Topic: Track change options (Read 1512 times)

milsdrewbulch · « **on:** July 30, 2021, 07:14:49 pm »

Unchecking of “Use gapless for sequential album tracks” causes a gap on natural progression from track to track in an album. It is a short gap but nonetheless distracting. Checking it allows for the applause to run smoothly through on live albums as if a CD player were playing the album. It's also essential for some classical albums where the producers decided to break up movements into multiple tracks. So it really ought to be checked.

But why should a manual track change mid-track from say Track 1 to Track 2 (sequential album tracks) then be devoid of the cross-fade, S-curve (or some other) effect selected under "Switch tracks"? These work fine when manually changing from say Track 1 to Track 5 (non sequential).

It would be better IMO if the selected transition effect under "Switch tracks" overrode "use gapless for sequential tracks" for manual advancement through an album.

This was how it worked in MC25 from which I upgraded. Something has happened to corrupt the behaviour since 25.

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2021, 08:00:06 am »

If you select "Use gapless for sequential album tracks" it will be in gapless mode for the track transition when it switches tracks marked as sequential album tracks.

What specifically are you having an issue with? That you don't want it to be gapless during a manual transition? Or something else?

Thanks.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2021, 05:53:30 pm »

Yes - I don't want it to be gapless during manual transitions. Just like it was in MC25.

The preferred behaviour would be that when you hit the "next" button during play of a boring track, the transition would be to the setting selected under Switch tracks (and same for going back to the previous track). Not a hard gapless jolt into the next track. With Use gapless unchecked, it works like that. BUT you need Use gapless checked for playing albums through gaplessly when not switching tracks.

Use gapless for sequential album tracks feature should ONLY work on natural transitions from the end of one track to the next.

Moreover, Switch tracks should override Use gapless no matter whether sequential or otherwise.

Thank you Matt.

Matt · « **Reply #3 on:** August 02, 2021, 06:06:14 pm »

Thanks. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #4 on:** August 02, 2021, 08:14:39 pm »

Thank you for listening Matt (again - you fixed the loudness clicking problem that I raised in MC25 that others here DARED to question LOL). I have several friends here in Sydney (on MC27) that are also having issues with this gapless thing.

Maybe a less confusing line in the interface than "Use gapless for sequential album tracks" might be "Use gapless for album track progression". Just an idea.

Ovenproof · « **Reply #5 on:** August 03, 2021, 12:52:57 am »

I use MC27, and would also prefer track changes to work as explained in Reply#2, by milsdrewbulch.

Matt · « **Reply #6 on:** August 03, 2021, 08:28:33 am »

Coming next build:
Changed: The between tracks mode "Use gapless for sequential album tracks" will only engage when reaching the end of the file (so manual transitions will not use it).

Testing appreciated once the build is out. Thanks.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #7 on:** August 03, 2021, 05:42:58 pm »

Thank you Matt. Will do.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2021, 06:19:26 pm »

Just tested in build 48 64 bit and it's working fine - just the way it did in MC25. Thanks! Now to really have some fun with the new S-curves etc. while gapless only does what it's supposed to.

Matt · « **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2021, 08:17:59 pm »

Thanks!

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #10 on:** August 16, 2021, 05:34:03 am »

Matt I found a glitch, but only after sitting down and playing music on my best system which is quite revealing and now has build 49 on it. I'll explain as briefly as I can.

There is a click sound on manual track changes, or after pressing Stop and then at the commencement of Play on any track. This click is NOT present between tracks while just letting the album play through gaplessly.

It is independent of the Loudness state. I noticed it first when hitting the Next button mid-track with Gapped fade 2 seconds which fades to silence before the next track commences at full volume, but then I also tested it with Stop then Play and it's a consistent click through the speakers upon hitting Play.

Add: Just tested it on a second system - small desktop speakers attached to audio out of the PC. With speaker held close to the ear (or using earphones) the click is quite obvious. Sometimes left channel. Sometimes right.

This click was not present in build 44.

Matt · « **Reply #11 on:** September 13, 2021, 10:03:53 am »

Please try the build we just uploaded (63). It has a VST fix that might help.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #12 on:** September 14, 2021, 05:38:01 pm »

Strange. I don't use any VST plug-ins. Nonetheless a very brief test with Build 63 suggests that the click sound has gone (or at least been somewhat muted), but I'll let you know if I notice it later. Funny thing that never happened before though is that I got a "Something went wrong with playback" warning on an album, then without changing anything (settings etc.) it just corrected itself on the third attempt. Just the one album. Others around it played fine. This warning seems to have cleared itself after a reboot.

Thank you for looking at this Matt.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #13 on:** September 16, 2021, 10:40:02 pm »

OK the click is still there! I must have been mistaken/tired for the previous post.

You can hear it easily with headphones. Use Gapped fade 2s and press Next. Always a click as the next track commences. Or press Stop, wait a bit and press Play. A click every time. However on track transitions that do not fade out completely such a crossfade it's absent.

This click was not present in Build 44 and is still present in build 63. I believe that it was introduced by the fix "Changed: The between tracks mode "Use gapless for sequential album tracks" will only engage when reaching the end of the file (so manual transitions will not use it)."

JimH · « **Reply #14 on:** September 17, 2021, 07:48:12 am »

Quote from: milsdrewbulch on September 16, 2021, 10:40:02 pm

OK the click is still there! I must have been mistaken/tired for the previous post.

You can hear it easily with headphones. Use Gapped fade 2s and press Next. Always a click as the next track commences. Or press Stop, wait a bit and press Play. A click every time. However on track transitions that do not fade out completely such a crossfade it's absent.

This click was not present in Build 44 and is still present in build 63. I believe that it was introduced by the fix "Changed: The between tracks mode "Use gapless for sequential album tracks" will only engage when reaching the end of the file (so manual transitions will not use it)."

Pay attention to the formats of the two files. If they are different, the DAC may be adding the click. You could test using DSP Studio > Output to force everything to the same bitrate/sample rate.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #15 on:** September 17, 2021, 06:05:42 pm »

I've been doing that for years. The click even happens between tracks of the same album. All FLAC. All set in DSP Studio to output to the same sample rate. As I said, this artefact was introduced by the fix noted and was not evident in Build 44.

Matt · « **Reply #16 on:** September 17, 2021, 06:36:04 pm »

Quote from: milsdrewbulch on September 16, 2021, 10:40:02 pm

You can hear it easily with headphones. Use Gapped fade 2s and press Next.

I'm trying that on some really good headphones (Sennheiser HD800).

There is no noise for me.

Make sure you don't have any DSP effects enabled.

Play around with some of the other options in Audio to see if you can find the cause.

Thanks.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #17 on:** September 18, 2021, 12:53:11 am »

It is extremely bizarre. I cannot reproduce it today either. Everything is fine. I am really sorry to waste your time, but can't understand why it is so apparent one day, then absent the next despite my doing nothing to any settings nor anything else in between (including taking drugs or drinking! LOL).

I have no Effects set in DSP Studio. Just a bunch of PEQ filters under Parametric Equalizer, but those have been in place forever. I have Volume Levelling on, use SoX and Play decoded files from memory for network reasons.

Anyway.

Addendum the next day. The clicks are back! This seems to some kind of instability as it's inconsistent day to day. I changed nothing and there were very obvious clicks on manual track changes or after pressing Stop then Play today. I have 5 systems in the house all on the network and all display the clicks from time to time.

Matt · « **Reply #18 on:** September 19, 2021, 01:01:44 pm »

Turn off all DSP and test again. I'm wondering if a Parametric EQ needs a flush?

If you find the DSP that causes it, let me know.

If you don't find anything, let me know that too.

Thanks.

milsdrewbulch · « **Reply #19 on:** September 19, 2021, 07:52:55 pm »

Okay. I will try that, but in the meantime I've found something else that might be a culprit. I stopped and thought - maybe it's the albums that I'm playing at the time and it dawned on me that the clicking seems to be happening on certain albums more recently imported and analysed under MC28 rather than older ones imported and analysed while I was still using MC25.

I have Volume levelling on because it works so well. So using dBpoweramp I looked at the tags in a few recent albums and noticed that MC hadn't written any of the analysis tags to them, whilst other recent albums had those as well as waveform analysis tags written that I don't want, so I deleted those waveform tags.

Maybe the clicks are a sudden change in gain caused by a Volume levelling glitch on these albums. I checked using Analyse Audio on the files without MC tags and they had already been done, but I re-ran Analysis again anyway and checked using dBpoweramp that the tags were written.

I'll play these later today and see how it goes. Will also try what you suggested. I leave it a week before reporting back just to be sure and not have you chasing my tail.

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Author Topic: Track change options (Read 1512 times)