New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana

[Ajax]

 

Hi Damien,

 

You were right .... I was tring to load audiofiles and not playlists using "Load Playlist".

 

What is generally referred to as "operator error".

 

I am on holidays on Australia's east coast, about 3 hours south of Sydney, and spent the day surfing with my 11 yearl old son and then listening through Audirvana to Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" and "Blood on the Tracks", Lloyd Cole's "Don't get weird on me Babe" and currently have Dianna Krall "Live in Paris" playing in the back ground as I write this.

 

I've had a great day thanks to your skill and generousity.

 

 

[Bob Stern]

Damien,

 

I am 100% ignorant about Core Data and mySQL. However, you might want to investigate the relative merits of these two databases before you invest too much development time in Core Data. mySQL 5.1 is installed as part of OS X 10.6 (and maybe 10.5; I don't know). It's in /usr/local/

 

iPhone programmers are forced to use Core Data, but it seems that mySQL is by far the most popular database for embedding within desktop programs such as Logitech Squeeze Server. It may be that mySQL will give you more flexibility if you decide to add features to the library database down the road.

 

If Apple has a Core Data discussion list, perhaps you could ask whether anyone has extensive experience with both databases and could recommend which is easier to learn.

 

I believe mySQL uses a server/client model. This may be useful for allowing multiple music players on a LAN to access the same music database.

 

[bluedy1]

Hi Damien, Just downloaded the update this morning and it now works flawlessly with my Weiss dac 202.

Thanks for your support.

I have yet to evaluate its musical qualities.

 

[damien78]

Hi Bluedy1,

I'm glad to know it now works on your DAC202 too.

Just out of curiosity what was the version of Audirvana you were using before upgrading?

 

Damien

 

[damien78]

Bob,

 

The main merit of CoreData is its Cocoa integration, and especially with the UI services.

It also provides a SQLite storage backend advertised to be scalable to terabytes (in CoreData Apple documentation). And it might be a good candidate for a shared music database. Need to take a closer look though.

 

Damien

 

[Bob Stern]

I didn't know about the SQLite aspect. That's very encouraging.

 

I wish ObjC weren't so hard to learn. I'd love to be able to tinker with this.

 

[Ajax]

Hi Damien,

 

It is 8pm in Sydney and Christmas Day is coming to a close, whereas it is just starting in the US and Europe so have a good one.

 

[damien78]

Thanks a lot Ajax!

 

I've released v.0.4.0 that implements a much more convenient user preferences dialog I hope will fix most "operator errors" in this domain.

And as we are in Christmas period, I've also added a link in the About Box for people who would like to contribute to encourage me.

 

Damien

 

[damien78]

now gives the choice of the sampling rate converter (Apple CoreAudio or SRC libSampleRate), and the quality level used.

This gives more possibilities in terms of over/upsampling combinations.

 

In addition, a file ending with Sleeve.png in the album folder can be loaded as album art (in addition to folder.jpg & cover.jpg). These kind of album art *Sleeve.png can be found in LinnRecords downloads.

 

Damien

 

[junji98]

thanks for the excellent program. i am still a newbie, but among my players now, my music sounds best using your software. just out of curiosity, any chance for a remote app? hahaha happy new year!

 

ed

 

[DanRubin]

Everyone wants remote apps for these music players. Question for those of you who understand this stuff better than I do:

 

Apple's Remote app controls iTunes, but it's all their stuff. How difficult is it to control a specific third-party application running under MacOS via a remote app? Is it even possible? PM and Amarra are remote controllable by virtue of attaching themselves to iTunes, but that would not be the case for AyreWave or Audirvana.

 

[Jud]

This works but is a bit kludgy, more so the smaller the screen (thus better with an iPad than iPhone or iPod):

 

- If your computer running Audirvana or Ayrewave isn't directly wired to your audio system, use Airfoil ( http://www.rogueamoeba.com/ ).

 

- Use the free VNC Lite app on your iDevice to remotely control your player of choice. (Using VNC Lite, the screen of your computer running Audirvana/Ayrewave will appear on your iDevice and you can remotely control it from there, which is why it's kludgier on smaller screens - takes some touchscreen zooming on the iPhone or iPod to make things big enough that you can see and work the controls properly.)

 

[volante]

Jud,

 

As a relative newcomer to all of this, I am trying to assess the merits of Amarra versus the free Audivirna/Ayrewave software and apart from the musical side of each version of software, about which there have been many posts and which is entirely subjective, one of the key issues for most people considering Audivirna/Ayrewave is, as is already mentioned above, whether they can be remotely operated via an iPad or iPhone.

 

Jud, would the VNC Lite app on an iPad control a headless mac mini which is operating the playback software. Are the features of the VNC Lite remote the same or similar to the apple itunes remote apps (which can be used on iTunes and Amarra) or is it a bit of a compromise in terms of quality or features -reference your "kludgy" comment?

 

A big thumbs up BTW to the creators of Audivirna and Ayrewave who have created these software systems for open use.

 

[Jud]

volante asks:

 

- Can VNC Lite on an iPad control a headless mac mini operating the playback software?

 

-- I don't have a headless Mini, but others have reported success controlling headless Minis with the VNC Lite app. Since the app is free, my advice is simply to try it and see if it works for you.

 

- Are there compromises with regard to quality or features vs. the Remote app?

 

-- Quality, not at all. All VNC does is give you remote access to your computer screen. It doesn't affect in the least the way any program runs, including players.

 

-- Features, that's where "kludgy" could come in for some folks, but you should be OK. Using VNC Lite on an iPhone or iPod Touch presents the screen at a relatively small size, so there's scrolling and zooming to bring a player's controls into view and get them to an operable size. For you OTOH there shouldn't be much if any fiddling involved in working a player's UI using the iPad display.

 

[volante]

Jud,

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

It's a bit bewildering as a newcomer comaparing the various different music players available given that some are free and open source and some have to be paid for even though the free versions seem to do most things that the paid-for versions do. Usually there's no such thing as free lunch!

 

Neil

 

[4est]

People keep mentioning AyreWave as free, when in actuality it is not. It is a beta, with price to be announced.

 

Audirvana on the other hand is, and Damien deserves a pat on the back, if not some cash. If you like this program, one might consider a donation to help him continue developing it. IIRC, he mentioned needing a new DAC to work on Integer Mode. At this moment, I feel it is the best sounding FREE player out there...

 

While I am here, Damien:Thanks for the "prune" feature! I must say though, that I hate the CD player window. It is bad enough to have to click in and out of windows to make things play, let alone leaving the 'Player" window open in so that you can click "play". It would be much simpler if they were all in one window that was less wide. That way when using Itunes to add tracks both windows can be fully visible. As an alternative, being able to double click the added tracks to begin playback. If this has already been addressed, please forgive my ignorance.

 

[RG79]

Thank You, Damien, for the beautiful player. Great clear sound.

 

My Mac Pro have 8gb of RAM, but max memory size can be allocated for tracks is only 4096Mb appeared in preferences of Audirvana (not up to 7Gb).

 

 

 

 

[damien78]

RG79, thanks for the report. I committed the fix in svn for it. It'll be included in next release.

 

Playing using the native driver format (as opposed to Core Audio standard 32bit float format) enables to further lessen the synchronous operations performed during playback, and this time at driver level. Sort of an additional optimization.

A simple way to check if your DAC is capable of handling this "Integer Mode" is to check in Audirvana's debug info (launching the menu command WHEN playing) if some virtual formats are "non-mixable".

 

Damien

 

[damien78]

The issue with UI is that a single implementation can't fit all...

FYI, I initially left space on the right for adding a nice big rotating volume knob. But as so few DACs export a non-destructive volume control (so called "physical") to CoreAudio, this is becoming a candidate for "space-cutting".

 

Anyway, I'm preparing a revamping of it for the arrival of the library (folders scanning + iTunes read access). And I'm still thinking on what should be the workflow there. Should it be a two modes: simple playlist/playback mode (as is) and library (itunes like) ?

Any suggestion is welcome.

In addition, I'm looking at making the database not only for pop music (as itunes), but also for classical (thus adding composer, conductor, ensemble, part, ...) metadata (fortunately this seems to be quite standardized in both flac and id3).

A remote app is part of the long term plan (in the TODO list BTW).

Now the issue is that the days have only 24 hours...

 

I added the begin playback when double clicking on a track in playlist. Will be part of next release.

 

Damien

 

[Jud]

Is there a way for the app to determine whether non-destructive volume control is possible and only offer volume control when that's true?

 

[audiozorro]

that is not already provided by the free Mocha VNC lite? I seem to have full remote control with my iPhone over any program running on my MacBook Pro using VNC Lite.

 

[jp11801]

very nice work! If you set up a donation page I'm sure a few of us would throw down a few bucks to assist.

 

[damien78]

Thanks jp11801!

 

I've set up a donation page on Audirvana's google code site: http://code.google.com/p/audirvana/wiki/Contribute

 

FYI, I'm currently coding the last core player feature: transparent split load that'll enable complete playing of long tracks, to decrease RAM needs and thus main cause for the few remaining dropouts (swapping).

 

Damien

 

[One and a half]

I tried Amarra 2.1 and Ayrewave, both suffer retarded playback in Hog modes (takes "forever" to load), and that's a show stopper for me. The latest PM 1.7 suffers from this as well when loading FLAC direct.

 

Audivana has no such limitations, there's only a very slight delay in starting tracks, even 20min + jobs, and now totally workable in the latest release (0.4). This is really great! I keep listening to Audivana as a preference, far more consistently open, detailed and more likeable, if you wish to define, to listen to than PM. For 24/96 files, the openness really shines.

I don't have issues with clicks, have set memory out of the box standard, no more CPU over alarms.

 

Cosmetically, I would wish for a searchable playlist with customs columns (Artist, Album in particular) although I understand it doesn't have an influence on the music, but it would be WIP issue and given encouragement, the author would continue to refine requests.

 

Sonically, I can't add anything now to make things improve, other than integer support which seems to be a DAC limitation(?)rather than a player issue. Please leave the volume control out, and adjusting sample rates cause both bring on pain and distract rather than add to SQ.

 

I would like to donate, but need to figure out the Pay Pal translation from French! Thank you again for your efforts, a great undertaking to start with very rewarding results. Positive discussions on this forum has no doubt contributed to the success of Audivana.

 

[damien78]

Hi One and half,

Thanks for your very encouraging message!

I envision more the searchable playlist features as part of the upcoming library, the next big step for Audirvana.

Integer supports for Audirvana needs 2 things: 1) a DAC/bridge handling it (the halide design is one), and 2) I need to add the feature, and for this I need such a DAC...

 

I've updated the PayPal donation page to be US/English, so you should get it in English. Tell me if there's still any issue.

 

Damien