Best Spectrum Analyzer

[hwilkins]

Has anyone heard from the designer of "Sexy Attached Analyzers" lately? That is the best spectrum analyzer visualization I've found.

It is several years old now, but still works -- although it has some glitches like recent Office menus becoming invisible when it is active, and an OLD WinAmp control panel showing up sometimes...

I have no idea if the developer is still making visulaizations, etc., but if they were, it would be cool to take advantage of current CPU horsepower by adding a 3rd-dimension to the analyzer. My idea was to take the previous snapshot of the analysis, apply some transparency logic, a little curve-fitting, and make a ghost of the history of the thing curl off into the depths of the screen... A fancy pre-read could even make the future analysis ghost-curl in from the screen-depths toward the main spectrum display... making a complete ring of the piece.

Anyway,s just wondering if there were any adventursome sorts interested...

[Nunzio390]

The only thing I can tell you is to try to get in touch with the author. Actually, the "latest" version located at his Geocities site is dated back to 7/3/1998 (zip file), whereas the version currently available for download at Winamp.com is dated Jan. 4th, 2000. So, the plugin at his Geocities site is evidently even more outdated than the plugin located at Winamp.com.

[flocksoft]

you're lucky!

a new version is available (may 2007), but ins't yet in the plugins section; you can find as attachment in this thread:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=270809

3 additional profiles by me: http://stashbox.org/20143/vis_classic.zip

[Prowler7]

Yes, sadly the revised version (I titled Classic Spectrum Analyzer) sits in unpublished limbo. I took the code I wrote in 1998 and updated the plugin to use a Winamp vis window (and fixed a few bugs, and reworked the profile loading/saving).

Unfortunately I have no motivation to do any more plug-in work until I know for sure plug-ins will eventually get published.

[Nunzio390]

Well, it's a very good vis plugin (I just downloaded it). Hopefully, now with the site revamp taking place, perhaps they'll also finally get the plugin submissions working properly (along with the rest of the site).

[Prowler7]

I updated my old GeoCities site so Classic Spectrum Analyzer can be downloaded from there (note that I had to zip the installer since GeoCities doesn't allow .exe files to be hosted).

[MarkRH]

This is cool, I like it alot.

[trog69]

fast response and cool falling dots. I likey! Thanks, guys.

[Step666]

Chance is a funny thing.

I remember a while ago asking a question about an analyser I could stretch across the full screen and being referred to the Sexy Attached Analyser plug-in.
It fit the bill perfectly but I had some compatibility issues - it would stop my start menu from showing up (I could see the list of programs but any sub folders I selected just wouldn't appear) and also caused other applications to crash.
However, during the subsequent time circumstances have changed so a week or two ago I sort of 'dug out' the analyser and started using it again and have been very happy.

By pure chance I googled it this afternoon, came across 'Mike's Winamp Plugins' page and noticed there was a new version. Happy days.


I don't mean to be critical but I think the new one is a step backwards.
It's nice, don't get me wrong, and I don't presume to think I could do better. But, from my personal point-of-view, it's lost what I liked about it - the ability to attach it to the bottom of the screen:

edit: I would rather have posted a smaller screenshot and linked to the full-size one but, once again, the forum blocks the url... so here's a medium-sized version instead:




I just think it's a shame that there's no opacity controls on the old version - if I could make the background transparent, that would be perfect.


Anyway, nonetheless, it's great to see Mike's still producing excellent work.

[Step666]

Huh, I can't edit my previous message...

Anyway, sorry, I just thought of one last thing - it would be nice if the bars on the analyser faded out or slowly reduced to zero when WinAmp is stopped.
That seems to be something that both versions 'lack' (I say 'lack' as it seems, to me, to be the obvious/natural thing to do but I don't wish to be presumptuous and assume that it's a requirement of a spectrum analyser - it's entirely up to Mike how he wants his plug-ins to work).

[Prowler7]

Unfortunately I decided to cut the attach to the top and bottom of the screen as a result of me wanting to utilise the Winamp skinned Window or modern skin integrated Window.

I admit it would be cool to have the attach to the top or bottom of the screen with transparency though. I've also thought about making the plug-in draw over the title bar of the active Window, again with a transparent background this might look pretty cool.

Anyway, I'm on strike from doing any more work on it until the Winamp site is fixed and I'm able to submit a new version (that won't end up as a 0 byte download).

[Step666]

Well, like I say, it's a shame because as far as I know, there isn't another analyser out there that lets you attach it to the screen.

[idrinkalot]

i just want to say that 100% of the reason i used winamp was because of the spectrum analyzer (even before i knew thats what it was called). i made a thread under an old username about a year ago whenever winamp changed it and got a very rude answer saying thats how they want it to function and they won't change it, but the thread is gone now and that account won't let me post. the new bento skin analyzer lags very badly on my system, so i searched the forums and was so happy to find this plugin. i wish i had known about it since 2004!
however, i'm very curious how equalizer setting works in the analyzer tab? i imagine it being unchecked is the "true" spectrum, while it being checked follows some sort of a curve and is how we percieve it?

[soulstace]

I like the Bento analyzer. Default speeds are a little slow, but you can adjust this two easy ways.

1) Preferences > Skins > Modern Skins > Timers Resolution (I use 15ms)

2) If you right-click on the spectrum analyzer itself, you can set its peak and analyzer falloff speeds. (I use Fast for both)

[hwilkins]

I saw your previous posts on the download being broken -- they STILL have not fixed it? They are depriving us of your skills!

I run SATAN attached to the top, so if you can ever find a way to get the attachment back in, I'll upgrade to that version in a flash.

I like the idea of the border-less, background-less analyzer slightly transparent over my background.

Could you do it as one of those Vista-Ultimate-addin-thingeys? Sure, that'd only benefit Vista people, and sure I have only 1 out of 6 PC's on Vista, but, well, progress is progress, right?

[Step666]

On a further note, if you do decide to develop the analyser that attaches to the screen some more, it would be nice if (if you would like to, of course) the following things could be adjusted/sorted/added/whatever:

• Bars fade out/down when WinAmp is stopped.
• Background and/or bar transparency control.
• I'm not sure why but when you hover the mouse over the analyser while it's attached to the screen, all the Windows go opaque even when the opacity is set not to be linked between different windows.
• When the mouse hovers over the analyser (while attached to the bottom of the screen) it displays the hourglass/'busy' cursor, which is slightly annoying.

The last two points are rather minor and may or may not be specific to when the analyser is attached to the screen. As such, I'm not sure you'd want to try and deal with them or even if it's possible, it may for all I know be a bug with WimAmp.


I'm not expecting you to fix these things or anything like that, I would understand entirely if you wanted to stay focused on the newer analyser. However, if you don't ask, you don't get and in case you were considering supporting the older analyser as well, I figured I may as well say my piece.

Either way, I think it's only fitting for me to finish by saying thank you, as your analyser is one of the best plug-ins available for WinAmp IMO and I'm very glad you took the time to create it.

[Step666]

I'm sorry to flog a dead horse and all but I'm holding out hope that Mike might continue to support the old version...

I've just noticed that when you attach the analyser to the top of the screen, the bars continue to 'go up' from the bottom of the analyser, as opposed to 'coming down' from the top.
It'd be pretty cool if that could be fixed too.
Ta

[Step666]

Sorry to bump again but I'm having some problems that are, at least in some way, connected to the Sexy Attached Analyser.
So, if anyone can shed some light on it, I'd really appreciate some help over here.

Thanks.

[DMCbr]

8 years later..

I like Classic Spectrum Analyzer, but it have a bug on Windows 10: Can't save any change or new profile... dunno why. Thats very sad for a plugin i am using for so much time.

[Aminifu]

It's probably a user permissions thing. Many of the old plug-ins try to save data (after they have been installed) to folders or files that are now (since Vista) restricted. Try running Winamp in "administrative mode" long enough to make and save the configuration changes, then run Winamp in normal mode.