Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

[mville]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

Well at least we know that the FLACs are intact.

Yes, which should ease your stress levels.

I would say, on average, that if I 'looped' the same track to play round&round, then out of 10 plays it would glitch once, possibly twice.

Was this track playing from a local drive or the external HD?

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

I have no experience of the Amazon Fire, so I cannot comment on it's suitability as a DAP.

OK, fair enough. Cheers.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

So, you have finally determined and proven that the flacs are fine, due to the fact that you were able to play the flac album without any glitches. There is no need for anyone else to check whether the flacs have issues.

IMO, any playback issues that you have will be down to other hardware/software and/or network issues. If the glitches are rare, you could just ignore them or you would need to investigate/troubleshoot which processes are impacting on your work-PC or Amazon Fire set-ups.

Cheers mville,

Well at least we know that the FLACs are intact.

I would say, on average, that if I 'looped' the same track to play round&round, then out of 10 plays it would glitch once, possibly twice.

Although that's a very brief analysis in it's simplest form.

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

What I meant with buffering problems is that if you skip/pause/forward/rewind it could potentionally cause glitches on systems that are not up to the task. The player could lose track of the time position, and glitches or skips or even freezing could be the result. This could be about underpowered computers/players, but is more often software related or perhaps slow storage.

But I don't say that you have buffering problems, I just wanted to know how you had listened to the album. Now that you have listened to it again without interruption and without any problems, you know that the album can be be played perfectly on one of your systems.

For what it's worth, when I listen to music on my computer I sometimes hear small glitches in my accurately ripped files. Playing the same files on my media player I don't hear the errors - because there aren't any. But I have just accepted that on the computer you hear small glitches now and then, and I have not bothered to track down the cause. But you might have bigger glitches than mine, annoying you more.

Hi Vilsen,

Thanks for the explanation, I understand what you mean now.

In which case, NO, I don't skip/pause/forward/rewind the music as it's playing. I agree, this type of activity could cause certain playback problems. Once the track, or album, is playing I just leave it going until I am finished listening, period. As I say, often the album might be in 'loop' mode, but that's about it.

I listened, for the 2nd time, to 'Miles On The Corner' - on my Sony Walkman and new SD-card - and (apart from no artwork!) there were no audio glitches. I will listen to the same album, on the dame device, again tonight.

I have to say that I do find it most strange that something like a £600 Dell laptop, with more than acceptable specs, can fail at a simple task of reliably playing back Wav/MP3/FLAC files? However, I am going to listen, through foobar, using the music collection on my C-drive (rather than external-HD) as mville has suggested.

btw - I have switched, in foobar, the Preferences/Output setting to route to my Steinberg external-soundcard now.

Paul

[vilsen]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

Something you mentioned which may have merit is that I very often (on my Amazon Fire and PC - both using foobar) LOOP a single track, or a complete album.

Normally that is not a problem.

What I meant with buffering problems is that if you skip/pause/forward/rewind it could potentionally cause glitches on systems that are not up to the task. The player could lose track of the time position, and glitches or skips or even freezing could be the result. This could be about underpowered computers/players, but is more often software related or perhaps slow storage.

But I don't say that you have buffering problems, I just wanted to know how you had listened to the album. Now that you have listened to it again without interruption and without any problems, you know that the album can be be played perfectly on one of your systems.

For what it's worth, when I listen to music on my computer I sometimes hear small glitches in my accurately ripped files. Playing the same files on my media player I don't hear the errors - because there aren't any. But I have just accepted that on the computer you hear small glitches now and then, and I have not bothered to track down the cause. But you might have bigger glitches than mine, annoying you more.

[mville]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

I am afraid I just can not seem to find/access the above on my Amazon Fire. I have looked for about 20 mins, but to no avail.

I have no experience of the Amazon Fire, so I cannot comment on it's suitability as a DAP.

[mville]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

By this do you mean: PLAY using the FLAC library saved on my C-drive, please?

Yes. If the work-PC plays flac albums from the C: drive without issues, but as stated earlier, you have issues playing from the external-HD, then this implies you have a problem with the external-HD.

[mville]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

I listened to the suspect 'Miles On The Corner' FLAC last night, but this time on my new Sony Walkman, and using a brand new SanDisk SD-card. Obviously the Walkman does not use foobar (though I am not saying foobar is the cause of the issue). It's a 50 mins CD so I only got to play it once, but I will listen again tonight. In any event, it played fine and without a single glitch.

So, you have finally determined and proven that the flacs are fine, due to the fact that you were able to play the flac album without any glitches. There is no need for anyone else to check whether the flacs have issues.

IMO, any playback issues that you have will be down to other hardware/software and/or network issues. If the glitches are rare, you could just ignore them or you would need to investigate/troubleshoot which processes are impacting on your work-PC or Amazon Fire set-ups.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

1. What is selected in foobar2000 >> Preferences >> Playback >> Output >> Device?

I am afraid I just can not seem to find/access the above on my Amazon Fire. I have looked for about 20 mins, but to no avail.

There is a page full of 'Advanced' settings. These include: 'Use Open-SL audio output', and 'Use read-ahead for playing local files'. These are both set to OFF. All of the other available settings within 'Advanced' do not look at all as if they would be related to the matter in discussion.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

1. What is selected in foobar2000 >> Preferences >> Playback >> Output >> Device?

Regarding this setting, I have opened the drop-down menu and you can see (albeit not selected as the 'device') is my Steinberg 'CI2+' external soundcard (which has inputs for me to record a guitar/synthesizer etc into Cubase, and the outputs are permanently connected to my external mains-powered Yamaha reference-speakers).

Please see screenshot:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DI..._8KagDj0uLdP3f

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

So far we only know that the flacs are NOT corrupted. The next step would be to determine that they playback OK. As mentioned earlier, try playing the flacs on the work-PC from a local drive, using foobar2000.

2. Do the flacs playback OK?

By this do you mean: PLAY using the FLAC library saved on my C-drive, please?

Just to clarify mville, I only have my work/college PC laptop in my possession now. You may, or may not, remember I purchased a new Hewlett Packard laptop to use for my next academic year, come this September. But alas, it had to be returned/refunded (6 weeks ago) as there was a hardware fault with the power-supply and graphics-card; hence I am down to just 1 PC now. This was why I made the request for a member, from here, to cross-reference the suspect Miles Davis album on their own PC; just to rule out any potential gremlins; but, as you are aware, I have since removed the LINK.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

1. What is selected in foobar2000 >> Preferences >> Playback >> Output >> Device?

Thanks for your directions. Please see screenshot:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JD...2QDzRIPh30cJZj

It looks a little more convoluted to navigate to this setting on the Amazon Fire.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

3. Finally, have you run LatencyMon on your work-PC, to check that your Windows environment is suitable for playing audio, without any potential issues? It is possible that you have other processes running, that affect the system on playback?

Hi mville,

I have d/l and tested with Latency Monitor; thanks for the LINK.

Please see screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16y...GeH-OF1JRWSYM9

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11W...L5X09-1c9-ol-8

According to the analysis, my PC is OK in this respect.

I am assuming that I can not test out my Amazon Fire with this particular s/w?

Cheers.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

To me that sounds as you are having more random errors than anything else, and if so they are most probably NOT file errors. That's because audible file errors should be easily detectable by occuring at the same point of time. Just play the track over and over and listen if the errors repeat.

Moreover, you did get an accurately ripped result for this album from PerfectTUNES. The chance/risk that your computer messed things up and gave you a false positive is basically zero. And I would be very surprised if PerfectTUNES cached any checksums, it would totally defeat the purpose. So you don't need to reinstall to have fresh results.

On top of that your test conversion also confirmed that your files are ok.

Did you play the album from the beginning without intervention, or did you skip/pause/forward/rewind during the playing session? That can sometimes cause buffering problems.

Hi Vilsen,

I listened to the suspect 'Miles On The Corner' FLAC last night, but this time on my new Sony Walkman, and using a brand new SanDisk SD-card. Obviously the Walkman does not use foobar (though I am not saying foobar is the cause of the issue). It's a 50 mins CD so I only got to play it once, but I will listen again tonight. In any event, it played fine and without a single glitch.

I ran 2 PerfTunes scans earlier this week. One one my C-drive and the other on my (mains powered) Western Digital external-HD. Both scans scanned everything (ie not just the 'Miles On The Corner' album on it's own). Each drive (I have 2 other Seagate external-HDs) has circa 30 albums with 'errors'. But in answer to your your question, NO, the 'Miles On The Corner' album does not appear in this list. Interestingly/coincidentally, the COMPLETE 'Miles On The Corner' boxset album - which I bought as a d/l version on Qubuz - DOES appear!; though I have not tested (ie. listened to) this FLAC out yet (and the tracks are different out-takes/versions anyway).

Something you mentioned which may have merit is that I very often (on my Amazon Fire and PC - both using foobar) LOOP a single track, or a complete album. That's just the way I listen!; I mean, I can listen to the same tracks or album for up to 6 weeks.

Much appreciated,

Paul

[mville]

Re: Strange Goings On! (PerfTunes/Foobar/Ripped FLACs)

On, for instance, Miles Davis's 'Miles On The Corner', I seem to get 1 or 2 jumps (call them what you will) per album play. So, each time I listen to the album there are 1 or 2 audible glitches. SOMETIMES it CAN be the same track and at the same point (as far as I can tell) - such as with tracks: 4 & 7 ('Vote For Miles' & 'Helen Butte') as per post No.3 above. But then at other times a new glitch can appear as a one-off.

So far we only know that the flacs are NOT corrupted. The next step would be to determine that they playback OK. As mentioned earlier, try playing the flacs on the work-PC from a local drive, using foobar2000.

1. What is selected in foobar2000 >> Preferences >> Playback >> Output >> Device?
2. Do the flacs playback OK?
3. Finally, have you run LatencyMon on your work-PC, to check that your Windows environment is suitable for playing audio, without any potential issues? It is possible that you have other processes running, that affect the system on playback?