Winamp DSP Spectrum Tool

[multimaximus]

Hello! I'm using a plugin "Winamp DSP Spectrum Tool" with an old version of Winamp 5.05. Can you tell me why it's not working with WACUP? A few years ago, I tried to connect it to foobar2000 using the Winamp DSP Bridge, but that was also unsuccessful I use this plugin to check the quality of mp3 files, and it's a very convenient plugin. Unfortunately, the author hasn't supported it for a long time (since 2001), and I haven't found any suitable alternatives. I would be very grateful if you could take a look and provide comments on whether there's any chance of getting it to work. Thanks!

[multimaximus]

Some screenshots

[multimaximus]

Thats the description i've found:

This is a  proffesional spectrum analyzer for winamp.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!

[dro]

From a quick check, the provided dll from the 7z never loads for me even when trying it in non-WACUP installs. Is that meant to be a cracked version of the dll ?

I found the installer version of it (where it's called dsp_tool & not the dsp_tcool though the c is a non-english character from what I could tell) & even with that I can only get it to load in a 2.95 install & it refuses to be loaded by a plain 5.666 or a number of WACUP installs. Under a quick debugger check its

The plug-in dll itself seems to be compressed in some format I've not come across before (not upx but that sort of thing) which might be part of the problem especially with the age of the dll. From what I've seen so far, it might that it's expecting something specific but right now I don't know what especially as the dll loading failure is happening before the WACUP core has even had a chance to try to call it's plug-in instance which makes me have to assume it's likely related to the dll unpacking process that's being attempted.

I will have to come back to this at another time but right now I can't really give a reason for why the dll won't load. I would however like to have WACUP offer some form of spectrogram type of view natively which seems to be how you're using it but it's not a top priority for me to implement for now.

-dro

[multimaximus]

Thank you very much for the response! No, it's not a cracked version of the program. It's the full version from the website, but a serial key has been applied, which the plugin accepts I also tried loading this plugin in AIMP, but also without success. The author apparently did their best in 2001 to protect it to the fullest ) p.s. I have a portable version of Winamp that I use with this plugin...

[dro]

I'm guessing the serial key is stored in the registry or somewhere else then as when I do see the plug-in loading it always nags & then kindly wipes my main playlist to play it's mp3 file (good thing WACUP has a playlist undo feature enabled by default). I quickly tried the above (it's not super portable imho vs what I'd deem to be truly portable) & that won't ever get the plug-in to load.

However, the reason that Winamp after a time & why WACUP out right won't load it is because the plug-in dll due to it's need to unpack itself doesn't work well if DEP/NX-bit handling being applied (aka something that XP SP2 introduced). So it's not something that can be easily fixed as the way the plug-in dll works when being loaded is not compatible with how Windows has been working for the past 19 yrs or so. There might be tools out there that can try to get the decoded dll & then reconstruct it into a dll that could then be patched, etc but that's not something I'm going to try to do nor am I certain if that'd be able to generate a reliably working DEP compatible dll after any additional tweaking (would be more useful using that time to make something equivalent imho).

So that would by why it's not happy in being loaded & it's given me a few things to refine in how I'm dealing with misbehaving plug-in dll loading.

-dro

[multimaximus]

The serial key is stored in the winamp.ini file in tags [DSP Spectrum Tool]. I use this "portable version" from 2012 and never reinstall it, it works, Spectrum tool also works on all systems (with this version of winamp). it's a pity that it's not possible to do anything this plugin has no alternative with the same functionality.

I quickly tried the above (it's not super portable imho vs what I'd deem to be truly portable) & that won't ever get the plug-in to load.

that's strange, it works for me on my laptop (and on others laptops where i tried it)

[dro]

It's probably due to the non-english character in the plug-in filename. If I change it to just be dsp_tool.dll then it will work in the above example install. It however doesn't avoid the issue that if it's run under a process that's got DEP/NX-bit enabled it's going to mess-up & I'm not going to change how WACUP is built to disable that. I did mention that there are things that can be done but it's not something I've got the time to commit to doing when I've got so many other things already on my todo list including trying to get WACUP to the point of being able to offer a new preview build. I appreciate that it's a plug-in you like & I can see it's usefulness, this is just one of those things were very old winamp plug-ins can be a headache to try to keep going.

-dro