Author Topic: Playback Software (Read 6647 times)

kindms · « **on:** February 22, 2005, 04:56:23 PM »

I was wonder what apps people were using to playback files off their computer bassed listening. I know there have been a few responses about not wanting the computer any where near the hifi etc but what playback software offers the best solution for quality. I have Wavelab 5.0a and it is what I use for editing etc and I usually just use that but it isnt as user friendly for loading hours of music for conitual playback as say winamp.

I bulit an extremely quiet PC for this purpose. I have a nice interconnect coming from leegeedy and I am running a ESI waveterminal 192x -> marantz sr880.

Any recs. on playback apps is greatly appreciated (Free is always nice as well)

Lil Kim Jong-Il · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2005, 05:18:04 PM »

The free version of music match jukebox that does what you want.

edit:
http://www.musicmatch.com/download/free/?OS=pc&MODE=input&DID=&OEM=MMD&LANG=&SOURCE=getbasic_jbpromo

dnsacks · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2005, 05:21:44 PM »

why not use winamp?

Tall Adam · « **Reply #3 on:** February 22, 2005, 05:27:00 PM »

does winamp acutally play back at 24/96 when you play 24/96? i suspect it does because my 24-bit sound card does some funky stuff when i switch between 24 and 16 bit files...but does anyone know for sure. also, is there a newer winamp with gapless playback?

kindms · « **Reply #4 on:** February 22, 2005, 05:57:14 PM »

Wiamp will palyback 24bit files if your soundcard supports it. You have to go in and select the soundcard in Winamp to do this sometimes. It sometimes will default to the windows audio driver

Tall Adam · « **Reply #5 on:** February 22, 2005, 06:05:07 PM »

nah my echo is the default. thanks! +T

ducati · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2005, 08:55:00 AM »

I did a shootout between playback software a few years ago and was shocked at the results. Playback software SIGNIFICANTLY alters the sound you get out of your files. I was running my Dell lappy > EMI 2|6 > dCS Delius at 24/96, and some playback apps caused the Delius to lose lock if I had the DAC in "narrow mode." Narrow mode was better sounding on the Delius, and related to the PLL lock that it would perform on the incoming datastream. You could switch it to "wide mode" for jittery sources, but this somewhat softened and diffused the soundfield to a negative degree, as I recall.

Anyway, even among the apps that I could get to lock with "narrow" I found a wide variability in the sound quality.

I am sorry I don't have the results of my test, but I specifically recall WinAmp was the WORST sounding alternative, and either Wavelab or CoolEdit was the best (I am thinking it was CoolEdit... don't remember). Since all my 24/96 files were very large, I didn't care too much that I had to get up and re-load the tune every hour or so. Now this was when I was *really* listening... If I was just putting on background tunes WinAmp was fine.

FWIW WinAmp will definitely output 24 bit.

Nick in Edinboro · « **Reply #7 on:** February 23, 2005, 09:58:38 AM »

FooBar 2000 is cool too, small footprint, low cpu usage. http://www.foobar2000.org/

kindms · « **Reply #8 on:** February 23, 2005, 12:08:22 PM »

Great responses. I would have to agree that when listening to full shows this becomes less of an issue.

I will continue to use Wavelab. Glad to hear it did well in your earlier trials.

Tall Adam · « **Reply #9 on:** February 23, 2005, 12:12:01 PM »

unless its a full tracked, then what do you do?

kindms · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2005, 12:26:33 PM »

good point I didnt think of that. hmmm. will files paly 1 after another if loaded in wavelab as a montage ?

ducati · « **Reply #11 on:** February 23, 2005, 01:57:48 PM »

Good question--my 24 bit shows have never been tracked out (at the time I was just burning as one long file to a DVD-V), so I am not sure of that.

Pressing play after every tune would be annoying, rather like flipping my 45s after every tune.

Tim · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2005, 04:05:50 PM »

Quote from: dnsacks on February 22, 2005, 05:21:44 PM

why not use winamp?

I've never liked the way winamp sounded... maybe it's just me

Tim · « **Reply #13 on:** February 23, 2005, 04:06:43 PM »

Quote from: ducati on February 23, 2005, 08:55:00 AM

I did a shootout between playback software a few years ago and was shocked at the results. Playback software SIGNIFICANTLY alters the sound you get out of your files. I was running my Dell lappy > EMI 2|6 > dCS Delius at 24/96, and some playback apps caused the Delius to lose lock if I had the DAC in "narrow mode." Narrow mode was better sounding on the Delius, and related to the PLL lock that it would perform on the incoming datastream. You could switch it to "wide mode" for jittery sources, but this somewhat softened and diffused the soundfield to a negative degree, as I recall.

Anyway, even among the apps that I could get to lock with "narrow" I found a wide variability in the sound quality.

I am sorry I don't have the results of my test, but I specifically recall WinAmp was the WORST sounding alternative, and either Wavelab or CoolEdit was the best (I am thinking it was CoolEdit... don't remember). Since all my 24/96 files were very large, I didn't care too much that I had to get up and re-load the tune every hour or so. Now this was when I was *really* listening... If I was just putting on background tunes WinAmp was fine.

FWIW WinAmp will definitely output 24 bit.

apparently it isn't just me

spoke too soon, glad to see someone has actually done some a/b's though

ducati · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24, 2005, 08:28:25 AM »

macdaddy · « **Reply #15 on:** March 11, 2005, 10:35:55 PM »

Quote from: Nick in Edinboro on February 23, 2005, 09:58:38 AM

FooBar 2000 is cool too, small footprint, low cpu usage. http://www.foobar2000.org/

as important as the low cpu usage is the fact that you can turnall of the dsp crap off. all those stereo wideners, eq, volume, etc. is dsp that alters the sound. in foobar, you can get rid of all those things, and simply playback your music.

it handles 24/96 playback, too (assuming your hardware suppors it)

BobW · « **Reply #16 on:** March 12, 2005, 01:43:31 PM »

Quote from: GQJSP on February 22, 2005, 05:27:00 PM

does winamp acutally play back at 24/96 when you play 24/96? i suspect it does because my 24-bit sound card does some funky stuff when i switch between 24 and 16 bit files...but does anyone know for sure. also, is there a newer winamp with gapless playback?

I don't think so.
I also hear a huge difference in playback between Wamp and Adobe Audition.
I guess Wamp doesn't really "Whip the Llama's Ass" afterall.

spyder9 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:12:30 PM »

Adobe Audition is the schnizzle!

ducati · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2005, 10:09:35 AM »

Quote from: Lower-Powered on March 12, 2005, 01:43:31 PM

Quote from: GQJSP on February 22, 2005, 05:27:00 PM
does winamp acutally play back at 24/96 when you play 24/96? i suspect it does because my 24-bit sound card does some funky stuff when i switch between 24 and 16 bit files...but does anyone know for sure. also, is there a newer winamp with gapless playback?

I don't think so.
I also hear a huge difference in playback between Wamp and Adobe Audition.
I guess Wamp doesn't really "Whip the Llama's Ass" afterall.

Winamp definitely outputs true 24/96. But it does sound crappy, IMO, and I'm guessing it's related to jitter. See my post above.

BobW · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2005, 10:07:00 PM »

Quote from: ducati on March 13, 2005, 10:09:35 AM

Quote from: Lower-Powered on March 12, 2005, 01:43:31 PM
Quote from: GQJSP on February 22, 2005, 05:27:00 PM
does winamp acutally play back at 24/96 when you play 24/96? i suspect it does because my 24-bit sound card does some funky stuff when i switch between 24 and 16 bit files...but does anyone know for sure. also, is there a newer winamp with gapless playback?

I don't think so.
I also hear a huge difference in playback between Wamp and Adobe Audition.
I guess Wamp doesn't really "Whip the Llama's Ass" afterall.

Winamp definitely outputs true 24/96. But it does sound crappy, IMO, and I'm guessing it's related to jitter. See my post above.

Yeah, I've noticed a glitch in the ESI Juli@ driver that causes misdisplay of samplng rates. It sticks on the previous rate.
I found a work-around and wrote ESI. I also can't get the driver to control analogue input.....

I think that I need to reload after blowing away all of my old sound drivers.

kindms · « **Reply #20 on:** March 15, 2005, 08:50:33 PM »

Quote from: Nick in Edinboro on February 23, 2005, 09:58:38 AM

FooBar 2000 is cool too, small footprint, low cpu usage. http://www.foobar2000.org/

Just downloaded and trying it out. EXACTLY what i was looking for. Thanks for the link. +T's all around

Nick in Edinboro · « **Reply #21 on:** March 15, 2005, 10:34:46 PM »

They have lots of plugins too kindms for flac/shn etc. In fact, it may very well come with them

+T

1st set only · « **Reply #22 on:** March 17, 2005, 11:52:23 AM »

is there any way to get Foobar to stream from the archive?

Brian Skalinder · « **Reply #23 on:** March 17, 2005, 10:04:33 PM »

I was gonna suggest dbpoweramp, but...I don't think it'll do 24-bit. Hmph.

Nick in Edinboro · « **Reply #24 on:** March 17, 2005, 10:06:02 PM »

Quote from: raoulduke on March 17, 2005, 09:56:24 PM

so i'm using foobar today & i'm like "why isn't this working w/ SHN files?"
well maybe b/c it doesn't support them ?

so i'm back to square one.

is there a program that does everything winamp does, but sounds good?

01. ability to play SHN and FLAC

02. does not tamper with the sound of the music file (ala winamp)

03. has the ability to play multiple tracks (ala a playlist, unlike wavelab or SF)

04. ability to play 16/44, 24/48, 24/96 ?

foo_shn my friend, foo_shn

It says it's for version 8 but I wager it will work with any version.

macdaddy · « **Reply #25 on:** March 17, 2005, 10:15:04 PM »

download the "special" version. it has all the plugins you need...

http://foobar2000.org/

macdaddy · « **Reply #26 on:** March 17, 2005, 11:12:23 PM »

Quote from: raoulduke on March 17, 2005, 10:56:44 PM

thanx brian, macdaddy & nick for your help. +T's all around boys.
i DL'ed the "special" & it supports SHN. so i guess i'm back to foobar. kudos to the developers of this software. i still need to try it w/ 24 bit files though......

dude that wrote foobar was THE guy on the winamp2 crew that got the WAV output working properly. he bailed winamp and wrote fb2k. and AOL tried to f*ck with him a bit (if i remember correctly)...

Author Topic: Playback Software (Read 6647 times)

BobW

BobW