And Gerard, was this indeed draaging files from Explorer, or the Library button ?
And was something already in the Playlist Area, or was it empty ?

Lastly :

Actually I don't understand what you say here ! 

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but you could copy the screen of the CPU useage in here (just during normal playback), which might tell me something. My question is also related to my perception of it being the other way around : the CPU useage is *less* spikey (Unattended Playback !).

Hey Gerard,

Do you use latest version (being 0.9s-1) ?

Then, if you have to quit XXEngine3 by Taskmanager, this is just "caused" by you not using Stop from within the player.
I know, it's almost too simple to explain, but the illogic might arise from the need to start XXHighEnd in order to do so (press Stop in there).
Or otherwise I don't know what you mean ...

Here's another one : http://itrax.com/Pages/LearnMore.php

Let's say it is a technical description of something really happening : the sound engine (#3) is like a running train, without the control of XXHighEnd. But with auto pilot it should do okay.

Also, and that is what it is all about, it eliminates the influence from the controlling section "XXHighEnd". That is, since we learned that it just influences, I wanted to get rid of it (the influence out of my control).
You could say that for the first time we are listening to the raw engine, and it expresses everything I layed in there to make it sound good. But mind you, I could never have heard it myself, so whatever it sounds like, so far this is kind of unintentional (intentional was : listening through the influence of XXHighEnd, although I did not know that at the time).

Peter

Thanks for reporting this Leo.

What if all Priorities are set to normal ?

To be honest, I don't know because I never tried.
Engine#2 was created in order to go around the 64MB limit in XP, and was therefore a kind of emergency solution.
Note that Engine#1 was created, awaiting Vista back then, and was therefore a kind of emergency solution just the same.

In either case I met all prerequisites to squeeze the best sound out of them (IOW no compromises), but also, both are not bit perfect.
In Vista this is even worse, because Vista in Shared Mode always resamples (even from 44K1 to 44K1).

You may try to listen to this "test" : Test track with distortion which isn't there... , although it would be good to have the reference first. Note the "reference" is about a very clear distinction between hey key piano notes and bells, which in Vista #1/#2 get mixed in piano notes with bell harmonics.
I recall that XP is okay even at Double (Engine#2).
You need to be in the speaker with your ear, or must be able to play very loud.
Anyway, you might perceive a difference between #1 and #2 under Vista by this means, and make your choice this way ...

 

It just slipped to my mind that the new Priority Scheme as applied per 0.9s might or will influence SQ just the same. I mean, at judging Unattended Playback you'll listen through this new scheme just the same. This cannot be avoided, although you can play with the priorities (that would be Thread Priority).
To let behave all as similar to as how it was before 0.9s Thread Priority should be set to "Nothing" after a reboot or "Normal" in between (which could be slightly different from Nothing after a reboot, but let's say that doesn't matter).

The new priority scheme is applied as well to Attended Playback.

Peter

Now I think of it ... don't underestimate the new priority scheme ...

Chris ... no ... this must have been Attended Playback.
Solved per 0.9s-1.

But ... still the SQ improved so much ?
Now what ... if so, *that* was unintentional ...

At normal Attended Play (Engine#3) playback would stop after playing one track, and the message "No track data received" would show.
This is solved.

At startup with an empty Playlist (Area), an error message showed. This is solved too.

Also RealTime Thread Priority now is allowed for Engine#1 and Engine#2 (it was not, with unknown reason).

Edit : Also see But the new Priority Scheme changes SQ just as well ...

Edit2: See : How to play Unattended with 0.9s-1
And : My own settings for 0.9s

As said ... Otherwise I won't be able to keep track effeciently of your various remarks !

And ... sorry about the more buggy version (0.9s-0). It took me the whole afternoon just in trying combinations ... there are many really.
And I guess I promised too much to have it ready this weekend.

Peter

I may see ghosts, but the track (name) selected in the screenshot (as the only one) does not have a space behind the dash ?
that won't matter, does it ?

Wow ...

And Chris, with "stop after one track" you mean at unattended playback, right ?


Or ?

VST users report glitches and everything with Q processors, although they blame it on the software they use.
In those cases, *not* spreading tasks over processors, solve their problems.
Besides that, various benchmarks (although from the same environment) show that total power is not more that 2 core processors.

So in theory -obviously- Q processors are good, but in practice it often doesn't work out.
In this case I'm copying orthers' opinions. But Google shows just too many of them ...