Pure Music 1.65A

[Panelhead]

I downloaded the latest today. Only played one album to check it out. Sonically it sounds more direct and focussed to me. The notes did not mention any changes sonically.

Has anyone else noticed a difference in 1.65A compared to 1.63 as far as playback quality?

 

George

 

[JS21]

Can't say I noticed, though I only listened briefly. Might give it another go later.

 

I did notice however, that the itunes time counter still freezes like the previous versions. I originally emailed P/M about this issue but never got an answer that satisfied me. Oh well...

 

[fradi]

The notes for 1.65 did mention a possible sonical change:

 

- Slightly modified the volume control dithering

 

[Panelhead]

My interface has a volume control, so the level in PM is set at 0 dB. But maybe dithering is still applied.

I need to listen some more and swap out the FW cable again. Tried a new cable, cannot believe it is cable related but either the FW cable or 1.65A helped the sonics.

 

George

 

[Lars]

Dithering is only applied if the box is selected in preferences George. I don't think that there were any sonic changes to this version from the last one; at least for me.

 

[routlaw]

"I did notice however, that the itunes time counter still freezes like the previous versions. I originally emailed P/M about this issue but never got an answer that satisfied me. Oh well..."

 

I am new to PM, so don't have anything to compare but have experienced a number of erratic behaviors myself, not the least of which is the time counter freezing but also the music goes into an endless loop of a few seconds of play time. Once I hit the space bar a couple of times it snaps out of it. I have also ran into one other oddity. Some tracks on some albums will jump back to almost the beginning of the track and start playing again but only after being about 2/3rds done. So far it only tends to happen on certain albums.

 

But I have only had the program installed for a couple of days now, it could be my setup, ie user error. Who knows.

 

 

 

[earther]

"Some tracks on some albums will jump back to almost the beginning of the track and start playing again but only after being about 2/3rds done."

 

I've been experiencing the same issue with .65a. For me, it's usually with extra-long tracks. I'm sure he'll have it fixed in the next version tho.

 

[myco]

We've traced this behavior to a setting on the computer Energy Saver. Accordingly, the FAQ and Tips section of our website has been updated. Here is the text from that section:

 

System sleep should be disabled when playing audio (Energy Saver pane of System Preferences, set Computer sleep: to "Never").

 

From the point of view of the computer operating system (OS), if using Pure Music's Memory Play, the computer really isn't "doing" anything or "working" during playback, just fetching information from RAM. This is distinct from other player applications such as iTunes, which continually read from the hard disk while music is being played.

 

The OS uses disk and (to some extent) CPU activity to determine if the system is idle. Since Pure Music uses far less CPU than other applications, and the disk isn't being accessed during memory play, it is logical for the OS to presume the computer isn't busy or working, and to try to put the system to sleep.

 

The OS will then attempt to put the system to sleep, but this is intercepted by Pure Music. However during that time, there may be a brief interruption of the sound output. (If the sleep attempt happens at the worst possible time, then it may also affect track sequencing.)

 

Also, some DACs respond ungracefully if the system is put to sleep. Some will successfully re-establish a connection with Pure Music, but others will not, and only output silence until the DAC is reset (unplugged from the computer then replugged, with Pure Music and iTunes not running).

 

HTH. - Rob

 

 

[earther]

I've always had my energy saver set to never sleep and i'm still experiencing quite a bit of skipping.

 

[myco]

From your post a couple before the above, the skipping involved playing extra-long tracks - longer than 10 to 15 minutes (if you are the same user who reported this to tech support), and it was just while using the factored upsampling, and there was a sound interruption between tracks... we are investigating this now.

 

(And I didn’t mean for the above suggestion pertaining to sleep to apply in your case, which appears to be unrelated to sleep - sorry I wasn’t clearer on that...)

 

Rob Robinson

Channel D

 

 

[earther]

it wasn't i who reported to tech...

 

and what i'm experiencing is occurring with or without upsampling and/or memory play being active. Generally the track skipping happens with alac files that are entire sides of albums which i've recorded, but i also experience the same skipping with shorter alac tracks ripped from cd's.

 

what happens is that at some point during playback, the track will be playing fine and then suddenly jump backwards x minutes. From there, it may play the rest of the track fine, or it may randomly jump back again. It does this with all long tracks and is completely random as far as i can tell...

 

[shamu144]

I also have experienced the same issue with the last version 1.65A(jump backward a few minutes) but only with one 24/192 ALAC track, almost 11 minutes long...

 

Earther, does it happen to you with different sample rates ?

 

[earther]

i wouldn't know... all my alac are 16/44.