[castleofargh]

the EQ hater note wasn't about you(nor Joe obviously), you love your EQ as much as we do(even if we do for different uses). ^_^
 
your bluetooth headphone receives digital signal, so whatever you use upstream, it will still come down to the loudest amplitude being sent to the headphone's DAC as being 0db and no higher. so no number of DAC to amp to adc to headphone's DAC will help going louder. the problem is your BT headphone not having a higher max voltage.
 
 
 
 
by default a song that reaches 0db and has very compressed music(no dynamic), will almost entirely sound like it's around 0db and it is, so it will feel loud.
now with a very dynamic classical music, with loud passages, quiet passages etc. if the loudest sounds are near 0db, the rest of the music can still be 10 or 15db lower for the quieter passages or instruments(+10db feels twice as loud). so overall that classical track will feel like it's a good deal quieter compared to the low dynamic song before, when both could reach 0db peaks.
any replay gain solutions care about the overall dynamic of the song, instead of looking only at the highest value the peaks are reaching. if the target is 89db and the song has very compressed dynamic, then almost all the song will end up at around 89db. while the classical song might not be touched at all to prevent clipping, so now you feel like both songs sound as loud. but in reality the overly compressed one was made to play quieter to fit the dynamic one.
 
 
and as I said several post above, if you look for sound quality, then you want to avoid clipping and avoid having the limiter to activate as much as possible. because they are both not totally transparent solutions as you noticed.
about what you're asking for from the start, I don't know that it exist on foobar(but I'm not expert) there probably is a VST that does just that somewhere on the net. the thing is you're asking for peak normalization, and while it's perfectly possible, nobody listening to music would want to use that as a listening default setting. because as I explained for the low dynamic song vs highly dynamic song, you would end up with songs having very wild perceive loudness differences. so very annoying in the long run. the only reason why we use replay gain, mp3gain ,R128... in the first place is so that musics don't have too much perceived loudness disparities. so even if you find what you're asking for, I'm not sure how you would like it.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I have just tried the Peak Meter, it does NOT shows clipping. There is no red, no led for clipping. Or am I doing something wrong?
Anyway I can at least see when I am getting close to 0. It can be useful at times.
The advancer limiter is always there. And it definitely does not avoid clipping. I can notice it from the bad distortion when I am on red zone and from the clip led on Dirac flashing.

Oh, now I get it. You're using the Dirac D.A.P. DSP program, which is downstream of foobar.

Are you also doing the bass boost in Dirac?

foobar isn't clipping. (side note: the peak meter clipping indicator to the right will never light up when Advanced Limiter is engaged. At worst you'll hear volume pumping if the Advanced Limiter is working hard--if no post processing is being done after foobar)

There's nothing foobar can do to ensure that the signal doesn't clip downstream of it if it's post-processed.

But, Dirac should be upstream of the final master volume control of the PC (for the BT transmitter or whatever), and you should make sure that the latter is maxed out if you want the maximum digital volume without clipping (since, say, if the BT master volume is set at 50%, then digital signals from Dirac will clip at 50% rather than 100%).

Which buttons? Ah, yes, you  mean, that one with a + on it, which is used to turn headphone on and off?
(joke explained for dumb: all or nothing. loud or off.)

No...? On my Divine there are + and - buttons that adjust the volume?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Also, if Dirac has taken over as the default sound output device, it may not be obvious where the actual volume adjustment for the physical output device (be it the 3.5mm jack or the BT driver or whatever) has gone. You'd have to look for it manually:



I have a similar situation on my computer. I set Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable) as the default sound device, it captures all system sounds for me to process in a VST effects host before outputting to the actual sound card. Now, when I click the volume icon in the taskbar, the volume bar that shows up is the output to VSTHost (or in your case Dirac). You need to turn go to control panel and manually open the settings for your actual physical sound output device (be it "loudspeaker" or some BT USB device) and adjust its volume there under the "Levels" tab. Make sure the volume there is maxed out.

 

[Mosstrekker192]

How do you split a FLAC cue using foobar? I try opening the .cue, but I get error messages like this:
 
"Unable to open item for playback (Error parsing cuesheet: invalid index list"
 
I've tried Medieval Splitter, but that only worked once for me, where it almost seemed to split an album automatically. I'm trying it on another and I don't see any sort of options on how to do so. Wouldn't that just entail specifying start and end on a track and cutting songs from it? I haven't been able to find any good info on this.

 

[dhmcclain1]

In Foobar click "file" "add folder". Now browse for the folder you ripped to(most likely "Music". Once you find it select it and click "ok"(or add).

Thanks, canthearyou. I browsed thru any and all folders I could find. I did find one folder that had 4 of the missing songs, one of which was tagged incorrectly.
Aside from that, I could find nothing. I'm fairly sure that I am not doing something that I should be doing. I have no recollection of what folder(s) they went to as
alot of time has passed. Maybe if I rip another cd, I might be led to where the others are located. Don't understand why they don't remain in iTunes or Foobar or
in whatever program they were ripped with. I know they were there before, as I put them on my iPod. Now they are gone.

 

[oAmadeuso]

  How do you split a FLAC cue using foobar? I try opening the .cue, but I get error messages like this:
 
"Unable to open item for playback (Error parsing cuesheet: invalid index list"
 
I've tried Medieval Splitter, but that only worked once for me, where it almost seemed to split an album automatically. I'm trying it on another and I don't see any sort of options on how to do so. Wouldn't that just entail specifying start and end on a track and cutting songs from it? I haven't been able to find any good info on this.

I use CUE Tools for jobs like that.
http://www.cuetools.net/wiki/CUETools

 

[Giogio]

I was going to answer you in the last days guys, but Firefox deleted my answer before I could send it, and I got no wish to write again then.
Here we go.
 
Quote:

for the low dynamic song vs highly dynamic song, you would end up with songs having very wild perceive loudness differences. so very annoying in the long run

All clear, thanks, but you seem to have misunderstood something.
The AGP (Automatic Gain Protection) of Neutron, the function I wish to find for Foobar, is not "instead of" Replay Gain. It works together with it.
RG does its job and makes all tracks sound at same loudness. There should be no peaks, specially if you selected "avoid clipping" in mp3gain. So, AGP does nothing.
But despite RG, you may still have peaks after you EQ.
There and only there is where AGP intervenes.
So, what you have described never happens. EVER.
For it to happen you should have BOTH following situation together:
1) you should push the EQ a LOT, specially in freq which are already near 0 (like bass in Techno)
2) you should be listening to ALL your music with "shuffle all", mixing completely different things with different pace, style, dynamic etc
 
I never do both things together:
1) I only push EQ with Bassy music. Which you may say "why, if they are already bassy?". Because I am basshead but also audiophile. I do not want all music to be bassy. And bassy music still needs push, because it is music for clubs, not for home listening. I have first listened it in clubs. I am used to dance it, feeling the subs in my bones, in my stomach.
And when I listen to that music at home, I need to FEEL the bass, its PHYSICAL POWER, not just hear its notes. Can you imagine what I mean?
So, with all other music AGP would not intervene.
2) I very very rarely do shuffle all and when I do it I do not have the EQ pushed. But generally I listen to music for genres, because each genre enhances a different emotion.
I never mix classical with anything else.
I never mix ethnic with anything else.
I never mix jazz with anything else.
I never mix chillout with anything else.
I mix pop and rock, no big deal here.
I never mix Bassy music with anything else. And I even divide Bassy music in different genera and I do not mix Dubstep with Techno. And peaks are generally only with Techno, and only with a few tracks which somehow must have been mastered that way and I can't solve it even by down RG manually at lower value.
 
In other words, AGP would only intervene for few tracks, and only within one same genre, so among tracks with same dynamic.
So, the scenario you have described, is only a scenario for me. It does not happen.
 

Oh, now I get it. You're using the Dirac D.A.P. DSP program, which is downstream of foobar.
yes

Are you also doing the bass boost in Dirac?
I have experimented with it. I use it for films or streamed music where I cannot EQ nor use other psychoacoustic bass enhancers. But I have seen that I can generally get a better result if I leave Dirac on the reference (neutral) filter, and I EQ+enhance the bass with plugins in foobar. This gives me a same or sometimes more powerful bass, without much sacrificing the bright highs of the reference filter (the boost filters lose some of that, specially the 3 and 4). But I know what you wanted to say, they can cause Dirac to clip.

foobar isn't clipping. (side note: the peak meter clipping indicator to the right will never light up when Advanced Limiter is engaged. At worst you'll hear volume pumping if the Advanced Limiter is working hard--if no post processing is being done after foobar)
Foobar IS clipping. You are erroneously taking for granted that Dirac is clipping. I use Dirac since few weeks. I had the problem already only with Foobar.
And I still have it when I do not use Dirac. Besides, the Advancer Limiter does help (I did some test yesterday observing with the Peak Meter) but it does not prevent all clipping nor distortion. And there is no clipping indicator in my Peak Meter. Where do you see such thing? Send me a screenshot please

But, Dirac should be upstream of the final master volume control of the PC (for the BT transmitter or whatever), and you should make sure that the latter is maxed out

It is, always. Although it makes no difference at all. Once Dirac is in control, the vol of the Notebook, or of the BT Device, can be either min or max and Dirac will sound the same.

On my Divine there are + and - buttons that adjust the volume?

It was a joke, meaning that I never reduce volume, so for me it only exists the +. Less than max vol is like "turned off". I am of course exaggerating to make it funny, but that is.

 

Also, if Dirac has taken over as the default sound output device, it may not be obvious where the actual volume adjustment for the physical output device (be it the 3.5mm jack or the BT driver or whatever) has gone. You'd have to look for it manually

I know that
But thanks for the good intention

 

[castleofargh]

at this point IDK. look for some VST that might do what you're asking for. I keep seeing the let's clip stuff and then ask for a dsp to lower the entire volume, to be malpractice. so I'm not totally sure anybody would think of making a DSP/VST for that specifically as a standalone. I suggested a solution many many post ago where you would convert your music for that very purpose (keep a back up!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  have a DSP EQ+ replay gain (in that order) in the "processing" option of the convert pop up.
in the advanced option you can select the target for replaygain and maybe see how high you can get before it becomes clearly useless at doing some perceived loudness normalization. so that most musics would stay close to 0db instead of going for a target of average 89db or 77 or whatever you usually use.
 
by doing this, you still get the risk of intersample clipping if you get too close to 0db, an the perceived loudness will at times feel like it's not working, so it's a slight fail in both instances, but the closest I can think of that would mostly do what you're asking for.
 
in the end IMO the answer is to give up on those massive bass boosts, or to give up on BT headphone. without the EQ I suspect you can go loud enough with your headphone(or you simply are ruining your ears or something else is lowering the volume(like windows output not being at 100% on that output or foobar?).
and without BT headphone you could have an amp making you o as loud as you could possibly wish without having to go clip the signal or even digitally push it to the max at all times(you could use the EQ the way it's supposed to be used

).

 

[Giogio]

 
Now, I may have found something. It is not what I was looking for, but it allows to EQ with better bass results, and also pushing loudness, without clipping. I am still experimenting:
It is called BootEQ and it is a VST normally used in music production, but which can be used with Foobar too.
I have found it in this list of free parametric EQ plugins, while searching for an alternative to ElectriQ which goes DEEPLY on my nervs and I will never ever again use, as it crashes all the time (and I read that I am not the only one).
I have downloaded many of those and I will keep testing, as this BootEQ is not really an alternative to ElectriQ, I use it mostly for the bass. It also has got one knob for low mids, one for upper mids, and one for highs, all of them with possibility to chose the frequency, so it can be used as general EQ, but I wanted something where I can SEE how the EQ curve is.
What I love in BootEQ is that there is a pre-amp with drive, low-freq phase (I suppose it is why it makes bass so fat, a bit like Real Bass Exciter), and a Tube simulator.
All with very high quality (as said, used to produce music).

 

[Giogio]

There are also some interesting free plugins on the KVR website.
I have found one limiter called Maxwell Smart which is better than foobar's Automatic Limiter, specially in the smooth setting. Very simple, nothing to setup.
And a peak meter (more than that) called kmeter, where it is easier to see the peaks. But as it installs as vst, you do not have it all the time open.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I showed you how to install Electri-Q as a winamp plugin (which will not crash).

Looking at your replies, at this point I don't really feel like helping you.

 

[Giogio]

I showed you how to install Electri-Q as a winamp plugin (which will not crash).

Looking at your replies, at this point I don't really feel like helping you.

You think you know, you think too much (Socrates)

This is the result I get by using your method, setting the winamp bridge at 16 or 24bit.
Setting it at 32 bit does not crash but there is no change in the sound. Maybe you can tell me what I am doing wrong?
 
Btw, with "I can't help you" do you mean because I did not use your winamp bridge and you are offended???

 

 

[Giogio]

@Joe Bloggs, my new friend, I just can't get your winamp thing to work in my foobar. It crashes and crashes and crashes. As said, 16 and 24 bit crash, 32 does not affect sound in any way.
I have tried any possible combination of output (primary device, wasabi, dirac, no dirac).
Same story.
 
One more strange thing, your winamp plugin cannot find the electric-q in the components folder of my foobar, not in the vst folder where the electric-q exe (which I have downloaded from their site) install the dll.
Your winamp plugin only recognize the electric-q dll in the components folder of your portable foobar.
Maybe I should use your portable foobar to have the electric-q to work, but I am using my foobar, I want to use my foobar...

 

[castleofargh]

I went for easyQ instead some years back because the crashes annoyed me. it's IMO an inferior EQ(functionalities wise) but not crashing is a nice subjective bonus ^_^.
anyway you can use any parametric EQ, that's not really an issue.

 

[Giogio]

Yeah, I have installed that too. It is less easy to use than the Electric-Q but it works.
I am experimenting now with PhaseEQ, it has got a knobs interface, no eq curve, but has got HP, LP, LS, two peak freq (the normal kind of parametric eq but with knobs) and one HS.
It has got a function to set the channels in l+r or m+s (mid + sides) which supposedly should give more focus on the low frequencies, which can also be achieved (they suggest) by HP to side (I have tried the HP at 320hz on "side", this let all what is above 320 go only on the sides, not in the middle, the effect is subtle). It also can be set to do 2x sampling which supposedly gives better sound.
The BootEQ is also with knobs and half parametric. I have the impression that it gives a warmer sound even with no preamp. It is nice on same things. And the phase knob for the bass gives a fatter rumble.
I find easyEQ a bit aseptic.
 
A question: my BT headphones get only till 16 bit.
But Dirac can be set at 16 or 24.
Considering that I use wasapi (do you also think about eating sushi each time you talk of this plugin?), would I get better results if I set Dirac and Wasapi on 24, or at 16 like my headphones?
This gets more complicated when I use the 3.5 BT Adapter and no Dirac. In that case I can set my soundcard will 24 bit at 192000hz. In this moment I still use the stock Foobar resampler so I would anyway have to "limit" my soundcard to 96000 otherwise it does not coincide with the resampler and wasapi does not like it. But, it makes any sense to set my soundcard (and resampler) so high, if this goes through the BT adapter and to my bt headphones?