The final gapless playback thread

[Pete10]

I invite you all to share your experiences with gapless playback in MM.
And the MM team to comment and take action if needed - in the hope to resolve this for once and for all.

To make this clearer: gapless playback is essential for continuous music that is split up in tracks on a cd. Playback should of course then also be continuous, although the source will be in different files. MM (Jiri) has stated to have this implemented, but my experiences are mixed (I'll report in the next post).
Note that this has nothing to do per se with removing silences from the source, as there should be no silences to begin with.. Make sure that cross-fading is always turned off when testing.
Also mention (i) your OS and (ii) the file format (encoder) you are using and (iii) the output plugin, with its settings.

[Pete10]

The good news is that is works, for me.
The bad news is only with the wave_out output plugin (out_wave.dll).
The important configuration is to set the buffer ahead on track change to a high enough value (up to 2000 msecs is possible, why not use it).
What did not work for me was:
- output via kernel streaming (crashes)
- output via the standard MM direct output plugin (erratic gaps)
- output via the asio plugins mentioned in the wiki page on this, http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... ut_Plugins), with asio4all or ploytec asio drivers (always gaps). Reportedly, this should work in WinAmp with the same asio plugin, and in Foobar that has its own plugin.

Still a pity that these options are not working!

Files: always flac level 5
System: Celeron/Centrino laptop and Atom netbook, both running happily with XP SP3.

[nohitter151]

Works for me with LAME encoded mp3 files at any bitrate, or FLAC files at compression level 5, using MediaMonkey's directsound plugin.

[paulf]

It's never worked for me. I use asio as I want bitperfect output, direct sound isn't an option if you want high-quality playback. With asio Gapless doesn't happen & it's quite annoying. Using the asio output also means that mm hangs when paused for more than about 5 seconds. Ah well, what can you do? I don't think these problems are an issue for most users, probably it's just a small number of people who are trying to use MM as an interface between their PCs and their stereo systems & seeing as there have been very few posts on this subject and little in the way of interest I'm not holding my breath for a solution. For me in the end the gapless issue isn't quite enough to make me change to foobar .... not quite ...

[Pete10]

I assume the developers are reading this too sometimes, but appear to think this problem is solved, so I hope they step in.
Are you all using XP? Do you have gapless playback with MM direct sound?
Anyway, although asio bypasses some windows components. I believe that bitperfect is also possible without asio (but a bit more tricky as the settings must be right - 100% volume, balance, no equalizer of digital fx, system sounds turned off, no other program sending music to the windows sound system). If there is only one source (i.e. MM) there need not be a problem.
For classical music gapless is essential.

[paulf]

I'm using xp, yes. Is that really true that you can get a bitperfect output using direct sound?? I've tested (using my ears) direct sound against asio and there really isn't any question about which is superior. Not a doubt really that asio is better - but if I can be corrected I would happily like to know how. I used kernel streaming for a bit (output sound quality just as good as aiso) but had far too many issues, same with several settings with asio,it took ages to get one both I and my computer was happy with. Media Monkey is hands down the best music interface I've found, but this is purely from a visual/organisational perspective. From the audiophile angle i think it fares less well. Asio issues, gapless problems, cue reader problems (still not got the cue reader plugin to work), etc.

I eagerly await any further news!

[Pete10]

Did you compare asio (albeit with gaps) and the waveout plugin? I am thinking to start using Windows 7 and see how that works.

[Peke]

In Win 7 WASAPI plugin is working really good.

[Pete10]

Just installed this plugin on W7, on my netbook. Not gapless and no scrubbing, so pretty useless.

[Peke]

"no scrubbing"???

It is not gapless I know but I wanted to give you alternative blind test plugin for testing quality of sound.

[Pete10]

Never had a good scrub ? It is moving tru a file using the slider (at least in video it is).