Release 3.0-x Feedback

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi,

I released a new beta version today. There are a lot more configuration options in the client configuration page. The Template and filter is configured there as well. I added a FLAC_LOUDNESS template for anyone that only wants to use the loudness option without using a brutefir filter.

Download it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/brutefirdrc/files/latest/download?source=files

You should update to the new version. The gain factor of 2/3 was to high and I encountered clipping on some music. I changed it to be configureable an it starts at 60%.

Regards Klaas

[Gandhi]

Hi Klaas!

Thank you for your efforts regarding Fletcher-Munson compensation!

I have installed the new version 3.0-beta, but it seems I can't make it work.

• When playing a track I get what sounds like maximum volume, except when I set the Squeezebox volume to zero. Pretty scary...!
• There are a lot of ^M in .../BrutefirDrc/HTML/EN/plugins/BrutefirDrc/settings/*.html, which I removed, but no change.
• There is no way of changing templates in the web UI. I tried changing basic.html to the one in the git: (http://brutefirdrc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=brutefirdrc/brutefirdrc;a=tree;f=BrutefirDrc/HTML/EN/plugins/BrutefirDrc/settings;hb=767113f0c1b854bde5ee6550258099487aefb125), but that did not work.
  

Before and after every test above I removed and installed the plugin via the web UI.

I'm using a Boom. It's good that I didn't fire up my main system with my Transporter...

Any thoughts?

Best Regards,
  Gandhi

[Gandhi]

Oh, and I tried the alpha yesterday, but could not get it to work either. But the maximum volume problem was not there.

Best Regards,
  Gandhi

[Klaas Reineke]

this is strange, it is working on my Boom and on my Squeezebox. You did enable the global switch and then enable it on the Player configuration tab? I have not idea what the max volume problem could be...

You should definitely not replace any file but use the complete package as provided on sourceforge. I sadly only have win box left, so my development is done with the dos lineendings. No idea if this could be problem for the Plugin. You need to do a few things:

• After installing the plugin you need to chown it to the default squeezeboxserver:nogroup user, it is is a different user.
  
• You can use dos2unix command to change the line endings, maybe this helps
• You need to choose a new template. I had to change the templates.

Then put player.source to INFO on logging. Start a track and grep the "Tokenized command" line. What does it say?

good example:

[12-12-14 11:54:55.9152] Plugins::BrutefirDrc::Song::open (557) Tokenized command: "/usr/share/squeezeboxserver/Bin/i386-linux/sox" -q -t flac "-" -t flac -C 0 - loudness -34.1 75.0 gain 22.5

from the brutefir plugin you should have something like this:

[12-12-14 11:55:04.3762] Plugins::BrutefirDrc::Plugin::calculateLoudness (1372) Selected volume dB=-69.3069306930693, ampDifferentReferenceVolume dB=0, loudnessGainFactor=0.6, newLoudness=-50, oldLoudness=-33.960396039604, newGain=30, oldGain=20.3762376237624, currentAttenuation=20, oldAttenuation=13.5841584158416, filterAttenuation=2

And be sure to got to this tab:

I moved the configuration to the player configuration tab. It is removed from the global plugin configuration tab!!

Regards Klaas

[Gandhi]

Hello again Klaas!

I didn't previously notice that some functionality was moved to the player settings tab, so now I enabled loudness and re-enabled my template file there.

I also changed back to the basic.html in the beta.

(I had already before removed the ^M:s and set the correct owner/group.)

And it's working fine! So now for some listening experiments!

Thanks!

Best Regards,
  Gandhi

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi Gandhi,

good :) Hopefully you find some problems and improvements... There are a few possible issues and corner cases with the settings SOX accepts for the loudness effect. I am pretty sure that I have not accounted for all of them.

By the way: I added the loudness gain factor only because I have not found a definitive source for the minimal attenuation that is done for a loudness setting. If you set a lower level because of some clipping it would be nice to know your settings.

Regards Klaas

[Mervin Beng]

Hi all,

Has this been tested on SB Touch? If there are any special instructions for use with SBT, can you please let me know before I give it a try? The F-M loudness compensation sounds especially interesting for use in situations where listening is done in private, at low volume in an environment that hasn't been measured for inverse FIR.

Regards,
Mervin

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi Mervin,

I did NOT test it on a touch. I develop it using the Software player Squeezelite and tested it on the Squeezebox v3 and Boom. The touch has seperate control Perl file in the the server directory. Im am quite sure that it will work out of the box and I would appreciate if you would test it.

If you want to be extra careful leave your amplifier at a very low volume level. The way to configure it is the same. Got the global configurration tab an enable loudness. Go to the player configuration tab on the LMS Webpage for the player specific stuff and you should be fine.

Regards Klaas

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi,

a new Release is out: 3.0-beta2

• It fixes a bug with the volume reset. Hopefully it should reset the volume directly after a new track starts playing. This should prevent jumps in volume for track transition.
  
• it adds ReplayGain support: i replaced the build in replaygain and added it to the sox effect chain. Replay Gain helps for low volume listening so that all music is equally loud. The standard replay gain was changing the volume via the hardware this was messing around with the loudness correction.

Regards Klaas

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi there,

I hope the final release for the BrutefirDrc Loudness correction is there 3.0-beta3. I just did two changes:

• amp reference volume is back to difference i.e. -5dB to indicate that the amp is -5dB from the reference volume. This setting is more useful to tweak the loudness correction feature according to your own taste.
• added a new feature: Silence Removal. I am annoyed by all the hidden tracks for ages. After adding loudness correction it was quite simple to add a silence removal feature. Just configure it under your player configuration tab. Right now it needs the loudness correction to work. It uses "sox silence" effect. For me it works to delete the annoying silence before in the middle and at the end of tracks. The default settings should hopefully be okay. If someone tweaks them it would be nice to now how and why. Maybe I would then set different default values.

Regards Klaas

[Gandhi]

Hi Klaas!

Thank you for your never ending efforts regarding Fletcher-Munson compensation!

I have installed the new version 3.0-beta3, but I have a problem, essentially the one I've had before, this is the chain of events:

1. I install the new plugin version.
2. I configure Boom #1 to use loudness correction. When playing a track/stream that gets the correction on Boom #1, i.e. FLAC or MP3, it works as expected.
3. I configure Boom #2 not to use loudness correction, or to be precise I never configure it to use loudness correction. When playing any track/stream on Boom #2 I get a very high volume (possible maximum) regardless of player volume setting (except for zero).
4. I configure Boom #2 to use loudness correction and then immediately, before even playing something, configure it not to. Now it works as expected.
5. The same problem occurs on Boom #1 when playing a stream that is not getting any correction because I have no suitable entry in the custom-convert.conf (AAC stream). I don't see that as a problem, but I thought mentioning this might make you understand the cause of the problem.
   

So this only seems to be a problem the very first time after the plugin installation, when I use a player that has never been configured to use loudness correction. It's a bit unsettling, I never really know in beforehand if my eardrums are going to pop, so I always test this plugin wearing ear protection, which makes me less prone to testing it. :-)

Is this problem one that you could replicate?

Best Regards,
  Gandhi

[Gandhi]

Hello again!

I see now that my decription above was not clear enough. The following is a better formulation:
    3. I don't configure Boom #2 at all, I leave it at the default settings without saving.
        When playing any track/stream on Boom #2 I get a very high volume (possibly

        maximum) regardless of player volume setting (except for zero).

Best Regards,
  Gandhi

[Arthur Cheng]

hi Klaas,

Thanks so much for your generous support! Does this version support Squeezebox touch? 

yours

Ackcheng

[Klaas Reineke]

Hi Arthur,

it should work. I don't have a touch to test it. But you can make all selections via the Webgui. Please note that brutefirDRC has a new player specific configuration page alongside the global page. You need to configure the global and the player local options.

The player local options are contained within the player menu in the dropdown... Right now I do not have a fix/answer for the problem posted by Gandhi. If you have multiply devices it is recommended to configure all devices. If a device should NOT use room correction or loudness correction, it should be disabled (saved with the disabled settings).

Regards Klaas

2013/1/23 Arthur Cheng <drarth...@gmail.com>

[Klaas Reineke]

I tried to figure out the bug you have, but I could not reproduce it at home. I will release a new version 4.0.alpha shortly with new features but I am afraid that the bug will still be there.

Regards Klaas