There are several different ways of converting chiptunes (usual format of chiptunes are Xm & Mod) files to MP3 format. My preferred method is using a program called Winamp media player by Nullsoft. This can be downloaded for free on there web-site here. When you install Winamp it should already come with plugins, But If it doesn’t then don’t worry because the important plugin that we want to use is called ‘out_disk.dll’ and can be obtained here. If you already have the plugin then you dont need to read this next bit. Once you have installed Winamp, go to the folder where you installed Winamp to and there will be a directory folder called ‘plugins’, all you need to do is paste the ‘out_disk.dll into the plugins folder.

Now we have the plugin installed we want to fire up Winamp. Once Winamp has loaded right click on Winamp player and find ‘options’ then follow it across, this will lead you to ‘preferences’ click on preferences. I short way of doing this is fire up Winamp and then just press ‘CTRL P’ this will get you to the same place.

Once you have clicked on preferences, you should see a box like this. On the left hand side you should see a list of different topics. Using the scroll bar, scroll down until you see a topic header called ‘Plug-ins’. When you have found this click on the option called ‘Output’.

Once you have clicked on the ‘output’ option you will see this box appear. Click once on ‘Nullsoft disk writer plug-in v2.11’ then click the configure button at the bottom left of the box. 

After clicking on the configure button you should be presented with a box like this. Ignore the left hand side of the screen. You need to tick the enabled box, then specify a suitable location for your converted files to go.

Once you have done that close down Winamp. Now look for the files that you want to convert (*.Mod or *.Xm) and enqueue them all in Winamp. Now when you click on play instead of Winamp playing the track with sound it writes it to the hard disk (in your specified folder location). What Its doing is converting your track into its default format which is a wav file. This is good news because ‘wav’ format are supported by nearly every single audio converter out there.

 Before you click play I would recommend that if you have shuffle/randomized turned on you might want to turn it off. I say this because when Winamp is writing to the disk if randomized/shuffle is turned on then it might pick the same track twice and write the track twice to the hard disk, this would be annoying. Also if Winamp is converting the tracks in order it is easier to see which ones Winamp has done, so by turning randomize/shuffle off I think saves a lot of hassle.

Once Winamp has finished if you look in the folder that you selected as your output folder you will have a nice array of files that end in the format wav. This is cool because now you can practically use any audio converter and convert your wav’s to mp3’s or any other format that you might want. If you come across an ‘audio converter’ that doesn’t support wav format then the authors should be ashamed!! lol. I personally use “Xilisoft’s Audio Converter” that suits me fine.

Once you have done all of the converting, you need to select Winamp’s original settings on the plugin’s menu.This basically means that we just need to go into Winamp’s options - preferences - Plug-ins - output (If you cant remember how to get there, then click on this link and it will take you back up the page) and then select the ‘direct-sound output v2.43’ plugin. This plugin is directly above the ‘Nullsoft Disk Writer’ plugin. By selecting the ‘direct-sound output v2.43’ plugin this means that Winamp will now play the files with sound instead of writing the file to the disk.  

That’s it we are done now. I hope that it wasn’t to complicated :-)