Has anyone got any useful experience with the Octimax winamp plug-in from these people at www.Octiv.com.

Excerpt from Octiv Improving the Internet Music Experience: Applications of Audio Dynamic Range Processing - white paper .

"Problem: Volume and Audio Quality Disparities Among Source Material
When one compares an '80s era "hi-fi" recording to a digitally remastered production in
the year 2000, he/she will observe significant volume differences. For example, "Kiss"
by Prince has an RMS Power level of -21.48 db whereas "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz
has an RMS level of -12.23 db. This is almost a 10 db RMS difference in overall volume
level. Even with examples that are not so drastic, comparative quality among tracks can
vary greatly due to a variety of production environments and production technologies. A
certain amount of gain control is therefore necessary to ensure that these volume
differences do not shock the user.
The older cut is likely to be quieter, with not as much high-end presence and arguably
little bass response compared to the newer one.
Solution:
OctiMax Dynamics Processing Software
This white paper describes an audio processing solution that ensures quality control for
digital audio delivery and playback. At the heart of this solution is the OctiMax core
technology that was developed by Octiv, Inc. Simply, OctiMax is a very sophisticated
multi-band dynamics processor, very similar to those found in radio and television
stations, except it is an extremely efficient software application rather than a $10,000
rack-mounted hardware piece. "

I just tried it. In terms of effects, I found it to be comparable to the TomSteady DSP plugin that I am currently using. I didn't try ABXing them, but they sounded pretty similar.

The Octimax plugin took a suspeciously long time to install, crashed (or contributed to a crash of) my computer (an unstable Win98 system) when I tried to switch DSP plugins while music was playing, and uninstalled cleanly, except for a two byte file left in the \windows\system directory (to prevent circumvention of the 15 day trial period, I assume).

Leif is one of the guys who worked on OctiMax. I really like his other stuff (he made a really slick MP3 organizer/DJMixer), but I never liked OctiMax. It's a dynamic multiband compressor whose default settings squish a lot of detail out of the music. It sounds much better than most pop radio stations' "music extermination" compressors, but it's still too aggressive for my tastes. It would be neat if it could be fine-tuned easily (I mean, moreso than its genre/bass/drive presets), but the last time I tried it, minor adjustments could only be made by tweaking values in an .ini file.

It's a very elaborate piece of software, for a Winamp plugin. If it didn't cost $20 I'd definitely use it for, say, playing party music, because it really beefs up the music and makes everything sound consistent, with better quality than any freebie Winamp plugin I've ever heard. But for general listening, the audiophile in me wrinkles his nose at DSP's.

I think it is $49!

Holy crap, you're right. They raised the price since it was first released.

Well, I guess they figured that anyone willing to spend $20 for a Winamp plugin would also spend $50. Personally, I'd never pay that much for someone to assassinate my music's dynamics.

Tried it awhile back. It's ok, but like S.W. said, it isn't adjustable. I own DFX however, because you can adjust it. But I use it with several other things at the same time so it may not be what you're looking for.

Thanks for the replys. I have heard good things about it but I am very curious why it is $50!

Sounds like its a good party DSP but it lacks much user configuration - but 50 bucks !

This may be a little OT, but... Martin Pesch's Compressor & Wider Plugin does a pretty good job at making music loud and punchy, if you ask me - for parties, it's great. And you can adjust the maximum amplification it will apply.

I use the Medium preset with "reduce distortions" enabled and the max. amplification set to no higher than 3.5.

I was going to try Octimax, but now that I have learnt about its price...