This guide is intended as a sequel to the “improve your music playback†guide i posted previously.In this one , I plan to focus on the various DSP's that are available for winamp,and then a few other enhancements. One difference is that a lot of the s/w mentioned in the guide are NOT free ware, so please do not ask me for cracks etc. Such requests will not be entertained. Try out the demo versions to which I've linked. One major difference between this and my previous guide is that this is intended more for those who want to change the way their music sounds , unlike the previous guide which was written for those who wanted to make the music pure. The methods mentioned in this guide will make the music sound way different to what the recording engineer wanted it to sound.
First of all, a few short explanation of the concepts involved.
the most basic
high pass filter.
its basically a treble control(actually the reverse is true) it lets only the high frequencies pass through, and gives an amount of gain
low pass filter
just like a high pass filter, but for low frequencies, so works on the bass.
band pass filter
lets only a select band of frequencies pass through. has an upper and lower cutoff frequency
the graphical equalizer.
It splits the entire audio spectrum into a number of bands , each of which can be amplified or attenuated as you choose. it is called a graphical eq , as the frequency response of the eq can be determined visually looking at the position of the sliders. its the easiest to use for beginners , as the whole concept it easy to understand. however, despite being easy to use, it is not very easy to get fine control of the sound using a graphical eq.
Parametric eq
in it , instead of a number of filters at fixed intervals, there are 3 or 4 filters, each with adjustable center frequency, Q(width/slope of the filter) and gain. These are most widely used in professional circles as they allow fine and precise control of the sound.. in addition to the ones at the center. there are also two filters at the ends of the spectrum, a high pass and a low pass filter
Compressors/ normalization
how many times have you listened to a movie , turning up the volume at low volumes, and turning down the volume at the loud scenes?. a normalizer does just that. it is used to fit the sound between a given range of loudnesses.often, it is used in rock recordings to make the music sound very loud.It also come in useful when your speakers are not very powerful, and cannot handle the full power of some peaks in music
Reverberation
basically a series of echoes that simulate a listening environment. greater the echo delay, the more spacious a room seems to be. the reverberation time denotes the time it takes for the sound to decay
Stereo Widening
In this technique, a little of one channel is subtracted from the other channel.It is claimed to compensate for the around the ear leakage of sound. it makes the music sound more spacious
so far Its been straightforward textbook DSP theory, but now we go into a bit of black magic which is what claims to enhance the music playback.
Exciters
From Wikipedia
Either way, I'll try to simplify it 
basically excitation involves creation of higher frequency content from lower frequency content. instead of equalizers which boost the high frequencies , and the associated noise, exciters derive the signal from lower in the sound spectrum. they utilize the inherent redundancies in sound.this is because sound consists of one fundamental frequency and its harmonics. by boosting the harmonics of low frequencies, the bass is made to appear deeper. this is used for ex, in SRS trubass. the same technique , when applied to high frequencies, increases the perceived clarity of the sound. also, adding even harmonics to sound is considered to make the sound more pleasing and giving it a 'tube sound' feel
[BREAK=DSP's]
Note: Remember to turn the Winamp EQ OFF for best results while using DSP
Enhancer
Its a free plugin for winamp, and a lot of my friends claim having some sucess with it , but to me it sounded worse on my setup, but on small speakers, they do make the bass sound louder.
Type:Freeware
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: free dsp , enhances playback on most low end systems , free, so a try wouldnt hurt
Recommended for : People with small speakers , woofers < 6 inches
Jammix:
The first plugin i ever fell in love with :ashamed: this thing can coax insane amounts of bass from your speakers. there are controls , and then some MORE :S controls to fine tune your bass. this plugin is all about bass
hyeah: hyeah: hyeah:
Type:Freeware
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: If you're a bass freak, and if your speakers are good enough, jammix is THE dsp to usehyeah: hyeah:
Recommended : for floorstanders, woofers >= 8 inches
I am not responsible for any damage you get trying jammix on lesser speakers.
DFX..
IMHO this is a POS dsp with zillions of skins, but otherwise infinitely crappier than the other dsp's in this page. but because of its looks and the fact that its bundled with almost every magazine cd, most have heard of it . at least I give credit to it for pouplarizing the fact that there ARE winamp dsp's at all
Type:Trial
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: pretty (but) lame
Recommended: for looks alone
Izotope Ozone
a very expensive plugin, but worth it IMO. the looks are not just gimmicks , but actually aid its usablity, especially what izotope calls its "paragraphic"(parametric+ graphic) Eq. I especially like the treble enhancement in this plugin, and it was the last dsp i used before i found the purist path . if you think the options on this arent enough, you should use the full 64 bit directx plugin version mine izotope is a slightly pimped 'blue' LED version i made with resource hacker btw
Type:Trial
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: great sound , easy to use and slick interface, but pricey
Recommended : for those with good speakers, especially those with a good top end, also headphones
Now for a different type of s/w
SRS audio sandbox
This is for those of you who have a surround setup, but are perpetually complaining that there is no surround material available. this utility installs itself as a virtual sound card, and you can make any device play back through it. it offers a lot of surround processing which usually does not come with low end multi channel solutions.try listening to a movie in circle surround. watch the sound pan all around the speakers:hap2: But the thing is that , for some it might seem excessive and unreal, like ping pong surround , which is generally not held in good regard. I tried listening to the intro of the song ""secret of sucess" from the movie "boys" and the singers vocals were correctly played in the center, and the audience voice from the rear. my entire class confirmed this when i played this as a demo for a seminar in class:rofl: . but to me it sounds a bit grainy though, but that shouldnt be noticable on a cheap 5.1
Type:Trial
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/sas-plugin.asp
Verdict: impressive(but sometimes excessive ) panning, variety of modes, works with all sorts of sources. ( think it even works with games... not sure )
Recommended : for entry level and mid end surround speakers, onboard 5.1/7.1, and for impressing noobs :bleh:
thats it from me for now.. I'm sorry i couldnt explain every control in detail ( i wanted to
) but once you learn one , the controls are pretty much the same , only with different names .If you have any doubts, do ask
First of all, a few short explanation of the concepts involved.
the most basic
high pass filter.
its basically a treble control(actually the reverse is true) it lets only the high frequencies pass through, and gives an amount of gain
low pass filter
just like a high pass filter, but for low frequencies, so works on the bass.
band pass filter
lets only a select band of frequencies pass through. has an upper and lower cutoff frequency
the graphical equalizer.
It splits the entire audio spectrum into a number of bands , each of which can be amplified or attenuated as you choose. it is called a graphical eq , as the frequency response of the eq can be determined visually looking at the position of the sliders. its the easiest to use for beginners , as the whole concept it easy to understand. however, despite being easy to use, it is not very easy to get fine control of the sound using a graphical eq.
Parametric eq
in it , instead of a number of filters at fixed intervals, there are 3 or 4 filters, each with adjustable center frequency, Q(width/slope of the filter) and gain. These are most widely used in professional circles as they allow fine and precise control of the sound.. in addition to the ones at the center. there are also two filters at the ends of the spectrum, a high pass and a low pass filter
Compressors/ normalization
how many times have you listened to a movie , turning up the volume at low volumes, and turning down the volume at the loud scenes?. a normalizer does just that. it is used to fit the sound between a given range of loudnesses.often, it is used in rock recordings to make the music sound very loud.It also come in useful when your speakers are not very powerful, and cannot handle the full power of some peaks in music
Reverberation
basically a series of echoes that simulate a listening environment. greater the echo delay, the more spacious a room seems to be. the reverberation time denotes the time it takes for the sound to decay
Stereo Widening
In this technique, a little of one channel is subtracted from the other channel.It is claimed to compensate for the around the ear leakage of sound. it makes the music sound more spacious
so far Its been straightforward textbook DSP theory, but now we go into a bit of black magic which is what claims to enhance the music playback.
Exciters
From Wikipedia
psst, don't think I'm being lazy quoting wikipedia, cuz i wrote the entire wiki article anyway
Either way, I'll try to simplify it basically excitation involves creation of higher frequency content from lower frequency content. instead of equalizers which boost the high frequencies , and the associated noise, exciters derive the signal from lower in the sound spectrum. they utilize the inherent redundancies in sound.this is because sound consists of one fundamental frequency and its harmonics. by boosting the harmonics of low frequencies, the bass is made to appear deeper. this is used for ex, in SRS trubass. the same technique , when applied to high frequencies, increases the perceived clarity of the sound. also, adding even harmonics to sound is considered to make the sound more pleasing and giving it a 'tube sound' feel
[BREAK=DSP's]
Note: Remember to turn the Winamp EQ OFF for best results while using DSP
Enhancer
Its a free plugin for winamp, and a lot of my friends claim having some sucess with it , but to me it sounded worse on my setup, but on small speakers, they do make the bass sound louder.
Type:Freeware
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: free dsp , enhances playback on most low end systems , free, so a try wouldnt hurt
Recommended for : People with small speakers , woofers < 6 inches
Jammix:
The first plugin i ever fell in love with :ashamed: this thing can coax insane amounts of bass from your speakers. there are controls , and then some MORE :S controls to fine tune your bass. this plugin is all about bass
hyeah: hyeah: hyeah:
Type:Freeware
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: If you're a bass freak, and if your speakers are good enough, jammix is THE dsp to use
hyeah: hyeah: Recommended : for floorstanders, woofers >= 8 inches
I am not responsible for any damage you get trying jammix on lesser speakers.
DFX..
IMHO this is a POS dsp with zillions of skins, but otherwise infinitely crappier than the other dsp's in this page. but because of its looks and the fact that its bundled with almost every magazine cd, most have heard of it . at least I give credit to it for pouplarizing the fact that there ARE winamp dsp's at all
Type:Trial
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: pretty (but) lame
Recommended: for looks alone
Izotope Ozone
a very expensive plugin, but worth it IMO. the looks are not just gimmicks , but actually aid its usablity, especially what izotope calls its "paragraphic"(parametric+ graphic) Eq. I especially like the treble enhancement in this plugin, and it was the last dsp i used before i found the purist path
. if you think the options on this arent enough, you should use the full 64 bit directx plugin version mine izotope is a slightly pimped 'blue' LED version i made with resource hacker btw
Type:Trial
WINAMP.COM | Plug-ins
Verdict: great sound , easy to use and slick interface, but pricey
Recommended : for those with good speakers, especially those with a good top end, also headphones
Now for a different type of s/w
SRS audio sandbox
This is for those of you who have a surround setup, but are perpetually complaining that there is no surround material available. this utility installs itself as a virtual sound card, and you can make any device play back through it. it offers a lot of surround processing which usually does not come with low end multi channel solutions.try listening to a movie in circle surround. watch the sound pan all around the speakers:hap2: But the thing is that , for some it might seem excessive and unreal, like ping pong surround , which is generally not held in good regard. I tried listening to the intro of the song ""secret of sucess" from the movie "boys" and the singers vocals were correctly played in the center, and the audience voice from the rear. my entire class confirmed this when i played this as a demo for a seminar in class:rofl: . but to me it sounds a bit grainy though, but that shouldnt be noticable on a cheap 5.1
Type:Trial
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/sas-plugin.asp
Verdict: impressive(but sometimes excessive ) panning, variety of modes, works with all sorts of sources. ( think it even works with games... not sure )
Recommended : for entry level and mid end surround speakers, onboard 5.1/7.1, and for impressing noobs :bleh:
thats it from me for now.. I'm sorry i couldnt explain every control in detail ( i wanted to
) but once you learn one , the controls are pretty much the same , only with different names .If you have any doubts, do ask 