under Winamp General Preferences -> Playback - or you can disable in_mad from using the playback configuration on in_mad General preference page. Those files can be deleted as well, as they are development files and not needed to use the plug-in, only the 2 files in the main zip.

Are they a part of the .zip file that can be downloaded from the link given above?



Well, I use DFX Audio Enhancer 8.360. Do you think I should leave the depth on 16?



Thank you, MoSPDude, that fixed the problem.

So to install the plugin correctly I should just copy the .dll and .ini files to Plugins directory?

The first link on the main page contains the latest DLLs - it should be two files only, in_mad.dll and in_mad.ini - just copy these to the Winamp plugin folder.

Most DSP plug-ins only support 16 bit resolution and are tuned for that, so I'd leave it at 16 bit. I don't know if DFX Audio Enhancer would support higher.

Cheers for all feedback - and I'll try to fix the bugs that come up .

Thank you for keeping this great plugin/decoder alive!

DFX's site says this:



so I guess they do support 32-bit...

It acts kinda strange here. On some MP3s it shows the artist and track name twice. Unfortunately I couldn't even come close to finding a common characteristic between the files, so I could have any idea what's causing it. It actually seems to copy each value of the following fields of the ID3v2 tag twice: title, artist, album, year, track # and genre. I'm using WinXP Pro SP2, Winamp 5.35 with a classic skin.

Edit: as far as plugins go, DFX isn't even close to Ozone concerning both quality or features but has the same (or was it even just a bit higher) price tag. I also prefer the free Enhancer 0.17 over DFX any day. To me it sounds better, is lighter and is more flexible. Oh, and price is unbeatable.

MoSPDude I love what you have done with this plugin. However I have a little request and I am not sure if you could implement it in your next update.
I noticed that In_mad stores its configurations in the registry. I use in_mad in a portable version of a player I use. Is it possible to make in_mad save its configuration settings inside INI file rather than registry.

Thank You...

Orochi7777

MoSPDude
I'm to using this plugin with another "portable" player and want that he had not kept his settings in the registry
if it will do will be very grateful
thanks! with respect

Has anyone else noticed 'stuttering' with the latest version (0.2.0.14) ? I'm on XP, Winamp 5.52, out_asio (v0.67 SSE2), and E-MU 0404 card. Since switching from your older in_mad plugin to your newer one, I notice that through songs, the music will occasionally stutter / stop. I'm quite sure it's not my computer (quad core), etc. I can play the same song with your old plugin and it works fine, then play it again with your newer v2 plugin and there is stuttering. These are all mp3s. The statistics tab doesn't show any errors either.

Any ideas?

I am also noticing this stuttering. Mine seems to only happen when Winamp is displaying the tag info in the playlist. I am running winamp 5.52 on xp using the default direct sound output.

Hey there

im wonderering a bit, when i play a stream, not an ordinary mp3, only streams, my mouse marker shifts between standard mouse marker and marker with timeglas.
It changes 2 times a second i believe.

Do you need specific info from me ?

/Cromag

edit: At the same time, it looks for me like it has a mem leak ( Maybe just on my box, dont know) . With my normal mpeg decoder winamp take around 8 megs ram. With the mad plugin it runs with 200kb pr second upwards, doesnt end till i kill it.

I'm hoping to get chance to have a play this coming weekend - but I need a bit more information, and a few things for people to try....

@CromagDK - The plug-in could be working hard, possibly in that memory leak situation, and windows will be changing it to busy and back. I need you to disable any DSP and stop any Visualisation first, then see if the situation remains. If it does, please could you make a note of your configuration settings and then delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winamp\MAD Plug-in (if your comfortable - I don't hold any responsibility if you damage the registry!) with Winamp closed, and see if the problem remains after. If it does, then I'm at a loss for ideas on where to start. In all cases - get back to me!

@BSOD2600 and Trainwreck56 - are you using the plug-in with the Winamp global playback config enabled? If so - what is your plug-in priority set to? If not - try setting it to both Highest and Normal. Are you using extras like last.fm or audioscrobbler software?

@_Raziel-BG - First make sure your using the latest plug-in currently 0.2.0.14. Are you using basic or advanced title formatting? I need to know the formatting string in either case. As a start, you could try changing the tag lookup order in the config to see if that changes the situation.

Finally, I was using some XP only commands in the last version to do the input suspend - explaining why KernelEx was needed in Win98 for this version, I've removed and changed the code ready for the next. I have tested it with no KernelEx on my Virtual Machine, and again it works now I'll look into a portable configuation, probably a separate INI.

Cheers all for feedback

EDIT:spelling....

Yes, I am using with Winamp global playback enabled and priority class for Winamp is set at high and your plugin is set to the highest. I am not using any extras as such.


On a side note, although i have updated your plugin it still displays as being 0.15.1 (beta) in the input list. Is this correct? I have tried deleting the in_mad.dll and replacing it with the newest version but to no avail.

Thank you very much for your work, I greatly appreciate it.

MoSPDude
I'm using AIMP player for listening music and your plugin, sound very good.
But for the normal work of the player with your plugin first step is to turn off the "Use Winamp 5.5 unified file information box," and "Enable unicode supporte".
Please make the next version of these default parameters for a more universal use of the plugin with another players
as a picture

Thanks!


be very nice

MosPDude, it was a long reply but I it was worth it.

Thanks again for your time

Yes, I've got both "use winamp 5 playback config" and "use winamp 5.5 unified file info box" enabled. The priority is set to Highest and greyed out, so I can't change it.

Yes, I'm using the Last.fm plugin too, gen_audioscrobbler.dll v1.1.11p7-DrO internal build.

Like a previous poster, I'm also using a large file input buffer so that the whole MP3 is cached in memory. However, contrary to MoSPDude's post that he has added the feature to release the file as soon as buffering is finished, the file handle doesn't get closed and the file cannot be tagged, edited, deleted, etc. But, if you press Pause during play, the handle gets closed, and then you can continue playback from the memory buffer and do whatever you like with the file.

I'm using Winamp 5.52 on Vista x64. No extra audio plugins.

Hi, the 0.15.1 (beta) is correct - its an old name referring to the libmad version used. The actual file version is displayed in the title of the About box.

I assumed that people would be tagging the files in Winamp. When you pause, stop, or open the file information boxes for tag editing it will close the main tag file handle that remains when anything in Winamp (other plugins etc) query the file for tag information. The playback handle will be closed as soon as it has buffered. It was done mainly to speed up the process of reading artist, album etc from one file, rather than closing, opening, and seeking for tags in the same file repeatedly. The problem when I made it close both handles on buffering is that something else would then query it - needing it to be reopened etc. slowing it down again. If its a definite problem, I was thinking about putting it on a timer so the handle will close if nothing asks for file info after a couple of seconds.

Thanks for the reply about the stuttering. I'll have to try a few things to better determine the cause of it. On the memory leak issue, I can't seem to trace a problem down on the internet streaming side - I'll have a better look into it soon, it could be a metadata related issue.

I figured out that the unicode support option has to be unchecked for it to work with winamp 2.9x. After I replaced the title formatting string, everything seems to be fine. Meta-data from VBR mp3 streams from icecast works nicely. Great job!

I noticed the 'choppy' sound thing myself. It seems the output plugin gets starved sometimes when beginning playback. Only happens rarely on streams, I have yet to have it happen on a local file.

It usualy hangs for a few minutes, but latest version seems to fixe it, and i have no of the problems with studdering or mem leaks others mention.

Running on Vista X64 Ultimate.

Hi folks,

I've put up another update - this version is now 0.2.0.20. I hope this addresses some of the previous issues. I've had a look into the memory leak and changed a possible cause. Support for configuration file is included, place it into the plugins folder with everything else - if the file is present it uses that - if not it uses the registry.

I've been too busy lately to do any serious changes. Cheers for your feedback, I hope to get some time over Easter to play!

MoSPDude you are my HERO.
Thank you very much for your hard work, the configuration file is simply awesome.

Thanks Again....

Cheers !!!