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[MachineGhost]

...amplify it back to 0dB without distortion, that is.  Although its only from 3 to a 5 on the volume control for 0dB vs -8.6dB.

[Ian @ un4seen]

I've downloaded latest 3.8.1.10 and added SeparateToggle=1 in XMPLAY.INI file but I'm still having Separate/Unseparate subsongs options. 

The "Separate subsongs" and "Unseparate subsongs" options will indeed both still be present when "SeparateToggle" is enabled, but the "Separate subsongs" option will toggle the separation, ie. it'll unseparate if the subsongs are currently separated. This is basically the same as what happens to the queueing options when the "Toggle queueing" option is enabled (in the Playlist options page); the "Dequeue" option is still present and the "Queue" option will dequeue if the tracks are currently queued.

[Dotpitch]

Write two files with the different amp settings and look at their spectra using an audio editor.

I don't visually see any difference other than amplitude.

Ok, that means that XMPlay's software output does not include more bass. XMPlay's output the the soundcard is exactly the same, so hypothesis #1 is probably not right.

One, the "bit depth" of AAC streaming media is so poor, it can't handle a -8.6dB amp.
Or two, since a -8.6dB amp looks to be around a 50% reduction in amplitude, there's not enough power available for the external amplifier to amp the signal back to 0dB.

To test your second hypothesis, you could connect the line out of your amplifier to the line in of your soundcard, record the signal and compare the spectra of the two cases again. It doesn't sound too unlikely.

I'm thinking another solution for this issue is to have an option to reset the amp on a new song when looping on streaming media.  -8.6dB for whatever song it was to avoid clipping is on just really bad normalization for the station.

You can use XMPlay's Saved Settings to load per-file (or per-type) amplification settings.

[garson]

I've downloaded latest 3.8.1.10 and added SeparateToggle=1 in XMPLAY.INI file but I'm still having Separate/Unseparate subsongs options. 

The "Separate subsongs" and "Unseparate subsongs" options will indeed both still be present when "SeparateToggle" is enabled, but the "Separate subsongs" option will toggle the separation, ie. it'll unseparate if the subsongs are currently separated. This is basically the same as what happens to the queueing options when the "Toggle queueing" option is enabled (in the Playlist options page); the "Dequeue" option is still present and the "Queue" option will dequeue if the tracks are currently queued.

Hi Ian.
The point is that SeparateToggle=1 in 3.8.1.10 didn't change anything. Behavior is as it was in previous versions.

Here are scrennshots:
XMPlay 3.8.1.2 - unseparated
I can click on "Separate subsongs" and it will separate.



XMPlay 3.8.1.2 - separated
I can click on "Unseparate subsongs" and it will unseparate.




XMPlay 3.8.1.10 - unseparated
I can click on "Separate subsongs" and it will separate.



XMPlay 3.8.1.10 - separated
I can click on "Unseparate subsongs" and it will unseparate.



This is completely the same as far as I can see.

[MachineGhost]

To test your second hypothesis, you could connect the line out of your amplifier to the line in of your soundcard, record the signal and compare the spectra of the two cases again. It doesn't sound too unlikely.

Tempting, but I think I found the "set it and forget it" answer to the Amp/ReplayGain issues...  Breakaway Audio Enhancer:

* Automatically adjusts volume dynamics and spectral balancing.

 * Corrects song-to-song volume shifts and overdriven speakers.

The only downside is it bypasses the soundcard's equalizer.  Someone ought to work on an ISO standard 1/3rd octave equalizer plugin for XMplay.

[saga]

There are plenty of equalizer VST plugins available, which you could load into the Winamp VST bridge.

[piovrauz]

I think I should explain what garson meant in a simpler way.

This is what the menu should look like when you have a file +cuesheet loaded for the first time in XMPlay:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/c200fc397425059
You then click on "Separate subsong" on that menu.

This is what the menu should look like when you have call that menu again:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/ce5016397425063
If you click  on "Separate subsong" on that menu it will became as the first image.

Basically, it would behave like the menu Play entry.

[garson]

I think I should explain what garson meant in a simpler way.

This is what the menu should look like when you have a file +cuesheet loaded for the first time in XMPlay:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/c200fc397425059
You then click on "Separate subsong" on that menu.

This is what the menu should look like when you have call that menu again:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/ce5016397425063
If you click  on "Separate subsong" on that menu it will became as the first image.

Basically, it would behave like the menu Play entry.

That is corrent.
Or maybe even better, one entry. In case file is not separated, entry would be Separete subsongs. After you separate subsongs, that entry becomes Unseparate subsongs.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Oh, I see you're referring to the right-click menu. I was thinking mainly of the keyboard/mouse shortcuts, which is where I see the toggle option bringing most convenience. When using the menu, it doesn't really seem any less convenient to move the mouse to an option that's right next to the other option

[piovrauz]

Smaller menu, faster search for the option, faster choice, less moude moving, ...

[tongub]

OK. Let me know if you do find that your new DAC doesn't work well with the WASAPI output plugin, and I'll bump event-driven support up the to-do list

So I got myself an async dac (Hifime 9018D) and had some crashes with Xmplay Wasapi although I don't know if it's because of push/event issue and I can't reliably reproduce them. For now it's doing fine with ASIO output though.

[rst]

I would have an interesting feaure request.

Keeping the 'next track' and 'previous track' buttons, during around 2 seconds, XMPlay jump in the tracklist to the next song that has a different album name.

And of course the all time features requests:

- Perform squared selections of tracks with mouse on the playlists
- Dettach a VIS window in order to see the playlist at the same time with VIS
- Show the current playing track over the VIS screen, when it is not full screen.

What you think about ?

[saga]

OpenMPT can now store artist information in MPTM files, and since this uses the same mechanism as OpenMPT extensions in IT/XM, I decided to make the artist field editable in those file formats as well (normally I am strictly against ever adding any new extensions to those formats, but artist information does not modify playback behaviour and is useful, so I made an exception there). It's stored in the same "STPM" block as the compatibility flag stuff you already implemented, so adding support for this should hopefully be straightforward. There is a now block with the magic bytes "AUTH" (yeah, this time the FOURCC is not backwards...), and it contains the artist name as an UTF-8 formatted string (not null-terminated, length is indicated by the chunk size). Would it be feasible to read this information out in XMPlay?
A file to try out this feature can be found here.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Yep, I'll add support for that in the next update.

[saga]

It would be great to have the playlist randomization feature in the context menu; I rarely use it, but since I do use it, I had to set up a shortcut for it, and I accidentally hit that shortcut more often than I'd like to. A context menu entry would avoid that.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Just to be sure, do you mean the "Shuffle" option or the "Random play order" option, and in what context menu would you like to see it? Both options are currently in the right-click menu of the "Random play order" button in the playlist panel. If you do accidentally shuffle the playlist, it is possible to undo that with the "List - Undo" shortcut (Ctrl+Z by default).

[saga]

Ah, I did indeed mean "Shuffle", I wasn't aware that it was placed in this context menu. I know I can undo it, but for that I first have to realize that I hit the shortcut.

[Krstfr]

Something cool would be the option to have multiple info windows open. It would be nice to see samples at the same time as message in different windows.

[kickgutsy]

Hi i've a small suggestion about 3.9 version. Can you change icon to like this http://www.iconarchive.com/show/mega-pack-2-icons-by-ncrow/XMplay-icon.html or this http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8882/clipboard1q.jpg (i mean xmp-icon.ico)?.

I votes for this, especially the one that looks similiar with logo on official website site. Though currently it can be manually changed by user, but that doesn't affect tray icon.

[quanta]

- Trim the amount of file opening dialogue boxes

Currently XMPlay uses 4 different dialogue boxes for 'Open file(s)', 'Add file(s)', 'Add Folder', 'Open folder' operations, which are too many. Furthermore, the 'Add Folder' and 'Open folder' dialogue boxes do not open from the last opened directory, creating awkward and inconsistent user interface experience. 'Open file(s)' and 'Add file(s)' can be merged by adding an 'Add' button to the 'Open file(s)' dialogue box, eliminating the need for 'Add file(s)' dialogue box. Furthermore, the 'Add' button does not close the 'Open file(s)' dialogue box, allowing files from multiple locations to be added within a single dialogue box session. Consequently, the 'Cancel' button is renamed to 'Close'. The 'Add Folder' and 'Open folder' dialogue boxes can be merged in similar manners.

However, the trimming can be done even further. 'Open file(s)' and 'Open folder' dialogue boxes can be merged into a single dialogue box with Explorer-style split directory and file views for files. Consequently, the 'Include sub-folders' and 'Ignore playlists & shortcuts' options are merged into the unified 'Open file(s)' dialogue box. Furthermore, the Open and Add buttons should be redesigned such that the operations can be applied to the selected directory and file objects, so no separate 'Add Folder' and 'Open Folder' dialogue boxes are necessary. As a result, all 4 dialogue boxes are merged into one without losing any feature.

As part of the dialogue box overhaul, XMPlay should also save the following properties of the united Open file(s) dialogue box: size, position, view settings. In addition, option to have the dialogue box to stay open after adding or opening file(s).

- Flexible skinning engine

The goal of this proposed skin engine is to move skin customization settings away from precompiled .dll files, so that most customizations can be done without altering the skin file. Conversely, skin makers can use the same script with different .dll files to achieve different looks. This redesign involves splitting up skin layout scripts and skin resources.

The skinning script will incorporate the ability to:
-Resize the image resource's bounding boxes, allowing only part of an image resource be shown in an image object (eg: button), or resizing or tiling of image resources be used in an image object.
-Widths of text objects so that sizes of the text field can be defined in units more friendly to skin makers (eg: number of characters, line heights, etc.). The final size of a text object is determined based on the fonts and their respective properties (eg: size, style, family) being applied to the text object.
- Alignment of objects relative to other user interface objects instead of just explicitly stating the location of UI objects in pixels, including the skin's bounding boxes. In addition, the ability to justify the position of multiple objects like word processors. For example, if a toolbar has left, right, and centre-aligned buttons, resizing the skin's width will maintain their horizontal positions relative to the skins, or even wrap extra buttons to successive rows if the width is too narrow. This facilitates the possibility of resizeable skins without recompiling.
- Ability to customize an UI object's transparency setting to underneath UI objects based on how much of an object's bounding box is occupied by graphical and text resources.

In addition to skin layout scripts, separate non-script customizations can be supported by a skin, so that a skin can have different colours or font size or even be resized without recompiling skin scripts or skin resources. The xmplay.ini will store separate skin settings for each skin, instead of sharing the common skin settings between skin. This will solve the long-standing forgotten skin settings bug affecting Windows Classic 2.1 skin[1].

[1] http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?topic=14320.msg101832#msg101832