Formerly a commercial product, we now offer Sample Wrench for free. These are full featured no-cost programs. There are no limitations, ads or similar contrivances. If you find any of our programs useful, you might consider a modest donation to help with further development and support. Wrench has a self-contained installer. Simply download the program and run it. Installation is very fast and will use less than 6 Meg of hard drive space.
Sample Wrench V5.7 for Windows 95 through Wndows 8 (2.1 Meg)
Sample Wrench XE V5.7 for Windows 95 through Windows 8 (1.1 Meg)
SXVirtual V5.2 for Windows 95 through Windows 8 (1.2 Meg, self-extracting zip file)
Also of interest:
Shortcut Guide to Sample Wrench (printable, 160k)
Shortcut Guide to Sample Wrench XE (printable, 100k)
This is the place for other neat odds and ends including instructional tips, scripts, presets, and similar goodies. Remember, all of the stuff on this page is free, so download as much as you need and can use. If you have created scripts, presets, utilities or similar items which you'd like to share with other dissidents users, send us an e-mail! We'll be happy to include anything useful (and we'll give credit where credit is due of course).
Spikey.zip (1k)
Now this is interesting. Spikey.zip contains a very simple 8 bit WAV file which can be loaded into any sound sample editor to reveal something about the editor's accuracy (or lack thereof). Spikey unzips to over 130k bytes and contains three pairs of positive/negative spikes amidst a sea of silence. Sample Wrench uses a true peak detecting polarity sensitive drawing algorithm which will always show you spikes and other transients no matter what your zoom level is. You'll always be sure that both the polarity and size of the drawing are accurate. Unfortunately, many editors on the market will skip over sample data in order to make their drawing speed a little faster or smoother. Depending on your zoom level, peaks and transients may not be shown accurately, and in some cases, may not be shown at all. Further, some editors are not polarity sensitive and will simply overlay negative values on the positive display and vice versa (i.e., a single positive spike may show up as both a positive and a negative spike). This is where Spikey comes in. Spikey contains a simple positive spike at .5 secs, a mirror negative spike at .75 secs, a pair of slightly more complicated spikes at 1.5 and 1.75 secs, and finally, a pair of somewhat wider spikes at 2.5 and 2.75 seconds. All spikes are close to (but not at) full amplitude, and the positive spike always appears before the mirror negative spike. To use Spikey, simply load it into a sample editor and look at what the editor shows you. If the spikes are not the same height, you've lost accuracy. If a spike is drawn as an equally large positive and negative bar, then the editor isn't polarity sensitive (this can create confusion, especially if you're designing asymmetrical waveforms for samplers or special effects). If you don't have 3 pairs of positive/negative spikes, then you can be certain that the editor is skipping over sound data (sound data that you want to see- after all, isn't that the purpose of a visual sound editor?) By the way, it's often useful to change zoom levels and pan locations during this test. Very often, editors which skip data might just happen to show something at certain magnifications. By changing zoom and pan, you may be able to see spikes "magically" appear and disappear in the editor! It's probably best to load Spikey into Sample Wrench first in order to see a proper drawing for later comparison.
Sample Wrench Macros
ClassA.zip (2k)
An interesting Sample Wrench script which mimics a saturating class A amplifier. The distortion is subtle and non-symmetrical. To use, unzip and place the .bas file in the Sample Wrench Scripts directory. Then use Setup/Assign Macros to assign a function key to the macro.
Crest.zip (2k)
This Sample Wrench script computes and displays the maximum, minimum, and RMS levels for the selected portion of the sound, and also displays the resulting crest ratio (ratio between peak and RMS). It is useful for determining just how dynamic a given sound is. To use, unzip and place the .bas file in the Sample Wrench Scripts directory. Then use Setup/Assign Macros to assign a function key to the macro.
SlapEcho.zip (2k)
A script which creates simple slap echoes for Sample Wrench. A dialog box lets you choose from short, medium, or long delays (50, 75, or 100 milliseconds). This script can be easily changed for different time delays by even modestly proficient BASIC programmers. To use, unzip and place the .bas file in the Sample Wrench Scripts directory. Then use Setup/Assign Macros to assign a function key to the macro.
Spreadsheet.zip (2k)
Use your spreadsheet to create sound data! This script loads a column of numbers in ASCII text form and turns them into a sound sample.
ASCIIWriter.zip (2k)
Writes sound sample data to a file in ASCII form. Good for importing data into other programs such as spreadsheets. It's the inverse of Spreadsheet.zip.
Sample Wrench Enable Doc (250k)
This document describes the general characteristics of the scripting language such as variable types, syntax, branching and looping constructs and general functions (e.g., MsgBox, Sin, Dialog, MkDir, etc.). This is not a tutorial for novices. If you already know Visual BASIC or a similar language, then most of this will be familiar ground. If you are brand new to Visual BASIC we suggest that you pick up an introductory VB text at your local bookstore. Also, this does not include the Sample Wrench DSP and audio engine functions (these are found in the Sample Wrench help file). Unzipped, this file requires about 3 Meg and is in .doc format.
Athletics Software and Related Materials
All athletics software and related items are found here.