please help me with an abandonware issue

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hello all good WPers-
for the last 13 years i've used a bit of software called "Pristine Sounds 2000" on my old windows 98 PC and when that became too old and slow i had to migrate to a newer windows 7 puter, but when i tried to install the pristine sounds software it would not install, it was not compatible with windows 7. so i downloaded the updated version Pristine Sounds 2005 but when i tried to license it [so it would run] i found out that its website vendor, www.alienconnections.com was dead, and no license would be forthcoming. i absolutely need this software to be working but how do i get around the license problem? thank you in advance for any replies.

Try getting Win98 and your software to run in VMWare. It might work in XP mode for Win7, but I doubt it. Try VMWare first. Which means installing Win98 and your software in a virtual machine within Win7, but that's okay right?

gosh i went to their website but it was not informative in the least. i am no computer guru, i just barely know enough about the infernal machine to do my simple audio restoration tasks on it. does anybody make things that will install on my windows 7 home [NOT pro] machine that will make it compatible with the older programs?

I just pulled the website up, apparently Peavey now owns alienconnections, so I would contact Peavey. FWIW, I'm kind of surpried that Peavey is moving in on the DAW market.

they don't answer their emails and when i phoned them they were clueless about alienconnections.

That sucks. If worst comes to worst, what are the software equivalents? WaveLab, or something similar, perhaps?

unfortunately, pristine sounds was totally unique in that it had a "paint brush" that you could use to iron out nonlinearities in the audio waveform, that NOBODY else duplicated. [it was totally different than the "healing brush" that Adobe Audition uses, btw] it had several other features that were totally unique. i tried to run compatibility mode but that is only fully implemented in windows 7 pro. i need to know who on the web sells used software licenses so as to be legit. i tried exploring key cracking but that led nowhere. i gotta have this software up and running!

Considering the fact that nobody at peavey is answering your questions directly, you might want to ask on their Forums, as somebody is bound to have an answer there.

their pristine sounds forum [under the peavey heading] is dead. only an automated bot is going through the motions of registering people but when it says "an email was sent to the address you provided" nothing actually happens.

I downloaded Pristine Sounds 2000 (build 00.02.07) and installed it to Win 7 Home Basic in a VM, without any problems.

The program started without errors and seemed to perform as expected when editing a wav file.

I'm guessing your installation problem is due to an old InstallShield script, so I have added a link to the build that I
downloaded below:

Pristine Sounds 2000 (Build 00.02.07)

^^^
thank you for that, soliloquist i downloaded it just in case.
i have to include an update here- the webmaster of the domain alienconnections.com finally replied to my emails after about a week, and was nice enough to send me an updated license. so i have my beloved pristine sounds 2005 back up and running i couldn't imagine doing the kind of audio restoration i do without this program. so i have to ask you, soliloquist, have you explored this program? it really is very powerful in terms of being able to paint away problem bits of audio. with some practice you can do amazing things [in terms of audio restoration] with it. it does things that even CEDAR ReTouch can't really touch.
so i mention all this just in case the people behind the curtain at alienconnections.com are paying attention, so they won't be mad at me.

Interesting. I'll add making a modern program with a feature set like this to my bucket list.

wow you can do this? that is pretty advanced, if ya ask me. what i would really like, is for just ONE program to do all the things that my disparate audio programs do by themselves. if i could smuch up together, pristine sounds and Dcart and darpXP-pro and soundforge and click repair/denoise/dehum and iZotope Rx and such into just one super program, that would [for me] cover ALL the bases. i can dream, in any case.
what you should know is that the graphical editing window in PS2005 has several spot-editing functions that you can do graphically [using a virtual brush, as though you were working on a photoshop image file] upon a specral display [not a waveform], including amplify/reduce volume/mute, denoise and declick/decrackle [variable strength and size of brush], as well as "ironing out" "wrinkles" in the sound file waveform, visible spectrally in the display. this feature is totally unique. it also has a unique adjustable derumbler that doesn't touch the musical bass notes, but it still gets rid of the lion's share of phonographic rumble. it works by a combo of interchannel cancellation [stereo files] and downward expansion [mono files]. and it also has a dehisser with variable eq sliders so you can concentrate noise reduction in 1/2/5/8/9k+ treble bands, which is very effective on much cassette/tape noise, and it also has a uniquelly effective reverb tail app attached to that noise reduction which livens up the sound a bit after processing, as well as adding width and body to monophonic [2-channel] files. if you don't mind the length of these descriptions, it also has a unique "graphical eq" which allows you to draw a frequency response curve by hand, just like you're sketching lines on paper. this app has a magnifying glass thingie that you click and drag onto the eq graphic window to identity what each frequency range sounds like with sine waves, so you can get a better idea of what part of the spectrum you are modifying- a very educational and useful app! it also has a unique "3D" eq function where you can adjust eq within a certain dynamic range, e.g., only in the quiet parts, sliding up towards the louder end, as well as limiting the strength of louder parts at specific frequency bands, rather like a compander eq. it also has a variety of room simulators/impulse response thingies and a slow but wonderfully spacious and atmospheric reverb app [with adjustable eq bands/width/duration/depth] that can really improve the sound of old monophonic recordings, making them sound more like they were recorded in stereo. used judiciously, this app works better at this than just about any other reverb i've used. there are too many other things to add, that you might consider putting in your novel program.

If I ever get around to it, I'll *definitely* talk to you about what to put in it, but right now it's not near the front of my list