I've searched in the forum about playing multi-channel tracks, but it doesn't seem there are many posts regarding this feature. I am actually not sure if it is a feature officially supported, or just supported by accident.
The fact is that MusicBee has no issue in cataloging multi-channel tracks, at least in FLAC format: they are correctly shown, tagged, and decoded. Unfortunately, playing them is a completely different matter, and it has been delusional until now, at least for me. The posts I've found suggest many workarounds, like selecting ASIO drivers, but hinting also that not every ASIO driver works as expected. Others suggest to go for WASAPI, but to be honest I am quite sure multi-channel tracks are not first class guests in MusicBee.
Apart from the fact that certain drivers may capture the audio, making it exclusive to the application (ASIO does it for sure), in my case none of the combinations of ASIO (different flavors), WASAPI or DirectSound has produced an acceptable result. I'd say that the problem is that MusicBee either fails to send the proper channel(s) to the audio driver, or its downmix logic is flawed, because all I've got, using a 2.1 loudspeaker set correctly configured for downmixing in the sound control panel, is the absence of certain channels in the soundscape.
I've done comparisons using the Kodi, Foobar or even VLC running on the same PC/audio setup, and MusicBee is at fault here, because every other player does perform as expected.
To be honest, I don't know if the above should be considered a request for a new feature, or a for a fix for the existing one. As said, as of today my experience of MusicBee and multi-channel has been disappointing.
Thanks for your time.
Topic: Multi-channel support... somewhat (Read 234 times)