XXHighEnd Model 0.9y-4 (Superb Upsampling & Great bunch of Library functions)

[PeterSt]

Actually, this should be the greatest upgrade sound wise ever. Well, it is, although only for those who are able to shut off the upsampling the DAC may do. Analogue filtering in there should be allright.
When the DAC doesn't support more than 16 bits and 88.2KHz at least, this is useles ...
But if it does, here is your new era of music reproduction through loudspeakers ...

The following things have been added/changed for this version :

• New Arc Prediction Upsampling.
  
  At three different sessions a paper was written, each time 6-8 Word pages, trying to explain what happened, but each time the technical rate was found too high, including the impossibility to explain a few things, and in the end this must suffice for now :
  
  - Unsurpassed realism on music reproduction;
  - An unbelieveable freshness without a spur of harshness;
  - Super "dry" reproduction, at last making snares, toms and bongos giving the real color they have;
  - Similarly metal = metal, bringing an unbelieveable detail in the mid range;
  - Each 10 seconds during listening your jaw drops because of how interesting everything actually is. Music type unimportant;
  - Players unveil their hits and misses, as any on stage unintended sound seems to come forward, and drummers hitting much more (misses) than before;
  - No matter what you play, how old it is or how wrong it sounded before, it now sounds GOOD;
  - Generally : an unsurpassed resolution.
  
  What is there more to say ?
  The above list has been recreated as many times as the "paper" was written, which including this above, now counts 4. Each time the list has been different, and each time positive only. It just is so.
  
  What happened ?
  Allright, this time in brief : A means of Upsampling has created which knows exactly where the samples would have been, would the sample rate have been higher at the process from going to the digital master's sample rate to red book's 44.1KHz. This is not how any normal means of "filtering" works, and while that "filtering" imposes a 100% reproduction of the original analogue sound wave, it is not at all because it "rings". It uses before output - or in future to output samples to "average" (which is a generally accepted mechanism to reconstruct the analogue waves), with the effct of this "ringing", which even is the means to get there. Ringing could be appreciated as echoing (pre- or after), but more from the audiophile angle : this smears.
  The means used here reconstructs the analogue waves as good, but without the "filtering" as such, and zero ringing is applicable. Also, no phase changes are incurred for, as filters often do to avoid pre-ringing. The effect ?
  
  Upsampling to a real higher resolution, with no ringing at all. It is this which brings the dry sound, and which is not different from how it is intended. But "dry" is not negative ... it brings the color to everything which otherwise is smeared into a mush.
  
  Well, this one page or so must suffice this time, and the means is called Arc Prediction. So, when your DAC is able to leave out any Upsampling, but allows for 96KHz and 18 bits at least, choose Arc Predition for Upsampling and enjoy.
  
  Note : It is a kind of unpredicted what actually happens when the DAC does Up-/Oversampling, while it is fed with this means of Upsampling;
  It is unimagineable that this won't bring a completely different sound anyway, however, it shouldn't be much different from feeding the DAC with hires material. Otoh, it is just this area which remains not worked - or reasoned out completely, because Upsampling red book by means of arc prediction sounds way way better than native hires material. We'd all say this can't be, and although it is veery hard to see native hires can be outbettered, it not only does, but there are also technical routes to proof of this. This is by itself related to the way Arc Prediction works, and how the waves will look different from native hires, while the digital registration of the latter still is as wrong (for principles) as red book 44.1KHz is, while Arc Predition improves that generally. Notice that this just means that Arc Prediction would improve native hires material just the same, although it needs upsampling to do it; For 24/96 material this is possible (x2), but for 24/192 it is not, because output from the PC does not allow a higher sample rate at this moment.
  
  Regardless price, no playback software, louspeaker, amplifier or DAC will be able to incur for such a big difference this brings. And, since this has been playing in your humble developer's rooms for over 5 weeks now without wanting to go back at any single album or track, it must must be just very good;
  You may recognize that Upsampling in general - by software or by the DAC - may bring some difference, but not anything you'd scream about. It never did here either. But now listen to this ...
  
  May you want to try, choose 16/44.1 material, tick Double or Quad if your DAC permits (and it must support more than 16 bits), choose Arc Prediction for the new combobox you will see, and give it a go. Next, please let know what you perceive from it.
  
  
• Outside the above, Sound Quality may have changed. This is unintentional, but regarding the changes applied (for, say, general reasones) it should be for the better. Don't hesitate to let know what you think.
  
  
• All means of working with the Library Area and "Checkboxes" have been worked through, and should now be working;
  The working with Checkboxes (next to the Library Items as a means to select them instead of the normal Windows means like ctrl-click) has been neglected for a very long time, and actually maybe 10% was working properly with Checkboxes. If all is right, now everything does.
  
  Note that working with Checkboxes is set by ticking the Chk checkbox visible at the bottom with the Library Area active.
  
  Important : The working with Checkboxes may be much more convenient (generally : less stressful) than the normal Windows means of selecting, but it sadly can't allow as much Library Items as without Checkboxes, which amount (without Checkboxes) is infinit; Although it will technically work with higher amounts, "workable" (for speed) means that 100-200 Library Items is a kind of maximum. Note though that this "workable" is related to asking for the Library Items a first time, while a second time of the same is significantly faster (like 10 times). This is because here too, now the cacheing of CoverArt has been applied, and in general this means that when you have a larger job to do for which you rather use the Checkboxes means of selecting, you may like to wait for 1 or 2 minutes before the list is completed, and find yourself waiting for 5-10 seconds for a refresh after something has been changed that requires that refresh.
  It is just a matter of trying, but when Checkboxes are too slow, then don't use them.
  
  
• The option Select All (Checkboxes) has been eliminated, because it was (stupidly) found that the feature inherently was there already;
  When a rabge of Library Items is selected by normal Windows means, ticking one of the Checkboxes from such a Selected Item selects the Checkboxes of all the Selected Items. And the other way around (unticking. Although this seems a not so convenient wat of working, it can't be prevented. This by itself eliminates the need for the Select All (Checkboxes) options, which really did the same.
  
  
• Instead of the above eliminated option(s), there is now a new option "Remove from current Saved Result List";
  
  This is a most useful option, which allows you to work through a list of e.g. newly aquired albums, select a few and point them to the Gallery to your wishes (this is existing functionality), and next - with this new functionality - remove them from the still selected list, because they are dealt with. Thus, the list you are dealing with becomes shoter and shorter, until it is empty.
  
  At this moment this is an explicit function (you have to throw deaul with Items out), while in the future more implicit and intuitive means may emerge; If you see how and where, please let it know.
  
  Important : This means of removing Items from the Library Area will *never* remove Items from a Gallery or Original Locations. It just removes them from the contents of the Library you momentarily see. BUT, it sure does make of a "saved" means, and these are the Saved Result Lists. Thus, all is based on a before Saved Result List (ref. rightclick on the small F button), and what actually happens is that the Item is removed from the active Saved Result List (and notice that a Saved Result List must be loaded in order to let this function work -> a message will tell you if you forgot).
  Also notice that removing Items from a Save Result List is no big deal (even when done by accident) because a Saved Result List can always be re-generated from its ever base. But also see the next topic !
  
  
• At the bottom - with the Library Area active - now a new small button B has emerged, and this "bookmarks" the current contents of the Library Area. For the above "Remove from current Saved Result List" functionality this means that my this B button you can instantly create a Saved Result List (which a bookmark liks this is -> Bookmark01.LBRY) which is ready to receive removed Items (hence shrink until it's empty). Just try it in combination with above new function, and you will get the hang of it faster than it can be explained.
  
  The Bookmark function, however, has been created to make a very fast snapshot of where you are, at wanting to navigate to somewhere else by means of (generally) the Embedded Explorer), while in the end you know you want to back to the before bookmarked list - and you will get there just by clicking the Back button (<) in the Embedded Explorer.
  Notice that it might not be a big deal to get back to any list you were before by means of explicit selection (Embedded Explorer, Search), but, this may consume some time, depending on how large the contents of the Library Area is you can bookmark just the same. And, like with Saved Result Lists in general, no matter how large they are (like over 100,000 Items), they are back in a fraction of a second.
  
  
• The existing Randomizing functions have been made faster by applying a more smart dealing with the CoverArt needed.
  
  
• The existing Randomizing function "Randomly" (as part of Play Each) now can be fed with a number of output Items. This means that when e.g. 100 albums are selected to randomize their tracks for playback, for instance 20 tracks should be output to the Playlist Area. This is much better than before, when all the tracks from the selected albums were output (meaning a 1000 tracks which is far too many, while selecting less albums made the outcome too predictable).
  
  
• At least above mentioning "Randomly" (from Play Each) has been made adaptive to the Library Area containing Tracks (fill in a "T" where normally the "A" shows, at the bottom with the Library Area active).
  This means that tracks now can be selected in the first place, with various means of additional applications (think of first selecting all the tracks you have from a (Gallery) genre, and next filter all "Blues" to remain, and then select any of those, and lastly randomize them).
  
  Important : While a randomizing function is rather important, its base should be the instant availability of the tracks you have (think iPod). On this matter, think of Saved Result Lists from tracks. Thus, no matter how large those lists may be at a first search for them, once they are saved as Saved Result Lists, they can be asked for in the Gallery Area within a second (100ds of thousands). Thus, ask for such a Saved Result List and next Randomize it, is real slick. But in order to let it wok really (super fast) also see below two topics.
  
  
• Under the Play Each option (btw, found by rightclick on a Gallery Item with the Gallery Area up front), at the bottom a new function "Select Randomly in Library Area" has been added. This just does what it tells : select a given number of Library Items, and it does that randomly.
  What you next want to do with that is up to your own creativity, but the most important one is found below :
  
  
• The Play Each - Randomly function as described by the before last topic, also contains a new option (combobox) "AutoSelect Library Items". This applies the last described function under the hood, and actually selects as many Library Items as you want to randomize. Isn't that stupid ?
  
  Well, it is not if you imagine that the selections you otherwise had to make to choose the albums or tracks to randomize from are now made by the system, and the base is just nothing more than that selection. It just doesn't need to be more, as long as you don't see it. The effect ? randomize 40 tracks (etc.) out of 100,000 in a few seconds.
  Of course you didn't make the selection in advance, but if you don't want to anyway, this is the technical difference :
  When you make the selection, and make it a kind of unpredictable for yourself, you'd select a 100 albums (or 1000 tracks with "T" instead of "A" in that small textbox at the bottom with the Library Area active), and those 1000 tracks are randomized in order to output the 40 you ordered for (the ordering for the output of 40 is new, see more above). So this takes time (for 1000 tracks this may be some 20 seconds). With this, the base to randomize from is just that 40, while the 40 itself is randomized to begin with. Thus, even out of a million tracks randomizing 40 from them takes a few seconds, while presenting that 40 to the Playlist Area (after another randomize process) takes the real time (maybe 6 seconds, and this is to mainly get the CoverArt).
  Just try it; This is at least a more "iPod" function.
  
  
• A new (but by itself known) option "Explore Original Location" has been added to the context menu emerging from rightclick on a (selection of) track(s) in the Playlist Area.
  
  
• In the same context menu as mentioned above, the Glitching option which was already there (but did nothing) now actually performs the Glitching Analysis.
  The same counts for the (rightclick) context menu on selected Library Items (Library Area active) and the Glitching option in there (btw, this option already was active before, but didn't work on a selection yet (or something else which was not quite right with it)).
  
  
• The new combobox for the Upsampling Type (the one containing Arc Prediction as described above), now also contains an Anti Image option, which is the same as the "AA Checkbox" from the latest versions, and which applies the official ("syncx") filtering, although with preset settings which "measure good". Thus, nothing really changed, but the checkbox moved to this combobox.
  
  Note that the "Anti Aliasing" (what the AA Checkbox ever was meant for) is still active, but this gets actibe under the hood at downsampling from 24/352.8 to 24/176.4, may you run into 24/352.8 tracks with a DAC which can't cope with this sample rate (be confident you are not alone).
  
  
• Under the Search Button (Library Area active) now instead of the 100 always showing, the number of Items in the Library Area shows (actively at getting them). Notice though that the number does not decrease when the result List is decimated by typing in the checkbox at the bottom (like "blues").
  
  
• A new small button C at the bottom (Library Area active) explicitly clears the Coverart Cache when it is felt this is needed (like via Explorer renaming or changing main Coverart files). Using this button makes appear the actual changes.
  
  
• The Settings Area contains a new setting "Nice Stuff Gallery". This is meant for denoting the Gallery Folder to which the the currently playing track or album will be copied to as Gallery data by Remote Command (see below);
  It is the intention that you select an existing Gallery Folder here, which will be used to copy track/album to during a listening session, and which may be on an ad-hoc base (but to your creativity). Thus, such a Gallery (Folder) may be named "to further investigate" or just "Good Stuff" or even "to throw out". Of course one such a Gallery Folder can be denoted at this time (for a listening session), and maybe later more can be appointed, together with the withgoing Remote Control Commands.
  
  
• New Remote Control Commands "Alt-C" and "Alt-H" for Add Track to the Nice Stuff Gallery Folder and Add Album to the Nice Stuff Gallery Folder;
  In either case the base is the currently playing track, and in case of Alt-H (album) the album will be derived from the track.
  Important : As how it ever was and still is, the Album Name (hence Folder Name) is derived from the Folder Level above where the track is. This does not work for a structure \ArtistName\AlbumName\ because the ArtistName will not be in the Gallery Structure. This will be solved in a next version.
  
  
• Like all stuff around the Checkboxes (and Library Area) have been made to work, also a kazillion bugs around those Checkboxes have been solved. This includes swicthing from "Checkbox View" to "Normal View" (which is without Checkboxes and really advised -> the Chk checkbox unticked), but also the possible means for the combobox at the bottom left for the type of view is adapted to the possibilities (which are different in both cases) as well as let grow or shrink the picture size by means of the slider under that combobox without having to explicitly refresh the Library contents in order to reflect the change. But as said, many more things in this (Checkboxes) area have been solved.
  
  
• Copy from FLAC to WAV did not work anymore. Solved.
  
  
• Since August 15 (2009) the Amazon Webservices changed strategy and all Webservices Request are to be "signed" from then on; This when a kind of unnoticed, and since that date "Get data from the Internet" did not work anymore, as well as "Show more Albums from Artist" and "Compare Tracks" (CoverArt Area) for Album data just downloaded from the Internet;
  The first (Get data from the Internet) has been restored with a LOT of work, but only for obtaining Coverart (and the largest size only). Thus, al the other data, like track into, Reviews and anything, is not working yet. This will be solved for 0.9y-5.
  
  Warning : The latest versions contain rather "sophisticated" detection regarding Coverart and Multivolume albums. In other words, Coverart Folders can be stored in separate folders from the albums themselves, but still are found. This *most probably* does not count for the Physical Copy functions, like FLAC To WAV and the others. Or said differently : this has not been recapped for those functions. Thus, please pay attention for now at using these functions, that the Coverart Folders are copied too, and if not, copy them manually !
  
  
• When the Library Area shows Tracks, the "Load Individual Tracks in the Playlist Area" context menu function did not go to the actual album folder, but went to the last one used for albums instead. Solved.
  
  
• Again a situation was found that the disk from the Original Location kept on being accessed during playback. Solved.
  
  
• The Music Root (Gallery) never could be asked for by clicking it in the Embedded Explorer; now it can.
  
  
• Although with Internet Explorer it was already possible by accident, now picture (image) files can be dragged from any browsed onto the CoverArt Area (3rd, rightmost pane), to drop them into the active album folder.
  
  
• The "split bar" between the middle - and rightmost pane has been made visible my default (for 640 wide monitors), so it is not necessary to first drag the right border to the right in order to be able to drag the rightmost panel into sight.
  
  
• The "Delete Original Files from disk" context menu option (on the Library Area Items) contained a bug, and could delete more than asked for (although this was shown in advance). This has been solved.
  Additionally, the tracks which are about to be deleted from the chosen album(s) now are shown as well.
  Lastly, a new checkbox allows for not showing an additional confirmation message (Sure to Delete ?). Default the message shows, until the checkbox is unticked.
  
  
• All Search activities (explicit by means of clicking th Search button (Library Area active) or implicit (the system refreshes the list) can now be aborted by means of clicking Stop. This is especially useful when a too long list is asked for with the Checkboxes option (Chk checkbox ticked).
  
  
• The previous versions which allowed Add to Gallery from withing the Playlist Area contained a bug, causing the x-Reference files to contain xxx.wav.GLXX. This by itself would show these files at asking for tracks in the Library Area;
  Although this bug has been fixed, these files can still be there. When you run into such a file, just delete it. The new files will be name xxx-wav.GLXX (xxx being the track name).
  
  
• For new users there was a message telling they should not install in the Program Files folder (Vista rights issue). However, this message was just there, unaccording (hence not checking) whether that folder was actually used for the install. Now it is. BUT :
  This is a bit tedious, because "Program Files" is not the same for every language of Vista. If all is right this works ok per language. Please report if you get the message while you think it is not justified !
  
  

And the usual repeat from earlier Release Notes :

Very important : Only when AutoHotkey has been installed, and is at least working to the extend XXHighEnd can be startup with a hotkey (default is Alt-X), it is allowed to tick the checkbox "Stop Services" in the Settings Area, and use Unattended Playback mode (checkbox at the bottom of the main screen). For AutoHotkey See AutoHotkey Install. When this is not done, hence XXHighEnd can not be brought up with a hotkey, at Unattended Payback - no desktop icons will be visible, no Taskbar will be there, no Startbutton will be around ... nothing. You might, however, may be able to use the "Windows" key which will bring up the Start Menu and find something in there to find your ways again. So, be careful, or maybe you will not be able to do anything, except for listening out the playlist concerned, and wait until that finishes and XXHighEnd will popup automatically, which by itself will bring back everything.
A reboot is a solution as well.

This all sounds more dangerously than it really is, and with the hotkeys available there is really nothing to fear.
And remember the objective : better Sound Quality.