Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Zelda7

Pages: 1
1
Beyond MusicBee / Re: Do we have to deal with clipping ?
« on: January 12, 2021, 08:42:48 PM »
Yeah I think what bothers me sometimes is probably not actual "clipping" or even "distortion". I would rather call that a "sizzle" (I'm french so it's hard to find the exact matching word), like during some (purposedly) noisy guitar riffs there's some sort of extra sizzling/saturation in the background. To give a comparison it would be like when someone screams really loud in a microphone, you can sometimes hear that the voice "saturates".

And yeah usually when I feel there's too much saturation I can hear that no matter which device I play said song/passage, even if it's really more noticeable with headphones. And I exaggerate when I said I hear such sounds very often... it's honestly mostly on some specific, loud metal or rock songs, when I listen to overall quieter music like pop, folk, hip hop or ambient/electronic it sounds fine. As you said maybe most of the times these effects are intended.

Thanks for that website anyways, looks useful, I've checked a few albums I had trouble with recently and they seem to have sub-par dynamic range (like 5 or 6 which is indicated in red), but I can't tell what this exactly means/if it really matters since I'm not an audiophile or anything.

2
Beyond MusicBee / Re: Do we have to deal with clipping ?
« on: January 12, 2021, 01:47:05 PM »
The best advice to minimize the issue is to send the most pure, unadulterated signal possible to your output.  Turn off EQ and disable all Windows sound enhancements.

Yeah I remember back then you recommending me that. But I never use any equalizer to be fair, I'm the kind to like a rather "flat" sound... I don't use the musicbee equalizer or even the treble/bass buttons on my hi-fi amp, I mean I just let everything back to the normal, balanced point. I've been disabling all windows sound enhancements since the very beginning too.

I know people are saying you can just use stuff like replay gain or reducing the pre-amp to something like -6,00 dB (the frequent number I see) to get rid of clipping/saturation but it doesn't change anything when I try it.

3
Beyond MusicBee / Re: Do we have to deal with clipping ?
« on: January 12, 2021, 01:44:02 PM »
This is -not- a sarcastic reply, but have you had your hearing checked medically?

Never happened, I'm not that old and never felt I'm hearing badly or need to listen to music at especially high volume. But are you just implying the problem is coming from me then ?

It won't cost anything to have it checked though, I've been listening to hours of music each day for like 15 years now, can't be without any consequence maybe...

4
Beyond MusicBee / Do we have to deal with clipping ?
« on: January 12, 2021, 11:51:54 AM »
Hi,  8)

I remember a few years ago asking about my concerns with saturation/clipping sounds with musicbee, and while I probably got used to it after that, it's starting to bother me again.

And to be fair, this is not really a musicbee specific issue (so I post in this part of the forum), since I'm really bothered by it EVERYWHERE, and I don't know why. These days I can barely listen to a full album without hearing some sort of audio problems in specific parts of songs. Whether it's a way too saturated guitar riff, some quick but noticeable clics/pops in calm moments, the end of a guitar note that oversaturates, a noisy bass beat...

I'm not really an expert audiophile but I'm pretty sure these are things that aren't supposed to be here. And even if it may be like one or two seconds here and here in a whole record, I hate it.

And yeah, this happen whether I try the song/passage in musicbee, on spotify, on apple music, on youtube, even if strangely enough I've noticed sometimes I can find a version on Youtube where the actual saturation isn't present. For example the intro from "The House That Pain Built" from Killing Joke is some saturated trash almost everywhere I try it except from the first uploaded version that's on Youtube (the other ones sound worse). And there many examples like that.

I've even tried using FLAC versions, that are supposed to be lossless and clipping-free. I can even see the track is apparently clean and perfect in Audacity, no clipping mark or anything, but I keep hearing the same artifacts in specific parts, how is that possible ? Even changing some normalization/pre-amp settings in musicbee, or using the desktop equalizer "Equalizer APO" don't do anything.

And it's probably not my setup either, since such problems appear both on computer, on my phone or when I try listening to the song directly on my TV using my hi-fi amp. I have two different pairs of headphones as well and it doesn't change anything. To be fair it's even worse on headphones, with speakers I'm not as close to the sound so it becomes harder to hear slight saturation/clipping. Sound with my vinyle collection seems fine too but it's maybe also because I never listen to them with headphones either, I should try it to compare.

Is it just me then ? Am I becoming paranoid trying the same song in 10 different configurations/formats and keeping hearing weird "defaults" ? Maybe people are not sensitive to the same frequencies ? It may be cause I don't see too many people complaining about such things.

Or is is just the way it is ? That saturation/clipping is a common thing because music is sometimes badly recorded/ripped ? Do you just have to deal with it unless you have like some 5,000 $ hi-fi setup ?

Some people say you just have to "forget clipping" but it can really ruin my enjoyment. If you'll be kind enough to share the best thing you can do to avoid/reduce saturation/clipping (in musicbee preferences for example) I'll take it !

Anyway sorry for the long "rant" !  :-X

5
Questions / How to play songs by artists in "now playing" tab
« on: April 04, 2020, 03:15:08 PM »
Hi,

I usually don't use the whole library on musicbee, I rather drag what I have on my computer to the "now playing" tab. But I've noticed with the new version that the songs are always played according to the date I added them. Even if I order the columns by artist it keeps playing the songs by "#", meaning if I want to make a playlist by artist I HAVE to add everything alphabetically myself or it won't play that way. It's not bothering with albums but for individual songs it's weird.

Why is that ? I'm sure in the previous version you could choose the order the tracks were played just by ordering the columns.

Is there a way to change that ? I don't know where to search in the preferences.

Thanks !  8)

6
Questions / Re: Slight saturationn while playing
« on: October 10, 2018, 09:51:52 PM »
> That's why I don't get it, why does it sounds right on Spotify, but not on media players ? I get that the songs can come from different sources, and I may have some shitty albums rips for sure, but honestly I don't have just one song that have that problem.

I'm not sure if you do get the bit about different sources (or, at least, different MP3 compression factors).

MP3 is a lossy compression format; it reduces the size of the file by throwing information away. If you have a highly-compressed MP3 (e.g. 128kbps), so much information has been discarded that it sounds muddy, especially in the upper registers. If you compare that to something streamed from Spotify, you need to look at the bitrate that Spotify is sending; if it is streaming 320kbps, you should expect to have a much better experience, as more information has been retained. You would also need to look at the algorithm being used for the MP3 compression, and the options selected; there are many MP3 compressors out there, not just one that everyone uses.

You may even be using a lossless stream from Spotify.

Yeah I don't know, I don't have any music in 128kbps, most of it is in 320kpbs. One of the tracks I noticed saturation even comes from a FLAC rip (not encoded by me) which is supposed to be the best quality, better than MP3. And still, it doesn't sound as clean and perfect as on Spotify.

Does that mean streaming has a better sound quality than compression, even lossless ? I'm puzzled.

7
Questions / Re: Slight saturationn while playing
« on: October 09, 2018, 06:41:06 PM »

Try with Controls> ReplayGain Off setting to see if that makes any differences.


Yeah I've already disabled all these "enhancement" options, doesn't change a thing. I'll check again the equalizer deeper, later.

8
Questions / Re: Slight saturationn while playing
« on: October 09, 2018, 06:36:42 PM »


If none of your EQ settings could be causing the clipping, What is the source of the song when you listen to it in MB?  Is this from streaming radio, a CD, or a file that you have on your system.

The few songs I've noticed some artifacts and saturation are basically MP3s I have on my computer, yeah.

And to be honest, I've tried those songs on other players (Windows Media Player, AIMP4 and even VLC) and the sound is the same than on MusicBee, there are the same passages that sound slightly bad.

That's why I don't get it, why does it sounds right on Spotify, but not on media players ? I get that the songs can come from different sources, and I may have some shitty albums rips for sure, but honestly I don't have just one song that have that problem. Really seems my system/defaut setting can't handle perfectly some frequencies.

Anyway, I'm also going to check some of the songs with a sound editor, thanks ! (Audacity will do ?)

9
Questions / Slight saturationn while playing
« on: October 09, 2018, 09:09:04 AM »
Hi,

I noticed that sometimes, when I play music, especially loud, busy and saturated (such as rock, metal, industrial etc...) I can notice some slight saturation/cracking in MusicBee. Only happens sometimes, on one particular moment of a song, not that noticeable but yeah I can definitely ear it, and I guess it's not normal.

Especially since it doesn't happen when I listen to the exact same song/moment on Youtube or Spotify.  :-\

So I guess the problem doesn't come from my computer, settings or headphones.

Is there any way to slightly improve Musicbee's sound, by basically reducing this kind of saturation/noise ? I've checked the equalizer, tried some changes but I can't really hear any difference. Also checked the software from my soundcard (an external one, Asus Xonar U5)...

What about some plugins or DSP ? I don't know a thing about that, so I ask you !  :D

Pages: 1