DSP Spectrum Tool version 2

The only calibrated high-precision 32-bit accuracy real-time professional sonogram/spectrum analyzer for Winamp.

An usual VIS (visualisation) spectrum analyzing plug-in designed for Winamp uses pre-calculated visualisation data derived from Winamp. Anyone who can read Winamp SDK sources may notice that spectrum data Winamp provided to those plug-ins are presented in 8-bit data format. With 8 bits there are only 256 possible data levels could be shown, so there are no acceptable ways to represent these levels in true logarithmic scale. The difference from another spectrum analyzers for Winamp is that DSP Spectrum Tool gets data as DSP (Digital Signal Processing) plug-in and performes its own Fast-Fourier transformation routines in 32-bit double float number format, so spectrum is displayed correctly even at weak signals. Even a masking noise added to any record before CD-mastering is shown!The other key feature of DSP Spectrum Tool is to analyze and detect poorly-coded MP3 files. These files have a noticeable roll-off after 16kHz and they can be easily found by DSP Spectrum Tool.The spectrum may be shown in two different modes - classic and sonogram plots. Classic view has a peak hold feauture with selectable hold time and a spectrum level meter to measure exact level of each spectrum component. Spectrum view allows to analyze continous frequencies changes over time. Both of the plots has a cursor-related marker to show exact frequency cursor stays at.The level meter shows current absolute and RMS (Root-Mean-Square) levels of left and right channels, detects possible clippings occured while playing. Peak hold is also presented.The look and feel of the plug-in are designed to meet original design of Winamp.

Staff review

Allows for very high accuracy and readout... read the author's description for more info... he sums it nicely.

Comments

Doesn't work on modern Winamp versions - No joy in Winamp 5.541 - it's possible, if you switch temporarily back to the original "Winamp Classic" skin, to make this plugins graphic display window appear. But nonetheless, this window steadfastly refuses to display any spectra in response to music, even with the default nullsoft mp3 decoder in place. Also the website for this plugin has been dead for years now, so although you can still register and hand money over for it, it is clearly no longer supported at all.Don't waste your time with this. - October 11, 2008 by Ralph Clark

Excellent! Best for quality examination of mp3-files. - This plugin I use every time I want to examine how good a mp3-file really is. It shows at which frequency it is cut off and sometimes it generates some well locking plots of the running music. Some bugs are killing winamp from time to time, an update would be fine, but never the less both thumbs up. Excellent work! - January 12, 2006 by max blue

Yay! ..or not - I think that this plug-in is realy bad becouse i HATE sharewares. This pice of junk is also very syncronized (or not) if you want it to plot about 8 times faster than the song. It crashed after 10 min of usage for me (i was deperatly trying to fix the poor sync in the prop tab)... Runtime Error 216 at 00DB36AA... The memory could not be read etc etc etc. The software is just a toy that doesn't work. My point is: "I would send money to buy this software when my dog can calculate primes" (and i don't have a dog) - September 19, 2004 by Hannes Landeholm

Ok... - Eh its ok for a program, but lets look into the real world: WHY WOULD YOU ACTUALLY NEED A FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM OF THE LEVELS OF MUSIC? what are you trying to do? impress your friends? This an audiophile's toy, not tool, that does an effect that, to tell you the truth, is kind of unneeded. Space signal analyzers use fast fourier transform procedures to measure frequency peaks. Uhh and are we looking for aliens in our eminem and metallica CD's now? Maybe we can creat a program that will decrypt MP3's and show you what the secret government message that is encoded is! (Actually, i have always wondered what the teletubbies would be saying if you played them backwards, i bet it has to do with saddam hussein!) - July 31, 2003 by Digital Ice

Smart idea, but only for audiophiles with cash and time. - First, this is shareware. I always HATED the concept of shareware plugins... It just doesn't seem right to profite off of someone else's work like that. Anyway, after the annoying registration thing that at least doesn't pester you often at all it doesn't bother you with other things from what I saw so far. For me, it didn't work at all however. Perhaps because I'm using a plugin that gives me 32-bit output for my playback instead of the normal 16-bit mp3 plugin that comes with winamp. That might be confusing things. It just said out of sync and never showed anything for me. Probably with a normal configuration it will work though. Anyway, it was a great idea to add more precision to the analyzer using such a trick and probably more people should try that. If you really care a lot about the precision of your spectrum analyzer to the point that you are probably an audiophile, then this is probably the plugin for you. Oh, and btw, you don't need a high precision plugin to see the effects of crappy encoding. Heck, you can see that with the builtin visualization in winamp. Even if you aren't an audiophile and know nothing about such things you should still notice the difference. For the people that this plugin isn't quite what they are looking for (or doesn't work) also try the "sexy attached analyzer" plugin. (Ok, the name leaves something to be desired, and it's not 32-bit precision, but otherwise quite good.) Someone make a spectrogram for me d-: - May 7, 2003 by Nazo San

pretty good - Its OK but it will jam my computer a lot, and why dose a yellow sign pop up saying "out of sync"? And I think the colors of the voice print need to be more customizable(as in you choose your own colors other than a few presets. Other than that it pretty darn good. - October 30, 2002 by Matthew Rozier

really worth it if you... - if you are editing music and need a real time - no budget analyser it does the trick really fine. I'd say two big thumbs up - September 29, 2002 by Carlos Rodriguez

Don't look any further - Realistic sound tool for real sound engeneers. Period. - May 19, 2002 by Viktor Hara

It works fine! - Everything is more than OK with this excellent plug-in. - May 19, 2002 by Andy Stephens

HELP--Won't display - I've been looking for a program like this. Unfortunately I can't get it to work. I can access the config settings for the plug in, but I can't get it to display any window. HELP PLEASE!! What am I missing here (other DSP plug-ins work fine)??? There's no documentation I can find anywhere.... - May 16, 2002 by robert herzstein

Let me try it... - Ummm, it looks to be good. Let me try it and if I like it, I?ll come back later - March 28, 2002 by David Solano

It COSTS. - 20 BUCKS???!!! - February 15, 2002 by Eduardo Ojeda

i saw the face!!! - once i went to www.aphextwin.nu, and i saw this article, it said "Windowlicker hidden faces. There are hidden faces in the Windowlicker EP..." (i hope i'm not messing with copyright), so i downloaded the program they suggested, but when i saw this for my winamp I HAD TO HAVE IT, so i downloaded and played the second track of the EP, which i have in mp3 format (also on CD), and when the song it's about to end, the face you see on the "DSP Spectrum Tool version 2" is the one that appears... This is true, non urban legends or bullzhit, i can tell ya. So, nevermind my mad review, this thing is great!! - January 26, 2002 by fLim nannou

TECHNICALLY EXCELLENT! - This plug-in is very robust and offers the serious sound engineer and technologist a terrific tool. FFT sampling from 1024, multiple windowing methods...truly a nice add-on. - January 5, 2002 by Dennis Hill

|_+_| - This plug-in didn't have anything to do with Tool. The picture was misleading. I felt unvalidated. Good plug but seemingly not much use for the average winamp user. - December 12, 2001 by Jay Mix

Almost sufficient - Almost sufficient. I can't believe that they want money for this. - October 16, 2001 by Giacomo D.

WOW... - I have dicovered so many interesting things with this plugin! Going to listen and look at my collection of electronic music again... - October 4, 2001 by James Aron

Download now! - Outstanding analyzer for real audio geeks. - October 3, 2001 by Alec Tsoy