Jumat, 03 Nopember 200 - oleh : Reporter

Plugins and plugins... all theoretically sworn to enhance something, no matter how little or big, but just (supposedly) making things run better. Some given away for free and some kindly offered for the big or even bigger bucks, some working and some working less, but again, all trying to make things better. DFX for Winamp is one such software, which tries to compensate the lack of serious gear, be that gear the one that plays audio (like soundcards, in our case) or merely reproducing it (speakers and the rest).

The Looks

From my very first contact with DFX for Winamp, I noticed it's a program meant for large audiences: it looks more “game” than “professional”. It has skins, some coming bundled with the software by default, but users are still able to download more skins over the net; these skins look really good and truly appealing, yet they are more like flash games interfaces: very colored and highly 3D, with carefully-drawn buttons and sliders and with no options for the graphic tweaks that may be sometimes needed.

I won't describe here all the skins coming with DFX for Winamp, since this would be rather ridiculous. I'll just add that - despite this toy-ish appearance - DFX for Winamp does not have lots of futile elements, as some might have expected: everything is at its place and every piece of color “does something when moved”. Even if the GUI is rather eye-candy, I must admit that - in this way - DFX for Winamp becomes more accessible for users with little or no sound-tech knowledge at all.

Basically, the DFX's GUI is a small window whose size and shape changes accordingly, as you load various skins; it houses the 5 direct-access controls in the shape of slider-bars, each with a digital clock-type indicator which shows the numeric value on the slide bar. Next to the grouped sliders, one can see a half-useful so-called “spectrum analyzer” in the shape of 5 LED-simulating VU-meter horribly colored, looking like a cheap toy. Below all these are the processing mode regulators, for music or speech, buttons for presets and the very few options.

It has a rather technologically-simple interface with highly colored or at least very shaped designs meant to be eye-catchy, especially for those who like to charge their desktops and trays with lots of “cool” things; one good point for DFX for Winamp's GUI is that you can make it disappear in case you do not include yourself in the category I have just described.