OSS/3D 5.5.1 plugin manual

Configuration dialog is the key part of OSS/3D plugin. You can configure any aspect of sound enhancing by using Configuration dialog controls.

WinAmp and XMMS players have by default some special buffering latency enabled, and thus, when slider is dragged or checkbox clicked, it may take some time for the sound to actually update. This is because player itself is reading song a bit ahead its current playing position. So, if you don't see the sound changed after some particular OSS/3D setting, allow 1-5 second latency for update.

The latency problem mostly occurs with WinAmp player. You can reduce latency by setting WinAmp Output Plugin to DirectSound. If you don't know how to do this, consult WinAmp documentation.

However, if sound is not changed at all, this also may mean that OSS/3D is not enabled, or some particular part of OSS/3D is not enabled in General Tab. For more information, see the explanations about checkboxes on General plugin configuration tab.

Also note, that OSS/3D currently works with 2-CHANNEL sound only. This doesn't mean any limitation to music processing, but this is a question of how player understands your music itself. If during music playback STEREO led shows up in the main window, then sound has two channels and should be suitable for OSS/3D processing.

3.1 Bringing up configuration dialog

Select player's main window and press Ctrl+P on the keyboard. Preferences dialog will pop up. The image of Preferences dialog is illustrated in Installation section.

If you call Preferences dialog from WinAmp main window, this one will look like Fig 1. (In case you are using XMMS, you can skip this section until the XMMS configuration dialog image on Fig 2.)

Fig 1. WinAmp Preferences dialog

On the left pane, select "DSP/Effect", then on the right pane select "OSS/3D" and click "Configure" button. This will bring up OSS/3D configuration dialog.

If you use XMMS player, the preferences dialog will look like this:

Fig 2. XMMS Preferences dialog

Be sure to select "Effect/General Plugins" tab. Then, ensure that you have OSS/3D plugin selected. If you have different plugin name written in the box, you can drop down the list and browse OSS/3D

After you have selected OSS/3D, mark "Use plugins" checkbox. Then press "Apply" button in the bottom of dialog, and then "Configure" button. After OSS/3D Configuration dialog popped up, you can successfully close Preferences dialog. Note, that if OSS/3D plugin doesn't appear to be in the list, it is either not installed properly, or downloaded OSS/3D plugin version is not compatible with your operating environment (possibly wrong version?). In case you feel that you have installed correct version of OSS/3D on correct operating system version, but still don't have OSS/3D in the list, you can request OSS/3D technical support.

3.2 General tab

This is how general configuration tab looks:

Fig 3. General tab

Here's the description of those controls, which appear on the dialog, not depending on any particular tab selection.

Enable effects - this checkbox globally enables or disables all OSS/3D functionality. When the box is checked, it means that OSS/3D currently will be enabled and will process with the music playback. When checkbox is unchecked, all OSS/3D effects are bypassed.

Reset button - resets all settings to "factory default". After the button is pressed, all current settings will be reset to default ones, except "Phase invert" and "Stereo reverse" on the SpC tab.

Close button - closes OSS/3D Configuration window. In order to pop window back, refer to 3.1 Bringing up configuration dialog section.

[?] button - shows copyright and additional information.

LOAD/SAVE buttons - store or retrieve preset file. These buttons are used to save and restore OSS/3D settings. To learn more about presets, refer 5 Operating with presets section.

Controls on General tab:

preAmp - this is general purpose sound volume level slider. By using it you can gain effect of additional sound amplification or attentuation, however turning it too high will likely cause sound to distort (clipping). Also this slider is useful to lower sound volume in case distortion is occuring due to different reasons (e.g., too many options are turned on simultaneously).

SuperBass - this slider adjusts amount of additional SUB- and MID-bass frequencies sent to the speakersystem. This effect is useful for some speakers, which lack the power in this kind of frequencies.

DeWoofer - removes "WOOF"-like sounding of mid frequency range of the music. DeWoofer correction can generally improve quality of old recordings. DeWoofer can also greatly improve sounding of standard desktop speakers, laptop speakers or even low-fi headphones. For all normal speakersystems - recommended value is about 25-30%, while with laptop speakers it may perform better while turned to higher point. DeWoofer brings new level of quality, when used with SuperBass effect. The approximate DeWoofer value of 60% is suitable for laptop speakers and light multimedia headphones (e.g., made by Genius, QuickShot, Typhoon, etc.).

Fidelity effect is designed to enhance sound image by introducing additional harmonics in high frequency range. This technology makes the music sound brighter and reduces low MP3 quality compression artifacts. Fidelity effect also improves aggresive 3D stereo expansion accuracy. In professional audio world similar hardware devices are often called ENHANCERS and EXCITERS.

The rest of controls are checkboxes. Each checkbox is called after corresponding effect or tab name, and is used to either enable or disable settings for effects on particular tab.

Note, that if the checkbox is not checked, controls on appropriate tab will produce no effect. In order to let some particular tab affect the sound, the corresponding checkbox should be checked.

Click on the effect name below to learn more about particular technology:

3D Surround
extSpace
extFX
Virtual Subwoofer
BrainWave Synthesizer (!)

3.3 3D Surround tab

OSS/3D Surround Technology - is an effect of expanding audio environment out of actual speaker positions. Normally you hear the sound in between of the speakers, as shown with the blue figure on the effect icon. Obviously, if the sound comes from the left speaker, it is heard NOT from the left, but from the speaker's position.

When you are sitting in the middle in front of two speakers, it is possible to correct the situtation by processing the sound. 3D Surround does such processing, called "expansion". It applies several effect envelopes on primary input signal and outputs surround space.

Note, that speakers should be plugged in proper phase. If they are not, the sound will appear to be closer to the center between speakers, instead of space expansion. If you experience such troubles, fortunately, OSS/3D allows this to be fixed in-software. The key option is called "Phase invert" and is located on SpC tab.

Fig 4. 3D Surround tab

There is option dropdown box and two control sliders on 3D Surround tab.

Effect mode dropdown box controls the surround effect intensity. It can have four different states:
- Disabled (the effect is disabled - checkbox on general tab will have no effect)
- Normal (standard level of effect; recommended 3D Depth is 100%)
- Extra (x2) (double processing; recommended 3D Depth is 30-40%)
- Overload (x3) (deep ambience processing; recommended 3D Depth is 10-25%)

3D Depth shows the amount of effect to be applied.

Bass adjust compensates feedback of bass frequencies. This option creates extended surround for low frequencies. If you like to have a very light sounding space effect, Bass adjust level should be lowered.

You can find Fidelity option (on the General tab) to be useful together with 3D Surround, as it brings extra fidelity to the surround and brightens oftenly dim sound.

3.4 extSpace tab

extSpace processing creates a virtual re-sounding frame behind the listener position and bounces the sound around. The sound gets bounced multiple times and returns to listener from the back. While the effect utilizes only two speakers, the resounding frame is emulated in 3D space. The width of the resounding frame gives you the spatialization effect. To get the maximum impression, use it together with 3D Surround Technology.

Fig 5. extSpace tab

Effect has three options. Disabled - means no effect at all. After setting mode to Disabled, the extSpace checkbox on General tab will have no effect. Active and Wide mofrd control the shape of re-sounding frame. Effect's Wide option makes the frame wider and places it closer to the listener. In Active state this effect emulates sound coming from the back.

3.5 extFX tab

extFX - is an aggresive type of surround sound remixing. This effect includes two controls - "Center" and "Space". The first one controls center bass frequencies - you can control the volume of sound's "center". "Space" option moves the sound aside listener. As the effect itself is enough strong, it is not recommended to use 100% values of Space option. Good results are often gained at 25-30% value. This effect is also effective for narrow placed speakers, however placing speakers closely to each other will still require the listener's to face straight between the speakers.

Fig 6. extFX tab

The tab includes Space and Center controls, which correspond to "Space" and "Center" values, described in the paragraph above.

3.6 Virtual Subwoofer tab

Virtual Subwoofer - is a technology of expanding bass frequencies like real subwoofer does. Only two speakers are needed to emulate surround subwoofer.

Unlike real subwoofer, Virtual Subwoofer doesn't concentrate all bass frequencies at one point. It spreads bass frequencies around. It's recommended to use this effect together with 3D Surround.

Fig 7. Virtual Subwoofer tab

The effect has two options - Overdrive and Intensity. The first one affects the sensitivity of subwoofer. The second one controls the volume of added bass frequencies.

3.7 SpC tab

To enhance sounding of your speakers, OSS/3D technology supports Speaker Adjustment, or so-called "SpC" technology.

With this technology, you can wider frequency range of your speakersystem (or headphones) and correct output phase (when speakers are either assembled or plugged improperly).

Fig 8. SpC tab

Here are some options on the tab.

Phase invert - this is fully featured software fix for improperly plugged speakers. If, e.g., first speaker's wires are plugged correctly, and second speaker's ones are swapped, will likely to be wrong.

How to detect right "Phase invert" state for your speakers? Turn on any song with vocals, and place speakers closely facing each other and touching each other. With one setting of "Phase invert" the vocals will be heard clearly, while with different one they will be heard slightly quieter, or will disappear at all. Adjust "Phase invert" so, that song vocals are heard clearly.

3.8 BW Synth tab

Here we come with BrainWave Synthesizer tool. This is how BWSynth tab looks:

Fig 9. BWSynth tab

The left State slider control the desired mind state.

First state "Concentration" and last one "Deep relaxation" are so specific to particular minds, that they will require more precise tuning of effect and will usually give lighter effect, than Normal and Light relaxation states.

Normal and Light relaxation are designed for maximum effect while person is awaked, Deep relaxation can be used during sleeping and will feed music into sleep without distrubing person (of course, this also depends on sound volume and the music style).

The strongest effect is gained by using Normal relaxation setting, however even this state requires careful tuning of right slider BWamp precisely for each different user, different soundcard/sound volume or listening environment.

BrainWave Synthesizer tool is designed as standalone effect for use with headphones (like those on the picture), and speakers. When turning BrainWave synthesizer effect on with headphones, many users like to turn all other surround effects off. Use with speakers requires also having 3D Surround turned on. Anyway, you are free to experement.

BWSynth tool was originally designed for headphones, however we had numerous reports, that it works very well with speakers together with 3D Surround effect turned on. Read 4 Brainwave Synthesizer (!) section carefully before using this effect. One of thing is very specific to BWSynth tool - it will likely work for you at low or medium sound volume, not high volume. The tab controls will look slightly different in XMMS player, but the functionality remains exactly the same.

Current OSS/3D version introduces new feature called "BrainWave Synthesizer", or briefly BWSynth. This chapter explains why BWSynth is so cool, and why it needs separate per-person tuning.

4.1 What is brainwave synthesizer?


	What is brainwave synthesizer? - the very first question is asked by OSS/3D user. After the answer, users often say: "Wow, cool!" Here's the answer: OSS/3D BrainWave Synthesizer - is a tool, which helps person's mind to come to a particular state. This includes relaxation, meditation, concentration, etc. BrainWave tool usually helps to cure stresses, headaches, hangovers. While used, BrainWave Synthesizer typically improves learning skills, reduces sleep needs, improves sleep quality, helps to cancel hangovers, etc. For maximum effect, it's very important to tune BWSynth carefully and separately for a particular person with particular type of headphones, particular music style and parcicular system volume settings (speakers do not need to be tuned that precisely). For more info, see section about tuning. Is BWSynth safe? Yes. However, highly recommend you to read 4.3 Possible side effects section before usage of BWSynth. For obvious reasons, we have chosen tool effectivity over some side effects. While BWSynth was heavily tested and showed very good results when tuned properly (about 95% of users gained the claimed effect), indeed, 4Front Technologies does not guarantee, that BWSynth will work for you, satisfy any particular need or turn particular person to a desired relaxation state.

4.2 Tuning Brainwave Synthesizer for specific person (!)


	Tuning brainwave synthesizer for particular person is a very important aspect, unless you are using good speakersystem. Each person has different ears and different audio equipment. This of course affects the way person hears the sound and how the sound passes to the brain. For example, a one person can hear sounds very clearly, while another person may claim the same sound to be wrong. Now we will describe how person (you?) can tune sound volume, suitable for using BrainWave effect. Note, that if you are using speakers, you don't have to follow instructions precisely, as speakers are much more tolerant for having "acting" volume level, and will likely work for you once you turn on BW synthesizer and 3D Surround on (two things - you have to choose right speakers and seat placement - see sections above, and you should ensure, that sound volume isn't too high and isn't too low). Now more accurate instructions for headphones (this is important): First, BWSynth should be enabled by checking checkbox on OSS/3D General tab. Next, you should select BWSynth tab. After that, the mode of operation should be selected ("State" slider). Recommended to start with "Normal relaxation" setup. Next, you should tune volume level. Put some good songs to player's playlist and start playing. Be sure to cycle the playlist, as you may want longer relaxation. Start with the lowest level (almost silent) of BWamp slider and slowly move it up until you feel (literally - not hear, feel) BWSynth pulses in your head. Find the point, where the pulses are strongest. Without tuning (at any volume level), you will hear BWSynth pulses, while at some particular point of BWamp slider you will *FEEL* the pulses. Your target is to find that point. You can feel the point better with closed eyes. This may sound absurd, but try to match "pulsing" poing with eyes closed - just keep hand on mouse to drag the slider. NOTE, that music player may not react to slider changes immediately, but after few seconds. If you are using WinAmp, to fix that, you should change WinAmp's output plugin to DirectSound and restart the song. Alternatively (or also if you are using XMMS player and have latency problems), you can change player's buffering settings to lower latency. If you don't know how to do this, refer to your player's manual. The BWSynth pulses will start changing your state immediately after you match the "pulsing" point. After some time, you will stop noticing the pulses. For more effect, close your eyes and listen to the song. If possible, try to avoid hearing any extra sounds. If you think something is wrong, read "Possible Side Effects" section - possibly you'll find some useful information there.

4.3 Possible side effects


	BrainWave Synthesizer can have side effects. There's nothing wrong, but to let you know we'll start describing known side effects (experienced by some of users during test period). Discomfort during first 20-40 seconds of BWSynth usage. Sometimes, person's state significantly differs from the desired state. BrainWave Synthesizer tries to change mind state as fast as possible, thus it can sometimes cause discomfort for a very short time in the beginning. Usually, it happens when a very stressed person comes to deep relaxation within a minute or so. Often, using other relaxation tools requires time to finally relax, but not this time! BWSynth does relaxation in few minutes. Note, that discomfort disappears and never appears more. BWSynth pulsation seems to be annoying. Close your eyes and try not to think about anything serious, this will help. By thinking heavily or seeing some subjects, you are keeping your mental activity at high level, while relaxation is exactly opposite thing. Also, you may like to alter 3D Surround/Virtual Subwoofer/etc settings. My eyes are moving left-right and cant stop! If it is happening so, frequency levels of your soundsystem are not standard. To fix this, you should turn on both "3D Surround" and "extSpace", then switch BWSynth to mode "Extra". This will help. No effect of brainwave synth. - The volume level (BWamp) slider is not adjusted for particular person. BWSynth will likely fail on high volumes - relaxation requires low and medium volumes. In some cases you will also need to adjust soundcard volume in system mixer. About tuning BWSynth - read "BrainWave Synthesizer tuning" section. - Also, the effect absence may be caused by different speaker volume levels. In case the sound is shifted left or right, adjust balance control on your soundcard mixer or player to move sound back to the center. - Effect may depend on music style as well. Music with very strong beats can break the effect, also it's recommended to use BWSynth with songs. It will work with instrumental music as well, but as our testing showed, faster results are gained with calm songs. - Headphones (or speakers) may have low stereo separation. For best effect, full-ear-covering high quality headphones or medium-size speakers may be used, however other types of headphones and speakers must suitable as well. - If you are using speakers, turn on "3D Surround" effect together with BWSynth, and set BWSynth mode to extended mode. This may help. Each time I run player, player ends with a noise after 6 minutes of playback. This is limitation of free DEMO version. To correct this, you may either purchase full version of OSS/3D (and you will not be limited), or restart player and perform all BWSynth and surround settings once again (in the DEMO version, settings will not be stored between sessions. Each restarting of player gives you 6 minutes of normal playback). Here you can order full version of plugin. 6 minute trial demo, is this a joke??? There's a general misunderstanding. You are given 6 minutes of trial per each WinAmp/XMMS running. Then you simply close player and open it once again - and plugin continues working. There's no limitation for number of days - you can test this plugin for any time you like, also you can process your favorite songs with plugin and "Disk Writer output" (see winamp/xmms help) - 6 minutes satisfies length of most songs. Many plugins are having 7 to 30 days trial period, OSS/3D has UNLIMITED trial period - you can test it for any amount of time you like, you can process any number of songs you want. There's only one point - DEMO version will not save your tunings/presets - and you will have to restart player after each 6 minutes of playback. Full version doesn't have limitations. Test out our great preset pack with demo version. If you believe, that trial terms are wrong or generally incorrect, please send us techsupport request with suggestion. We would like to hear feedback from you! Use technical support form to submit feedback. Also, if you happened to create some cool OSS/3D preset, send it to us (via techsupport). If it is that good, we'll include it to our preset pack.

4.4 Success stories


	Notes from editor: Yesterday I was doing some analysis work and editing this manual, working for the whole night till 7.00am. Then I went to sleep, but before I put headphones on, and tuned BrainWave Synth to Normal state. I woke up at 11:00am (sleeping for 4 hours only). It's 5.00am of the next day - I haven't slept since 11:00am and I feel myself very good. Since coffee stopped working on me long ago, I couldn't allow myself working this way before I have got BWSynth. It's amazing what people can invent. Since our first release, we had lot of feedback from both registered and non-registered users of OSS/3D. We had so many feedbacks on successful usage of BrainWave Synthesizer tool, that they could be separated into a single book, so we provide only few stories here. What users say about OSS/3D? Tim Joslin says: Outstanding! OSS/3D is the future of soft dsp now. If you're looking for skins and mediocre volume-pumping sound quality go with DFX. However, if you're looking for unique custom options like effects stacking, which can lead to pristine sound enhancement, look no further than this plug-in. CAUTION: If you have a high-end, watt-injected sound system wired into your rig, make sure that the volume level is turned down before enabling this plug-in (eg - you have Slipknot pumping when you control-p and select the plug-in). The registered (way better than the demo) version of this plug-in zeroes in on the surround sats and subs and sets them on fire. At high volumes the channel crossover will punch you like Mike Tyson on a date, and the sudden perception of cavernous depth will send you reeling with an almost terrifying sense of vertigo. What a rush! Ted Smith says: Thanks so much for developing that oss3d mod for x11 on FreeBSD!! Woohoo! Just kick ass, i tell u. It definately outdoes the win32 3D plugin Sony includes w/ all its laptops. U r0ck! Luis Soria says: Wow!, BrainWave synthesis future, really I am very surprised and I astonished, it's incredible wonderful and amazing 8) We had a prototype engine called QuiXound before OSS/3D, which hadn't yet contained BWSynth in. OSS/3D includes all of QuiXound and much more features, including BWSynth. Here are user notes about earlier QuiXound engine: Paris Miller says: Whoa... what a difference! I just installed this plugin last night, and my computers sound system now sounds better than my 200 dollar RCA Stereo system, and I have 60 dollars US invested in it. lol, heres what I'm running. SoundBlaster Ensoniq PCI , Altec Lansing ACS33 Powercube Speakers, AMD Athlon Thunderbird 800, 128MB ram, RH7.0, and XMMS 1.2.3. Chris Tom says: In one word: WOW! What a plugin... after playing with it for a while today, I'm about ready to get rid of my stereo system, it's that good. Oh, and ease of install is a plus also... Congratulations to the author! Govind says: Great! When i read through all your comments i actually thought it was just another plugin. But no, this plugin is just great. dewoofer thing is excellent. My only complaint is that when i enable this plugin cpu usage climbs to 25% otherwise xmms uses only 0.7% cpu with 3dnow enabled(xmms 1.2.4). I hope the author will "3dnow enable" the plugin sometime soon. Bill P. says: As I type this, I'm listening to music piped through the 3D Surround Studio. This is by far the best sound enhancement I've ever seen; the only problem is that my cd player is going to seem broken in comparison from now on. ;) Keep it up. Notes from this manual writer: I use headphones from Technics, model RP-F400. They are looking very similar to ones on BWSynth tab.

1 Introduction



	OSS/3D is a solid stereo to 3D expanding technology, able to extend the virtual sound space and listening environment of 2-speaker systems (standard stereo speakers and headphones). OSS/3D can be used to improve sound quality, restore parts lost during MP3 compression, create virtual surround mixes, fill the space with surround, and this will work extremely fine with two speakers. The additional research allowed us to create psychoacoustic relaxation helper Brainwave Synthesizer. This tool is included into current version of OSS/3D. OSS/3D comprises of a set of 3D audio algorithms that provide stereo to surround enhancement, sound spatialization, depth perception, bass boost, subwoofer emulation, speaker correction and much more. Such technologies while currently available as separte products cannot match OSS/3D's abilities to chain such effects and algorithms into a pipeline architecture. OSS/3D works with standard 2-speaker based soundcards and any type of stereo sound. OSS/3D extends sound beyond speakers, improves space perception and turns two-speaker system into surround environment. With particular settings, technology can generally improve the sound quality and dynamic range of any type of speakers and headphones. The latest version includes so-called BrainWave Synthesis technology, based on the massive research in psychoacoustic. Brainwave Synthesizer is a multipurpose relaxation tool. It helps to cure stresses, headaches, to improve learning process results, to increase productivity and reduce sleep needs. After using BWSynth for some time, most users claimed BWSynth to have great positive effect on their health. There is more info on BWSynth tool in 4.4 Success stories section.

5 Operating with presets



	OSS/3D is able to load and store settings. To store all current slider positions, checkbox and list options of OSS/3D - click SAVE button and choose filename to store preset to. To restore settings back, press LOAD button and select previously stored preset file. Note, that only preset files can be loaded - loading any other type of files will cause no effect. With DEMO version of plugin you can't store presets, however you can load presets already stored by someone else. 4Front Technologies supplies ZIP package with interesting presets. ZIP archive can be used with both commercial and DEMO versions, and can be downloaded for free. You can find the information of how to obtain ZIP presets set in Section 7.

6 Additional information and technical support



	Click here to go to OSS/3D home page Click here to ask question in a forum Click here to request technical support (with reply to your e-mail)

7 Download OSS/3D Software



	Before you make any decisions or order commercial version of OSS/3D plugin, we would recommend you to download and test DEMO version. Also we recommend to download the package of standard presets - they include the most typical and even some very cool settings, demostrating the OSS/3D enhancing engine. However, BrainWave Synthesizer presets are not included, as each user should tune BrainWave Synthesizer personally. When tuned properly, this tool is a powerful cure for stresses, bad habits, headaches and even more. You can read more about application of this tool in 4 Brainwave Synthesizer (!) section. DEMO version has the following limitations: - Settings will not be stored between sessions - Presets can not be saved (but still can be loaded) - Plugin will require WinAmp restart after 6 minutes of playback After 6 minutes of playback, the plugin will need to be restarted by either restarting WinAmp, or deactivating and then activating it once again. Download demo version Download preset pack \| for Windows (self-installer) \| for UNIX (tar.gz) \| ZIP archive Proceed with order