Audirvana Studio

[Mike Rubin]

I am trying the 30-day tire kick.  I could be the dumb bunny here, but I can't figure out why my library and playlists didn't copy over.  The library is no big deal, because I was able to reconstruct it, but I can't figure out how the playlist editor is supposed to work or where playlists even display, so I haven't been able to replace my old ones. (Doesn't look like there's a place for them in the lefthand side menu area.

 

Any tips for me?

[Mike Rubin]

2 hours ago, RickB68 said:

 

Near the top center left of the app, look for these icons. Click the third one from the left and you should see your playlists, if they transferred over.

Thanks.  Indeed, that is where I find the editor, but none of my playlists transferred over.  Further, when I try to create a smartlist in the editor, e.g., all tracks whose titles contain "Maiden Voyage," I can't get that filter to pull up any results.  (Not only do I have tracks with that title, I also have a functional smartlist with the same criterion in 3.5.)  Putting aside that it is dumbfuck UX to bury the playlist display at the bottom of the pop-up editor pane rather than visible on a menu, I am finding it impossible to create a smartlist that populates.  There's obviously something amiss  in my setup because I can't believe that Studio got out of beta without this basic functionality.

 

I should add that Studio hasn't finished analyzing my 165k local files and I haven't enabled writing of recovered metadata to the local files.  Maybe that's germane and maybe it isn't.

 

I next will try to create playlists from specific files rather than smart playlists.  Perhaps those will populate and play as expected.

[Mike Rubin]

6 minutes ago, Mike Rubin said:

 

I next will try to create playlists from specific files rather than smart playlists.  Perhaps those will populate and play as expected.

Clearly, I lack the intelligence even to do that.  The so-called editor allows me to add an image file and key words, but has no place to add the files, whether by dragging and dropping or by browsing to them in the file tree.  I also don't see a way to add imported tracks to a playlist by clicking on a dialogue box where they display in Studio.

 

I don't remember having this kind of trouble with 3.5 (or, for that matter, with any of the dozens of music management and control apps that I have used or tried over the years).  

 

Again, I know this is on me. I can't believe that anyone would release a product like this without this basic functionality enabled.

[Mike Rubin]

Okay, finally got a smart playlist up and running.  It took so long for the list to populate that I didn't think anything was happening even though something was, so it must have been a resource issue.  That's a bit surprising to me because the computer is a desktop Dell XPS 2020 model i7 with 32 gb RAM and a 1 tb NVME ssd that always has been up to any task that I have asked of it.  In any event, I am reconstructing my playlists as quickly as Studio will allow it.

[Mike Rubin]

3 hours ago, RunHomeSlow said:

If you have your playlists saved somewhere you can just click the three dots to import all at one time...

 

 

Thanks, @RunHomeSlow.  I am embarrassed that that did not occur to me before I reconstructed all the playlists last night. :) 

[Mike Rubin]

1 minute ago, bnbayer said:

Possibly related to the on-going analysing? Even if it isn't writing MusicBrainzID tags to your files, perhaps the analysis is building Audirvana's own library file, and that's where it looks when populating smart playlists?

Could well be.  For the record, the population did vary by playlist size and it generally became quicker as I went along. (I recreated 23 smart playlists of wildly different sizes by "contains" track title, album title, album artist, or file type.)

[Mike Rubin]

6 hours ago, BassFace said:

Is anyone still getting Audirvana crashes?    Mine seems to randomly crash at the end of an album or if I stop a track and select another track.   It was doing it a lot since I started my trial although it isn't doing it so much since the latest 1.3 update but it is still doing it.   Other than that everything else seems to work great for me using Tidal and Qobuz.

All of the time. 

 

Happens randomly but routinely and takes down my streamer with it. I can't close it out without a ctrl+alt+del and the streamer needs to be restarted. 

 

Sounds pretty good, but this unreliability is a deal killer for me. 

[Mike Rubin]

Tried to upload this to the Audirvana forum but it won't allow me to attach the video capture.

 

What the hell IS this?

 

The only way to end it is to use ctrl+alt+del, as there doesn't actually seem to be an "exit" menu item anywhere and the "x" in the upper righthand corner appears to be disabled. 

 

Sorry, but Studio is just way, way, way too buggy right now to be the Roon replacement that I seek. 

[Mike Rubin]

17 minutes ago, Boleary3 said:

@Mike Rubin, what version are you using? I had that type of behavior with the original release of Studio, 1.0. It stopped here with the first update.

1.3.  “Check for update” says it’s the latest.

[Mike Rubin]

1 hour ago, Boleary3 said:

Mike, how much memory in your NUC? I'm using 32 gig in my W10 server; I wonder if that makes a difference to the stability of the Studio display?

I have Studio installed not on the NUC, but, instead, on a Dell XPS8930 i7 with 32gb RAM and 4gb VRAM on a dedicated Nvidia video card.  That should be more than enough horsepower for audio applications.

[Mike Rubin]

41 minutes ago, Jud said:

I was able to end it when I had it in 1.1 or 1.2 by bringing up Preferences, then just going back. Going to a different view apparently stopped it.

Thanks, Jud.   I found Studio unresponsive when it was pulsating on my screen, hence my desire to quit and restart.

[Mike Rubin]

On 6/14/2021 at 11:16 AM, Jud said:

Another way to quit is to right-click the AS icon in the Windows taskbar and choose “Close window.”

That hasn’t worked for me, unfortunately.

[Mike Rubin]

1 hour ago, BassFace said:

The new 1.4.5 Windows 10 Update has been released. 👍  Its worth reading the instructions as there is a file that has to be replaced. 

Autoinstaller in app updater returns this error:

 

"App installation failed with error message: error 0xC00CEE01: The XML in the .appinstaller file is not valid: Line 9, Column 55, Reason: Unexpected end of input. (0xc00cee01)"

 

Where does one find the instructions?

[Mike Rubin]

2 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

some said a restart should be done after uninstalling PC version 1.3

 

Damien3

 

IMPORTANT
For all Windows 10 users of Studio, please take a look at the change log to properly get the update and not having to do the analysis of your track.

Following today’s update of Studio, here is the change log of this 1.4.5 version:

MacOs:

• Fix display issues on High Sierra

• Show number of active filters in toolbar button

• Fix streaming playlist album play

Windows 10:

We made a change due to Microsoft security policy for Audirvana Studio Windows 10 version. This then means you will need to do a couple of things to get the update.

IMPORTANT: Before uninstalling Studio, you need to copy your AudirvanaDatabase.sqlite file that you can find at this location:

C:\Users[your login]\AppData\Local\Packages\Audirvana.Audirvana-[… id number that can vary]\LocalCache\Local\Audirvana\Audirvana

To show AppData folder:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-10-97fbc472-c603-9d90-91d0-1166d1d9f4b5 15

Copy and save it in a different folder BEFORE uninstalling Studio (It’s mandatory to not lose the analysis of your tracks)

You then need to uninstall Studio from your computer (right-click on the icon in start menu and select Uninstall)

And then install the latest version using the link  Download - Audirvana 24

After doing this, open Studio one time and close it. Then go to the same location as before:

C:\Users[your login]\AppData\Local\Packages\Audirvana.Audirvana-[… id number that can vary]\LocalCache\Local\Audirvana\Audirvana

Replace the AudirvanaDatabase.sqlite file.

You can now reopen Audirvana Studio and the analysis of your tracks should not be done again.

Change log of 1.4.5 for Windows 10:

• Improve audio files analysis progress information

• Allow pause in radio playback

• Show number of active filters in toolbar button

• Fix streaming playlist album play

• Other minor fixes

What a pain in the ass.

[Mike Rubin]

The Audirvana Forum says Studio first should be uninstalled according to the impossible-to-find release notes.

 

Not ready for prime time, clearly.

[Mike Rubin]

31 minutes ago, fheller said:

It's no big deal. Just follow the instructions and add a PC restart after you uninstalled Audirvana 1.3.

The whole process takes just a couple of minutes.

I did that very thing and I continue to get the same error message.  I cannot reinstall at all, leaving me in the same boat as some other users who have posted in the Audirvana forum.  

 

That's my idea of a big deal.

[Mike Rubin]

After a second PC restart, Studio reinstalled.  I copied back the database file and found that some of my settings were not retained, but at least the database was reinstalled when I copied over the saved file.

 

I hope that fewer steps will be required when updating in the future.

[Mike Rubin]

I gotta say that, especially with DSD upsampling, Studio sounds pretty gorgeous on my system.

[Mike Rubin]

I have found that, while they can coexist on the same computer, they can't be running at the same time, though. 

[Mike Rubin]

On 6/13/2021 at 3:34 PM, Mike Rubin said:

Tried to upload this to the Audirvana forum but it won't allow me to attach the video capture.

 

What the hell IS this?

 

The only way to end it is to use ctrl+alt+del, as there doesn't actually seem to be an "exit" menu item anywhere and the "x" in the upper righthand corner appears to be disabled. 

 

Sorry, but Studio is just way, way, way too buggy right now to be the Roon replacement that I seek. 

This behavior just recurred in 1.5, but, this time, I couldn't even get the Windows recorder to work when Audirvana was visible on my screen.  (It worked fine if I brought up other apps to test, but it would not start recording if Audirvana's pulsations were on screen.)  I therefore can't post the actual screen at the time of the most recent failure.

 

Again, the only way to exit was to use ctrl+alt+del.  The upper righthand corner "x" is functionless and trying to close the window from the taskbar did nothing.

 

I am disappointed that this kind of bugginess remains in the brand new release. 

[Mike Rubin]

Oh, and by the way, after force-quitting Studio after that video anomaly, I was unable to get it to load again until I rebooted the computer.

[Mike Rubin]

I really, really, really hate how Studio takes over metadata.  My “artists” section now has albums attributed not only to the actual artist, but, also, to each of the composers of the individual tracks on the album, so that the same album displays as eight or ten different “artists.”  That effectively makes “artists” a completely cluttered and pointless listing category.

 

I am that rare person who despises Roon’s metadata, GUI, and library management tools, but subscribes for sound quality, thanks to its excellent DSP implementation. I was thinking that Studio’s SQ is good enough that it might be the app that gets me to cut the Roon cord, finally.  If anything, this BS with the artists display might make Studio even more annoying and ridiculously inflexible than Roon.

 

JRiver is the only application I know right now that says “you do you” when it comes to metadata rather than “it’s my way or the highway.”  It has a few issues of its own with DSP over DLNA, but there are reasons why I keep it around. 

[Mike Rubin]

44 minutes ago, bnbayer said:

I think you misread the comment. It did not in any way praise or recommend JRiver. It merely pointed out, factually, that they now seemed to be the only player that accepted the users metadata tags without "improving" them.

Bingo. 
 

Thanks.  You beat me to this.

 

I subscribe to Roon, despite hating most of it, because it has virtues.  I subscribe to Audirvāna, despite its instability, because it has virtues.  I also upgrade JRiver annually, despite thinking it could be better, because it has its virtues, especially for library curation.

 

Odd that the poster complains about JRiver’s upgrade cost, given that you can upgrade it for five years at Roon’s annual price and two years at Audirvāna’s.  That’s an especially ironic comment at the current cost of a Roon lifetime sub, as you could upgrade JRiver for the rest of your and your children’s lives for that amount. 

[Mike Rubin]

46 minutes ago, bobbmd said:

just my 2 cents on the cost of STUDIO-- I got charged 53$ by something called PADDLE for my US subscription anyone know why? i live in USA and have had A+3.5 and all prior versions of A+3.5 since 2013. there is no US or NYS tax as Audirvana has no presence in NYS-- 6% tax to whom PADDLE??

The rules regarding taxation of internet sales have gotten more complicated and the existence or absence of a physical nexus no longer resolves the issue.  See, e.g,., 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/states-with-internet-sales-tax

 

[Mike Rubin]

My NUC 10 i7 with Windows 10 typically runs at 50-70c even when streaming  music over DLNA to my Sonore Rendu devices. With Studio, however, upsampling to any DSD setting is pegging the cpu at 100c pretty frequently, if only momentarily.  I have a large library that Studio has been “analyzing” for weeks, so that is happening, too, while I am listening to Studio and I suspect it also is taxing the CPU.  
 

I have 16gb RAM installed, the unit sits on a desktop without obstruction, and the ambient temperature is very, very moderate.  Other than Studio’s DSD upsampling and scanning while “analyzing,” there are no variables that account for the momentary spikes in temp.

 

Google searching tells me that 100c is way too hot for any CPU, but the internet is all over the map on the effects of spiking.  Some people insist that any spasm into that temperature region is fatal to cpu life and others are just as adamant that steady temperatures are the issue, not spikes.  I can’t evaluate which side of the argument is correct although I am sure everyone can agree that it’s better not even to spike and that it’s dangerous to run a long time in that region.

 

My current solution is to disable oversampling, but, honestly, in my system, DSD (whether 1x, 2x or 4x) sounds more full-bodied than non-OS.  I now wonder what kind of system horsepower is needed for DSD at acceptable temperatures.

 

Are the rest of you finding that oversampling taxes the hell out of your processors?

 

For whatever it is worth, JRiver can upsample to DSD64 over DLNA (and can stream any DSD flavor natively if your DAC can handle it), but the temps rarely have exceeded 75c when upsampling.  Then again, I don’t think JRiver sounds quite as good as Studio.

 
For whatever it also is worth, Audirvāna 3.5 in my experience runs hotter than JRiver and cooler than Studio.