Wave Enhancer 2.0

Disclaimer and license agreement

Wave Enhancer 2.0
Copyright 2000 Javier Thaine

Wave Enhancer is a freeware program.

Wave Enhancer and all of its related files may only be distributed in the original distribution form. The distribution file may not have files added to it or removed from it, and none of its contents may be modified, decompiled, or reverse engineered.

What is Wave Enhancer?

Wave Enhancer is a utility that makes Windows wave files sound better. It does this by increasing the sampling rate of a wave file and the number of bits per sample (8 to 16) and by creating stereo effects. Sound Blaster 16 and compatible sound cards will benefit the most from Wave Enhancer, but it works with older cards as well.

What's new in this version?

-It is now possible to drag the trackbar while playing sound.
-Wave Enhancer can now operate in French.
-It is now possible to add a shortcut to the Start Menu automatically.
-It is now possible to associate Wave Enhancer with wave files automatically.
-You may now drag and drop sound files onto Wave Enhancer.
-Playlists can now be created, saved and loaded from disk.
-Most recently used files appear in the File menu, except when they are part of a playlist.
-A better clock now tells you the position in a song.
-Only one copy of Wave Enhancer can now be open at one time.
-Added an Auto Repeat option.
-Added CD-player style graphical icons to buttons.
-Stereo wave files can now be created that don't have stereo effects.
-A few minor bugs were fixed.
-Plus: Sample wave files are now available at my homepage.

Which files are supported by Wave Enhancer?

Currently, only uncompressed Windows wave files with 11025, 22050 or 44100 Hertz sampling rates are supported. Most wave files fit into this category.

Using Wave Enhancer

The basics

First of all, if you are more comfortable with French than with English (where I live most people are French-speaking) you can switch to French by clicking on the Options menu, then Languages, then Français.

To open a wave file, use the open command in the File menu. You may also drag a wave file from Windows Explorer directly onto Wave Enhancer. Once a wave file is opened, you may play it by pressing the Play button. During playback, the Play button will turn into a Stop button. The Rewind button will stop playback and return the trackbar (the bar that counts the time) to the beginning. The first time you play a wave file, a time counter will also appear which will keep track of the time that has elapsed. You may simply drag the trackbar to play another part of the song.

If you like what you hear, you may save the improved sound to a new wave file. Wave Enhancer saves files to disk just like it plays them. First, place the trackbar at the position you want it to begin saving, or click on Rewind if you want to start at the beginning. Then, click on Save As in the File menu, and select a file name for the new wave file. It cannot be the same as the file you have opened. If the file already exists, you will be asked if you want to replace it. When you click on OK, Wave Enhancer will start saving immediately. Press Stop at any time to stop saving. The next time you press Play, Wave Enhancer will not write to that file anymore. If you want to hear what you are saving, make sure the "Play while saving to disk" option in the File menu is checked. Of course, this will make the saving process considerably slower.

In the Output format menu, you can select the quality of the sound output. The amount of options available to you depend on your sound card, but nowadays most sound cards support all of them. Experienced computer users should understand what these mean, but here are some guidelines: "22050 Hz" and "44100 Hz" refer to the amount of detail in the sound. Selecting "16 bits per sample" will reduce background noise (hiss). Selecting both "Stereo" and "Stereo Effects" will make the sound more realistic by playing different sounds from your left and right speakers. If you select "Stereo" but do not select "Stereo Effects", your file will sound like it would in "Mono" mode, but saving it to the hard disk will allow you to have a stereo file so you can edit it using more advanced software. If you save a wave file to disk, the new wave file will have the properties you choose in this menu. By default, Wave Enhancer will select the best options it can.
Note: If you want a song to repeat indefinitely, select the "Auto Repeat" option in the Options menu.

Using playlists

Playlists are lists of wave files that can be played back by Wave Enhancer like tracks on a Compact Disc. To create a playlist of files, click on the "Playlist" button or go to the File menu and click on "Edit playlist". A window will appear which will allow you to add or remove files to a list. To the right, there is a box in which you can choose the folder in which the wave files you want to play are found. Next to it you will also see a small box to select the drive these files are in. In the middle, there is a box that shows the wave files in the selected folder. You can choose more than one file by pressing shift and clicking the left mouse button, and dragging the mouse over the files you want. You can also hold down the control button and single-click on individual files you want to select or deselect. Then, you may add these files to the playlist by clicking on the "<< Add" button. These files will then appear on the box to the left. You can also add all the files in that folder by clicking on "<< Add all". The reverse process works the same way using the "Remove >>" and "Remove All >>" buttons.

When you are satisfied with your playlist, you will probably want to save it to disk. Wave Enhancer Playlists are saved with the WEP extension and are plain text files that can be edited with notepad that just store the complete names of the chosen files. You can open and save them from the Playlist window using the "Open playlist" and "Save playlist" buttons, and you can also directly open playlists from the main Wave Enhancer window by clicking on the File menu and then on "Open playlist".
Note: When you are using a playlist, turning on the Auto Repeat option in the Options menu will make the entire playlist repeat, not just one song.
Note: Files in playlists do not appear in the most recently used file list in the File menu.

Adding Wave Enhancer to the Start Menu

Click on Create shortcut in the Start Menu in the Options menu.

Associating wave files with Wave Enhancer

Click on Associate wave files with Wave Enhancer in the Options menu.

About the author and more of my free software

I am 17 years old and live in Montreal, Canada. I was born in Brasilia, Brazil. I learned to program at age 9. My favorite non-programming hobbies are listening to classical music, bicycling, playing computer games, reading and playing badminton.