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Topic: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder (Read 304428 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #975
I asked the FhG mailing address about trademark issues. They didn't bother to actually answer me, and only copied and pasted me the FAQ. You'd think a multi-million billion dollar company could afford to actually field emails properly. I guess all that money goes into suing people.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #976
I asked the FhG mailing address about trademark issues. They didn't bother to actually answer me, and only copied and pasted me the FAQ. You'd think a multi-million billion dollar company could afford to actually field emails properly. I guess all that money goes into suing people.

I tend to work on the expectation that the bigger the company, the less likely they are to reply. I'd also say they are unlikely to reply about any trademark issues as they'd have to get the lawyers involved in every response (I don't know an engineer or manager worth their salt who would carry the risk of advising a third party on trademark stuff).

Good effort for trying though. Maybe a few follow up emails would stir up enough interest to generate some kind of useful response. Maybe give them a business email address to reply to?

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #977
Haha. Business email address. How about I just do nothing.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #978
Intel compiles of exhale-V1.1.7.1-f145f63f with BA_MORE_CBR set now at Rarewares.
Hi John,
Can You please keep two versions on Rarewares, normal and MORE_CBR?

I just downloaded greatest and latest exhale 1.1.7.1 and wondered why quality sucked badly. Then I remembered Chris mentioning 1.1.7.1 with MORE_CBR.  Anyway I got normal 1.1.7 build from http://www.rarewares.org/files/aac/

P.S. Have tried exhale on Android 11. Playback via Android default audio player works. :)
Though foobar2000 resists to play them.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #979
@IgorC
U can get the v1.7.1.1 default binaries from HERE

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #980
Can You please keep two versions on Rarewares, normal and MORE_CBR?

I just downloaded greatest and latest exhale 1.1.7.1 and wondered why quality sucked badly. Then I remembered Chris mentioning 1.1.7.1 with MORE_CBR.
Indeed, and the CBRish mode is experimental and not for general use, as stated behind the macro. I'd actually prefer that, when executables are shared, they are compiled without changes from the GitLab source. To avoid such confusion. (In the past, there may have been some exceptions since people had problems with faulty encodings via foobar2000 conversion e.g., but that should have been sorted out by now).

But keep in mind, very little has changed in exhale's default behavior since version 1.1.7.0, so you can keep using that as well.

Quote
P.S. Have tried exhale on Android 11. Playback via Android default audio player works. :)
Though foobar2000 resists to play them.
For clarification, you're talking about foobar2000 on Android, right?

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #981
Intel compiles of exhale-V1.1.7.1-f145f63f with BA_MORE_CBR set now at Rarewares.
Hi John,
Can You please keep two versions on Rarewares, normal and MORE_CBR?

I just downloaded greatest and latest exhale 1.1.7.1 and wondered why quality sucked badly. Then I remembered Chris mentioning 1.1.7.1 with MORE_CBR.  Anyway I got normal 1.1.7 build from http://www.rarewares.org/files/aac/

P.S. Have tried exhale on Android 11. Playback via Android default audio player works. :)
Though foobar2000 resists to play them.
Your wish is my command!  ;D  Two sets of compiles are now available. I hope I have indicated the differences sufficiently clearly.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #982
For clarification, you're talking about foobar2000 on Android, right?

Chris

On Android the "foobar2000 Mobile" app (the one by "Resolute", not Peter P.) lacks the ability to play USAC audio. All it can read is their metadata from the mp4 container. One must therefore use other players for USAC on Android - those relying on system libraries work perfectly fine. :)

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #983
Thanks, good to know (I'm not using recent Android versions myself).

I can play a USAC .m4a file in Groove music player... Windows 11 default music player
I can confirm USAC in windows 11 media player. Dev channel.
That's awesome! :) Thanks for checking! My own laptop doesn't pass the Windows 11 compatibility check, so I can't install it myself.

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #984
That's awesome! :) Thanks for checking! My own laptop doesn't pass the Windows 11 compatibility check, so I can't install it myself.

Chris
FYI: Microsoft (!) provides instructions on how to install Win11 on unsupported hardware...
/off-topic

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #985
john33, NetRanger,

Thank You for builds.

Chris,
Yes, I meant foobar2000 Android app.


 

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #986
I just bumped the version number, having finished some leftover to-dos at the lowest CVBR presets 0, 1, a, and b (there shouldn't be any changes at the other presets). If you successfully build the latest commit, please call it release 1.1.8.

Changes since version 1.1.7 from August 2021:
  • some final code cleanup, small code corrections and editorial changes for this year
  • exhaleLib: minor stereo quality tuning for low rates, optional CBR mode via macro

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #987
All versions now at Rarewares. :)


Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #989
I've been doing some testing of my own and I think I found one issue regarding gapless encoding. I've attached 2 WAV files, each about 10 seconds, from the tracks which I use to test how well the gapless encoding/playback works in a lossy codec.
(For anyone interested, they have been taken from this album, tracks 11 & 12).

I have tested modes 2-7 (i.e. 80-160kbps) and even using mode 7 I can still hear a click during the track transition.

Apple AAC and Opus have no issues at 96 kbps (VBR) and sound transparent to me.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #990
EZ CD Audio Converter's Fraunhofer xHE-AAC encoder fails on those files as well, at least at 96 kbps VBR.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #991
Thanks very much, Corsair, for reporting and kode54 for the further checks. I documented this behavior on GitLab as issue #21.

I had actually already implemented code to reduce such clicks a long time ago, but that code only addressed the beginning (i.e., first frame) of the encodings, and some more recent edit-list related changes effectively disabled this code. So it's a good idea to take another look at this. Here are some screenshots of what I managed to integrate into exhale locally so far, I'll try to get this committed to the GitLab repository next week:

Current behavior (top: Corsair's original WAVE files, bottom: exhale 1.1.8.0 behavior)


Desired behavior (will hopefully be committed as a sub-release 1.1.8.1 next week)


Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #992
I'm happy to report that I have finally started daily driving USAC (exhale SBR g 108kb/s) after upgrading to devices with Android 11 and Windows 11. My new laptop happens to have a 11th gen processor which is a lot faster than my old 4th gen w/ exhale encodes even with the same number of cores, which just makes it more usable for me. Is 11 the magic number for USAC adoption? 

I encoded parts of my library to test with foobar a few months ago but I really prefer Groove and Samsung Music so now that they both support USAC, I'll be only keeping the FLAC copies on my NAS/desktop.

I've avoided encoding to AAC for long, as my library would still be uncomfortably large for a 128GB phone with 256/320kbps AAC files - sometimes only half the size of the FLAC. Exhale encodes can easily be ~10% of the size of the source FLAC file without having to worry about audible artifacts, which is a lot more viable for offline storage.

The only annoyance with USAC on my device is that there are no controls for DRC, which is causing some sort of loudness equalization effect. So with the volume being lower, the perceived quality is worse than other codecs (without DRC), however the maximum volume is just about enough for my headphones, it's probably better for my ears that way.

Unfortunately, I'll still have to keep some streaming subscriptions due to MPEG-H (3DRA) and Atmos.

Thanks for the encoder.


Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #994
Thanks @C.R.Helmrich for the fix, I've retested it and I no longer hear any issues. Thanks to @NetRanger as well for the compiles.


Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #996
All Windows variants now at Rarewares. :)


Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #998
Got the same album in 16/44 and 24/96. I encoded each track to 192kbps xHE-AAC, OGG Vorbis and OPUS:
  • exhale 9 input.wav output.m4a
  • oggenc -q6 -o output.ogg input.wav
  • opusenc --bitrate 192 input.wav output.opus

exhale yields 60-80% bigger files when the input is 24/96. Here is an example of a 3m36sec long track:
Code: [Select]
  38121260 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-1644.wav
   4955064 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-1644.m4a
   4842683 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-1644.ogg
   5220043 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-1644.opus
 124477508 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-2496.wav
   7831800 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-2496.m4a
   5280611 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-2496.ogg
   5217646 01-03-Pink_Floyd-On_The_Run-2496.opus

Any idea why? Is this a bug in exhale 1.1.8 or is this expected?

Re: exhale - Open Source USAC encoder

Reply #999
This is a feature, not a bug. xHE-AAC, unlike Opus IIRC, changes the number of frames per second when you change the sampling rate, so with 96 kHz sampling rate you need to reduce the CVBR mode if you want a lower bit-rate.

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.