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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 30 for Windows => Topic started by: eve on November 27, 2022, 01:04:13 pm

Title: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 27, 2022, 01:04:13 pm
I've got a curious problem here, hopefully later I can provide more context.
So I was quickly checking my speaker levels and I noticed something, when Room Correction is active and 'tone' is turned on for a channel (with NO other DSP settings enabled, and nothing changed in room correction) the tone will cause the audio to intermittently clip. I thought I had an issue with my D/A or speakers but no, even in JRiver's DSP pane, it shows the 'clipping' / overflow warning every few seconds while playing tone.

Volume is disabled. There is no sample rate change or any DSP enabled other than Room Correction (with no settings) and tone activated for a single channel.
This happens regardless of 'dither' or 'use sox for resampling' being selected. Output is 32Bit via ASIO to a Topping Dm7. 

What's going on? Is Room Correction's tone broken or is this a symptom of something else wrong with JRiver's audio path?
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: mwillems on November 27, 2022, 09:54:32 pm
If you've disabled volume that means it's playing at 100% full scale so any sound that plays above 0dBFS will cause clipping.  Just to confirm: you don't have any other room correction settings enabled in the room correction DSP block?  For example, you haven't adjusted the volume for one or more of the channels or done bass management?  Adding volume to a channel in Room Correction with volume disabled would be expected to cause clipping, and depending on how channels are aggregated bass management might cause a rise in volume levels.  If you haven't changed any other room correction settings, than it sounds like the tone itself is peaking above 0dBFS for some reason, which isn't something I would expect, unless they're just playing a sine wave at 0dBFS or something.

As a test if you change volume from disabled to "internal volume" and then set the JRiver interal volume to 95% or 90% does tone still push things into clipping?  I suggest this as a test because JRiver's audio engine will use internal volume for additional headroom to avoid clipping.
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 28, 2022, 02:46:00 pm
There is no other DSP enabled, and in Room Correction, no crossovers, delays or volume adjustments are active. It's very strange right? I want to blame something in my setup but I can't find anything.
Would another user be willing to try and duplicate this behavior?
Essentially, start playback for something (anything, JRiver has to be playing material to get Room Correction), with all DSP disabled and JRiver's volume preference set to 'disabled', then check the 'tone' box in Room Correction for a channel. See if the 'Peak Level' goes into clipping intermittently. It's clearly audible when it happens too.

When I get in later I'll try using 'internal volume'. Obviously, that's not really a long term solution but it's a solid test.
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 28, 2022, 02:54:12 pm
By the way, I do not actually use JRiver's Room Correction in practice. I just figured it was an easy way to get a tone last night when I was haphazardly zeroing in a new amp and I noticed this little 'quirk'
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: HPBEME on November 28, 2022, 07:06:41 pm
Confirmed.

The peak range typically stayed between low 80% to mid 90%, and ~ every 10 seconds it would briefly overflow anywhere from 101% to 110%. 

I have nothing in my audio chain. It is simply Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers/sub connected directly to my computer's motherboard. 
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 28, 2022, 08:01:18 pm
Yeah, not really sure why it's this way.
In fairness, I often introduce my own -3dB attenuation in the chain right after decode to prevent this sort of situation with any input signal regardless of how close it is to clipping (over/resampling and filter phase issues can cause tiny overflows when fed a digital signal close to clip even if the input doesn't actually clip).


Frankly, I'm not sure if this is unintended behavior or if it's like this for a reason.
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: Matt on November 30, 2022, 08:25:58 am
I can reproduce the clipping and will address it in the next build.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 30, 2022, 11:55:55 am
I can reproduce the clipping and will address it in the next build.  Thanks.

Mind explaining 'where' the issue is? Is it in Room Correction or an issue with the overall audio path?
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: Matt on November 30, 2022, 11:59:34 am
Mind explaining 'where' the issue is? Is it in Room Correction or an issue with the overall audio path?

The pink noise generator was just at a level that was too high so it peaked over 100%.
Title: Re: Room Correction - Tone - Overflow / Clipping?
Post by: eve on November 30, 2022, 03:48:28 pm
The pink noise generator was just at a level that was too high so it peaked over 100%.
Sweet. Thanks for the info and future fix <3
You guys are so fast on little things like this.