SPECWEB (Now 2.2)

[zeerround]

Let me also say that I even cut the multi versions out and placed them in their own folder and it still managed to put them all together in foobar.

Pilot error? You might want to try that again, clearing foobar of files first.

In case it's not obvious, you can sort the directory by date, and all the -mch files will be at the top for easy move to another folder.

 

[GOS]

Pilot error? You might want to try that again, clearing foobar of files first.

In case it's not obvious, you can sort the directory by date, and all the -mch files will be at the top for easy move to another folder.

Certainly could be. I'll try it again...

 

[zeerround]

Hi zeerround.

A couple questions:

Are we putting excessive load on your web server by doing many conversions? I presume the heavy work is being done locally. I have a couple SSD drives and the conversions seem to fly along, but I'm worried the web traffic may cause you issues.

No, the files stay on your computer. Your computer does the processing. Your computer is also the web server for the web interface. The only internet traffic is for a version check/log.

You mention processing an entire album as one file. All my albums are split into individual FLAC files. Can I drag and drop a cue file to process as a 'single set' to balance as suggested?

There are two types of cue files, ones with individual files referenced, and ones with a single file referenced. Dropping a cue file onto SpecWeb will do whatever the cue file says. If multiple files, it will process multiple files. If a single file, it will process the single file. But there is no advantage to dropping a single file cue file over just dropping the single file itself. In any case you'd have to join all your tracks together into one file to use the single track cue file.

(Unlike the full version of Spec) SpecWeb doesn't parse out the individual tracks (for use in ZAG) from a single track cue file.

Also, the only difference between dropping a multitrack cue file and dropping a bunch of tracks is just the convenience of dropping one file vs. many. Processing is the same either way.

RE doing a full album at once for a single pass through ZAG (as an advantage) is a suggestion someone here made, not me. I'm not sure I buy into that approach, but please do whatever sounds good and keep me posted. I'm happy to learn from users.

Also may I post a short sound clip (just a few seconds) to highlight an issue with a mix and get your recommendations for settings that would fix it? I guess others can learn too.

OK

 

[GOS]

Pilot error? You might want to try that again, clearing foobar of files first.

In case it's not obvious, you can sort the directory by date, and all the -mch files will be at the top for easy move to another folder.

I was thinking when you "clear" foobar of any files...what it's really doing is deleting them at their source. Unless there is another option I'm not aware of. Regardless, the oddest thing is - I have a folder called Smiley Smile Upmix and it contains the multi versions, then I have another folder called Smiley Smile Stereo and it contains the original versions.... yet in foobar, in the album listing, it is only showing SMiley Smile Stereo...doesn't even acknowledge the other folder I made.

 

[zeerround]

None of the web interface controls work for me during 'Play'.

What is your default browser? IE? If so, that won't work. You need to use Chorme, Firefox, Edge, iOS, or Android, and tell SpecWeb where your browser is (if local) or to wait for a remote connection.

What OS are you on?

Does the "LED" turn green?

Does the song start playing or is SpecWeb waiting for a web connection?

Did you "allow" it in your firewall rules the first time you ran SpecWeb?

 

[zeerround]

Also be nice when the controls are fixed to have a stop/pause button.

The play button is "pause/play". It doesn't change when depressed, but the command line interface tells you play is paused/resumed.

 

[zeerround]

I was thinking when you "clear" foobar of any files...what it's really doing is deleting them at their source. Unless there is another option I'm not aware of. Regardless, the oddest thing is - I have a folder called Smiley Smile Upmix and it contains the multi versions, then I have another folder called Smiley Smile Stereo and it contains the original versions.... yet in foobar, in the album listing, it is only showing SMiley Smile Stereo...doesn't even acknowledge the other folder I made.

I think maybe you are looking at the file "tags" which are copied from the stereo to the surround files, so they would look the same?

And no, it doesn't remove them at the source, it just removes them from foobar2000.

 

[GOS]

I think maybe you are looking at the file "tags" which are copied from the stereo to the surround files, so they would look the same?

And no, it doesn't remove them at the source, it just removes them from foobar2000.

I'm the last guy that understands tags and such. If the tags are copied with the same tag, what is a way around this? Or maybe there isn't....
OK, so I'll try clearing out a few things and see what happens.

 

[HomerJAU]

What is your default browser? IE? If so, that won't work. You need to use Chorme, Firefox, Edge, iOS, or Android, and tell SpecWeb where your browser is (if local) or to wait for a remote connection.

What OS are you on?

Does the "LED" turn green?

Does the song start playing or is SpecWeb waiting for a web connection?

Did you "allow" it in your firewall rules the first time you ran SpecWeb?

I using Edge but switched to Chrome all ok now!

 

[GOS]

I'm the last guy that understands tags and such. If the tags are copied with the same tag, what is a way around this? Or maybe there isn't....
OK, so I'll try clearing out a few things and see what happens.

I cleared out Smiley files from foobar and added them back in...it still places all songs into the Smiley SMile Stereo listing. ugh...and bummer.

 

[HomerJAU]

I'm the last guy that understands tags and such. If the tags are copied with the same tag, what is a way around this? Or maybe there isn't....
OK, so I'll try clearing out a few things and see what happens.

Right-click on the file and select 'Play with Foobar'. Then you know which file you are playing.

 

[GOS]

Right-click on the file and select 'Play with Foobar'. Then you know which file you are playing.

Oh, I know that...but I like things easy. I don't want to play 1 song at a time, I want to play the album...but want it to be either, or. Not both. Just in case I'm not being clear..here is a snap shot. You see Smiley Smile stereo album listed on the left, then you see both multi and stereo versions listed in the right.

 

[HomerJAU]

Here's a problem I'm having. This is about 10 seconds of just the right rear after a SpecWeb conversions (flac file about 1000kb). Their is distortion/frequency cut-off going on, not sure what to tweak to sort it out. Any help appreciated.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B67BGVX7nHIlM1lJV0xOaC1QelU/view?usp=sharing

All the 'problem' conversions are related to this same problem of certain higher frequencies that seem distort in the rears or sometimes seem to move extremely quickly from front to rears. Snare drums (I think), certain types of guitars.

In my 'Hits' compilation all from different artist/albums I'm getting about a 1 in 4 problem ratio and they all have the similar issues to the sample above.

 

[HomerJAU]

Oh, I know that...but I like things easy. I don't want to play 1 song at a time, I want to play the album...but want it to be either, or. Not both. Just in case I'm not being clear..here is a snap shot. You see Smiley Smile stereo album listed on the left, then you see both multi and stereo versions listed in the right.

View attachment 24680

You should retag the MCH album files (I add '(upmix)' to the end of the album name).

Select them all and change in one commend, you don't need to do one at a time. (you can sort and select all the MCH files then right-click and Open on Foobar then change the properties or use your own tagging program to change the title)

 

[GOS]

You should retag the MCH album files (I add '(upmix)' to the end of the album name).

Select them all and change in one commend, you don't need to do one at a time. (you can sort and select all the MCH files then right-click and Open on Foobar then change the properties or use your own tagging program to change the title)

Perfect, it worked! Thanks my man...

 

[zeerround]

I using Edge but switched to Chrome all ok now!

Great!

I still like to understand what went wrong with Edge, however.

 

[zeerround]

All the 'problem' conversions are related to this same problem of certain higher frequencies that seem distort in the rears or sometimes seem to move extremely quickly from front to rears. Snare drums (I think), certain types of guitars.

In my 'Hits' compilation all from different artist/albums I'm getting about a 1 in 4 problem ratio and they all have the similar issues to the sample above.

I haven't had time to download and listen but there is a known issue (with all types of music processing that use FFTs/Phase Vocoders) with noisy signals like snare drums and cymbals, etc. you get a "swishy" sound. The solution (sorry) is up sample your song first, run through SpecWeb, then downsample. E.g. if your song is 44.1KHZ upsample (audiomuxer does a great job of this) to 88.2KHz 24 bits, run through SpecWeb, and then downsample the result back to 44.1 (but keep the 24 bits).

If I could figure out how to "oversample" in SpecWeb I would ;0)

Anyway, this is probably one difference between what folks are doing here and the "DKA" etc. conversions with the full version of Spec, most folks using the full version always up/down sample.

However, don't do it just 'cause I said. Do it if it makes your results better ;0)

 

[HomerJAU]

Thanks zeerround. I need to check but it maybe just some of my CDs that have the problem. I know most of the stuff I've done is already 88.2 or 96kHz.

 

[ji eff]

RE doing a full album at once for a single pass through ZAG (as an advantage) is a suggestion someone here made, not me. I'm not sure I buy into that approach, but please do whatever sounds good and keep me posted. I'm happy to learn from users.

You are right in having your doubts, as yet again, I'm proving myself wrong.. I realize now there is no "One Size Fits All" approach, as no two albums are mixed the same way. It worked wonders with The Wall, where the transitions between tracks aren't silent, so it needed to be done this way so there aren't any volume jumps in any channels when tracks change from one another. It also gave me better results with Coeur de Pirate's first two albums, where her piano + vocals and piano solo tracks had too much sub action when done by themselves. But I just tried it on NIN Year Zero, and doing it track-by-track is waaaay better.

Now, unless I run into some oddities, it's back to track-by-track, default settings with -E0 for me.


@HomerJAU ... Sorry if my previous ramblings gave you any doubts. :blush: (missing smiley! ) I still stand by what I said about a benefit from doing an album-at-once, but only for those "special cases".


Thanks again, zeerround !

(just made a donation)

 

[skherbeck]

I haven't had time to download and listen but there is a known issue (with all types of music processing that use FFTs/Phase Vocoders) with noisy signals like snare drums and cymbals, etc. you get a "swishy" sound. The solution (sorry) is up sample your song first, run through SpecWeb, then downsample. E.g. if your song is 44.1KHZ upsample (audiomuxer does a great job of this) to 88.2KHz 24 bits, run through SpecWeb, and then downsample the result back to 44.1 (but keep the 24 bits).

If I could figure out how to "oversample" in SpecWeb I would ;0)

Anyway, this is probably one difference between what folks are doing here and the "DKA" etc. conversions with the full version of Spec, most folks using the full version always up/down sample.

However, don't do it just 'cause I said. Do it if it makes your results better ;0)

I had a similar "swishy" sort of sound from cymbals in the rear channels when using a "24x192" HDtracks album ("Candy-O" by The Cars, the first song "Let's Go"). Honestly, I really don't even know what 24x192 means, but is there something I can do to prevent this? Do I need to "downsample" the tracks? I'm a dummy, so simple, step by step instructions are best!