Foobar2000 Dolby Headphone config - Comment & discuss!

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I love this set but sometimes I feel like the room was too small however that's not an issue. The pain is, at some songs, the voice of singer is overwhelmed in terms of loudness by the rest of instruments. Any ideas how to tweak it?

First, which of the configs do you use? I'm guessing the "forward", am I right?
 
In that case you have two options; lower the sliders "Rear in front" and "Front in rear" in Channel Mixer. They both should be kept at a similar value. The other thing you can do is to adjust Electri-Q EQ, lower the area around 1kHz or so.
 

 

[OPrwtos]

i send u link in private message

 

[metramp]

Thanks for your reply.
 
Yes, I have downloaded the whole "forward" package. I have noticed that there's a Advanced Limiter not previously mentioned (probably that's not  an issue here). I played a little bit with Channel mixer, effects are slightly better. Voices still seem supressed but It may be  the matter of music (specific style of band e.g. Crystal Castles or mastering etc.), my soundcard and hours of tweaking the settings.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I've concidered lowering the Rear in front and Front in rear setting to around 0.86 - 0.90 or so myself. The point of this "forward" config is to sound like it implifies though but regarding pop songs it could possibly be unnecessary forward sounding in the sense that vocals and some instruments are possibly pushed too much forward or "in-your-face" which these sliders have this kind of effect on. The other laid-back config could be worth a try as well, might be more according to your taste.
 
Rear in front: 0.90 and Front in rear: 0.86 sounds pretty good so might be updating the config to that after I'm sure it sounds good after having tried with many different songs. Of course there's a trade-off with everything, the lower I go on these setting the less "engaging, fun" it might sound like and some people might even want even more such characteristic for example but at the same time by lowering this setting it seems to also result in better transparency/instrument separation which is also a benefit but what I'm trying to find here is a common middleground that works as good as possible for as many users as possible so it might not be perfect for every1 especially since different headphones, equipment and tastes we have require slightly different settings but yea I'm trying to find settings that fits somewhere in the middle.
 
So therefore it's always good with feedback.

 

[metramp]

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate that person of that experience is helping me.
 
Couple of hours ago I'd been convinced that Rear in Front: 0,76 and Front in Rear: 0.8 are fine for me, then after reading your post switched to: rear in front: 0.88 and Front in rear: 0.84, at that point I was quite sure that this is my sweet point for all my music but later, listening to Grace Slick – Manhole Theme I realised that this needs just a little tweak. Probably now I am abusing your kindness but could you try to show me the directions to adjust this software for this particular song?
Quote:

I've concidered lowering the Rear in front and Front in rear setting to around 0.86 - 0.90 or so myself. The point of this "forward" config is to sound like it implifies though but regarding pop songs it could possibly be unnecessary forward sounding in the sense that vocals and some instruments are possibly pushed too much forward or "in-your-face" which these sliders have this kind of effect on. The other laid-back config could be worth a try as well, might be more according to your taste.
 
Rear in front: 0.90 and Front in rear: 0.86 sounds pretty good so might be updating the config to that after I'm sure it sounds good after having tried with many different songs. Of course there's a trade-off with everything, the lower I go on these setting the less "engaging, fun" it might sound like and some people might even want even more such characteristic for example but at the same time by lowering this setting it seems to also result in better transparency/instrument separation which is also a benefit but what I'm trying to find here is a common middleground that works as good as possible for as many users as possible so it might not be perfect for every1 especially since different headphones, equipment and tastes we have require slightly different settings but yea I'm trying to find settings that fits somewhere in the middle.
 
So therefore it's always good with feedback.

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate that person of that experience is helping me.
 
Couple of hours ago I'd been convinced that Rear in Front: 0,76 and Front in Rear: 0.8 are fine for me, then after reading your post switched to: rear in front: 0.88 and Front in rear: 0.84, at that point I was quite sure that this is my sweet point for all my music but later, listening to Grace Slick – Manhole Theme I realised that this needs just a little tweak. Probably now I am abusing your kindness but could you try to show me the directions to adjust this software for this particular song?

Would help to know what your issue is soundwise, what kind of change you're looking for. Otherwise the first post explains all settings in channel mixer.
 
Otherwise I find the recording quality lacking in this song but it sounds pretty good with the laid-back config in this song especially as that config suits these kind of music better as you can get a more laid-back and airy sound using freesurround plugin instead of channel mixer and I'd imagine that's what you're looking for here.
 
You don't need to download the other package, you can simply switch to that other config going to file -> preferences -> DSP manager and then in the "DSP chain presets" dropdown list first select "Custom: Stock foobar2000" and then "load" and then select "Genre: Balanced (More laid-back & airy) and load that one. Then to switch back to the other dolby headphone config simply load "Custom: Stock foobar2000" preset first again and then load "Genre: Balanced (Default)" which is the "forward" config. You need to always load the "stock foobar2000" config in-between as if you load two presets containing Electri-Q in the active DSP list in a row it'll crash.
 
But yea give this other config a try here, I thought it sounded a whole lot better with this song, went from quite bad soundstage to impressive with this song, in fact it's the song that has showed the biggest advantage by a huge amount with the "laid-back" config compared to "forward", usually I find it easier to find songs that performs better with the forward config but I listen a lot more to electronica myself.

 

[metramp]

Description of laid back mode was quite misleading (classical and orchestra music) and thus i'd never checked it out but after your recommendation I've tried it and… never had i such problem with collecting my dropped jaw from the floor.
 
Thank you, RPGWiZaRD, I just can't express sufficiently my apreciation, just can't…
 
Quote:

Would help to know what your issue is soundwise, what kind of change you're looking for. Otherwise the first post explains all settings in channel mixer.
 
Otherwise I find the recording quality lacking in this song but it sounds pretty good with the laid-back config in this song especially as that config suits these kind of music better as you can get a more laid-back and airy sound using freesurround plugin instead of channel mixer and I'd imagine that's what you're looking for here.
 
You don't need to download the other package, you can simply switch to that other config going to file -> preferences -> DSP manager and then in the "DSP chain presets" dropdown list first select "Custom: Stock foobar2000" and then "load" and then select "Genre: Balanced (More laid-back & airy) and load that one. Then to switch back to the other dolby headphone config simply load "Custom: Stock foobar2000" preset first again and then load "Genre: Balanced (Default)" which is the "forward" config. You need to always load the "stock foobar2000" config in-between as if you load two presets containing Electri-Q in the active DSP list in a row it'll crash.
 
But yea give this other config a try here, I thought it sounded a whole lot better with this song, went from quite bad soundstage to impressive with this song, in fact it's the song that has showed the biggest advantage by a huge amount with the "laid-back" config compared to "forward", usually I find it easier to find songs that performs better with the forward config but I listen a lot more to electronica myself.

 

 

[OPrwtos]

metramp you HAVE to try a config i have with dts neural upmix, its mind BLOW lol i compared it with channel mixer and freesurround and it destroys them in clarity

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

metramp you HAVE to try a config i have with dts neural upmix, its mind BLOW lol i compared it with channel mixer and freesurround and it destroys them in clarity

I dunno, I find the neural upmix possibly less accurate sounding, clear yes but not necessary accurate. I'm comparing to stock foobar config myself not what appears to sound clearest or so though. With the settings I provide in the forward & laid-back config together with the EQ setting which I've kept tweaking for like maybe a year possibly you can't really hear any noticable change in frequency response balance change disabling or enabling the DH config.
 
But I will compare more tomorrow, hopefully getting the exact same EQ setting to that config so I can better tell, I need to volume match with matrix mixer & have exact same EQ settings before I can tell for sure which has always been the goal and where I've been heading all the time. I wanted the improved soundstage/positioning of Dolby Headphone with no change to frequency response balance.
 

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

I dunno, I find the neural upmix possibly less accurate sounding, clear yes but not necessary accurate. 
 

really!? i find it the most accurate ive tried so far! lol more accurate than channel mix, freeSd, all the isone stuff and so on.
 
 

 

[OPrwtos]

However setting 5 (freesurround settings that i gave u before for the laidback stuff with dolby on 150%) and setting 4 (neural upmix with -34depth, 70width, dolby 110% ) are quite similar, however neural beats it in clarity.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I've updated the "Forward" config very slightly, I've put "Rear in front" now at 0.96 and "Front in rear" at 0.89 (from previously 0.98 and 0.94 respectively) in channel mixer as well as did some very minor EQ adjustment around the upper-mids - lower-highs range but only by less than 0.3dB or something so probably nothing you will notice whatsoever.
 
What this small change seems to do is the soundstage now better surrounds you (more sense of depth and immersion) and the separation is slightly better of background instruments and such and the bass position seems often tiny better defined now, stands out from the rest slightly more but as usual YMMV.

 

[OPrwtos]

I spent a while trying to get rid of the distortion of the back channels that occured with the neural upmix settings. I configured them to perfection.
 
try this - http://www.mediafire.com/?dbvqsqsn9a6gnsu <- update
 
configured with k701

 

[hesher]

This is amazing. Completely Changed the sound on my AKG K701. 
I'm enjoying music more!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

I spent a while trying to get rid of the distortion of the back channels that occured with the neural upmix settings. I configured them to perfection.
 
try this - http://www.mediafire.com/?gj6tyg1y11s5o1o

I will give it a try today with my Electri-Q setting and volume match when I have time.
 

This is amazing. Completely Changed the sound on my AKG K701. 
I'm enjoying music more!

 
Nice to hear. Same here, I can't stop listening as I get so immersed with the music when listening with the Dolby Headphone configs.