Sound of FLAC?

[CoenP]

Yesterday I was playing some FLACed 24/96 material (Eva Cassidy) and I didn't like the sound one bit. In an attempt to make it more listenable I got a hunch to play the files as WAV, bypassing any conversion done by xx. 

I unFLACed the files with foobar, put them in a folder next to the original, played them and was amazed with the quite audible difference with the FLAC version. They sounded less bright and dynamic, with more emphasis on the lower mids. Still not a satisfacory sound, but obviously different. Maybe the source is cr*p or I need different xx settings to make this wav work.

I was under the impression that flac and wav sound alike in the latest versions of xx, but found otherwise.

Any ideas what is the case?

Regards, Coen

P.s. A allready experimented with AP and tried playing on and off converting to the XX disk (the 'ramdisk' feature)

[PeterSt]

Like I suggested before (but never received a response to that) - Set "Don't play at all", click Play on the first track of the album while Unattended is activated - let all rest and reboot now. Next get your AutoHotkey running (this might need some additional "setup" for that by now, because since 0.9z-6 it is expected to be loaded by XX automatically) and use Alt-P.

This way you will be using the same WAVs as implied by any other conversion (like from Foobar) and nothing can have happened to let it sound different (from that Foobar conversions), unless you put the Foobar output in a completely different place.

If then the difference is as clearly noticeable, let me know.

Also notice that as implied by the earlier posts about this, I can do something about it, if only the above procedure indeed prooves that this makes the difference. As long as this is not clearly proven I won't do a thing (and indeed, I don't test these things just because of a lack of time for it - I'm not good at A-B stuff either).

Thanks !
Peter

[CoenP]

Ok,

I will try this tonight and report on the results.

Why do you say 'let it all rest and reboot now'? Am I supposed to start from a normal OS state?

Regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

Hi Coen,

Just a normal Reboot (from whatever state (is your reference)).

With "let it rest" I meant to be sure that all under the hood XXHighEnd activity has been performed. Should take a couple of seconds at most after all has vanished. Maybe use Taskmanager to be sure.

Regards,
Peter

[CoenP]

Ok,

As I understand now:
I reboot with the PC on/off button in unattended when xx is settled. When Win7 has come up again, I start AutoHotKey an press alt-P to start xx and play the files in unattended mode.

I will make a short playlist with some flacs and wavs of the same music and report my findings on this thread.

Regards, Coen

[CoenP]

Just did some intensive listening.

Well, the big difference between WAV and FLAC is gone after the recepy above. I stil have the impression that the wav sounds ever so slightly more relaxed, dynamical, natural and open. Not a big diffenrence that might as well stem from a learning effect (the more you listen to a peice, the more you hear). I am to tired now to investigate this further and am going to sit down and relax!

Oh, two things about unattended hotkey operation:
1) alt-T does not work xx keeps on playing. 
2) alt-S does bring the screen back, but without xx

And alt-X attempts to start a new instance of xx, this might be intentional. Previously I used alt-X to toggle to attend.

Regards, Coen

P.s. Do you have to do this recepy every time you start a new playlist?

[PeterSt]

Ehm Coen, it seems that you don't know the difference between Attended and Unattended ?

Alt-S just stops playback. Nice to have a PC you can use again then ...

Alt-X brings up XXHighEnd. Nothing Attended suddenly. It just gives you control with visuals.

Try to see the logic of it all. Eventhough it is mine.

Alt-T ? I don't know what this is at this time (i'm somewhere else now). What should it do ?


Re the Recepy ... Well, formally yes. But this is no way of working of course. So, I must now think of some means which copies this behaviour but with some "luxury".

Peter

[CoenP]

Well Peter,

Of course I was playing unattended pressing alt-P (play) after reboot. I never use Hotkey in Attended mode, so my comments about the keys are only for Unattended.

Alt-T: Toggle between Attended/unattended. Does nothing.

Alt-S: Stops play allright, but then the normal windows screen reappears w/o XX. (like XX has been quit)

Alt-X: A pop up asks if I want to kill the current XX session or start a second one.

This is all in unattended mode!! Not like you discribe below.

Maybe the hotkeys have been updated?

regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

Alt-T: Toggle between Attended/unattended. Does nothing.

Which thus (think about this) is about controlling the button for it ! Nothing like switching between Attended/Unattended as you think ...

Alt-X: A pop up asks if I want to kill the current XX session or start a second one.

Which implies that XX is already running.

This is all in unattended mode!! Not like you discribe below.

Wasn't it ?

I say it again, please consider your idea about what Unattended is/means. But to get you started : This is playback without any controlling program (GUI) around. Don't get confused by "seeing" that you still can control when XX is brought up again, because all you would be doing is looking at what you just did (because the GUI is there). This is totally different from pressing play when the GUI is there in the first place (and remains because of Attended).

Maybe I gave the whole thing a kind of IT name, but you could also look in the dictionary what it means ...
haha

Well, hope this helps a bit.
Peter

[CoenP]

Ok, I understand now that the Autohotkeys are about pressing XX buttons in Unattended mode.

I have trouble imaginating use for a hotkey that toggles the attended/unattended swith from a Unattended mode perspective. I think I got confused by the naming.

So nothing wrong with Alt-T and Alt-X. They are behaving exactly like pressing the toggle button and Alt-X in Attended mode. My misunderstanding.

So now how do I switch from Unattended to Attended mode???? Selecting 'Kill existing XX instance and start new one'?

If I understand correctly Alt-S should only stop the music and XX stays where it is, like pressing the stop button in Attended mode. Pressing Alt-p would restart the music.
Am I overlooking something here?
Unfortunately XX quits alltogether after pressing Alt-S in Unattended mode (have not tried this in Attended, should be the same, right?).

regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

Coen ... It looks like that by now I can't explain it anymore. Well, not to you as it seems. Not together with what's all in your mind by now ...

So nothing wrong with Alt-T and Alt-X. They are behaving exactly like pressing the toggle button and Alt-X in Attended mode. My misunderstanding.

Alt-X just starts XXHighEnd. No matter it's already running.

Alt-T (upon your own indication from today) toggles Attended/Unattended button (the one under Play with the large cross in there). Further it does nothing.

Maybe this helps (Unattended Playback) :

- Make Unattended active (you know, that button under Play).
- Select a track and click Play (GUI disappears, music starts playing - maybe all disappears depending on further settings).
- Start up XX by means of Alt-X. GUI comes up again.
- Cross away XX (just for fun).
- Again use Alt-X.
- Click Stop.

This was an Unattended Playback session where you in between fired up XX to see where it is at playback. Notice the time cursor did not move. It is dead. Still you can use it to control (like you did with Stop at the end).

Might you -instead of using Alt-X in the above) have used Alt-S, that stops playback. It commands the audio engine to stop. That now the desktop and all reappears (in the case of you having direct it to go (see Settings)) is only because it is quite convenient to use your PC again, while no playback is going on anyway. But you could also use Alt-P now, and playback restarts (without GUI because you never applied Alt-X).

Or ... use Alt-E for Pause during Unattended Playack. Pick up the phone - grab a beer in between, and next use Alt-P. So sound commences where it left off (maybe here the deskstop stays away, just because it's more logic and I could have made it like that).

Peter 

[CoenP]

Aha,

So the appearence of the desktop when Alt-S is pressed can be set in the settings area.
That might explain the different behaviour from my XP setup!

I will experiment tonight if I all understand now.

Thanks for the clarification, this unattended/hotkey stuff it is somewhat counter intuitive, but it makes perfect sense.

regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

So the appearence of the desktop when Alt-S is pressed can be set in the settings area.

No ... the DISappearance can be set. And it has nothing to do with Alt-S.

[crisnee]

This is a very nice comedy act.    Perhaps you two could play some nice audiophile night clubs?   

-Chris

[CoenP]

Yeah mock us,

Maybe I should read the manual first on the next XX update !

All this sophisticated 'Unattended' and 'services off' is pearls for swines like me.

Hope this FLAC reboot thing gets fixed in the next release though.

Regards, Coen