No sound from XXHE on new server

[DannyD]

I’m building a second server and I’ve been unable to get any sound out of XXHE 0.9y-8.  I know the server basically works because I’m getting decent sound using J. River.  I’m using the only audio output device the server has: a spdif out on the mobo.  The DAC is an early 90’s Enlightened Audio Designs DSP-9000.  In XXHE I’ve tried each processor core appointment scheme and practically every DAC setting.  Volume is unattenuated.  I’ve tried various Q1 settings.  The other Qs are all at 0. XXHE is using Engine 3 by default – the input field is grayed-out. Occasionally I get a “No Track given” error dialogue box.  XXHE’s progress bar is moving steadily to the right as you would expect when it’s playing music.  Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

[PeterSt]

Hmm ... What does the combobox in the Advanced Properties of the sound device say ? Thus, what are the sound device's capabilities ?

[DannyD]

How do you cut and paste an entire window?

Anyway, there are three entries:
  16 bit/44111
  16 bit/48000
  16 bit/192000

The first two work when I click the test button and when I play music using JRMC.  The third one doesn't work.  I tried the first two in XXHE and neither worked.  The manual for the DAC says it is capable of 32, 44, and 48 kHz and that is has "dual-differential Burr Brown PCM63 Series-K 20-bit DACs". 

[PeterSt]

In either case, to me it looks like 16/44.1 should be working, but you are allowed to play just that natively, and no Double or Quad. Additionally you must tell (Settings Area) that your DAC is 16/44.1 or otherwise it will spit out 32 (or 24) bit, and again it won't work.

Let me know if it works with these settings, but if so, next please try to make clear to me where just nothing happens (no sound) while I would say there should be a message of some kind (read : I apparantly must build in such a message where it is currently lacking ?).

Thanks,
Peter


PS: DirectSound will work because the OS resamples that to what you chose in that same combobox. Notice that for XXHE the combobox does NOTHING (but theoretically shows the capabilitries of the sound device, which is why I asked for it).

[DannyD]

I have both the control panel sound device and XXHE set to 16/44.1 and get no sound from XXHE.  When I use JRMC I get sound, and I’m using its WASAPI setting.  The only error I get from XXHE is an occasional dialogue box that says “No Track given”, but it looks like it continues to play, i.e. the progress bar continues to track along to the right. 

[DannyD]

Peter,
Here’s another piece of information.  I tried completely deleting my XXHE directory and starting over with a fresh installation of 0.9y-08.  Now XXHE is running painfully slowly, to the point where Vista tells me XXHE is not responding.  All the while, the computer’s CPU-utilization is 0 to 1or 2 percent.  Recall that this is a new server.  Is there anything special I need to do to make it XXHE-ready? I turned off user account control which I recall is your recommendation.  Sorry for all the trouble.
Dan

[PeterSt]

Sorry for all the trouble ? hehe that should be on my side ! But I still don't get it much.

About JRMC ... is it difficult for you to try Foobar/WASAPI ? I mean, I *know* that plays in Exclusive Mode for 100% sure. With JRMC I think this need not be the case, and then it doesn't say anything !

Right now I (no, we) can only hope for your own judgements. I mean, you know it worked, so I hope you may be able to see what the real difference is. Additionally, I know of no situation that when the "byte sequence is not accepted" there won't be a message about it.

But wait. What about posting the XX, X3 and X3PB log files ? Either when "No track given" or "XXHe is not responding", it could tell me something ...

Peter

[DannyD]

Here are the logs from a track I just tried to play in 0.9y-8c with no sound.  I got two error dialogue boxes:  No Track given and No Track Data found.

Here's a significant update for you though.  I downloaded version 0.9y-6 and it works fine. 

[PeterSt]

Ok, from the log files I can see a problem, but at this moment it beats me how it emerges. Later today I'l dive into it more.
In the mean time, if you have some spare time, you may try to play a FLAC (you were trying WAV before, if I see it correctly), and let me know whether that works.

Also, please let me know what your before attempt (Donald Fagen) was ripped with.

Your additional info about 0.9y-6 working, indeed is the most helpful. Thanks !
Peter

[DannyD]

0.9-yc won't play flac or wav. 0.9-6 will play both.

The Donald Fagan track was initially a .flac file ripped from the cd using dbpoweramp cd ripper.  I subsequently converted the .flac file to .wav using dbpoweramp batch converter.  Why do you ask?

[PeterSt]

Because the End time shows 0 (instead of 5:36 or whatever it should be). So, internally the track is 0 seconds long.

I may have changed things, but why does this happen to *you* ?

Btw, what about that new server ? Does that still stand ? I wonder now ... haha

[DannyD]

I don't understand your question about whether the new server still stands.  This is the new server.  I have a HiFace on order for it which should arrive today or tomorrow, but in the meantime I figured I'd get XXHE to work with the existing spdif output on the mobo.  Do you think my problems with 0.9-y8 will go away once I have the HiFace?

[PeterSt]

I don't know yet Danny, because I can't tell yet what the problem is.
About the new server thing : This is how you named the topic. But I wonder ... when you'd play the exact same on your old server, would it run there (with 0.9y-8c of course) ? IOW, looking at the data (end time = 0) I can't imagine thet will be different there. But if so ... ...

Any ideas about this ?

[DannyD]

Everything works fine on the old server.  "Old" and "new" are somewhat misleading terms.  My "old" server is a Zalman with a Lynx AES16 running Windows 7 with a Berkeley Alpha DAC, and my "new" server is a box I've had collecting dust in the garage with Vista as the OS. I recently resurrected it to play into a twenty-year-old DAC in my second system.  One thing for certain doesn't work right in the Vista server: when I play HDCD material the HDCD light in my old DAC goes on and off and I can hear HDCD-processing engage and disengage in the music.  This I hope the HiFace will resolve.  The same music files play in HDCD perfectly in my Zalman/Lynx/Alpha server. 

[PeterSt]

Ah ... of course ... I already knew that (because you already told it). Sorry to take your time for this !
Yes, so it is something about 16/44.1 files combined with what the DAC can take. I must be able to mimic that.

Thank you again,
Peter