Settings shipped with the screen saver are prefaced by "[S] " if they use sound -- be sure to try one of these. "[S] Twitch" and "[S] Mother Ship" are pretty good ones for demonstrating the sound synchronization.
Music with a strong on-beat followed by a soft off-beat will produce the most dramatic results.
If you are not seeing the patterns synchronizing with sound, check to see if sound synchronization is possible with your current system configuration. When you run CD Spectrum Pro and engage the spectrum, do the bars move with the sounds from the CD player? If not, you’ll need to get this to work before the screen saver will synchronize with sound. Please see the CD Spectrum Pro FAQ for information on how to troubleshoot this problem.
If the screen saver runs very slow with the sound engaged, try changing the "CPU Usage" (in the screen savers “Main Settings” panel) to "Normal" rather than "Low" -- this should help speed up the drawing.
CD Spectrum Pro must be running for sound synchronization to work. If it isn't, and you run one of the settings that use sound, all of the control values that use sound are changed to "Oscillate" at run-time.
If the synchronization doesn't appear to have much variation within the selected range, try checking the "Auto Gain" option in the "Sound" settings panel.
If you have a fast machine, leave everything on and enjoy the ride. But if your machine is having trouble keeping up, the following CD Spectrum Pro options can be modified to increase performance:
- Turn off the volume taskbar icon.
- Make the spectrum window smaller, or turn it off.
- FFT less than all of the data (right-click on the "wavin" indicator).

I have entered the registration code, but the program still tells me I need to register. What's wrong?

The most common cause of this misunderstanding is when someone registers one of the screen savers (or one of the joint packages which contain a screen saver plus CD/Spectrum Pro), and the other screen saver remains unregistered. As described in the registration material, The Psychedelic Screen Saver, The Kinemorphic 3D Screen Saver, and CD/Spectrum Pro are three separate software products.

You can see which programs are registered by looking in the information dialog. From CD/Spectrum Pro, click on the "About" or "Register" button. From either screen saver, right-click on the desktop, choose Properties, the screen saver page, click the "Settings" button, then the "About" button. When the information dialog comes up, the titlebar will contain the name and version of the program which launched it. Below that, in the middle pane, will be listed which programs are registered (if any).

Unfortunately, if you register the wrong product, we won’t be able to fix that. The registration code assigned to you will work only with the products for which you paid. And, obviously, once your registration code has been dispensed, there is no way to “take it back” or “trade it” for another. The best thing to do in this case is to download and use the software you did register, or go back make an additional registration for the software you originally wanted. (The moral of the story is “please pay close attention to which product(s) you are registering.” <g>.)

What do you do with the registration information (address, phone number, email ID, etc...)?

Most of the information we request is used to validate credit card orders. We also use it to verify the identity of people who later ask us to resend their registration number due to hard disk crashes, etc. We absolutely do not give your information to anyone else - you will not end up on a mailing list, telemarketing list, or other such list because of us (we hate those lists too).

Can I add a link to the Synthesoft web site on my own page?

Absolutely! Please follow the instructions on our link page to do so. And thanks!

Once I registered, I thought I would get a CD or documentation in the mail - where is it?

We do not ship any media, documentation, or other materials - the software you download from our web site is fully functional and contains the online documentation. We distribute our products only via the World Wide Web (WWW). This way, any updates we post are immediately available to you for download.

Also, we do not maintain any mailing lists, so for example we cannot email you to notify you when new versions are posted - just check the web site once a week or so (we probably average a new build every 2-3 weeks, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less).

Will there ever be a MacIntosh version of Synthesoft products?

Unfortunately, no. We've considered implementing Macintosh versions of our products, but the amount of time and energy required to maintain two separate forks of the source code prohibits us from doing so. Instead, we will apply our energy toward adding new modules, effects, and features to the Win95/98/WinNT versions. Our apologies to all of the Mac users out there. You can find something for the Mac that is similar to The Psychedelic Screen Saver at http://www.imaja.com/blisssaver/index.html

How would I install/uninstall any of the Synthesoft products?

Installation of Synthesoft Products is fairly simple - just visit the download section of the synthesoft web site. There, you will find self-installing executables that handle everything for you.

Removal of Synthesoft programs is just as easy - we provide standard uninstall routines, accessible from Control Panel’s “Add/Remove Programs” applet. Also, the screen savers can be removed by running the “uninstall.exe” file found in the directory in which you installed the saver. And, CD/Spectrum Pro has a menu option in the Start menu for uninstalling it.

What if I am having trouble using the screen savers with low-power standby or other "energy saver" features?

If a power-down event is not occuring as expected when your screen saver is running (this is a very rare circumstance), then you can easily work around the problem by instructing the screen saver to end (i.e. go to a blank screen) just before the power-down event occurs. The power-down event will then occur normally. Here are the steps needed in order to do this:

1 - Go to the Auxilliary Settings tab of the screen saver configuration dialog box.

2 - Set the "Blank Screen Timeout" to be equal to be the "power-down wait time" minus the "screen saver wait time" minus 1 (where "power-down wait time" is the length of inactivity time before the power-down event is supposed to occur and "screen saver wait time" is the length of inactivity time before the screen saver starts).

3 - Click OK.

For example, if your "power-down wait time" is 30 minutes and your "screen saver wait time" is 10 minutes, then you can set your "Blank Screen Timeout" to be 30-10-1 (or 19 minutes).