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Author Topic: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......  (Read 4361 times)

twoleftpheeet

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Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« on: May 17, 2008, 01:54:53 am »

I DJ Argentine tango.  I organise tracks in to groups of three songs then play a track of recorded silence for about 10 seconds.  I want to be able to pause the silence but the pause button at the top of the screen or using CNTL P seems to have no effect.  The silence just rolls on and the next music track starts up after the 10 seconds.

I can pause the songs okay.  It is just the silence that I am having problems with.

Any idea how to do this?

Cheers ...........  Rob
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StFeder

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2008, 04:16:52 am »

I've had exactly the same! I was going to use this kind of "silence track" to have a longer break between two different ballroom dances.
I think it is related to the buffering / prebuffering system of MC. Did you ever try to pause a song within the last ten seconds? Funny things are going to happen. Output is muted but the song keeps playing and MC pauses with the beginning of the next track (with WinXP & vista). Or try to hit the stop button near at the end of a song with fading enabled. MC perhaps will fade the first song correctly but if the fade isn't ended within the rest of this song the new song begins till the fade is ended.

I hate to say so, but those are the reasons why I cannot use MC for some DJing and why we cannot use MC for our dancing school. I'm tired of talking to J River about this, because they don't see any problem, as you can see here, here, here, here and here. Just to have this clear: Apart from that I love MC and I think it is the most powerfull software for audiomanagment.

As they don't want to change something, a solution for you may be to turn of all fadings and decrease buffering via options. Or use MC to manage your files and use a freeware software for playback, like I'm doing sometimes :(
edit: Since MC13 I never used another program
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Matt

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2009, 10:02:23 am »

I'm having trouble reproducing the pause button not working.

It's true that internally, Media Center advances to the next track a little before the end of the current one.  This is necessary to support for cross-fading, gapless, etc.

However, if you press pause, it should _always_ halt playback until you unpause.  The audio engine may keep reading in decoded data from files, but it won't play it until you unpause.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

twoleftpheeet

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2009, 11:04:32 am »

Hi all
How do I get JRiver to look at this issue.  It sounds trivial but it prevents me from using the package as a DJ tool.  Other than this I am really pleased with Media Centre.  I am ising version 12.

Fundamental issue is that I can't pause silence!  Either at the end of tracks or between tracks.

Any help gratefully recieved.

Regards .......  Rob
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StFeder

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2009, 01:25:35 pm »

How do I get JRiver to look at this issue.

I guess the problem is not that they don't look, its more that they don't see ;)

I'm having trouble reproducing the pause button not working.
[...]
However, if you press pause, it should _always_ halt playback until you unpause. [...]

To make it reproducable:
Buffer length 0.50 seconds
Switch tracks: Standard (gapped) -2s
Output mode: doesn't matter


Play a song till the last 4 or five seconds and then hit pause. MC is quiet instantly but goes on counting down the time till the end of the song AND even goes through the 2 second gap and stops after it has switched to the next song. If you unpause MC goes on playing from the point you stopped, honors the gap, and then goes on playing the new song.

SO: the display is wrong, but the result (the sound) is correct. Confuses me all the time, but works.

The extra thing with short (5 seconds "songs" e.g.) is, that MC shows the wrong time for them (I think it shows the time of the 5 second song PLUS the time of the next song or something like this). For those MCs display is unusable, but it play them correctly. And the bug only appears, when the short file is played after another. If it's played at the beginning, it works correctly.

May I remind you to have a look at the stop-bug... perhaps  :-X Still annoying to wait for the end of a fade before I can do anything again...
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Matt

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2009, 04:48:07 pm »

Hi all
How do I get JRiver to look at this issue.  It sounds trivial but it prevents me from using the package as a DJ tool.  Other than this I am really pleased with Media Centre.  I am ising version 12.

Fundamental issue is that I can't pause silence!  Either at the end of tracks or between tracks.

Any help gratefully recieved.

Regards .......  Rob

I work at JRiver.  Like I mentioned, I couldn't reproduce the issue with pause not working, so I need more details. 

I can see what StFeder describes where the display is strange.  This shouldn't affect the actual sound, but I agree the display should be improved.

One other thought, is it possible you have "Options > Playback > Do not play silence (leading and trailing)" checked?
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

StFeder

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2009, 05:22:30 pm »

This shouldn't affect the actual sound [...]
Right, it doesn't!

One other thought, is it possible you have "Options > Playback > Do not play silence (leading and trailing)" checked?
I have it checked. This doesn't effect the display thing. But you're asking because of the silent track thing, I guess!? Shame on me: I didn't think about that easy solution :(

[...] but I agree the display should be improved.
So it's on the list for MC13?  :)

@twoleftpheeet :
I did all my last testings with MC13, so I don't know for sure if it is the same with MC12, but I think so. I'd bet the (audio part of the) problem can be solved by unchecking the box Matt mentioned :) BTW: did you try MC13? No important improvements for DJing up to know, but WAY faster and less problems (and crashes) for me. And now we can hope for a fix for the display thing ;)
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Matt

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2009, 05:26:02 pm »

So it's on the list for MC13?  :)

Yes.  We'll look at the pause display issue.

You also mentioned seeking back when you're within the last few seconds of a song when the internals have already advanced to the next song.  Changing this is technically really hard.  It's sort of the cost of having an audio engine that nicely supports gapless, cross-fading, and prebuffering.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

StFeder

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2009, 12:00:19 pm »

Yes.  We'll look at the pause display issue.
:D

You also mentioned seeking back when you're within the last few seconds of a song when the internals have already advanced to the next song.
Not to be able to seek for within the last ~5 seconds of a song is no big thing, I think.

What sometimes makes some trouble (especially for other users in our Dance Club) is the impossibility to use the previous button for the last few seconds. If they want to hear one song again they have to wait after last song is completly ended AND the new song has began to run AND they have to press back twice.

I know, I could change the behaivor of the previous button via options, but then they would have to press back and forward to hear a song again if it is not in the last seconds...

But if this is connected to what you described before, I'll go on teaching them, how to use it right (I wasn't effective with this for the last years :-\ )

Because of me this thread lost/changed its topic a bit, I'm afraid... so, did you come to a solution, twoleftpheeet, or do you still have issues (after trying Matts tip)?
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Matt

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2009, 02:34:04 pm »

In Media Center 13.0.113 and later (hopefully available later this week):

Fixed: Pressing pause during track transitions could cause strange display issues if the next file was short.
Fixed: Pressing 'Previous' at the very end of a track to seek back to the beginning would not always work as expected.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

hit_ny

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2009, 12:02:14 pm »

I have it checked. This doesn't effect the display thing. But you're asking because of the silent track thing, I guess!? Shame on me: I didn't think about that easy solution :(

If you checked, Options > Playback > Do not play silence (leading and trailing)..

Then why is it a bug if MC does not play silence  ?

uncheck.
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StFeder

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2009, 06:43:58 pm »

If you checked, Options > Playback > Do not play silence (leading and trailing)..
Then why is it a bug if MC does not play silence  ?
uncheck.

This is what I was trying to say...  I think I should try to work on my english :-\
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gappie

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Re: Pausing 'silence 'tracks......
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2009, 06:56:19 pm »

This is what I was trying to say...  I think I should try to work on my english :-\
i understood, but then again, my english is just as lousy as yours. 8)

 :)
gab
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