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Author Topic: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?  (Read 4188 times)

tobilotz

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How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« on: March 14, 2017, 04:06:29 pm »

Hi there,

this is my first post as I just installed a test version of JRiver on Windows 10.
I have the problem that when I select a track to play, the first seconds are silent and playback starts 1-2s into the song. This is somewhat annoying. Any idea how I can get rid of this problem?
I scrolled through many things in the control panel but was not able to find a proper solution.

I have installed JRiver on Windows 10 Home edition, the audio device is an XMOS USB-driver which goes directly into my Atoll IN300 amp with USB DAC.

Any help would be kindly appreciated!

Thanks and best,
Tobias
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MusicHawk

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2017, 04:23:40 pm »

Obvious first question, is the silence part of the track? Some tracks are sloppy, with arbitrary silence at start or end. I chop off the silence using an editor such as Audacity.

And sometimes there's a lag loading/starting the track, various possible causes. But once it is loaded (played at least once), if a replay starts immediately (by clicking the Play button rather than re-loading the track) then something about the system is causing the delay.

But also, MC has controls for playing silence that typically is between tracks. An album or CD or similar has those silent gaps built-in, so your MC might be set to play a sequence of separate tracks as if they also have inter-track silence.

Or not...this can be controlled. Go to Playback Options and look at the Track Change and other settings. (Ctrl+O > Audio, or via Player menu.)

In fact, you can go beyond having MC eliminate silence between tracks, you can have it slightly overlap tracks for that "radio station" sound, or whatever you want. It is very customizable, though note that whatever you specify happens to all tracks of all libraries played in that MC.

(I'm probably a tiny minority, but as a broadcaster I like radio-station segues, as we call them, so my MC is set to Track Change > Switch tracks > Cross-fade (aggressive) > 2s. Using this "aggressive" setting doesn't really audibly cross-fade, it overlaps the ending and starting tracks without altering their volume, by approximately the specified duration, the result of me asking Matt for this several years ago.)
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Managing my media with JRiver since Media Jukebox 8 (maybe earlier), currently use Media Center for Audio/Music and Photos/Videos.
My career in media spans Radio, TV, Print, Photography, Music, Film, Online, Live, Advertising, as producer, director, writer, performer, editor, engineer, executive, owner. An exhausting but amazing ride.

tobilotz

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2017, 04:43:55 pm »

Hi,

the silence I refer to is not silence at the begining of a track. The playback starts 1-2s into the track, so that the opening chord of A HARD DAY´S NIGHT is not heard completely. When I hit the play button again, it happens too.
I already did play with most of the audio settings but could not solve the problem.

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DJLegba

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2017, 06:18:09 pm »

Check to make sure that Media Center is not converting the file format before sending to your DAC. Move the cursor over the audio path icon I've circled in red in the attached image so you can see exactly what is being sent.
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Trumpetguy

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2017, 03:24:39 am »

I had a Harman Kardon receiver once that did this except when playing without any kind of DSP. Really annoying, opening chords were always muted. Not a problem with background listening, but a unacceptable for man-cave evenings. How is your amp/dac set up?

The only situation where I have observed this with MC is I use the WDM driver to play back Tidal or other external sources. Then it can take several seconds before any audio is heard when pressing play. Consecutive tracks in the (Tidal) playlist are however played from time zero.
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blgentry

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2017, 06:19:12 am »

It's worth playing with this setting to see if it helps:

Tools > Options > Audio > Settings > Play silence at startup for hardware sync > (select some amount of time)

Good luck.

Brian.
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aviateur

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2017, 02:04:47 pm »

Brian:

Would Options > Audio > Prebuffering come into play for his situation? I use 6 seconds (recommended). My DAC is a wired-ethernet connection so this may be an 'apples' and 'oranges' comparison but it was just a thought to consider.

Cheers,
Lawrence
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blgentry

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2017, 04:30:48 pm »

^ I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think this setting would make any difference.  His audio is being cut off and not played.  As I understand it, prebuffering would influence situations where you had gaps between tracks.  I'm no expert on this area; just speculating.

Brian.
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tobilotz

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2017, 04:33:13 am »

Hi guys,

thanks for your comments and sorry for not responding earlier because I was busy. I will try your advices later today and give feedback then.
I have a small HTPC with USB going directly into my new Atoll IN300 amp, which has a USB DAC input. The audio device I chose is the XMOS USB driver which I needed to install first. I got it from the Atoll homepage.
Thanks and best,
Tobias
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JimH

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2017, 06:11:57 am »

In the audio settings, try the option to play leading silence.  Sometimes a device isn't available for a few seconds, so playing silence will allow the beginning of the track to be heard.
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lobo85

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2017, 07:24:36 am »

Could also be software buffering. For example if you are using a 500ms software buffer no sound will be output to your DAC for half a second. (At least that's how it works for me.) So check under Tools => Options => Audio =>Audio Device => Device Settings to see how large your software buffer is. 
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Trumpetguy

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2017, 09:03:57 am »

Could also be software buffering. For example if you are using a 500ms software buffer no sound will be output to your DAC for half a second. (At least that's how it works for me.) So check under Tools => Options => Audio =>Audio Device => Device Settings to see how large your software buffer is.
But that should only delay the start of the audio by half a second, not chop off anything, right?
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tobilotz

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Re: How to get rid of silence at the beginning of a track?
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2017, 02:10:49 pm »

In the audio settings, try the option to play leading silence.  Sometimes a device isn't available for a few seconds, so playing silence will allow the beginning of the track to be heard.

This was the key, thanks a lot!!!

Best,
Tobias
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