More > Media Center 14 (Development Ended)
loud "POP" sound when playing FLAC files
Alex B:
--- Quote ---... The sames files play OK in 3 other programs ...
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---... MC12 plays them correctly...
--- End quote ---
This is not my experience. I have tried MC15, MC14, MC13, MC12, MC11.1 (with scthom's FLAC plugin), Foobar2000 v.1.0.3, Winamp 5.5, Apollo (an old basic player with its very old FLAC plugin), VUPlayer (another basic player) and Media Player Classic (a DirectShow player which was set to use DC-Bass Source Filter for FLAC decoding). All these programs played the "pop" at the end of your sample file.
Could it be possible that you have cross-fade set in MC12's playback options and that hides the problem?
--- Quote ---... I do not really feel like manually editing about 5k files ...
--- End quote ---
Oh dear, I didn't realize that you have 5000 such files -- or do you mean that you would need to inspect each and every file in order to find the problem files?
If the problem exists in lots of files, it might be useful to find out which program/version/settings combination/etc actually created the files. I.e. can you reproduce the problem? If yes, how? Understanding the cause of the problem might lead to a solution, but there is no guarantee that an easy solution exists.
--- Quote ---...to see if it's all the same random bits that are added...
--- End quote ---
If the offending "pop" seems to be identical in all files and no decoding option can automatically remove it, one possible solution would be to re-encode the files with sox. Sox is a free command line audio editor that can do many kinds of file operations, including file trimming. It is possible to configure MC's external encoder to use sox so that it removes a specified amount of samples from the end of the file (e.g. 55 samples) and encodes a new FLAC file without altering the other samples anyhow.
duclosa:
hum.
Puzzled, here.
In both MC12 and 14, track switching is set to aggressive, -1s, and "do not play silence leading and trailling
Is there any other option I'm overlooking?
I've looked at sox. Not easy. It does not do anything when prompted with "sox *.flac *.flac trim 0 60s"
loosing hope...
going to bed...
Alain.
Alex B:
--- Quote from: duclosa on May 13, 2010, 10:43:08 pm ---In both MC12 and 14, track switching is set to aggressive, -1s, and "do not play silence leading and trailling
Is there any other option I'm overlooking?
--- End quote ---
I don't know if the track transition effects have changed anyhow after MC12, but in order to test file decoding you should set the "Track Change" settings to plain "Gapless" (i.e. no cross-fade and no silence removal). Otherwise the complete audio track might not be played exactly as it is.
--- Quote ---I've looked at sox. Not easy. It does not do anything when prompted with "sox *.flac *.flac trim 0 60s"
--- End quote ---
Sox processes files from the beginning to the end. You can remove samples from the end if you first reverse the file, then trim it, and finally reverse it once again.
For instance, in a CMD window you can use a command line like
sox 1.flac 2.flac reverse trim 55s reverse
to cut 55 samples from the end. (In this example sox.exe and the source file, 1.flac, are in the current directory. 2.flac is the destination file.)
Here is an example of the External Encoder settings:
--temp F:\Temp --buffer 65536 %IN --compression 5 %OUT reverse trim 55s reverse
I included some optional parameters:
--temp sets the temp location. If not set, sox uses the OS default.
--buffer is the amount of memory buffer in bytes. The default is 8192. (I have not actually tested if increasing the buffer has any effect to the processing speed).
--compression sets the FLAC compression level. In my opinion 5 is quite optimal. (The sox default is 8, but that might be unnecessarily slow. It can compress only slightly more than 5.)
Here is the string without the optional parameters:
%IN %OUT reverse trim 55s reverse
duclosa:
Hi Alex!
You relly know your nuts.
Sox correctly removed the offending samples at the end of the Flac files. The files now play flawlessly. Everything was done from within MC14, with the command line parameters you suggested.
Thanks again.
BTW, which program would you recommend to rip CDs to FLAC? I'm a bit weary after this first disastrous experience...
Alain.
Alex B:
--- Quote from: duclosa on May 14, 2010, 08:29:20 pm ---BTW, which program would you recommend to rip CDs to FLAC? I'm a bit weary after this first disastrous experience...
--- End quote ---
MC's ripper has a good secure mode and it is nicely integrated in ... MC. ;)
Here is an old thread that might be useful: How can I ensure quality of a ripped music file (the settings have now a bit different layout, but otherwise it is still a useful thread).
If you know what you are doing and really want to control all settings & ripping features and use an external ripper EAC is probably the best option. You can find the most up-to-date info here: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC
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