It is great and it is FREE!!! There aren't many words I love more than FREE. Except when you combine the word with awesome.

First of all, let me tell you a little about what Winamp is. It is an audio player for the computer. That means it can play all types of audio, including: MP3,2,1, wma, MJF, as, VOC, WAV, CDA, IT, XM, S3M, STM, MOD, DSM, FAR, ULT, MTM, 669, MID, m3u, pls. Even though I cant tell you what half these formats are, I am sure you know what MP3s are. That is what I use Winamp for, and there for what I will review on.

When one has a large amount of MP3s in a file that one wants to randomize and play, Winamp does the best job. Other players (like Yahoo's player and Windows' Media player 7.0) out there get bogged down when trying to organize 100+ files. I currently run 450+ songs in a randomizer and Winamp handles them perfectly. All I do is tell Winamp which file the songs are in by 'adding file,' click the 'shuffle' button and sit back for hours and hours and hours of listening enjoyment.

That brings me to my next point. Winamp is very user friendly. If the user has only a little bit of computer experience, operating Winamp will come very natural and he/she will have all the necessary and extra gadgets figured out after only a few days.

Another cool thing about Winamp is all of its extras, such as skin changer, preprogrammed E.Q. and visual plug-ins.

The skin changer allows one to change the look of the Winamp window from it's 'computery' look. One can go to Winamp.com and download ANY skin he/she could imagine (I have mine set to a nice Simpsons theme). It is even possible to set Winamp up to change its skin every time it is launched for a little variety.

The preprogrammed E.Q. lets the listener customize the listening experience by selecting one of the seventeen different selections; which include: Classical, Club, Dance, Full Bass, Full Bass & Treble, Full Treble, Laptop Speakers / headphones, Large Hall, Live, Party, Pop, Reggae, Rock, Ska, Soft, Soft Rock, or Techno. If the desired listening experience is not preprogrammed, it is easy to adjust the E.Q. to the listener's taste and save the setting.

Finally, Winamp allows the listener to see the music in a way he/she never has before. With the visualization plug-ins, one can see many different things synchronized with the music/sounds he/she is listening to. These could range from very freaky to very calm and cool to very silly to very peaceful.

It is with a heavy heart that I have to tell Bill Gates that he will never get me to use his crummy, sluggish, very slow and hard to operate player, because Winamp is the bomb and only keeps getting better. If you are a digital music fan like I am, Winamp it the only way to go.




Recommended: Yes