Jump to content
IGNORED

A toast to PGGB, a heady brew of math and magic


Recommended Posts

Hi ZB.

 

Regarding combining tracks; is there a typo in the PGGB guide?

 

Where it says "tracks 2 to 7" should it be "2:7" in the photo instead of "2:4"?

 

In the folder; do I write

 

i)  combine.json["2:x", 7:14"] exactly or

 

ii) ["2:x", 7:14"]combine.json

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2021-08-22 at 3.53.18 pm.png

PH SR7 > MacMini+Uptone MMK Mod > Audirvana 3.2 > re-clocked D-LInk switch/LPS1.1 > sMS-200Ultra/LPS1.2 > tX-USBUltra/PH SR7 > Chord BluDave > Focal Utopia(Norne Silver) or Voxativ 9.87/ Stereo REL G1 Mk II

Link to comment
7 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

Hi ZB.

 

Regarding combining tracks; is there a typo in the PGGB guide?

 

Where it says "tracks 2 to 7" should it be "2:7" in the photo instead of "2:4"?

 

In the folder; do I write

 

i)  combine.json["2:x", 7:14"] exactly or

 

ii) ["2:x", 7:14"]combine.json

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2021-08-22 at 3.53.18 pm.png

Yes there was a typo, I will fix it. It should have said '2 to 4' to match what was in teh picture.

 

You will have to create a file 'combine,json', combine.json is the name of the file and inside it you write

 ["2:x", 7:14"] 

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment

Hi ZB,

 

Sorry to be such a noob on this.

 

I can't seem to add the " in the file.

 

Can you please show me a screen shot of what you mean.

 

Thanks

 

G

 

 

IMG_0485.jpg

PH SR7 > MacMini+Uptone MMK Mod > Audirvana 3.2 > re-clocked D-LInk switch/LPS1.1 > sMS-200Ultra/LPS1.2 > tX-USBUltra/PH SR7 > Chord BluDave > Focal Utopia(Norne Silver) or Voxativ 9.87/ Stereo REL G1 Mk II

Link to comment
1 minute ago, HeeBroG said:

Any chance of some screen shots?

Please use the attached file. open it in a text editor, make any change you need to and save it to the album folder.

combine.json

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
1 hour ago, HeeBroG said:

Would that be notepad in Windows?

 

 

I prefer Sublimetext.

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment

Does this look correct.

 

I want to combine tracks 1-3 then 15-17.

 

G

IMG_0488.jpg

PH SR7 > MacMini+Uptone MMK Mod > Audirvana 3.2 > re-clocked D-LInk switch/LPS1.1 > sMS-200Ultra/LPS1.2 > tX-USBUltra/PH SR7 > Chord BluDave > Focal Utopia(Norne Silver) or Voxativ 9.87/ Stereo REL G1 Mk II

Link to comment
9 minutes ago, HeeBroG said:

Does this look correct.

 

I want to combine tracks 1-3 then 15-17.

 

G

IMG_0488.jpg

Yes that looks right. Please contact me via email for continued support.

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
3 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

Does this look correct.

 

I want to combine tracks 1-3 then 15-17.

 

G

IMG_0488.jpg

Just noticed couple of  issues, it needs to be  ["1:3", "15:17"]

 

Each set of tracks need to be in quotes, and you have to use ':' instead of '-'

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment

@Zaphod Beeblebrox, cool the component for foobar is available, can't recall many people running Foobar2000, perhaps in 2009, but haven't listened to it since. Looking through the notes on PGGB-RT, mentions that it can't decode DSD on the fly, the offline version is better for that, that's fine, but playback is then only PCM, that's kind of sad.

 

Today I listened to Marian McPartland "Silent Pool". There's two versions in the library, a 88.2 PCM from HD Tracks and the SACD as an iso ripped to 2.8 DSF. The PCM was OK to listen to was kind of tired the first few tracks, the DSF on the other hand was real piano wide space, a real pleasure to listen to and stayed with the album all the way through. If PCCB can only play PCM at high rates, then whatever conversion from DSD, won't there be losses and not sound the same?  If the Pros can't get it right, won't extra processing cause the same drama? Surely if the original track is garbage, even with sopper dooper processing it could never sound better, GIGO concept surely.

 

You say, high PCM rates are better for the DAC, and that all processing should be completed by the PC with PGGB, with millions of taps and it all sounds good, but I have trouble with this concept, since the DAC is quite capable of high rates, as well as plain ol redbook and DSD. The true mark of a good DAC is how it converts redbook, some DACs are good others not so. By upsampling to stratospheric rates, that intense processing can't be heard?  

 

Getting back to the -RT version, I see a panel where there are adjustments for filtering, transparency and so on. Very much like HQPlayer's filters, they are to me, meaningless numbers to learn. Does one set of numbers only to apply to classical, or jazz, or 70's bad bass EQ? What if (example) a setting is 4.3, and while listening should it be 4.7, or to agonise over another type of filter or number? This to me is not listening, but tinkering, and endless dissatisfaction and distraction. 

 

I must admit I haven't followed the thread that closely on how file sizes can come down, but on the fly processing is a good start, but worry about the startup time. This is a trap, like most software, it's prone to fall over if the play button does nothing audibly for 10 (?) seconds, is this a fail or just processing. More tinkering to find out why, just play the song!

AS Profile Equipment List        Say NO to MQA

Link to comment
3 hours ago, One and a half said:

Looking through the notes on PGGB-RT, mentions that it can't decode DSD on the fly, the offline version is better for that, that's fine, but playback is then only PCM, that's kind of sad.

It currently cannot decode DSD, but it is a planned feature for the next release.

 

3 hours ago, One and a half said:

Today I listened to Marian McPartland "Silent Pool". There's two versions in the library, a 88.2 PCM from HD Tracks and the SACD as an iso ripped to 2.8 DSF. The PCM was OK to listen to was kind of tired the first few tracks, the DSF on the other hand was real piano wide space, a real pleasure to listen to and stayed with the album all the way through. If PCCB can only play PCM at high rates, then whatever conversion from DSD, won't there be losses and not sound the same?  If the Pros can't get it right, won't extra processing cause the same drama? Surely if the original track is garbage, even with sopper dooper processing it could never sound better, GIGO concept surely.

 

It depends on the DAC, some DACs are able to play single bit DSD while others convert to PCM and play and the later can benifit from a software conversion. DSD vs PCM also depends on the mastering. Sometimes the PCM version is derived from DSD (often found in hybrid SACDs), in these cases DSD can be the better option. There are other examples (Patricia Barber's Clique is a good example) where the mastering was done at 32bit DXD rates and both the DSD and PCM DXD versions were created from this version. Here there should not be any degradation in quality going to PCM or even better using the original 32bit DXD. More often than not, unless the album was a direct transfer to DSD, if any processing was done during mastering it was converted to a intermediate PCM rate. Because processing DSD is a lot harder to do and most DAWs work with PCM. Bottom line it is hard to make any generalizations and provenance matters. More here: PGGB - FAQ (remastero.com)

 

3 hours ago, One and a half said:

You say, high PCM rates are better for the DAC, and that all processing should be completed by the PC with PGGB, with millions of taps and it all sounds good, but I have trouble with this concept, since the DAC is quite capable of high rates, as well as plain ol redbook and DSD. The true mark of a good DAC is how it converts redbook, some DACs are good others not so. By upsampling to stratospheric rates, that intense processing can't be heard?  

 

I don't think I can or want to convince anyone that software upsampling is for them or claim software upsampling is always a good option. There are DACs where software upsampling makes little to no difference. The possibility of additional processing introducing audible noise (because of active CPU, memory etc) exists for all software upsamplers. One has to weigh the the  audible benefit the upsampled tracks bring to their DACs over audibility of processing noise (and possibly reduce processing by their DAC) and choose whichever sounds best. Again hard to generalize and one has to try and decide for themselves.

 

3 hours ago, One and a half said:

Getting back to the -RT version, I see a panel where there are adjustments for filtering, transparency and so on. Very much like HQPlayer's filters, they are to me, meaningless numbers to learn. Does one set of numbers only to apply to classical, or jazz, or 70's bad bass EQ? What if (example) a setting is 4.3, and while listening should it be 4.7, or to agonise over another type of filter or number? This to me is not listening, but tinkering, and endless dissatisfaction and distraction. 

I have kept the number of options to the bare necessities so as not to overwhelm anyone. I can safely say, 95% of the user just keep the settings at their default values. The rest of the settings such as sample-rate and bit depth numbers are DAC dependent. The idea is not to use different settings for different albums, but rather make a few adjustments to get the best out of your playback chain. For those who wish to tinker a bit, there is also an onboarding guide, though the guide is for PGGB Offline, the settings are the same for RT version so it can be used to navigate the settings.

 

3 hours ago, One and a half said:

I must admit I haven't followed the thread that closely on how file sizes can come down, but on the fly processing is a good start, but worry about the startup time. This is a trap, like most software, it's prone to fall over if the play button does nothing audibly for 10 (?) seconds, is this a fail or just processing. More tinkering to find out why, just play the song!

I agree, and we were concerned about it, so when PGGB-RT is busy processing the first track during the first few seconds of delay, a status progress bar pops up showing it is busy and it goes away as soon as the playback starts.

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/27/2021 at 5:23 PM, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

 

There has been a lot of feedback regarding storage requirements and also processing requirements for PGGB. 

 

PGGB-RT for foobar2000

Happy to inform everyone that I just release another version of PGGB, A PGGB-RT component for foobar2000, it is can remaster tracks in real-time (so does not need huge disk space) and is far less resource intensive. It is not meant to be a substitute for the offline version of PGGB because there are some differences. PGGB-RT can also be turned in-to offline remastering tool PGGB.IT Version 2

 

Because this is a foobar component, it does not support Tidal or Qobuz integration.

 

Based on initial feedback, I have improved memory, processing performance and also stability of PGGB-RT. There is now a new version v1.44. Also available as part of the foobar2000 Component repository (Resampler/Playback). The free PGGB.IT! App has also been updated to version 2.2 to allow offline remastering. Both now allow remastering up to 2M taps without requiring an upgrade.

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
On 8/29/2021 at 10:02 PM, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

I don't think I can or want to convince anyone that software upsampling is for them or claim software upsampling is always a good option. 

A gentleman and a scholar. Very nice work dealing with that drive-by. 

 

I'm hanging out until the DSD update, thanks for all the good work, ZB. 

Link to comment
8 minutes ago, Ben-M said:

A gentleman and a scholar. Very nice work dealing with that drive-by. 

 

I'm hanging out until the DSD update, thanks for all the good work, ZB. 

Thank you, as a point of clarification, DSD is not available right now for PGGb-RT/Foobar. But PGGB offline still offers DSD to PCM conversion even in trial mode.

 

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
4 hours ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Thank you, as a point of clarification, DSD is not available right now for PGGb-RT/Foobar. But PGGB offline still offers DSD to PCM conversion even in trial mode.

Oops, after you first released PGGB I stepped away for a bit and didn't keep up with the updates. I did mistake that one, however, I am a long time and happy Foobar2000 user 👍

 

In my case, I have a T+A DAC8DSD, which does play PCM, but sounds best with DSD and DSD512 specifically. 

 

I was still hoping that offline DSD->upscaled DSD and PCM->upscaled DSD would still become available sometime. Was that added or is that in the works? 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Ben-M said:

Oops, after you first released PGGB I stepped away for a bit and didn't keep up with the updates. I did mistake that one, however, I am a long time and happy Foobar2000 user 👍

 

In my case, I have a T+A DAC8DSD, which does play PCM, but sounds best with DSD and DSD512 specifically. 

 

I was still hoping that offline DSD->upscaled DSD and PCM->upscaled DSD would still become available sometime. Was that added or is that in the works? 

Understood, I have no intention of implementing DSD upsampling HQPLayer is the best there is in that regard.

Author of PGGB & RASA, remastero

Update: PGGB-256 is completely revamped, improved, and now uses much less memory

New: PGGB-IT! is a new interface for PGGB 256, supports multi-channel, smaller footprint, more lossless compression options

Free: foo_pggb_rt is a free real-time upsampling plugin for foobar2000 64bit; RASA is a free tool to do FFT analysis of audio tracks

System: TT7 PGI 240v > Paretoaudio Server [SR7T] > Adnaco Fiber [SR5T] >VR L2iSE [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Infinity PC]> QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation RCA> Omega CAMs, JL Sub, Vox Z-Bass/ [QSA Silver fuse, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation PC] KGSSHV Carbon CC, Audeze CRBN

 

Link to comment
On 8/29/2021 at 7:02 AM, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

It currently cannot decode DSD, but it is a planned feature for the next release.

 

It depends on the DAC, some DACs are able to play single bit DSD while others convert to PCM and play and the later can benifit from a software conversion. DSD vs PCM also depends on the mastering. Sometimes the PCM version is derived from DSD (often found in hybrid SACDs), in these cases DSD can be the better option. There are other examples (Patricia Barber's Clique is a good example) where the mastering was done at 32bit DXD rates and both the DSD and PCM DXD versions were created from this version. Here there should not be any degradation in quality going to PCM or even better using the original 32bit DXD. More often than not, unless the album was a direct transfer to DSD, if any processing was done during mastering it was converted to a intermediate PCM rate. Because processing DSD is a lot harder to do and most DAWs work with PCM. Bottom line it is hard to make any generalizations and provenance matters. More here: PGGB - FAQ (remastero.com)

 

I don't think I can or want to convince anyone that software upsampling is for them or claim software upsampling is always a good option. There are DACs where software upsampling makes little to no difference. The possibility of additional processing introducing audible noise (because of active CPU, memory etc) exists for all software upsamplers. One has to weigh the the  audible benefit the upsampled tracks bring to their DACs over audibility of processing noise (and possibly reduce processing by their DAC) and choose whichever sounds best. Again hard to generalize and one has to try and decide for themselves.

 

I have kept the number of options to the bare necessities so as not to overwhelm anyone. I can safely say, 95% of the user just keep the settings at their default values. The rest of the settings such as sample-rate and bit depth numbers are DAC dependent. The idea is not to use different settings for different albums, but rather make a few adjustments to get the best out of your playback chain. For those who wish to tinker a bit, there is also an onboarding guide, though the guide is for PGGB Offline, the settings are the same for RT version so it can be used to navigate the settings.

 

I agree, and we were concerned about it, so when PGGB-RT is busy processing the first track during the first few seconds of delay, a status progress bar pops up showing it is busy and it goes away as soon as the playback starts.

ZB, I just now read about the PGGB-RT and this is exciting! That said, I use a Mac and know that this is not supported now, but wondering if there's a possible path to the RT version on a Mac at some point or are there aspects to this (of course including Foobar) that are limited to Windows only? Thanks - and I love my offline PGGB!

Link to comment

 

18 hours ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Thank you, as a point of clarification, DSD is not available right now for PGGb-RT/Foobar. But PGGB offline still offers DSD to PCM conversion even in trial mode.

 

 

Hi ZB. Are you also working on a way to make "off line" DSD conversion to PGGB less memory intensive?

PH SR7 > MacMini+Uptone MMK Mod > Audirvana 3.2 > re-clocked D-LInk switch/LPS1.1 > sMS-200Ultra/LPS1.2 > tX-USBUltra/PH SR7 > Chord BluDave > Focal Utopia(Norne Silver) or Voxativ 9.87/ Stereo REL G1 Mk II

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...