[vixro]

No matter what type of music or mp3 file I listen to it seems that my equalizer appears to be incomplete. The "fire" display that shows how high each of your frequencies are, shows that I have pretty much no high frequencies although the music sounds just fine when I listen to it. Is this just a graphical glitch because of Vista 64, or am I missing out on parts of my music?

I have Vista 64bit premium
X-fi xtreme music with latest drivers.
Set to headphones in the Creative control pannel.
HD580's plugged directly into the X-fi, as of now.


Anything I should be worried about?

 

[GSurge]

Never seen the spectrum analyzer do that. Interesting.

 

[Hooah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vixro /img/forum/go_quote.gif No matter what type of music or mp3 file I listen to it seems that my equalizer appears to be incomplete. The "fire" display that shows how high each of your frequencies are, shows that I have pretty much no high frequencies although the music sounds just fine when I listen to it. Is this just a graphical glitch because of Vista 64, or am I missing out on parts of my music? I have Vista 64bit premium X-fi xtreme music with latest drivers. Set to headphones in the Creative control pannel. HD580's plugged directly into the X-fi, as of now. Anything I should be worried about?

If it sounds fine to you and you can't tell a difference, why should you be worried? If you can't tell a difference, then there isn't one. I would go into the analogy about the tree falling in the woods with noone there next...
But yes, I believe it is just a glitch!

 

[vixro]

Let's hope so! Yes, all of my music sounds as if the problem isn't there but it still bothers me for some reason.

 

[loosebruce]

You could always try uninstalling Winamp and then reinstall it.

 

[error401]

I suspect this is due to lowpass filtering happening on the source MP3. This is a common technique, especially with lesser encoders (ie. anything other than LAME) at low bitrates. 16KHz is a common frequency; I don't know what the bands on the Winamp are, but if they're linear I suppose this is reasonable. Most adults can't hear above 16KHz anyway.

I don't think there's anything wrong with Winamp itself. That failure mode just wouldn't make any sense.

 

[paulb09]

I'm also on Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, and I do not have this issue. There are 18 bars on the spectrum analyzer for the modern skin (the classic skin appears to have space for one more, but studying it with different songs I cannot see a bar come up there ever, so I guess it has 18 too), and all of them come up for me. If I put the 14k and 16k EQ sliders up full, the 15th bar hits up higher volume generally with little effect on the last 3 bars, so I guess the spectrum analyzer tracks above 16k anyway.

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I suspect this is due to lowpass filtering happening on the source MP3. This is a common technique, especially with lesser encoders (ie. anything other than LAME) at low bitrates. 16KHz is a common frequency; I don't know what the bands on the Winamp are, but if they're linear I suppose this is reasonable. Most adults can't hear above 16KHz anyway. I don't think there's anything wrong with Winamp itself. That failure mode just wouldn't make any sense.

I think you're looking at the graphic equalizer whereas the OP is wondering about the spectrum analyzer just below the play clock which doesn't appear to be displaying any HF sound.

To the OP: Is it possible that the music you're listening to doesn't have any sounds in that register? I'm listening to 'The Little Willies' right now and on the song "Love Me" there's really not much going on in the high frequencies, so they rarely display any action on the spectrum analyzer.

**EDIT** - Ok, I don't think it's possible that your music just doesn't have those frequencies now. Weird.

 

[error401]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think you're looking at the graphic equalizer whereas the OP is wondering about the spectrum analyzer just below the play clock which doesn't appear to be displaying any HF sound.

Huh? What you say makes no sense, what I said makes perfect sense. If there's lowpass filtering happening when the MP3 is encoded (LAME and most other MP3 encoders do this by default at the bitrate that's indicated in the screenie), that high frequency information is gone and wouldn't appear in the spectrum analyzer.

The EQ definitely doesn't show that high frequencies are pulled back at all.

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Huh? What you say makes no sense, what I said makes perfect sense. If there's lowpass filtering happening when the MP3 is encoded (LAME and most other MP3 encoders do this by default at the bitrate that's indicated in the screenie), that high frequency information is gone and wouldn't appear in the spectrum analyzer. The EQ definitely doesn't show that high frequencies are pulled back at all.

Sorry, I think I misunderstood you. It was the talk about 16Khz that threw me off. I thought you were looking at the EQ bars, seeing that the highest bar on the EQ was 16Khz, and assuming that meant it was being cut off at 16Khz.

In any case, I just tried some different rips (Fraunhoffer 192CBR, LAME ~192, and WMA 192). They all display info (at times) out to the end of the spectrum analyzer.

Wouldn't a lowpass filter cut out the low frequencies and not the highs?

 

[error401]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo /img/forum/go_quote.gif In any case, I just tried some different rips (Fraunhoffer 192CBR, LAME ~192, and WMA 192). They all display info (at times) out to the end of the spectrum analyzer. Wouldn't a lowpass filter cut out the low frequencies and not the highs?

It's a lowpass filter, so it passes frequencies below the threshold frequency and rejects frequencies above it. LAME lowpasses at 19.5KHz at 192kbit, down to 17.5KHz at 128kbit. It's pretty common to see high-frequency data missing in improperly encoded files, especially if they're transcodes or done with a junky encoder.

The OP should try to play some FLAC files or CDs to determine if the problem exists there too. I can almost guarantee that it won't, since the spectrum analyzer would not just fail this way - any error in the math code that analyzes the frequencies would surely appear on all copies of Winamp.

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's a lowpass filter, so it passes frequencies below the threshold frequency and rejects frequencies above it. LAME lowpasses at 19.5KHz at 192kbit, down to 17.5KHz at 128kbit. It's pretty common to see high-frequency data missing in improperly encoded files, especially if they're transcodes or done with a junky encoder. The OP should try to play some FLAC files or CDs to determine if the problem exists there too. I can almost guarantee that it won't, since the spectrum analyzer would not just fail this way - any error in the math code that analyzes the frequencies would surely appear on all copies of Winamp.

Duh, with the low-pass filter. I guess I just had a brain lapse.