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Topic: Automatic track change fading effect. (Read 6883 times) previous topic - next topic
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Automatic track change fading effect.

I don't know why, but the crossfade fading effect that is native in foobar2000 (that is located at Library->Configure->Playback->Output->Fading), doesn't work properly. The Pause and Stop, Seek and Manual Track Change features are working fine, but the automatic track change simply doesn't work. I was giving a party at home and I needed that function working to smoothly change tracks but I couldn't get it working automatically. To get the effect I needed to be in front the computer and at the end of a track, manually change the track. To solve the problem I tried to download some components like Gapless Crossfader but I think it's not compatible with latest foobar version and it just didn't work. At the end, I downloaded Media Monkey just to have the fading effects in my party and at the end of the party I uninstalled Media Monkey. The problem is that invariably I'll give another parties and it would be nice if this fading function worked fine.
Sorry for bad english and have a nice week!

Peace,
Eduardo Barth.

Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #1 –
I don't know about your specific problem (not having the native crossfading effect work) but I do use and love Gapless Crossfader.  It took a while for me to make it work properly though. It does work fine on the latest foobar version. Since it's a bit fiddly to configure, I paste to you the screenshots of my configuration.

First the config of the gapless crossfader in the dsp manager :


Then in the Playback menu of the main window :

You'll notice that I haven't activated it for manual track change since it's bugged for me. But you might want to try it anyway.

and then :


You may also adjust Foobar buffer lenght to fit with the max lenght used in gapless crossfader configuration (here, 15 sec.), though I'm not sure it's mandatory.

From there, just play with the settings...
If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #2 –
I'm wondering how to specify in the Behavior Control to only enable a fade in effect when the next track is of a certain genre... Any idea? Thanks in advance!!!

Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #3 –
I just saw your insightful explanation about this Gapless Crossfader pluging and wanted to try it but can´t find it anywhere, can you give me a link?

Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #4 –
The gapless crossfader component was removed for illegally hooking APIs, which causes program crashes and general instability.

The built in cross-fading still works whenever using directSound for output. It will not work with alternative output components.
elevatorladylevitateme

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #5 –
Any reason why the Automatic track change option is gone or missing from Fading under Playback->Output? (With ASIO, WASAPI exc. and DS)
This would be a great option. The DSP crossfade works but with very limited option. ie it shouldn't fade in...

I'm using 1.6.5
Thx

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #6 –
Automatic track change requires a DSP. You'll find that there is a crossfader DSP included with the player for just such a purpose. You'll probably also want to place a resampler DSP in front of / above it.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Saitenschwinger on
What can be done to fix this?
The answer is right above: Automatic track change now is handeled by the built-in DSP 'Crossfader', which can be found under Preferences/Playback/DSP Manager.
Quote from: kode54 on
Automatic track change requires a DSP. You'll find that there is a crossfader DSP included with the player for just such a purpose. You'll probably also want to place a resampler DSP in front of / above it.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #9 –
Hello MojoBass,

thank you for your feedback. It was not clear to me from the above reply that it is only now being handled differently because it is still so in the descriptions everywhere and why this option has been removed, hence my question.

Also it was not comprehensible for me because this solution does not work - for whatever reason - and even if it would work the functionality would be limited, because contrary to the original  Automatic track Change Fade In and Fade Out can no longer be set separately.

So why was this option removed?

Regards

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #10 –
If it was removed, it was removed many, many years ago.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #11 –
The old fade effect (ab)used DirectSound's features. It was actually not even smooth but had steps and introduced audible glitches under some conditions. It was dropped along with foobar2000 v1.6 where DirectSound output is no longer included.
 

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #12 –
Hello Case,

thank you. That's too bad. I hadn't noticed any steps or other artifacts there. It worked for me. As a musician I have quite good ears.
What I don't understand is that this effect is still there and works perfectly with Pause And Stop, Seek and Manual Track Change, except for the automatic track changes.  Why does it work there?

Would there be a way to make the fade-in and fade-out options of this old function available in the new DSP effect?

@kode54: many, many years ago... It was still there in the Foobar description from October 2018 (see link above).

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #13 –
Hi, I don't remember anything these days. If it didn't happen last week, I probably already forgot it, unless it was one of those rare things that actually stuck out to me. This isn't one of those things. Possibly because it's functionality I've never used or depended on.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #14 –
O.k., thank You.

@Case: Do you perhaps have a explanation and a solution?

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #15 –
Quote from: Saitenschwinger on
I hadn't noticed any steps or other artifacts there. It worked for me.
Here's a demonstration where old DirectSound output uses 100 ms fade out against a silent track:

You can see it introduces noises along the way and ends suddenly with a loud pop.

Here's the same fade done with a proper software implementation:

There are no unwanted noises and it fades to silence properly.

Quote from: Saitenschwinger on
What I don't understand is that this effect is still there and works perfectly with Pause And Stop, Seek and Manual Track Change, except for the automatic track changes.  Why does it work there?
These are now done in software and are independent of DirectSound provided features. I don't remember the reason why automatic track change fade was left out, but frankly output component doesn't need to see track changes.

Quote from: Saitenschwinger on
Would there be a way to make the fade-in and fade-out options of this old function available in the new DSP effect?
It is certainly possible. Should be simple for Peter to add to the existing built-in component. In the mean time you could try if Fade In/Out DSP and/or Crossmix DSP provide any help.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #16 –
You can hear stepped fades with pure tones or dominant bass notes. Music is acceptable most of the time. Wouldn't an internal implementation require a very short output buffer for the fade to start in response to user input?

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #17 –
Quote from: j7n on
Wouldn't an internal implementation require a very short output buffer for the fade to start in response to user input?
When you enable the smooth fade option you get a super short mixing buffer at the end of the playback buffer. It basically works on the data that is going in to the device.

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #18 –
Hi Case,

longer time. Sorry, a lot to do.

So, first, thanks for the info that the fading is now taken care of in the software. That would explain why I don't hear anything relevant there. Not to mention, I'm going at it with my ears, not analysis software, and unlike your analysis above, there are complex signals of two pieces of music fading into each other. That's completely different than just taking a single sine wave signal and blending that out as well. This is not even a crossfade. The minimal artifacts in the crossfade phase, as far as audible at all, I consider more than irrelevant compared to the fact that users have no or no reasonable crossfade at all.

I have the crossfade DSPs installed. They don't work for me though. I don't know why. But even if they did, they have limited functionality.

So I would like to see the old Automatic Track Change function back as an essential basic function, with the ability to set fade-in and fade-out time separately.

The fact that Crossfade is a basic function of most players and also most streaming services, as well as some requests for foobar, should show that this is not an insignificant function.

May we be able to hope for it?

Thanks :-)

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #19 –
Addendum: I tried your suggestion with Fade In/Out DSP and Crossmix DSP. Unfortunately this does not work very good, because You can only set a threshold in the Crossmix DSP. So the crossmix starts at different times depending on the song.

If you could set a fixed time instead of a threshold in the Crossmix DSP, you could simulate the old Automatic Track Change with these two DSPs.

That would be the second solution. Not quite as comfortable to set as the old Automatic track change, but once you have found your setting, you don't have to worry about it anymore.

I wonder if you could (re)add one of these two solutions?

Re: Automatic track change fading effect.

Reply #20 –
No help anymore?