Regarding Musepack...

[neilthecellist]

I like the idea of Musepack. I've never tried it, but under Spoon's Audio Guide-formats, it says that Musepack beats everyone else in the lossy category above 160 kbps.......is this true?

Also, I'm not trying to be mean to dAP, but sometimes I prefer Winamp better.....Any way I can get a plug-in for winamp that allows you to play MusePack files?

I mean, I do like dAP, but I like the global hotkeys of Winamp, because in class, when I'm listening to music (which i shouldn't be doing all of them time), I need to press some global hotkeys to quit/pause/close/"make Winamp 52% transparent" .......i don't see this feature in dAP....


Is Musepack an unpopular codec? I've never seen it before....until like......now

[Razgo]

this year is the year of dap and you will see many improvements and features hopefully over the next few months. as far as the global keys you talk of , have you tried dap's shorcut key's? it's called control freak http://www.dbpoweramp.com/bin/dAP-Control-Freak.exe

and can do the following:

1. dAP-Open - Shows a music selection box, select audio files - click Ok and they will be played.

2. dAP-Pause - Pauses dAP play back, running whilst dAP is paused un-pauses dAP.

3. dAP-Play - Toggles the play button up and down.

4. dAP-Stop - Stops all playback

5. dAP-Previous - If play back of a track has played more than 5 seconds, running this skips to the beginning of the track. If it is within the first five seconds the previously played track is played

6. dAP-Selective - Displays dAPs selective play window.

7. dAP-Skip - Skips current track, goes onto the next.

8. dAP-Quit - Exits dAP and all its related programs

9. dAP-VolumeDown - Lowers the volume by 5 points

10. dAP-VolumeUp - Raises the volume by 5 points

11. dAP-MuteToggle - Toggles volume mute.

12. dAP-Advance5PC - Advances playback 5 percent

13. dAP-Back5PC - Goes back 5 percent


dAP Shutdown

dAP or your computer can be instructed to shut down upon reaching a certain entry in a playlist, installed into C:\dAPControl are these shutdown files:

1. hybernate computer
2. log off computer
3. restart computer
4. shut dow (ATX) computer
5. shut down conmputer
6. suspend computer
7. switch off computer

download and read the help files.

anything else you didn't think dap could do?

[neilthecellist]

lol Razgo. As I said before, I didn't see i didn't like dAP. I just wish it had exact features like Winamp......(and hopefully, since this year is the dAP year, have a skin that looks just like Winamp modern ! ) ^_^

[ChristinaS]

Skins department.... two floors down, to the right.

[LtData]

lol Razgo. As I said before, I didn't see i didn't like dAP. I just wish it had exact features like Winamp......(and hopefully, since this year is the dAP year, have a skin that looks just like Winamp modern ! ) ^_^
Yea, there IS a Winamp5 modern skin. And dAP does have a few good features that Winamp also has, like Global Hotkeys.

[Razgo]

lol Razgo. As I said before, I didn't see i didn't like dAP. I just wish it had exact features like Winamp......(and hopefully, since this year is the dAP year, have a skin that looks just like Winamp modern ! ) ^_^

yes, i wasn't assuming you didn't like dap. i know you are just making a comparison which i think should be encouraged to keep spoon on his toes. i think both winamp and wmp are good players.

but like i said i think "control freak" in dap is what winamp does as you were asking.

dap/winamp skin winamp5: winamp5 skin (http://www.sensory-fusion.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=103&sort=1&size=medium&cat=513)
and windap the older version windap skin (http://www.sensory-fusion.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=110&sort=1&cat=all&page=1)

[neilthecellist]

WHOA! I got a problem here. Is the playlist feature all buggy? When i load a file, it plays, and then if i load a playlist (5 mp3 tracks long), it'll play, but then the 3rd track that it plays is from a TOTALLY different directory that I didn't select. What's going on? Is this a bug in dAP?

[neilthecellist]

anyone? please?

I'd like to record this problem as a VIDEO so I can show you guys EXACTLY what's wrong...DOes anyone know a program that can record the problem realtime? (Fraps is a no-no, it's for games, not everyday windows programs)

[JVILLAS]

With regards to Musepack, it is my favorite Lossy format. For me there is a qualitataive difference that was immediatley apparent.I should say in comparison to MP3 and Qgg. and I should also add this is totally my opinion, this is what my ears tell me. Unfortunatley MPC lacks portability,perhaps someday this wil be addressed(wishfull thinking).

[neilthecellist]

Ogg, not Qgg!
And also, can anyone help me with my problem?

[xoas]

Neil-
Do you still have the Playlist problem?
Are you saying that if you enqueue track #1, Playlist #1 (made up of track #2, track #3, track #4, track #5, track #6), and track #7 that dAP will play track #1, all the tracks in Playlist #1, and then go on to play some totally unrelated track?
If you open the MMC window and follow the enqueued tracks as they play, what seems to happen?

If this problem has gone away or if you have figured it out, do let us know.

Best wishes,
Bill

[neilthecellist]

I figured out what's wrong. You have to manually en-queue everything in the list thingy in order to get all the songs to play consecutively without randomly skipping around and playing files that I didn't want to play. Winamp instead now.

Don't get me wrong, I love all of Spoon's products, everything, really! I love dMC, dCW, and the betas, and especially Auxiliary Input, but dAP really feels like a bummer to me (no offense, Spoon! :) ), so I'll stick with Winamp instead.

Besides, there are a TON more global hotkeys availible for Winamp, plus I can set Present Volumes (0%, 25%, 50%, 100%) by simply pressing CTRL + ALT + Num1, CTRL + ALT + Num2, CTRL + ALT + Num3, and CTRL + ALT + Num4.

And I figured out that I can reduce the CPU being used in Winamp by turning down the Timers Resolution under Modern Skins....Or I can simply go to Classic Skin.

Again, I find that everything made by Spoon is awesome and is t3h r0x3r, but dAP just doesn't meet up to my standards...That's just me though...I'm sure there are thousands out there who love dAP, so I'm just miniscule compared to them. :)

[xoas]

so I'll stick with Winamp instead.
I have no quarrel with this. WinAmp does have its advantages and it is more popular for several reasons, some of which you point out.

I figured out what's wrong. You have to manually en-queue everything in the list thingy in order to get all the songs to play consecutively without randomly skipping around and playing files that I didn't want to play.
But this I don't understand. I find that if I enqueue a track, add a playlist to the queue, and add another track to the queue they play in the order that they were added to the queue. If there are tracks I want to skip over, I simply use the skip button and the next track in the queue will play. I have not experienced the "jumping around" that you describe. The queue over-rides any random play settings you might have.
Further, using Donny's QueMaster application (available for download here:
http://www.quemaster.com/quemaster/ ) you can add or remove separate items from the queue, or change their order without randomly scrambling the queue or to delete the whole queue.

I am not sure that dAP cannot do many or all of the same things that WinAmp can but the fact of the matter is that I have been using dAP almost exclusively for about 3 years and I have trouble adapting to other players (nor am I pleased with their seeming insistence on trying to become the player of choice of each format they are capable of playing), and I have not bothered to get involved in some power user features as hotkeys and global hotkeys. I appreciate your opinion and your feedback.

Best wishes,
Bill

[xoas]

Speaking of Musepack (also my favorite codec) it appears to have slipped in a test of the most recent versions of musepack, ogg, mp3, wma (oops!My mistake, the tester had intended to test wma pro but did not because bitrate presets were incompatible with the other formats tested) and AAC/mp4 at vbr around 189 kbs. as reported here: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36465
(thanks to FRZ for the initial report).

Best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

Remember that Musepack is best at very high bitrates. IIRC, its above 250+kbps or something where its best, isn't it?

[xoas]

Spoon's Audio Guide (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/spoons-audio-guide-formats.htm)
makes 2 statements regarding Musepack. The first is that it is better from bitrates of 160 kbs and above and that it is unrivalled at bitrates of 192 kbs and above. While this testing does not extent to 192 kbs. and it does continue to give musepack high marks, it seems to clearly suggest that the tweaks to the ogg aoTuV codec embodied in aoTuV beta4 (aka Vorbis 1.1.1) have made it a superior codec for classical music at fairly high bitrates. Whether this extends to even higher bitrates is questionable.
(BTW I did fix the link to this study having found that the link I posted didn't work).

Best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

I forgot the exact number, so your probably right. And I'm glad to hear that Ogg Vorbis is still improving. :)