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Why Won't My Computer Play Music Seamlessly Without Silence-Blocks Between Songs?

Gang-Twanger

Gang-Twanger

Resident Wharfedaliophool
Can't put it any plainer than that. No matter what media-player program I use, VLC, Foobar, WMP, Winamp, you name it.... Whether it's on mp3, 16-bit FLAC, or 24/96 hi-rez files. It makes no difference... When I want to play an entire album's worth of music (and I think it even does it with actual CD's in the drive as well), I can't play it without that abrubt stop between songs. It's really-annoying when you're listening to any album that runs seamlessly from start to finish (like "Dark Side Of The Moon" and a millions others).

I've tried everything I could think of to fix this, but nothing has worked, and I've got to put a stop to this soon before I lose my mind...

Can someone please help me get to the bottom of this? I will be eternally-grateful. Not much point in having a good system if you can't control the thing...
 
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I see in Foobar2000 playback preferences there is a DSP called "Skip Silence." I've never tried it but it may be worth a shot.

Jeff
 
jmathers said:
You want gapless playback. Check here:

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Gapless_playback

I thought that Foobar2000 did this by default but I haven't played an entire album like DSOTM through it in years.

There is a gapless plugin for Winamp I believe.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Thanks... I'll check that out...

I forgot to mention before... I'm currently-using VLC as my main audio-player, mainly because it was the only player that would allow me to bypass the Windows K-mixer without issues (The only program that worked was Virtual Audio Cable, and since my main audio-player, Foobar, wasn't able to support V.AC., I had to switch to my 2nd favorite media-player, VLC). So I need to stick with that as my main player for now. If Foobar comes out with a V.A.C. plug-in, then I'll go back to Foobar 2000 for audio. I love Foobar. But right now I'm getting a nice, clear 24/96 signal using the VLC/V.A.C. combo, and I'm afraid to jinx it.
 
Have you tried Kernel Streaming in Foobar? Evidently, VLC does not do gap-less playback although I did see mention that version 1.2.0 would but this is an old version that I couldn't find.

The other option to bypass Windows K-Mixer would be to use ASIO4ALL in Foobar.

Which version of Windows are you using?
 
jmathers said:
Have you tried Kernel Streaming in Foobar? Evidently, VLC does not do gap-less playback although I did see mention that version 1.2.0 would but this is an old version that I couldn't find.

The other option to bypass Windows K-Mixer would be to use ASIO4ALL in Foobar.

Which version of Windows are you using?
Click to expand...

I have Windows 7... I have WASAPI set up on Foobar already, but I couldn't get it to play both 24/96 AND 16/44 files without some kind of problem with at least one of the two. I could get it to play 24/96 stuff okay, but it would give me all kinds of jitter/intermittent stop&starts when I would try to play 16/44 CD stuff. And I had to lower the buffer-setting all the way down to the bottom just to get the 24/96 stuff to play. And even that didn't sound quite right. With VLC and using the V.A.C. plug-in, I've been getting great sound with none of the jitter/breaks I was getting before, and it allowed me to finally enjoy the hi-rez capability of my DAC.

I also downloaded ASIO, and I honestly couldn't figure out how to get that one working. I tried to get it activated with Foobar and WMP, but I had problems with both.
 
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I realize you really don't want to return to Foobar but....

Were you using WASAPI in exclusive mode with the the foo-out exclusive wasapi plugin for Foobar?

Jeff
 
The strange thing is, I get gaps between songs even on Foobar... I went through the settings over and over changed anything that looked like it would fix the problem, but it still happens.

I'd rather avoid Winamp if I can. That program's got too-many bells and whistles for my tastes. If I can fix the problem and still use VLC, great, but if I have to switch to a different player, that means taking the V.A.C. along with it. VAC was the first Kernel-bypassing program I tried that worked well without me having to reset/adjust anything. It was 100% plug & play, and that's gotta' count for something. It seems to work very-well with my entry-level laptop while other programs don't work with it at all, and I'd hate to lose that just to get my computer to play gapless. I don't even get why this is a problem for a computer to do this. They do every other little thing in the world... I thought this would be simple, but it's been the exact opposite.
 
That is strange because I didn't have to make any changes after installation to have gapless playback in foobar 2000. I use WASAPI out to an Mhdt USBridge and have no problems with any sample rates. I think J River can be set for gapless playback as well. What OS are you using?
 
If all else fails, there is a radical approach. You could use an audio file editor to make a single album-side file for each of your albums.

I know it sounds extreme, but I have seriously considered doing this just because I so seldom select single album cuts for listening. E.g. I can't imagine listening to just one track on the DSOTM album or Moody's Threshold of a Dream album (one of the first to have gapless sides).

I just haven't done it yet, because of the effort involved . . . and that very remote possibility that someday I might want to listen to individual tracks.


:music:Will
 
jmathers said:
I realize you really don't want to return to Foobar but....

Were you using WASAPI in exclusive mode with the the foo-out exclusive wasapi plugin for Foobar?

Jeff
Click to expand...

Yup. I used the WASAPI plug-in FOR Foobar, plus I checked and doublechecked all the settings. I even talked back and forth with the guy who designed my DAC, along with several other people online trying to figure this out, and it basically came down to my not having the most-powerfull laptop in the world. I've stretched it's capabilities enough to get it to do everything I need it to do... EXCEPT the gapless playback. I could get it activated and working for 24/96 music, but it would stutter and make weird noises when I tried playing a 16-bit file. The only thing I could do was go into Preferences and disable the WASAPI whenever I wanted to play 16/44 CD stuff. And even then, when I played the hi-rez stuff, it was A LOT MORE incident-prone than the V.A.C. plug-in (Perhaps that's the only one that will work... I don't know...).
 
Hi
I am watching this carefully because I have the same problem when playing music on the PC> I also have it with my system in my RV. I use the same files as the PC loaded onto a thumb drive. I can find nothing in the owners manual for either the sony or the Jensen players to remove the gap.
Mind the Gap! I'll post anything I find here.
 
shipdriver said:
That is strange because I didn't have to make any changes after installation to have gapless playback in foobar 2000. I use WASAPI out to an Mhdt USBridge and have no problems with any sample rates. I think J River can be set for gapless playback as well. What OS are you using?
Click to expand...

I have Win 7.

I'm really looking to avoid going with any player besides VLC or Foobar for several reasons. VLC is extremely-powerful and plays basically everything. Foobar I like because it's a simple, uncluttered, meat-and-potatoes player with none of the bells and whistles I've seen on iTunes, Winamp, and others, plus it's infinitely-customizable. Also, it's very-efficient and uses hardly any RAM. If I could have gotten the K-mixer issue taken care of, I would have stayed with Foobar (I still use it for mp3's because it doesn't matter if I bypass the thing).
 
I've always found gapless playback, regardless of player or rip software being used......its hit and miss. Even my Zune software and player, where MS issued firmware updates couple years ago for gapless playback, does not always "work".

I always blame it on the simple fact that we are talking about computer files that have a hard start and stop and even my best gapless playback there is always that, what I call, file change gap.

Digital files I have accepted will never have that seemless playback as our beloved vinyl can do.
 
jmathers said:
FYI: you don't need to do this (install ASIO) if using Win7 WASAPI in exclusive mode - WASAPI exclusive is Win7's version of ASIO and gives bit-perfect playback.

Jeff
Click to expand...

I can get it working, and got the brief latency and all that (proof that the WASAPI is indeed working), but I get all those issues with it cutting out and sounding like corrupted audio files. Not sure exactly why it does it, but it does... I tried all kinds of remedies like lowering the buffering-level and all that, but the most I could get was one or the other. If I played 24/96 stuff, I couldn't go and immediately play 16-bit stuff without deactivating/activating the WASAPI. It's weird, I know, but I just can't get it right no matter what I do.... except with the VLC/VAC combo... Only thing that's worked. Thus, my preference for keeping the current setup.
 
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It's no big deal to me, either. Even on live stuff, no major bother. If I want gapless, I just put the CD in.
 
avguytx said:
It's no big deal to me, either. Even on live stuff, no major bother. If I want gapless, I just put the CD in.
Click to expand...

That's the thing... It does it even with a real CD in the drive.

Incidentally, I'm listening to the soundtrack to "The Shining" (WITH gaps) while I type this. And it's gotta' be a needledrop because it's got that analog warmth and musicality that the DVD-video sourced versions I've heard DON'T have. It's too-bad this never made it to CD 'cause it's great.
 
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^ Again, I believe it has to do with your computer software player.....If the source material was burned from another CD to me seems impossible that the "new" CD will be gapless.
Now if it was created from a "vinyl" version and you still hear gaps, I blame that on computer digital files. Your computer still sees it as a bunch of different files and the gap is the ever so slight pause you hear as the it goes from File 2 to File 3....even with gapless playback enabled.

That's just me.....I always here a gap in digital files.
 
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