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More => Old Versions => Media Center 17 => Topic started by: Ychng on August 19, 2012, 10:23:24 pm

Title: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Ychng on August 19, 2012, 10:23:24 pm
Hi there,

Crossposting this from the MC 18 suggestion boards.

This is the continuation of a conversation that I've been having with JimH on the JRMC18 board. Basically, the problem to be solved are the pops or clicks during DSD playback between tracks, especially on opera or other classical music that are supposed to flow continuously from one track to another.

I did a bit more testing because this issue was starting to wear on me. It happens with both Firewire and USB on my Mytek and with USB on the Meitner MA-1.

Digging deeper into the archives, I saw that some people had an issue with it very early on (using on the fly DSD transcoding to PCM) and were able to overcome it by unchecking the "use gapless playback for sequential tracks" and checking the "smooth crossfade 0.1 sec".

I tried this today with MC 17 release 184 (latest) and the crossfade options DO NOT work with DSD! even switching it up to like 1-2 seconds I hear no difference, with or without the "use gapless playback" option.


I am going to crosspost this in the MC 17 forums too as it seems like a bug with DSD playback in MC 17. Basically, crossfade does NOT work with DSD files.

Thanks!
Yeang
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Matt on August 19, 2012, 10:49:00 pm
If you play DSD as PCM, cross-fade should work fine.

If you bitstream DSD, you disable all audio features like volume, cross-fade, DSP, etc.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Ychng on August 19, 2012, 11:10:26 pm
I see. Basically I am just looking for MC to add a method to get rid of the "click" or "pop" between consecutive DSD files in an album during playback. It is annoying when during an opera album the pop or click reminds you that the track changed.

Any ideas? Or is this something that can be worked on in MC 18?

Thanks, Matt.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Matt on August 20, 2012, 09:13:19 am
I see. Basically I am just looking for MC to add a method to get rid of the "click" or "pop" between consecutive DSD files in an album during playback. It is annoying when during an opera album the pop or click reminds you that the track changed.

What DSD output method are you using: PCM, ASIO bistreaming, or DoP bitstreaming?

Thanks.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Ychng on August 20, 2012, 05:29:12 pm
Hi Matt,

I am using DoP into the Meitner MA-1 primarily, which does not work with ASIO currently. (something I am also hoping for). I know that the Mytek works with both, but I have only tried it with DoP and the clicks/pops are there. Since the Meitner is my primary source I'm hoping for a fix there.

Thanks for your attention. Really disrupts the flow when there is a pop between consecutive arias in an opera (Monteverdi on another thread has found it annoying too).

Yeang
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Matt on August 20, 2012, 05:33:39 pm
Have you selected 'Gapless' as the between tracks mode?  Does it make any difference if you do?

I'm guessing we're using 0x00 for silence somewhere, which isn't right for DSD.  So I just need to figure out where.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Ychng on August 20, 2012, 05:38:27 pm
yes Matt. I did try that - that was originally my default mode, gapless with or without the "use gapless for sequential..." option.

I was reading more about that and what you are saying makes sense. I guess for DSD encoding silence can be any number of things and one thought was that the pop or click happens when different "silence" codes are used.

I can send you a couple of samples so that you can see what I am talking about between tracks. my email is yeang_chng at hotmail if you want to coordinate something there.

Basically this problem affects PS3 ripped DSD files (I think both DSF and DSDIFF though I have not done a thorough test of DSDIFF, which for me comprise 99% of my DSD file collection. I think it may affect downloaded pure DSD files too from  e.g. Blue Coast or Channel though I have not had an opera or a piece with contiguous music so it did not jump out at me.

Yeang
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Monteverdi on August 20, 2012, 09:47:33 pm
Matt, I would like to share with you my experience once again if this helps. My set up is as follows: Dell XPS ultrabook, Window 7 professional 64-bit, Audioquest USB 2.0 cable, Mytek DSD 192 dac (firmware version 1.6.3 beta and latest driver downloaded from Mytek website), MC 17.184 (video bitstream DoP, audio WASAPI Event Style). "Pop" sounds heard between DSF tracks.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Matt on August 21, 2012, 11:08:16 am
This change will be in v18 (which will be coming in a few weeks):
Changed: DSD playback using DoP bitstreaming could fall out of DoP mode between tracks or during buffering.

The changes are a little involved, so we'll talk about rolling this back to v17 at a later date if everything holds up to testing in v18.

Thanks for your help tracking this down.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Ychng on August 21, 2012, 12:38:20 pm
Hi Matt,

Thanks a lot for confirming and working on this! Appreciate all your hard work!

Yeang
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Monteverdi on August 21, 2012, 08:56:34 pm
Matt, me too.
Title: Re: DSD playback: crossfade does not work
Post by: Henglander on May 13, 2013, 04:55:12 pm
...so we'll talk about rolling this back to v17 at a later date if everything holds up to testing in v18.

Is there any news on this, yet? I am using 17.0.189 and the pops in albums like "Dark side of the moon" are somewhat disconcerting.

H.