SoundSpectrum music visualization software
     
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  Troubleshooting  
  Downloading/Installing

What can I do when I am told the download file is corrupt?
What if my security software complains about G-Force?
Why am I getting a weird filename when I download G-Force?
Why do I get an NSIS error when I try to install?
When I Install G-Force, Windows says Windows Media Player is in use?

General

Visualizations in Windows Media Player stop reacting after the first song?
What is wrong with G-Force screen saver on macOS?
Why can't I exit full-screen mode in the Standalone application?
Why isn't my media player listing G-Force as a visual plugin?
Why doesn't G-Force respond to my keystrokes or mouse clicks?
Why isn't the album cover art in my media player showing up in G-Force?
How do I generate a fresh (or "factory") preferences file?
Why do my changes in the preferences file have no effect?
Why does G-Force momentarily pause when it loads a config or sprite?
Why isn't the G-Force Standalone or the V-Bar responding to sound?
How do I enable other audio sources for Standalone or V-Bar?
Why isn't the visual response from G-Force in sync with the audio that I am hearing?
Why does G-Force say "Factory Default" when it tries to load my config?
How do I fix the G-Force Toolbar if the display fields are empty?


 
 
Downloading/Installing

What can I do when I am told the download file is corrupt?
If your download process is not completing, there may be something wrong with your internet connection. If you are using any firewalls, please ensure that they are configured to allow executable downloads and/or please temporarily disable your firewall in order to download G-Force. If you are using any download accelerators, please ensure that they are turned off and/or are temporarily disabled. If you still continue to experience problems, please try using an alternate browser (we recommend Firefox as a trusted and free alternative).

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What if my security software complains about G-Force?
G-Force's installer needs to connect to the internet in order to verify the authenticity of your license. Sometimes security programs mistake this for a threat. Most security companies decide whether or not a program is malicious based on the developer's reputation. We are a small company and we rely on word-of-mouth for our reputation. Please go to your security provider's support website and report to them that their software is giving you what is called a "false positive." In the meantime, disable your security software prior to re-downloading G-Force. Make sure to re-activate your security after the installation is completed. Please contact SoundSpectrum support if you have any questions about this.
Please also know that SoundSpectrum has been a small American business for over two decades and we take security and customer privacy very seriously.

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Why am I getting a weird filename when I download G-Force?
Web browsers sometimes rename files upon download or downloads do not complete. Try downloading again or try a different browser to download G-Force. We recommend Firefox or Explorer for Windows users and Firefox or Safari for macOS users).

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Why do I get an NSIS error when I try to install?
If you are getting an "NSIS Error" message upon install, then your download file was somehow corrupted during the download process and/or there is a conflict with your firewall. If you are using any firewalls, please ensure that they are configured to allow executable downloads and/or please temporarily disable your firewall in order to download G-Force. If you are using any download accelerators, please ensure that they are turned off and/or are temporarily disabled. If you continue to experience problems, please visit Why do I get NSIS Error page to learn more.

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When I Install G-Force, Windows says Windows Media Player is in use?
Windows Media Player (WMP) may be in "taskbar" mode which can create problems during G-Force installation (the G-Force installer displays an error message, but problems can arise if you opt to ignore this warning). Since the WMP Taskbar runs in the background whether or not you are using WMP, try:
  1. Restart your computer.
  2. With all applications closed, right-click on the middle of your Windows Task Bar (also known as the "Start Bar").
  3. From the right-click menu, select the "Toolbars" menu and ensure that there is NO checkmark next to Windows Media Player.
  4. Re-install G-Force.


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General

Visualizations in Windows Media Player stop reacting after the first song?
Sadly, Windows Media Player has a bug where visualizations stop reacting to audio after the first song, described here. In that post, you will also find a link to this issue reported within Microsoft's bug tracker. If you want this issue fixed, please upvote this issue there so that it gets higher visibility within Microsoft.

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What is wrong with G-Force screen saver on macOS?
Unfortunately, third-party "legacy" screen savers have had major problems for years on macOS and is well documented. As of Sonoma 14.6.1, Apple has not fixed the painful issue where the screen saver continues to run invisibly after the screen exits, burning CPU indefinitely.

Unless Apple chooses to fix this, G-Force screen saver is generally unusable (or any third-party screen saver). If you want this fixed, please consider filing a bug report. Perhaps emphasize how long this issue has persisted, that it occurs across all third-party screen savers, that the macOS internal legacyScreenSaver consumes CPU even after the screen saver exits, and that the only solution is to terminate it using Activity Monitor.

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Why can't I exit full-screen mode in the Standalone application?
To enter and exit full-screen mode, please use the keystroke "Shift Enter" or "Shift Return".

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Why isn't my media player listing G-Force as a visual plugin?
Each media player detects visual plugins differently, so the best general guidance is to ensure that you're using the latest version of your media player and that you followed the installation instructions carefully. Beyond that, restart your computer, uninstall G-Force, and run the installer again.

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Why doesn't G-Force respond to my keystrokes or mouse clicks?
Some media players don't pass keystrokes or mouse clicks to visual plugins, leaving you unable to use G-Force's hot-key commands. For example, Windows Media Player does not give 3rd party applications such as G-Force dedicated keystroke support (you'll find that WMP passes keystrokes to G-Force only some of the time in full screen mode, but unfortunately not always). You are encouraged to contact the creators of media players that don't have full keyboard and mouse support for visual plugins and request that they add it.

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Why isn't the album cover art in my media player showing up in G-Force?
Support for album cover art is available only in G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum. Further, only iTunes, J. River MEDIA CENTER, jetAudio, Musicmatch pass album cover art to visual plugins (making it impossible for G-Force to display album cover art in any other media players). If you use foobar2000, make a tag named "APIC" and set it to the pathname of the album cover art image file.

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How do I generate a fresh (or "factory") preferences file?
There are two ways to create a fresh "factory" preferences file. One way is to uninstall G-Force, then reinstall G-Force and restart it (note, this method will completely remove G-Force, so please ensure that you have access to the G-Force installer files before proceeding). The second way is to delete the appropriate preferences file located inside your G-Force prefs folder (for Windows XP, this file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\ USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 in C:\Users\ USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, and for Mac OS in home/Library/Preferences/SoundSpectrum/G-Force/). The next time G-Force starts, it will generate a new pref file containing the default (or "factory") preference settings.

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Why do my changes in the preferences file have no effect?
The preferences file is read when G-Force starts and is overwritten when G-Force exits, so any changes made to it while G-Force is running will be lost. Some media players internally do not close G-Force even when it is not visible (so exit the media player before you edit the preferences file). Another reason that preference file edits are often not successful is that the wrong file was edited. You can ensure that you're not editing a preferences file from an older version of G-Force by checking its modification date before you edit it. See the above FAQ item for more information.

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Why does G-Force momentarily pause when it loads a config or sprite?
Unexpected disk access can result in an unsightly visual stutter or pause (which is what can occur if you manually load a sprite or config that hasn't been recently already read from disk). When the OS fetches a requested file, the requesting application (G-Force in this case) is halted (or "blocked") because it cannot proceed until it has the file. Hence, if the file is large (such as a large image or video file), this stutter can be very noticeable. G-Force uses a cache look-ahead to prevent this (causing the file to be asynchronously read-in about a second before its needed), leaving only manual user actions able to cause I/O stutters.

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Why isn't the G-Force Standalone or the V-Bar responding to sound?
G-Force is probably not listening to the audio source that you want. Right-click (or control-click) on the G-Force or V-Bar window to select audio input sources. If you're listening to the correct audio source but do not see any visual activity, the source may not be powerful enough. Increase the visual responsiveness and preamp scales to see if a signal is there (see the G-Force Standalone section for more on this). Finally, if you're not seeing an appropriate sound source, see the entry on enabling it, below.

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How do I enable other audio sources for Standalone or V-Bar?
If using Windows, navigate to:

Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Manage audio devices
  1. Select the "Recording" tab.
  2. Right-click on the background of the device list and choose "Show Disabled Devices".
  3. Right-click on "Stereo Mix", "What u hear", or a similarly named audio channel and select "Enable".
  4. Apply and save these changes.
  5. Launch your SoundSpectrum visualizer in Standalone or V-Bar mode and select this audio channel.

If using macOS, there is a free system extension you may download called Soundflower that allows applications to pass audio to other applications. With Soundflower installed and configured correctly, you can get the G-Force Standalone or V-Bar apps to respond to any audio source on your Mac.

Please note that we are not associated or affiliated with Soundflower or its developers, so we cannot provide you with support on its use.

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Why isn't the visual response from G-Force in sync with the audio that I am hearing?
Your audio player is probably buffering audio such that by the time it gets to the speakers it was already displayed in G-Force a while ago. Try experimenting with smaller buffer sizes in your audio player to decrease this time delay. Also, running G-Force in a large window can cause a high enough system load that the audio player enters an abnormal state of playback, so try reducing the G-Force's frame size to correct the problem.

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Why does G-Force say "Factory Default" when it tries to load my config?
G-Force falls-back to an internally stored "factory" config if there's a problem loading a config. Double-check that your config has no missing/extra quotes or comment delimiters and also make sure it's not open in another application.

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How do I fix the G-Force Toolbar if the display fields are empty?
The G-Force visualizer and the G-Force Toolbar use the TCP/IP network protocol in order to communicate. If your computer blocks this connection (a typical security measure by firewall software), then the G-Force Toolbar will not be able connect to the G-Force visualizer. If the G-Force Toolbar can't connect to G-Force, then it cannot function (and all its menus and controls will be disabled). To fix this problem, you will need to review your firewall settings.

Configuring Windows Firewall. If you have Windows Firewall enabled (most WIndows users have this enabled), add G-Force to the list of exceptions. You can do this by selecting Start | Control Panel | Windows Firewall and then selecting the "Exceptions" tab which should allow you to enable/disable programs such as the G-Force Standalone and G-Force Toolbar.

Configuring Other Firewall Software. If you are running another software application such as Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, or another such software firewall application, please ensure that G-Force is not being blocked in any way from using the TCP/IP connections.

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