Pure Music 1.74 available...

[RobGoodison]

Hi All,

 

PM 1.74 available now. Release notes available below:

 

Release Notes / Changes

1.74

• Preallocate now usable on most computers with 2 GB or more RAM installed (previously required at least 4 GB RAM installed), provided that Pure Music is launched following a system restart

 

• Corrected issue when using Preallocate which could cause a short snippet of the previous track to play if playback is paused and another track having a different sample rate then is started playing

 

• Corrected issue causing clicks to be emitted when using the new factored upsampler with Preallo- cate enabled

 

• Corrected issue preventing metering from being disabled across launches if Advanced mode in the sidebar was turned off

 

• Alerts user when adding FLAC tracks if the source volume is not writeable • Removed requirement of needing special settings in iTunes to access FLAC files from iTunes playlist

 

[oski]

Hi Rob,

 

this new version surely must be working beautifully, since no one replayed your announce. By my side it's fair to say that in my Mac version 1.74 is working flawlessly and sounding better than 1.73

 

[avi]

There is a minor issue in that the second bullet point on the change log didn't fix the issue when running in "less is more" mode. Rob has already fixed this.

 

Avi

 

[mgs]

There is still the issue of occasional transient noise when changing manually between tracks with different sample rate.

 

Michael

 

[oski]

Sorry mgs, but I´m curious if this transient noise is produced by the PM software or the dac itself. To avoid this annoying noise I use to stop the song playing and then I start the new song having a different sample rate. It seems too tough for the system all, having to change sample rate without any gap in the middle. Anyway I agree that the PM software should be able to control this situation flawlessly

 

 

 

 

[Lars]

I believe that different dacs play into this issue. When I was beta testing for another sofware player, some dacs had this problem, others not. I have had no problems with my Wavelength dac playing playlists composed of titles with different sample rates.

 

[mgs]

... Rob has been sending me different builds of the PM software and I have been providing him with my feedback. With each build, some progress has been made (for example, the most recent one shows the problem only when the ratio of the two sample rates is non-integer. This leads me to believe that it is not the dac, at least not the dac exclusively that is responsible for this. I think PM is trying to mute the output while changing sample rate but something is not quite right with this operation. By the way, my dac is the North Star Design USB dac32, which together with the PM produces fabulous sound from its USB input.

 

oski: What dac are you using?

 

Lars: I take it from your answer that you do not have the problem when tracks with different sample rate switch automatically from one to the next. If you switch such tracks manually, do you still not have the problem?

 

Michael

 

[Lars]

"Lars: I take it from your answer that you do not have the problem when tracks with different sample rate switch automatically from one to the next. If you switch such tracks manually, do you still not have the problem?"

 

Manual switch is still OK. On a very rare occassion, I get a tiny click. This has happened only 2 or 3 times with a great deal of listening, and it was not switching sampling rates.

 

 

 

[mgs]

What I get is a quite loud scratch-type (like from a bad scratch on an LP) noise. It is very annoying and the puzzling thing is that it does not happen consistently but occasionally and unpredictably - thus very hard to track down. I am thinking that if PM was muting the output properly when switching tracks then this should not happen at all, unless my dac plays a part, too. The only way to avoid it is to have PM upsample everything to 192KHz, which I do not want to do (as my dac upsamples by default everything to 192KHs/32bit).

 

I am confident that Rob will come up with the solution soon.

 

Michael

 

[ericuco]

I had been getting a scratching sound as well, usually on start up of PM. It occurred in my home system as well as at a friend's house where I only had my DAC and MBP so it had to be caused by either the DAC or MBP and related programs. Fairly confident it is PM based on the above comments.

 

PM 1.74 is also shutting down frequently. Prior versions had been very stable up until 1.72(?) version. The change to the pre-allocation feature seems to be cause of the problems. At least that is when the instability started. (FYI - my MBP has 4Mb of RAM).

 

Hopefully Rob will get these issues corrected soon.

 

[mgs]

Never had shut down or any other problem, other than the transient noise mentioned above, with any of the recent versions of PM, including with the preallocate feature. I use a late 2010 Mac Mini with SSD and 8 GB of RAM booted in 64bit mode.

 

Michael

 

[James1776]

I am having zero problems with the latest version from mid 2007 iMac through toslink glass to a Benchmark DAC1,,,

 

[oski]

Hi mgs, myself I haven't noticed any problem with transient noise. May be it helps that I have no different sample rates inside the same playlist. Anyway I use to stop playing when rate is going to change. My dac is a dCS system

 

[Wotan]

I'm trying Pure Music 1.74. I like a lot, but I have a problem that I would like to know how to solve before buy.

 

The gapless playback with "memory play" does not working properly. There is always a silence between tracks. With other players do not I have this problem. The tracks are played without pause.

 

If I check the box "part of a gapless album" on iTunes, then works. But it is very annoying for me having to review all tracks. Is there another way? Any suggestions?

 

My system: Mac mini (v.2010) with 8gb ram.

 

 

 

 

[Lars]

Pure Music gapless play depends on you selecting gapless in iTunes for an album. This allows you to utilize the iTunes interface with the program.

 

[dgad]

I have tried a demo of Pure Music a few times. Each time it had some bug or another that showed up. But, I really like the sound and the ability to change sample rates on the fly. I just upgraded my Mac Mini w. a clean install w. a SSD, and 8GBs Ram. So I downloaded the latest Pure Music and had no problem playing a full album recorded at 16/44. I then tried to playback an Album of 24/176 that I have as an AIFF file. I purchased from Reference REcordings and converted. All my files are on an external WD hard drive connected via USB into my Mac Mini. They are tagged in iTunes as Gapless. When I choose to play it can only load 2 to 4 of the tracks out of 8 into memory. It then crashes at the end giving me an error message. Wonder if I am doing something wrong. I still have memory left over (3.5 GB available). I really want to buy it but on High Resolution files this has been happening. I am using Hybrid Memory mode. My DAC is a Firewire based Prism Orpheus.

 

[Lars]

dgad,

 

Do you have the option preallocate checked? It is needed for gapless playback.

 

[dgad]

It only loads 2 tracks as such of high resolution material. From reading what it does, it seems to hold onto the memory which will prevent it from loading the "freed up" memory. It also isn't loading the full memory since I have 3.5 GB left over. Any ideas.

 

[Lars]

For the heck of it, don't check the hybrid play and see what happens. We have the same amount of memory and it works fine here.

 

Send Rob at Channel D an e-mail explaining your problem. Perhaps he has a soultion since he's been through this stuff so many times.

 

[One and a half]

If you play files direct from the mini's HDD, do you still get the same problem?

I find the WD drives a bit slow to start, the spinup/spindown is not the most responsive when you want it, perhaps this is causing a bottleneck with PM loading data.