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Recent Posts
1
MP3 - General / Re: Resurrecting/Preserving the Helix MP3 encoder
Last post by Kraeved -
As I understand it, the latest version with reasonable and properly tested changes that can run on both x86 and x64 is the @Case's build 2024-03-20. After that, you went into micro-optimization, changing the makefile and now experimenting with memsets. This has already affected the size of mp3 files, so users may have a legitimate question: if the encoding algorithm is not changed, then why mp3 files are different from each other? We need to create a stable version for public use so that users don't wade through dozens of pages, going through everything that they uploaded here, as happens in some other threads.

Code: [Select]
bytes, xxhash, filename
270150 = 71f16bfc93121db3 = out-i686.mp3
270154 = 7658cb1d84627d25 = out-i586.mp3
270227 = dad23bd189aeb6c6 = out-git-fb6f2b2.mp3
270227 = dad23bd189aeb6c6 = out-i686v2.mp3
270230 = 284a80c89cdf720b = out-case.mp3
3
General Audio / Re: How do you test SACD audio dynamic range?
Last post by wojak -
I have the 2024 Steely Dan - Aja new release from Acoustic Sounds Analogue Productions.

I can get the DSF files from disk, but I'm facing that the audio level can be easily manipulated by changing the volume [db] 0 - +6.
Can you get an honest dynamic range from SACD? 🤔

Good old and much hated DRmeter plugin for foobar will measure it and even write the DR to tag. But it only works in 32bit version of Foobar.
Replaygains also works - from that you can get True Peak, LUFS and PLR.
It works on SACDiso so probably on DSF and DFF too.
5
MP3 - General / Re: Resurrecting/Preserving the Helix MP3 encoder
Last post by maikmerten -
These changes are only style- and safety-changes.

The memset for spd_cnt1Short shouldn't change runtime-behavior at all, as both spd_cnt1Short and spd_cnt have the same size, thus memset doing the same. This is only fixing a copy&paste oversight, and I fixed this to avoid confusion.

The memset for w_spdShort is more serious, as w_spd is a *bigger* buffer than w_spdShort and thus the memset would write zeroes beyond the boundaries of the w_spdShort-buffer. However, if the encoder doesn't crash during initialization, no effect otherwise is necessarily expected.

I checked before and after the changes, and the MP3 output remained identical.

As for providing fresh builds for whatever current git-state: Well, if several people keep their build-environment fired up, even if the changes are minimal, it is beneficial to know that no breaking changes were introduced by accident. I can only test on Linux and with whatever compiler version I have installed, so having another set of compiles available can be useful to gauge whether some recent work broke things.
8
Listening Tests / Re: Great killer sample, easy to ABX on most codecs
Last post by Kraeved -
Lame 3995o vbr -q1 cannot be better than any 320cbr. Helix is old, good yes but still mp3.
Just in case for less informed users among us: it's not -q1, but -Q1, a tweaked approach implemented by @halb27.

Actually, I agree with @maikmerten, who said: “Your LAME 3.995o encode did overall a better job, certainly better than LAME 3.100 for this sample. However, as one can see in the spectrogram, it somewhat avoided most of the sbf21 trouble by effectively lowpassing the high frequency band [using transition band 17960 Hz - 18494 Hz] and thus getting rid of the excessive energy there, which might be the best tradeoff in this case”. Helix without -HF2 used an even lower 16536 Hz limit and also sounds fine (with enough hiss, but without metallic fluctuations and ultrasonic bloat).

Input.


Output. lame3995o -Q1


Output. hmp3 -V150
9
3rd Party Plugins - (fb2k) / UPnP: How does the Media Library Tree work?
Last post by chrisdukes -
I specifically referring to the foo_upnp_ml_tree.xml from the UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point component.

For example, what's the difference between object.container.album.musicAlbum and object.container.genre.musicGenre. Obviously, one has to do with Albums and the other has to do with Genres, but I can't tell what they're specific functions are.  Also, which object.container do I use for single tracks?  I saw something about object.item, is that a thing?

Is there any documentation out there?

Thanks for any help!
10
MP3 - General / Re: Resurrecting/Preserving the Helix MP3 encoder
Last post by Kraeved -
Do you bother to check the github before you make these comments? Nothing has changed quality-wise.


What is it? @john33, are you ready to put your reputation on the line and walk out the window if this change does affect the quality to speak about it so confidently? Or will we let the author of the edit have his say? Helix's legacy is already fraught with obscure code and mysterious options such as -TX and -SBT, so it is not surprising there is increased attention to changes, especially unannounced.