I don't use Invert and thus haven't used that hotkey so I just tried it now. The onscreen timer changed to yellow and back again to red so I guess it did what it was supposed to. I didn't detect any difference, but then again, I never have which is why I don't use it. YMMV though.

Cheers,

Russ

This might help ( see attached file also for easy printing).

Cheers,

Russ

==============================================

Alt-X   Start XXHE

Alt-O   Off ( Quit)

Alt-P   Play

Alt-S   Stop.

Alt-E   Pause

Alt-N   Next Track

Alt-L   Next Album

Alt-V   Previous ( N/A for UNattended )

Alt-A   Set A-B-Nothing point.

Alt-B   Set B point for A-B playback

Note:    Note that all occurs by subsequent clicks, the third setting back to nothing.
   When error messages occur (like setting A and B at the same point) you're kind of lost at Unattended.

Alt-U   Volume Up

Alt-D   Volume Down

Alt-T   Toggle UNattended/attended

Alt-K   Toggle "End after Track"

Alt-B   Toggle Double sampling

Alt-Q   Toggle Quad sampling

Alt-M   Upsample

Alt-I   Invert

Alt-G   Toggle Running Time ( UNattended only ) ( Function must be activated in settings area )

Alt-F   Load Library Item ( UNattended only )

Alt-C   Copy Track to "Nice Stuff" gallery entry

Alt-H   Copy Album to "Nice Stuff" gallery entry

Alt-Z   Copy Track to "Demo" gallery entry

Includes entries for version 0.9y-5

Woot indeed !

My immediate neighbours must really hate each new release as I'm sure they must get sick of listening to the collection of reference tracks I play in the evaluation process .. haha.

I think I was the second to download this but refrained from posting until I had a couple of days to fully comprehend what I am now hearing. This extended listening period also negates the effects from Mr. Placebo

There have been a number of milestone releases in the development of XXHE during the last two years .... this is one of them!

I'm not sure I still fully understand what has altered, but it's noticeably for the better, and has reset, yet again, my level of acceptance for music reproduction.

There is a level of transient and dynamics apparent now that, upon reflection, simply wasn't there before or was masked. I was listening to some Flim & The BB's albums yesterday, at levels I rarely use, and when "Jazz Patrol" started up, from their "Further Adventures" album, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a sudden crash of cymbals sounded. Amazing stuff. Further listening just reinforced this new found clarity, and I found myself jumping from favourite album to favourite album, relishing in it all.

If I had an intravenous drip inserted I would still be in my chair listening, but I suppose one has to eat and drink sometimes .. hehe

I have XXHE now configued for Arc Prediction using Doubleing, and this is due to a technical restriction of my pre-processor ( Integra DHC 9.9 ). If I feed it a 176.4 signal the pre-pro disables the onboard parametric equalizer which I use for taming room modes. The DAC's in the pre-pro are Burr Brown PCM1796's , and are Oversampling in nature ( http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pcm1796.html )

Even though the DAC's are OS, the signals being fed by XXHE are of significantly better character in nature, and that translates to an audible benefit that's quite apparent. I can only but wonder what something like the  NOS box that Peter has created would reveal.

Peter ... is this Arc Prediction your proprietary idea or something you found in a white paper somewhere and have adapted, as I've found no reference on the net about it at all ? Does the technique lend itself to specifying a set output characteristic such as 24bit/96Khz to fully exploit the capabilities of our DAC's, rather than, what I gather currently, is a integer double or quadrupling of the sample frequency ?

Back to my listening chair for now.

Well done Peter .. again

Cheers,

Russ

BTW .. I'll get onto the bug report later

ah yes ... I could see that coming in very handy as I flip between updating the artwork and actually listening to something. Kinda like a bookmark .. nice idea.

Russ

Yep .. that's what happens here. Firefox allows me to drag/drop onto an explorer window, but NOT onto the rightmost panel in XXHE. It brings up an error message ( see attached )


A get a little symbol with a '+' sign on it appearing as soon as the mouse moves to any portion of that panel.

No big calamity .. I will just use Internet Explorer for this task. If you can figure out why Firefox is refusing to co-operate that would be great but don't spend too much time nutting it out.

Russ

I noticed it copied the folder.jpg into the gallery folders as well (  ), but there wasn't the usual folder.jpg.mta present. Is this likely to cause a problem later ?

Russ

Nice find there Peter !

I tried it with Firefox and it didn't work, so I loaded up Internet Explorer ( bleugh ! ) and that seemed to work OK. Used the 'Rename to Folder.jpg' context menu following the drag/drop.

This will speed up things immeasurably

Cheers,

Russ

EDIT: This is working GREAT !! So much easier now

Thanks for the clarification Peter

One point I had overlooked ( due to my gallery structure being quite plain ), is the inclusion of an album in multiple 'groupings', and that would facilitate the need for multiple entries of those x-reference files, unless the text within those files contained the multiple pathings. That however, might go against your design logic as to how XXHE accommodates the seemingly endless combinations possible when creating the galleries.

I've just had a revelation though that is speeding up my workflow

By opening two XXHE sessions, I leave one pointing to the main grouping I'm progressing through, and use the other to do the navigating to the actual artists folders, and then use that same session to do the gallery creation function. The first session maintains its position from the list i'm working my way through. Seems to work quite nicely!

You can teach an dog new tricks after all

Cheers,

Russ

Hi Peter, sorry for the delay in getting back on this one.

Perhaps if I outline my workflow when progressively adding or updating my cover art it may give you a better idea of what I'm experiencing.

I start by having two explorer windows open .... one showing the contents of the Galleries, the other showing the contents of the actual music files that resides on my data drives.

I also have Photoshop open and Firefox.

After starting XXHE I click on the 'library' tab, then, in the left panel, choose the high level 'grouping' name. This could be the 'genre' name as used by others, but I keep it simple here and is just a reflection of the actual harddrive volume I reference. In this case they are called 'M1, M2, M3 etc'. Under 'M1' I have the folders laid out by artists, then underneath them the album names. Pretty standard affair.

So, clicking on 'M1', brings, a short moment or two later, all the folder art showing in the middle panel. Using the vertical scroll slider control ( on the right side), or clicking in the middle and using my mouse wheel, I move down until I see the first gap in the folder art I need to add ( or alter for that matter if I see something amiss).

Having identified the album that needs work, I will find that folder in the second of the explorer windows and look at the contents. The necessary artwork may be there already but incorrectly named, or may be in an incorrect subfolder, or simply missing altogether. If it's the former I will make the necessary changes, if it's the latter I will jump to the Firefox window and type the artist/album name into the Google toolbar and see what results come back. By clicking on the 'images' link at the top of the Firefox page I normally see many examples of the cover art I am seeking, and then choose the one larger than 500x500 pixels if that is available. A tip for those who are unaware ... you can drag and drop that image from your internet browser window into your album folder and you will have a copy of it ready for use.

I am aware of the 'Get Data from Internet' option within XXHE but I find the above method yields better results.

At this stage I may choose to further edit that image in Photoshop.

Knowing I will need to update that album's 'gallery' entries at some stage, I go to the first explorer window I referred to and delete the entire contents for that album from the 'Galleries' subfolder. I do this primarily to remove the 'x-reference ......' entry as it is my understanding that having multiple entries of those is not a good thing. In a similar light, I also remove the 'x-reference...' from the corresponding data folder. I realise there is a menu option to do that in XXHE but I find it easier to remove that file while having the explorer window open anyway.

I now need to rebuild the gallery data for the album I've just amended, so I then click on the [...] button at the bottom of the library panel. This brings up a 'Browse For Folder' window, and I then navigate to the artist's folder, and click OK. The path name is inserted into the search field, and I then click the 'Search' button. This brings up the albums for that artist in the middle panel as expected, which now includes the new additions or alterations. I then select the appropriate amended entries and use the 'Add to Gallery' function.

Having corrected the albums for that artist, I now want to move onto the next, so I click on the 'M1' entry in the left 'explorer' panel and a few moments later the centre panel fills up again , starting at the first entry. I then scroll down till I see the artist I just amended, and it is here that I notice the folder art is not showing the amendments, as the folder cache has not been rebuilt. If I exit XXHE and restart, then click on the 'library' tab, it will then show the new amendments.

Note: If the 'Thumbnail Cache Size' is set to zero on the 'Settings' tab, then the folder art gets shown in it's updated form immediately.

To my mind, any function that involves rebuilding part of the gallery, should also trigger a reload of the folder cache. Perhaps this could be made an option with a tickable box alongside the folder cache parameter.

I have assumed for some time now that those 'x-reference...' files should only appear singularly. If that isn't the case could you highlight that point please Peter.

One final question .. when you use the 'Add to Gallery' function, do you purge the entry already there ( if it exists ), or simply add the corresponding references from the actual data folders? Again, I would think it wise to check for the presence of an entry, and if so, delete it before rebuilding to make sure the gallery structure mimicked the data structure.

Suggestions of a better workflow practice to get my folder art completed would also be welcome from anyone.

As always, thanks for your help.

Russ

Thanks Peter .. will look forward to that.

While I have your attention, would you consider making a couple of mods to the way the artwork gets drawn in the 'Library' tab ? I've been spending many an hour now systematically going through my artwork ( updating, rescaling via Photoshop and adding 'back's etc ) and one annoyance keeps hounding me.

When you are working on an artist well down the alphabet ( eg. Little Richard ) and have the artwork for his albums in the central library pane showing, when you've finished updated his albums and want to continue with the next missing folder.jpg entry, the only ways I can figure out currently to show the continuing 'L' entries, is to use the " < " button at the top right of the explorer panel on the left, or press the 'folder name' one level higher, THEN, scroll through the middle panel until you see 'Little Richard' entries appearing. Once at that point you can then continue your viewing of coverart entries until you see the next one that needs correction or addition.

If that " < " button functioned in a manner that would remember the artist position you were on just prior to pressing it, and then adjusted the centre pane artwork to have that same artist showing following the button press, it would save me a HEAP of time in the longrun as I progress through the daunting task of updating my artwork.

Hope that makes sense. If not I will flood you with screen captures

A second mod would be the addition of a "reload cache" button, that, when pressed, would, as the names implies, rebuild your library display with any updates made to the gallery data. Currently, to see those updates, you have to exit XXHE and restart again, then click on the Library tab to get back to where you left off.

BTW .. I'm still getting my head around the "Remove selection from gallery" and "Delete all x-reference files from selection". It's bringing up some warning messages but it may just be the way I'm using it. Will discuss later after further playing.

Thanks as always,

Russ

hmmm .. I've just realised I may be using the above track search function in a way it wasn't designed for !

I rarely use this function ( track search ), and didn't realise the results list showed the individual tracks that contained the search text, as the end of the full track pathing was truncated to fit the gallery display panel.

All i really needed to do was dbl click on an entry and that track would be loaded ... no need to enter the 'Load Individual tracks ... ' function at all.

Who says you can't teach an  dog new tricks .. hehe

Still, would be nice to have the ability to load additional tracks for the same album should you wish.

Cheers,

Russ

Hi Peter,

another day ... another bug to squash

I felt the urge to listen to "Fanfare For A Common Man" this morning and couldn't remember which of the ELP albums it was on so used the 'T' (track) search function. When the search results were presented I realised it was on "Works Volume 1", so brought up the context menu to "Load Individual Tracks in playlist area", but when the resultant "Select Tracks" window popped up it was showing track listing from another album. The album listing shown was the PREVIOUS one I had used that "Load Individual Tracks in playlist area" function for, but while in the 'A' (album) search mode.

I tried this a couple of times and the results were consistent. I summise there is a residual array somewhere that isn't getting cleared.

Still works fine while in the 'A' (album) search mode

Hopefully you can replicate it there.

Cheers,

RGB ( Russ Gets Bugs )

A quick update before heading off to 

Using your scheme/priority settings above have allowed everything I queued up this evening (5 or 6 albums) to playback without problems

Also using 'split file' size of 100MB

First track of an album consistently starts playing now while the remainder of the tracks are being preprocessed. Will try loading up some hi-res albums tomorrow and see if that is stable also.

Was also able to use net browser consistently while playing ( yes .. in unattended ) without noticing any extraneous ticks or clicks either, so those priorities seem to have done the trick. It's doubtful I would have arrived at those so it's a good case for 'follow the leader' !

A couple of quick observations:

• Whenever the GUI is brought back ( whether by ALT-X or after completion of playlist ) the pathing text above slider isn't shown.
  
• At completion of playlist, the second last track entry is highlighted rather than the last. I think there was some discussion about this previously but can't remember whether this was being looked at or put in the 'too hard basket'

Cheers,

Russ

I was likely referring to the changes you made to the GUI to resolve the gallery glitches and the OutOfMemory issues. These seem fine now.

Of late I haven't been playing a lot of complete albums where a lot of tracks have to be queued up, and that may be why I haven't noticed this lack of consistent starting. 0.9X-7 was pretty much bullet proof but I realise a lot of re-coding has happened since, which is why I think I need to revisit my scheme/priorities again.

Just changing the latter from 'Nothing' ( which I used to use ) to the defaults ( BelowNormal/High I think they are ), changes how the tracks are dealt with immediately after I press PLAY. Even though I have Start Engine#3 straight away ticked, if the priorities are set at 'Nothing' I have noticed that all the tracks get highlighted in blue before the GUI disappears and THEN the music starts. With the priorities set at BelowNormal/High, the music may start while the tracks are being systematically converted and before the GUI disappears. That is with scheme-1. Scheme-3 seems to change the speed of these pre-events a little, but introduces a few more audible glitches if I use the Alt-N or Alt-X frequently. In my mind it seems to be a timing or buffer related issue, but I need to see if I can find a set of parameters that works consistently.

If I have no luck in next few days I will turn logging on and see what that reveals.

Thanks,

RGB

  I seem to be back on track again with SQ using the new engine.

I did a short session of A/B'ing between my hybrid and this 0.9y-3a ( which is essentially the swap of the old engine from y-2 and this new one ), and came to the conclusion that I couldn't discern any readily apparent differences flipping from one to the other. It takes about 45 seconds or so to jump from one setup to the other, taking into account that AHK needs to close down and restart also, and as this time increases it gets harder to remember subtleties in the music you are trying to differentiate. Well it does for this 'ol brain .. LOL

So I'm happy to put this turn of events to bed and try and get consistent playback happening again.

I need to revisit those setting parameters I think as version Y's seem to warrant some changes. I'm still getting the occassional lack of music start after the GUI disappears ... sometimes I might hear nothing at all and sometimes I might hear the hint of an attempt to start, then silence. Occassionally it will cease mid album. During these moments of silence, if I Alt-X back to the GUI, then click STOP and PLAY, there seems to be a 50-50 chance it will play OK at the track it left off from.

Let me have a play for a while Peter before I trouble you any more ! It will give your hair a chance to return to normal colour also .. hehe

Cheers,

Russ