'No tracks given' error

[Matt E]

I figure that I must be doing some very basic wrong, but everytime I go to play tunes the following messages pop up: 'No tracks given', 'No track data found'.

I have tried both version 0.9y-8 and 0.9y-7, on Windows 7 pc and Vista laptop. Same messages on both. I also tried different out devices and engines. I have managed to get XXhighend working on the PC OK a little while ago using the same music files suing my external DAC, but due to faulty RAM have reinstalled the whole operating system.

To play songs, I have put 'my music' folder as the 'music root' directory in the settings section. I have used the search function to find the music, clicked on the album and then clicked 'load'. The songs appear on the playlist, but when I press 'play' the progress bar at the bottom starts to move, no sound comes out and then after 10s or so the messages come up.

My file system is organised as 'My music'\type of file (e.g. FLAC, MP3)\artist\album\song title.

Any ideas what might be going wrong?

Help much appreciated,


Matt

[PeterSt]

Hi Matt, and of course !

The only thing I can think of at this moment, is that somehow the laptop is too slow. So, if you indeed have something like a FLAC or MP3 track, this has to be converted in advance, and while this should take 2 seconds max or so, it may take 30 seconds on a "very slow" system (sure not unimagineable !), and then things time out.

To be more sure, you could tick the Log Activities (at the bottom in the Settings Area), give it another try, wait until the first message appears and then post the XX and X3 log files of that session (denoted by date/time in the log file names). The log files will be in the TemporaryData subfolder to your current XX folder.

From there we will proceed on this, and let's agree that *if* this is caused by a too slow PC, I will try to use your example to not let this happen (something like : don't let it time out). Ok ?

Peter

[Matt E]

Peter,

Thanks for the fast reply. Wow. I doubt whether it is a slow machine though. My laptop is a core duo with 3Gbs of RAM, whereas my PC (on which XXHighEnd gives the same message) is a Core i5 750 with 4 Gbs of RAM. The hard drive is SATAII, so again should be pretty quick.

[Matt E]

Sorry Pete, only seemed to manage to attach one of the log files. Here is the other one.

Thanks for the help,

Matt

[PeterSt]

Hmm ... You seem to be sufferering from the same as this one : No sound from XXHE on new server.

I didn't solve this yet;
If you are able to play Double/Quad, the problem most probably won't be there.

Sorry for now ... (but it will be solved ASAP).
Peter

[Matt E]

Thanks Pete,

FYI, I looked at that other thread and they seemed to be able to use 09-y6, so I thought that I would give it go. On default 09-y6 played but was quite 'broken', skipping around on the tracks. Changing the Q1 to 10 seemed to solve the issue and now it seems to be playing OK.

Cheers

Matt

[Matt E]

Pete,

Should also mention that although 09-y6 plays it has reduced the volume of my system in comparison to Foobar.

Saying that the sound is great! Instantly noticeable improvement on Foobar with WASAPI plug-in, which has got me pretty excited as I have nearly finished building a new DAC and amp so want the best source I can get. Thanks for putting in the hard yards on this.

Matt

[PeterSt]

Hey, great !

About the volume :
Or you use Arc Prediction Upsampling + Peak Extension which deliberately decreases the volume with 3dB, or you perceive such "easier" sound that you can bear more SPL without noticing it.

The latter is the most likely, because this really really matters. Since the KS version (Engine#4) is there, I use 6dB more output generally. This is not because the internal volume is cut or anything (it is just bit perfect with no attenuation), but the highs are so much more, well, silk, that you now can bare a louder volume. And I guess that you know that usually harshness is making you turn down the volume. Also it is the first which fatigues.

Peter

[Matt E]

Pete,

Its the latter I think. I hadn't at first done and A-B-A comparison with Foobar, but managed to do it yesterday with the volume set the same on both. I could then tell that XXHighEnd wasn't any quieter, but as you said what I had been doing was turning it up higher as I could bear it higher. The A-B-A confirmed what I had thought, XXHighEnd was better. I will check with the wife soon as I use her as my 'blind' evaluator as she doesn't need to know what programme I am using - must take account of any experimenter bias!

I had previously done my listening during the day, so turning the volume up helped to get the sound above the ambient noise level. Interestingly, last night I had my first chance to listen at night (when I prefer to listen) and found that I could tolerate listening to XXHighEnd at lower levels than Foobar. Basically I could hear most of what I wanted to hear without feeling the need to turn the volume up a notch or two. I remember having a similar experience when I upgraded my standard headphones to Grados.

In terms of the later versions of XXHighEnd not working with my system, have you managed to figure out what the problem might be? From the notes you have provided the later versions don't seem to have improvements that will improve the sound over 0.9-6y - am I right in thinking that?

Thanks,

Matt

[PeterSt]

Yes, I think you are right on that. One exception (I hope I can make it clear) : The Adaptive Mode introduced since may allow you to "find" an ultra low latency setting which you could not find with the Special Mode from back then (which today basically is the same). So, no matter Adaptive Mode is not *that* ultra low, it is still a 100 times lower than Normal Mode, so ... if Adaptive Mode would be your only way to get low latency, it does matter (since 0.9y-7).

Peter

[Matt E]

Pete,

Pardon my ignorance, but how does latency affect playback audio quality? Under what circumstances would I need ultra low latency playback?

Cheers,

Matt

[PeterSt]

You don't "need" anything as such Matt. You like it better or you don't. And 100% of people like it better, including me (or you must be able to find a post which is negative about this). So, this is all since KS Special Mode ...

(I can't helpt that, sorry ... haha)

[Matt E]

Pete,

Can I just check that I understand. Low latency sounds better to most people and you can set-up an ultra low latency mode in the later versions of XXHighEnd that won't work on my machines. I don't think that I have another way of obtaining low latency (how else can you do it?).

Have you had much luck trying to find out why it wouldn't work on my machines? Judging by the other thread, I don't appear to be the only one.

I am a bit curious that the later editions do not work on either my PC or laptop. Makes me think that either I am doing something wrong or the music files are the problem, so I will rip a few tracks using a different programme (I used EAC) and see if that makes any difference (probably not, but I might as well try).

Cheers,

Matt

[PeterSt]

Hi Matt,

I think you understand allright, but maybe you don't understand why you receive the "No track given" message ...
So, this is unrelated to lowe latency or anything, but must be about something I just did wrong for 16/44.1 files (that is, I think it only happens with those). Here this just works, and I guess with most this works, unless by now everybody is upsampling where this (as far as I can judge) doesn't happen.

So ... I just have to repair something somewhere, which is not an easy job as long as I can't mimic it. That's all !

Ok ?
Peter

[PeterSt]

FYI, I looked at that other thread and they seemed to be able to use 09-y6, so I thought that I would give it go. On default 09-y6 played but was quite 'broken', skipping around on the tracks. Changing the Q1 to 10 seemed to solve the issue and now it seems to be playing OK.

... And I suppose you are not referring to this anymore ?