TVE v1.0 - Volume Equalization v1.0 for WinAMP
July 16, 1998
DLL and readme.txt Copyright 1998, 
Jon Woodring
woodring.8@osu.edu

[--------------------------------------------]
[                                            ]
[ Distribute freely, but include this readme ]
[ with the main DSP plug-in.  This package   ]
[ (meaning the TVE DSP DLL and this readme)  ]
[ may not be distributed with any commercial ]
[ package or any CD-ROM collection, archive, ]
[ or distribution that is sold.              ]
[                                            ]
[ Meaning: This is freeware, and you're not  ]
[ going to get any money out of this.        ]
[                                            ]
[--------------------------------------------]

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[                                            ]
[ DISCLAIMER:                                ]
[ I take no responsibility for the damage of ]
[ any components (hardware or software) that ]
[ are influenced by the operation of this    ]
[ WinAMP plug-in.  Use at your own risk.     ]
[                                            ]
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What is this plug-in?

 This is a DSP (digital signal processing) plug-in that
 equalizes the volume in your playbacks, so that loud
 samples are turned down and soft samples are turned up and
 they basically sound the same.

What for?
 So you don't have to fiddle with the volume all the time.

Oh, I see.  So how do I install it?
 1) Copy the dsp_tve_v1.0.dll to the WinAMP plug-in directory.
 2) Under the WinAMP Preferences->Plug-ins tab, under Sound Processing
    select TVE DSP v1.0.  Volume Equalization v1.0 should appear
    in the module.
 3) The default settings at first should be suitable for playback,
    though I suggest turning down your speakers to be on the safe side,
    in case of noise.
 4) Hit OK, and try playing something.  It might not be directly 
    noticeable at first, it's sort of subtle.

Well, that was easy enough.  I want to fiddle with it.
 Go back to WinAMP Preferences->Plug-ins tab and hit the configure
 button next to the Volume Equalization v1.0 drop-down.

 Before adjusting anything, I suggest turning down speakers to a safe
 level to prevent damage.

 Volume Scaling Factor-
  adjusts the overall scaling factor of the volume in real time
  turning it up too far may cause noise, distortion, sound clipping,
  and/or damage to your audio equipment

 Cutoff Samples-
  cuts off scale factors for the processing (like zeros and such)
  turning it up or down reduces the amount that the playback scale
  factor is based on

 Sample Window Frames
  the amount of playback that is used to determine the scale factor
 
 Sliding Window
  if checked, the sample window is a sliding window, meaning that, 
  it will continually determine the volume scale factor
  if not checked, once the sample window is filled, it will use
  a constant volume scale factor for the whole playback

 Sample Window Filled (effected by the Sample Window Frames slider)
  a read out of how much of the Sample Window Frames are filled

 Percentage Samples Used (effected by the Cutoff Samples)
  shows how much of the playback is used for determining the scale
  factor

 Effective Scaling Factor
  how much the playback is turned up by or down by

 Restart
  restart the DSP, or start it

It doesn't seem to work right, or at all.
 Try adjusting the configuration, or possibly the difference in your
 samples are pretty much the same.  I also don't guarantee this works
 at all.  Though I use it all the time, and it seems to work for me.

HELP! My computer is freezing up!
 I don't know if this will happen to you or not, but this plug-in
 does need quite a bit of horsepower on 1.81 and memory (on all versions).
 If so, this plug-in just may not work for you, due to slow CPU
 or memory requirements.  Though in future versions of this DSP,
 I may "fix" the memory requirement.

Anything else?
 -To be honest, I'm not exactly certain if this is a correct
  "real-world" way of processing and modifying audio data to
  equalize volumes.  Any EE majors or DSP engineers that would
  like to provide me with real world algorithms would be worshipped.
  Plus, better documentation on the WinAMP DSP API would be
  nice, too.  (This DSP is based on a lot of educated guesses,
  but hey, it works (at least for me))
 -The coding of this requires quite a bit of memory, though future
  versions may require less, if I bother to setup a semaphore
  and dynamically allocate it
 -Possible graph in the future to show output and modification
  on the output

Thanks to:
 -Jeff Lawson:
   for making me make this plug-in
   (go see www.distributed.net for his stuff)
 -WinAMP and Nullsoft
   for such a cool player
