Basic Foobar configuration (1st&2nd posts)

[Deleted]

There are some other interesting players caring for SQ as XMPlay or the Japanese uLilith. Both fully support WASAPI and ASIO and can be cutomized to suit one needs using plugins like Foobar.

uLilith (www.project9k.jp/download/uLilith/?M=D) has some unusual "audiophile" style configuration options like selecting between integer or floating point output or loading the complete track into RAM before playing, and can be minimized to the icon tray and used it from there by right clicking its icon. If it wasn't enough, it can be downloaded in 4 different versions depending on OS (32 or 64bit) and procesor (generic or Core2 and later). The main downside is that all support is in Japanse...

XMPlay can be found here support.xmplay.com/about.php


cPlay, even if its SQ is very good has some annoying shortcomings for me, like not being able to select and load multiple files unless a cue file is used or its fixed output resolution which becomes a PIA if you play files with different resolutions and don't want upsampling.

All players have strong and week points but for me, all in all, Foobar has the best balance between performance, ease of use and flexibility.

[Deleted]

All players have strong and week points but for me, all in all, Foobar has the best balance between performance, ease of use and flexibility.

AND a steep learning curve as evidenced by the need to write this tutorial. Some of the other players also need an indepth tutorial to get the best out of them, as well as some being relatively expensive. e.g. XXHE and J Play.
I personally don't want to wade through heaps of different settings
to be assured that I am getting the best from a music player, and wonder if I have got it right.
Haven't the software writers heard of the K.I.S.S. principle ?
As an example, the designer of XXHE offered me a free copy, but I don't want a "work in progress"with different "engines", so I haven't taken him up on the offer.
Alex

[Deleted]

AND a steep learning curve as evidenced by the need to write this tutorial.

Hi Alex

fair point

but nothing wrong with a steep learning curve it took me very little time to get the Foobar basics after Javier's explanation while i was building Will's music PC.

like most things it's just so much easier when someone explains things and pictures do in this case paint a thousand words.

I'm pretty sure that Javier's tutorial took longer to write than it did for me to load Foobar for the first time and get music out of it. once I'd done that it was just trying things out to see what they did. so yes a little work but not toooo much and well worth the effort.

it's a great tutorial

if a computer illiterate like me can pick up Foobar then anyone can.

with WASAPI/fidelizer to my ears it sounds very very good and way better than i ever expected to get from a PC front end

also it's free which is pretty generous considering it's flexibility and feature list.

not the only game in town and I'm sure that other players equally as good.

Horses for courses

take care

[Deleted]

but nothing wrong with a steep learning curve

Hey Shaun
Try saving that when you are 22 years older !
Alex

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2011 1:15:06 GMT @sandyk said:

but nothing wrong with a steep learning curve

Hey Shaun
Try saving that when you are 22 years older !
Alex

Hi Alex

another fair point.

take care

[joethearachnid]

Just another tip: you can also fully load tracks into the RAM before playback in Foobar. To do this, go to >File>Preferences and then click 'advanced'. The click on 'playback' and set 'Full file buffering up to X' to larger than the size of your biggest file, so say 40,000-50,000kB for most lossless tracks. This does give a slight delay for plaback actions on my PC, but also should help cut down noise and prevent any further glitches or pops not prevented by WASAPI/ASIO.

And I'm aware that my setup is probably a bit 'busier' than most of you would like it. Sadly I'm young and like flashing lights.

-JoetheArachnid

[Deleted]

A couple of questions for Javier. I've spent a hour or so ripping some new CDs tonight and it's reminded me of something I've always wondered about: -
1) Compression Settings go up to level 8 but all 8 are said to be lossless so what, if any, are the advantages and/or disadvantages of compressing to Level 8, which the screen says is best - in what way?
2) In the 'Rip Status' column after ripping there appears various reports consisting often of one word followed by one number, but occassionally just the word 'Secure' when the programme cannot find any info on the CD from the various Metadata bases. Any idea what the word and number reports refer to? - what does the number mean?
Just curious so it's not important if you're not sure
TIA,
Dave.

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2011 20:24:01 GMT @davek said:

A couple of questions for Javier. I've spent a hour or so ripping some new CDs tonight and it's reminded me of something I've always wondered about: -
1) Compression Settings go up to level 8 but all 8 are said to be lossless so what, if any, are the advantages and/or disadvantages of compressing to Level 8, which the screen says is best - in what way?

Dave, I suppose you must be ripping to FLAC where 8 is the "best" as in highest level compression (or smallest resulting file size) not SQ which should be exactly the same as lower levels. IMHO no point in going higher than 5, the reduction in file size beyond that is not worth the extra effort required from the CPU.

Aug 20, 2011 20:24:01 GMT @davek said:

2) In the 'Rip Status' column after ripping there appears various reports consisting often of one word followed by one number, but occassionally just the word 'Secure' when the programme cannot find any info on the CD from the various Metadata bases. Any idea what the word and number reports refer to? - what does the number mean?
Just curious so it's not important if you're not sure

First I'll need to know what are you using for ripping, EAC? Poweramp? Foobar?
For good quality ripping my personal choice would be EAC.

Cheers

Javier

[Deleted]

Hi Javier,
Thanks for the info on Level 8 ripping - basically it's a trade off/compromise between disk space and CPU capability.
My other question was about ripping with dbPoweramp - I always use that in preference because it's quick, versatile and lossless and I can't discern any SQ benefits using themuch slower EAC. So the Status Report column I enquire about is in dbPoweramp.
Cheers,
Dave.

[Deleted]

I'm sorry Dave but I've never used Poweramp. Maybe someone else can help you with the message.

Cheers

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2011 20:24:01 GMT @davek said:

A couple of questions for Javier. I've spent a hour or so ripping some new CDs tonight and it's reminded me of something I've always wondered about: -
1) Compression Settings go up to level 8 but all 8 are said to be lossless so what, if any, are the advantages and/or disadvantages of compressing to Level 8, which the screen says is best - in what way?
2) In the 'Rip Status' column after ripping there appears various reports consisting often of one word followed by one number, but occassionally just the word 'Secure' when the programme cannot find any info on the CD from the various Metadata bases. Any idea what the word and number reports refer to? - what does the number mean?
Just curious so it's not important if you're not sure
TIA,
Dave.

Dave
FWIW, I find .wav files sound better than .flac for reasons I won't go into here.Unless you REALLY need album art etc. I would recommend sticking to .wav
Alex

[joethearachnid]

For me personally, the smaller filesize and ability to tag in a sensible manner would make FLAC or ALAC superior to .wav even if I could hear an audible difference (I can't). Though if you want album art in Foobar you can just put an image in the same folder as the album and then call it cover.jpg or front.jpg. This works for any formats.

-JoetheArachnid

[pcourtney1]

I too prefer wav, but the argument that you cannot have cover art with wav is a myth that was busted about 5 years ago when people started using iTunes (which I don't use either)

if you want iTunes with cover art, you just record a very short mp3 file, say 2ms of silence at 320kbps, no more than 8kb, and put this in the same folder as your ripped wav files, then select this mp3 and attach the jpeg cover art file to it, name it 999cover.mp3

As an added bonus, if you leave the original jpeg covert art file in the same folder, and rename it folder.jpg then windows explorer will show this as a thumbnail for that folder, if you do that for all your wav music collection, it becomes a really nice way browse your collection of wav folders

[Deleted]

Aug 19, 2011 0:40:08 GMT @javier said:

(Under construction)

SACD:

This plugin is capable to decode Super Audio CD ISO image content as well as DST, DSDIFF and DSD files.

By coincidence, as this thread started, I had re-installed Foobar on my laptop (after wiping it and starting afresh) and had also added the SACD plugin. I had access to a copy of an SACD .iso file and wanted to see how easy it was to extract DSD and convert to hi-res PCM. It was easy.

For more details send me a PM.

D.

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2011 12:05:11 GMT hifidez said:

Aug 19, 2011 0:40:08 GMT @javier said:

(Under construction)

SACD:

This plugin is capable to decode Super Audio CD ISO image content as well as DST, DSDIFF and DSD files.

By coincidence, as this thread started, I had re-installed Foobar on my laptop (after wiping it and starting afresh) and had also added the SACD plugin. I had access to a copy of an SACD .iso file and wanted to see how easy it was to extract DSD and convert to hi-res PCM. It was easy.

For more details send me a PM.

D.

This is how it works:

Assuming you have the DSD plugin installed as per Javier 's instructions:


Seelect Library > Configure > Tools > SACD

ASIO Driver Mode:
I left 'ASIO Driver Mode' set to 'PCM'

PCM Volume:
I Left 'PCM Volume' set at 0dB. There is a pull down menu which allows you to add gain which I think will be useful. For example, the two extractions I did showed that nothing peaked above -6dB so a little more gain might be useful.

PCM Sample rate:
Three options here. Select 44100 to downsample to CD red book standard. Or select 88200 or 176400 to preserve the full bandwidth of the DSD tracks. Match this to the original... if you select 176400 when the original is 88200 then a load of background hiss is generated - I don't know why.

Then click "OK"



That's the SACD plugin configured..... now......

Go to File > Open > and then navigate to your .iso file. Click on it and it will open in Foobar and you'll see the track listing. Select the track(s) you want to convert to PCM, right click and select "Convert ..."


Then use 'Destination' to set directory to save the wavs in, and use %track% %title% as a useful format for your track titles. You'll see examples below. Click on "Back"

Click on "Convert" and away it goes.


Well that's how it was for me anyhow. Good luck.


Derek

[Deleted]

Less than 3 hours ago a new SACD plugin with SSE support has been released. A quick test shows CPU dropping from 75-80% to a far more relaxed 30-40%, that is a 50% reduction!. The problem, the BIG problem, is in my PC it freezes after 10 seconds of playing. Hopefully they'll release a more stable revision soon.

[XTRProf]

Congrats on the fantastic build up to the Foobar detail tutorial, Javier! Now the uncongratulation. I haven't read it yet.

Btw, can the 32 bits Foobar work undersimulation in a 64 bits Win 7 Home or Professional edition? I've got no choice, as my present desktop and laptop already come in these.

No choice, I will then have to revive my Win XP Professional with another computer.

[Deleted]

Yes Chong, it will work on Windows 7 64bit. Compatibility wise Home and Professional are very much the same.
The only problem I heard that may show up is with ASIO. Some people have complained that Foobar's ASIO plugin cannot communicate with ASIO 64bit drivers, the solution is very easy, use WASAPI instead.

[XTRProf]

Aug 22, 2011 8:19:28 GMT @javier said:

Yes Chong, it will work on Windows 7 64bit. Compatibility wise Home and Professional are very much the same.
The only problem I heard that may show up is with ASIO. Some people have complained that Foobar's ASIO plugin cannot communicate with ASIO 64bit drivers, the solution is very easy, use WASAPI instead.

Ah, thanks. Time to be naughty when I go home early today as @#^$(*((*& boss still overseas. Amen!

[XTRProf]

Btw, those DVD-A, SACD and HDCD plugins can also play those DVD-A, SACD and HDCD discs from the dvd rom? Or it's meant to play just only those DVD-A, DSD and HDCD files on the HD or flash memory only?

Thanks.

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2011 10:00:46 GMT XTRProf said:

Btw, those DVD-A, SACD and HDCD plugins can also play those DVD-A, SACD and HDCD discs from the dvd rom? Or it's meant to play just only those DVD-A, DSD and HDCD files on the HD or flash memory only?

Thanks.

The DVD-A and HDCD plugins work with discs as Windows can read them. SACD discs are not recognized by Windows (yet ) so from HDD only.

[Deleted]

I found the reason why SACD 0.2.4 was freezing. I had set file buffering way too high. I've changed the value to a more reasonable 60,000KB and it works fine now with far less CPU use. Recommended.

[Deleted]

This guys are fantastic, new release 0.2.5:

08/22/11:
Version 0.2.5 - Memory leak in DST decoder fixed.

Here: sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/files/foo_input_sacd/foo_input_sacd-0.2.5.zip/download

[XTRProf]

Aug 22, 2011 10:37:56 GMT @javier said:

The DVD-A and HDCD plugins work with discs as Windows can read them. SACD discs are not recognized by Windows (yet ) so from HDD only.

Thanks. As usual when giant companies fight it out. Let's see whether there is any plugin from our software developers to overcome that later.

[XTRProf]

Aug 22, 2011 16:01:58 GMT @javier said:

I found the reason why SACD 0.2.4 was freezing. I had set file buffering way too high. I've changed the value to a more reasonable 60,000KB and it works fine now with far less CPU use. Recommended.

Btw, can you share your system specs to get that problem? Maybe higher CPU power will not have that even when max out.