Author Topic: Question about audio setting and wasapi playback quality noob question?  (Read 5466 times)

gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
Hi
I use musicbee in wasapi shared mode , realtek high definition
but I have noticed my realtek setup is on 24bit 48000 sample rate

may I ask 2 questions ?
1)
should i set to 24 and 44.100 sample rate ,seeing I play only 44.100 audio  ?

2)does the playback (when i play my audio) sound worse  with my internal audio card setup at 24 and 48000  ?

thanks


MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7799
In your user case with those settings all your music will be resampled.
Resampling will never improve the sound quality.
But you are the only one that can tell if you are able to hear any degradation.
If you are concerned about bitperfect playback, use exclusive mode, not shared.
Last Edit: February 23, 2021, 09:31:34 AM by hiccup

gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
In your user case you with that settings all your music will be resampled.
That will never improve the sound quality.
You are the only one that can tell if you are able to hear a difference.
If you are concerned about bitperfect playback, use exclusive mode, not shared.
hi
I could lower and setup at 24bit and 44.100 ,in this case i won't resample right?
my I know your suggest ? Or your audio card settings?
thanks,appreciate it
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7799
Correct, 24/44.1 won't decrease your sound quality.
I use wasapi exclusive when I want to listen to music without doubts on quality or the music getting interrupted by other sources.
And I use shared when I am in some multi-tasking mode.

gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
Correct, 24/44.1 won't decrease your sound quality.
I use wasapi exclusive when I want to listen to music without doubts on quality or the music getting interrupted by other sources.
And I use shared when I am in some multi-tasking mode.
hi
but how have you setup your audio card please
thanks !
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7799
but how have you setup your audio card please
I have a couple that have different purposes and capabilities. It is of no use to others to share my settings for them.

vincent kars

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 445
Resampling won’t improve sound quality but it can and should be done without introducing any audible or even measurable artifacts.
Unfortunately this is not the case in Win.
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/11/measurements-windows-10-audio-stack.html

At first the up-sampling was suspected. Later it turned out to be an artifact of the limiter (CAudioLimiter)
https://matthewvaneerde.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/linearity-of-windows-volume-apis-iaudiometerinformation-and-full-scale-signals/

As Hiccup already pointed out, you can avoid all of this by using WASAPI/Exclusive.
If not (not all players support this), just avoid the limiter to kick in.
This can be done in Musicbee by  using the equalizer and lower the pre-amp with 4 dB

Bit more detail: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/DirectSound.htm

gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
Resampling won’t improve sound quality but it can and should be done without introducing any audible or even measurable artifacts.
Unfortunately this is not the case in Win.
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/11/measurements-windows-10-audio-stack.html

At first the up-sampling was suspected. Later it turned out to be an artifact of the limiter (CAudioLimiter)
https://matthewvaneerde.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/linearity-of-windows-volume-apis-iaudiometerinformation-and-full-scale-signals/

As Hiccup already pointed out, you can avoid all of this by using WASAPI/Exclusive.
If not (not all players support this), just avoid the limiter to kick in.
This can be done in Musicbee by  using the equalizer and lower the pre-amp with 4 dB

Bit more detail: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/DirectSound.htm

Hi @vincent kars
really great links ,very very interesting reading
thanks Vincent
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫

sveakul

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2438
but how have you setup your audio card please
thanks !
gaiastar:  If you use wasap-exclusive it makes no difference how your audio card is setup in Windows.  Whatever the sample rate and bitrate is of the original file is what will be passed along to the audio drivers, which is a good thing.  The only issue would be if you have audio files whose rates are not supported by your audio card/chipset (usually rare).  In those cases, when bass.dll receives that information back it will resample on its own to a supported rate, as the alternative would be hearing no audio at all.

gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
but how have you setup your audio card please
thanks !
gaiastar:  If you use wasap-exclusive it makes no difference how your audio card is setup in Windows.  Whatever the sample rate and bitrate is of the original file is what will be passed along to the audio drivers, which is a good thing.  The only issue would be if you have audio files whose rates are not supported by your audio card/chipset (usually rare).  In those cases, when bass.dll receives that information back it will resample on its own to a supported rate, as the alternative would be hearing no audio at all.
Hi Sveakul
but I like to play music while i'm working
and I need to hear other operation system sound , like incoming e-mails or incoming photne calls
I guess it's much better if i setup the soundcard to 24bit and 44.100
if I need an audio editor tool , i can always use in exlusive mode
sadly audacity doesn't support it (wasapi exlusive mode)
thanks
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫


gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
sadly audacity doesn't support it (wasapi exlusive mode)
thanks
Of course it does.

Have a great day!
hi
i use audacity in wasapi , but I can't setup in exlusive mode , it works in shared more
it's enough to play a song with musicbee load a audio in audacity with wasapi and click play , musicbee &  audacity still play audios
I have read in the audacity forum how to setup in exclusive mode ,but seem lots of user can 't use it
thanks , take care
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫


gaiastar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 216
Have you done this?:

Hi
yes , exactly the same , but my language is different
MusicBee is the best audio player ever made, Love it ♫♫

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7799
So to be clear,
With those Windows setting, and with MusicBee set to use Wasapi Exclusive:

You start MusicBee playing. Then you start Audacity playing.
Then MusicBee keeps playing uninterrupted, together with Audacity?

That makes me wonder if MusicBee was using (granted) exclusive mode in the first place.
That looks like some issue.
Maybe driver issues? Other audio software or tools interfering/conflicting?