Author Topic: Formats and dynamic range support  (Read 10396 times)

Floydian

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Hi, i'm new here and i'd like to share a few thoughts on Musicbee. I was looking for a Foobar replacement and i found Musicbee to be a really neat media player. I believe you got the general concept right. It's not more complicated than necessary, while loaded with features. I do miss a few things though, and i'd like to request them. SACD (DFF/DSF/ISO) and AMR speech formats support. I've sent a message to the developers of the SACD plugin for Foobar, asking them if they intend to support Musicbee in the future. A repository for all Musicbee/Winamp plugins here on the site would be nice too, combined with an option to update the plugins within player. Also, an option to measure the dynamic range of a track/album? I couldn't find a plugin for this. And lastly, why isn't there an option to show the wave bar instead of the classic progress bar on the Dark Metro skins? It's a pity because they look great.

I'm looking forward to the development of Musicbee. Cheers.

JellyBelly

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I also would like to see a option to measure the dynamic range of a track/album.
For Foobar there's a plugin to measure the dynamic range, see: http://www.dynamicrange.de/de/free-downloads

Keep up the good work! I already use MusicBee for several years now and it is by far the best audio player I have ever used.

Stony_Curtis

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I'd like to second the request for SACD ISO support. It would be an awesome addition.

Steven

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see this topic on hydrogen audio for a discussion around Dynamic Range - it sounds like the existing approach is quite flawed

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=105173

in any case, i wouldnt look at this until a published algorithm is available

psychoadept

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why isn't there an option to show the wave bar instead of the classic progress bar on the Dark Metro skins?

This is probably because they are bitmap skins (.xmlc files).  I think you can find a standard XML version here, which should allow wavebar display: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=10884.0
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Floydian

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see this topic on hydrogen audio for a discussion around Dynamic Range - it sounds like the existing approach is quite flawed
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=105173
in any case, i wouldnt look at this until a published algorithm is available

Agreed, it does seem flawed. Maybe another interpretation would work better.

This is probably because they are bitmap skins (.xmlc files).  I think you can find a standard XML version here, which should allow wavebar display: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=10884.0

Thanks, i'll look into it.
Update: The XML skin works fine!

I also gathered all the input plugins for Winamp i could find on the net and imported them into Musicbee, and tested them to avoid incompatibilities and conflicts. I've tossed away many plugins that Musicbee wouldn't import for some reason. Below is the download link - you don't have to import them individually yourselves, just extract the archive into your Musicbee/Plugins folder. Still no AMR support though.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/lh121i3mhjd4ui4/Musicbee_Plugins.zip

Here's the list as seen from the explorer, you can see their names and extensions inside Musicbee. I didn't include this information because of the GUI limitation i describe at the end.

adplug.db
aodsf.bin
aossf.bin
in_adlib.dll
in_adx.dll
in_aodsfu.dll
in_aossfu.dll
in_asap.dll
in_au.dll
in_aud.dll
in_bonk.dll
in_bpxfade.dll
in_d00.dll
in_diengine.dll
in_ffviii.dll
in_fm1.dll
in_gbs.dll
in_gez.dll
in_gsf.dll
in_gsm.dll
in_ipacm.dll
in_mdx.dll
in_mlp.dll
in_mppwc.dll
in_mt2.dll
in_nez.dll
in_nez.ini
in_notsofatso.dll
in_pac.dll
in_psf.dll
in_s98.dll
in_sc68.dll
in_shn.dll
in_sidplay2.dll
in_sk00l.dll
in_speex.dll
in_tac.dll
in_tap.dll
in_usf.dll
in_vgm.dll
in_vio2sfu.dll
in_vtx.dll
in_way.dll
in_wsf.dll
in_wsr.dll
in_xbadpcm.dll
in_ym.dll
plugin.ini
vio2sf.bin

Hope this will help. And about the GUI's limitation. Searching the file types in the General tab and the input plugins in the Player tab is a pain, especially if you have many of them, as their height is extremely narrow (4 rows for the file types and 2 rows for the input plugins). A value close to 10 rows would be much more easy to navigate. Wouldn't say no to a batch import of plugins too, instead of importing them one-by-one.
Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 05:16:48 PM by Floydian

Storris

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I just spammed my plugins folder with everything in the .zip hoping for .dsf  capabilities, but it hasn't gone well.  :'(

Starting MB brings up a warning:

mxdrv.dll,l"C,Yz,Y,EZ,"su,U,u,1/2B - Most of those letters have accents above them in the warning.

I also now have a subscriptions.dat file in my inbox.

...oh, and no .DSF capabilities yet.

Antonski

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+ 1 for Dynamic Range support.

Once the implementation is there, if a new, better algorithm, providing more precise calculation of DR appears, then we can maybe just replace the dll (as in case with Replay Gain)?
There were complaints about initial algorithm of Replay Gain as well, but nevertheless it became a standard in few years.
Nowadays we can use different algorithms and implementations for evaluating of the loudness, but tags are standardized, values are compatible (after adding some offset), so migration to the prsent-day RG algorithms is smooth.
I think we have almost the same situation with DR. The tags are (de facto) standardized, there is a big library with DR results of different album releases (I thing the access is not free, though), there is a plugin for FB (so it can be used as a tester for compatibility :)), and I think once the DR became wide spread, new algorithms will appear soon.



Alumni

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+1, a DR plugin would be great to have, but in the mean time I just use Foobar for tagging DR ratings.

Antonski

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So do I, FB is set as external tool and sending an album to it for DR calculation is taking just two clicks (well, a bit more, including clicks in FB for invoking the plugin :))

taravasya

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Its old thread.... but I think no needs to create new one. I`m just want to add my:
+1 for SACD ISO files support in your very best player! )))

NickIst

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Quote
Also, an option to measure the dynamic range of a track/album? I couldn't find a plugin for this.
+1, is this option still unavailable?