Please fix bit-perfect gapless playback

[sg60]

My number one wish list item for Media Monkey is to improve the quality of bit-perfect playback. I know that many users only play MP3 files and that’s fine but I have all my 50,000+ files in FLAC format and many of those are hi-res (96K, 192K, etc.). In addition I have invested a great deal of money in my audio equipment so highest quality bit-perfect playback is absolutely crucial for me. As much as I love MM I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t measure up in this particular area.

I use the ASIO plugin because it’s the only one supported by my computer interface device which directs music files from my PC to my external DAC. This plugin is a third party plugin and therefore not supported by MM. This is a shame because I really believe that an application that is developed and marketed primarily as a music player and music management tool should have this functionality built in and supported.

The biggest problem is that the gapless playback option offered by the ASIO plugin doesn’t work. The result is that there is a very audible dropout between tracks. This is particularly noticeable when playing a complete album, especially those albums where tracks blend into each other. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here are good examples. Those dropouts that occur as tracks transition into each other are incredibly annoying from a listening experience perspective and take you right out of the moment. I know that my experience is not unique as I have read many posts complaining of the same problem. I have tried every tweak possible to fix this issue and nothing has worked. It doesn’t help that there is little or no English language documentation for the plugin which might provide some much needed assistance.

So the bottom line is that I’m left with no choice but to use another product that has focused on this issue and provides the listening experience I need. I’ve just begun using J River’s Media Center. I want to say that I don’t make this change lightly. I have been using MM for years and I love the product. I think it’s superior to JRMC in almost every way, but not in the critical area of bit-perfect gapless playback. I’ll still continue to use MM for its excellent file management tools but for playback I’m going to use JRMC. I sincerely hope that MM developers address this issue because if they do I will come back to it in a heartbeat. I still think it’s a tremendous product.

[Orbi]

+1

not only playback but also management of hi-res music files:
- ability to transcode 24bit on the fly to portable devices only supporting 16bit
- sample size (16bit - 24bit) in the song properties. I'd like sample size to be available in columns and as a filter for playlists.

At the moment, only bitrate and frequency indicate songs are 24bit. The strange thing about frequency, is that it is called Sample Rate in the column and filter.

[scoobydoo]

Yeah same here...I love MM for organizing and tagging but I just can's use it for playback now.
Since I started using MM there's been constant questions over the years about gapless playback. I've wasted hours and hours fiddling around with it's settings to try and achieve it. My FLAC files playing through WASAPI always have an annoying click onto the next track...eg. The Wall, Abbey Road.

These same files work PERFECTLY on Foobar and JRiver without spending half a day messing about on the settings screens.
It would be nice if the MM team could finally sort out this problem once and for all.

[Otello]

Well, during the beta testing of MM4 I have pested the developers about the output driver, but after the bug sorting I have not these problems and for me the Wasapi driver works very well (yes, I spent too a lot of money in hi-end audio, I use MM as primary digital source and I tested it with many DACs and sound cards).

With the correct settings for bit-perfect output (please look at the last msg. in this thread: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =1&t=62665) I get the gapless playback without clicks; with some DACs I had to disable the event mode in wasapi advanced setting, thou.

I have some record when I hear a click changing the track, but it happens with Foobar and JRiver, too; I think the problem was created during ripping, because the offset of the CD-Driver was not set correctly in the ripping software.

Off course you cannot pretend to have gapless playback playing in sequence 2 tracks recorded at different sample rates, as DAC and suond card must re-syncronize, so usually you miss about 1-2 seconds at the beginning of the new tracks.
For this problem I'd love an option for pausing the player for few seconds when you have a change of sample rate.

[sg60]

Unfortuantely WASAPI is not an option for me due to the hardware that I use. I have to use ASIO because my computer to DAC interface device does not support WASAPI. I hope that the MM developers address this issue or I'll continue using JRMC which is actually a pretty decent product in many ways, especially for audiophile quality playback.

By the way regarding your comments about switching between different sample rates.

Off course you cannot pretend to have gapless playback playing in sequence 2 tracks recorded at different sample rates, as DAC and suond card must re-syncronize, so usually you miss about 1-2 seconds at the beginning of the new tracks.
For this problem I'd love an option for pausing the player for few seconds when you have a change of sample rate.

I don't have this problem using ASIO4ALL with JRMC. Transition between tracks with 44/96/192 sample rates is seamless with no dropouts.

[Otello]

Ah! That's interesting, may I ask you what setting are you using with JRiver?
Just to be sure I tried again with JRiver and with tracks with different sample rate I have a short dropout during transition... (But I couldn't use ASIO4ALL, as my card has its dedicated ASIO driver.)

By the way, as you use ASIO4ALL, I assume your audio card is not ASIO compliant; now, ASIO4ALL just redirect the ASIO output to kernell streaming, so, unless you're still using Win XP, if it works with KS I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work with wasapi, too.

[sg60]

It's a bit more complicated than that. I use a firewire interface (M-Audio Profire 610) to connect my notebook PC to my external DAC so I can get full 24/192 capability. I'm running Windows 7 on the PC but there's no Windows 7 driver for the optical out port so I'm forced to use an older driver but it fixes all outgoing audio at 16/48. I didn't want to use the USB port because my DAC only supports USB up to 24/96 and I have music files up to 24/192. The Profire was my solution, albeit a fairly expensive solution. The Profire only seems to support ASIO (at least I've never been able to get WASAPI working with it). It has its own ASIO driver but I found with experimentation that the ASIO4ALL driver seems to work better, at least with my specific setup. I'm just using the default ASIO4ALL settings.

[Otello]

I See...
Well, the Profire 610 manual speaks about ASIO/WDM configuration, and Wasapi connects to WDM... It's definitely supposed to work.
Sorry for insisting, but otherwise I fear you're screwed as you probably know, the ASIO driver author wrote in the docs that he was forced to insert a short dropout even in gapless mode because... i don't remember why , anyway he had no solution to solve the problem.

Back to JRiver (sorry again, but I'm very curious about this matter), you have gapless mode also with the M-Audio driver or only with ASIO4ALL?
About settings, I meant JRiver settings, i.e.: I was wondering if you use some DSP, resampler, etc.

[sg60]

The only thing selected in DSP is Output Format. Prebuffering is set to 6 seconds and files are played from memory instead of disk.
I've never been able to get WASAPI working with the Profire. I can't speak to the technical issues, I can only say that I don't hear any audible dropouts between tracks.