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Hi Liam!
Thank you very much for your support (that is, buying BA)!
Regarding sound card:
How much are you willing to spend? 🙂The cheapest card I know that is semi-professional is M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Nice card, Analog RCA outputs (standard red/white jacks) as opposed to 1/8 jacks. It can be had for just under $100 USD.
If that’s way out of range, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 should also do the trick just fine. It’s under $30 USD (looking at Yahoo Shopping US) and should be widely available in most every country.
For the Sound Blaster, you must remember to turn of the CMSS effect (it’s on by default when you first install it) in the control panel – it’s a lame stereo "3d" effect and completely ruins the sound, but once it’s off, this card performs great.
///Leif
Liam, all the jacks you mentioned are analog. The standard Red/White jacks are analog, and so is the standard 1/8 inch jack on your computer – even if there happens to be a digital chip generating the sound, the digital signals get converted to standard analog before they get out of the computer.
If there’s a digital input (or output) it’ll be labeled as such – it might say "Digital", "Coax" or "S/PDIF" or any combination of those.
///Leif
Hi Liam!
If you have an iPod, Walkman CD player, or similar – try connecting that to the Video input as a test, and see what it sounds like. (Make sure to turn bass boost off on the portable player). This way, we can rule out any problems with the stereo or the input.
If the input is OK, it might just be worth getting a different sound card. If the output of your motherboard is bad enough to be obvious, it’s probably not worth spending time messing with it, since even a $30 sound card would be a big improvement.
///Leif
Hi Fido!
Breakaway supports the volume up/down keys on your keyboard. I’m not sure if your remote controls the volume the same way as a keyboard does. If it doesn’t work, I definitely need to make it possible – it’s an important feature. What kind of remote do you have, for starters?
Having an option to remove the tray icon would confuse some users, but there’s a feature in windows to do exactly this.
In Windows XP:
Right-click the task bar and click Properties. Look at the bottom of the "Taskbar" page, make sure "Hide Inactive Icons" is enabled, and click "Customize". Set Breakaway’s icon to Always Hide.
In Vista:
Right-click the task bar and click Properties. Look at the "Notification Area" page, make sure "Hide Inactive Icons" is enabled, and click "Customize". Set Breakaway’s icon to Always Hide.
///Leif
Optimum speaker placement for best spatial imaging and sound quality.
This type of setup works great even if there is a computer monitor or two between the speakers!
You just have to scale it down to fit the listening position you’re in.
Make sure you the tweeters are level with, and aimed at your head – this improves spatial imaging more than an algorithm ever could.
///Leif
Howdy!
A spatial enhancer with individual settings for consumers?
What percentage of consumers do you think even know what a spatial enhancer is?? 🙂
And out of those, how many do you think would be able to actually adjust settings?
Because every button added makes it harder to use for consumers, I try to keep the options to a minimum, and make sure that every control really is worth its space.
I may add more buttons some day, but I don’t think spatial enhancement is a big enough feature to deserve its own button controls.
Have you tried placing your speakers in the optimal position (close enough for crisp sound, but far enough away for proper stereo imaging) and aiming them at your head?
This improves stereo imaging much more and cleaner than a spatial enhancer ever could.
///Leif
Both, and more!
Each GUI setting adjusts multiple core parameters simultaneously, algorithmically. The algorithms for how to adjust the internal parameters were very carefully tuned, so there is no "wrong" setting – it’s perfectly valid to use any combination of sliders, as long as you’re happy with the result.
I wouldn’t recommend pulling different sliders to opposite ends, but it’s still doable (and valid) even if it’s not recommended.
///Leif
quote :You forgot your latest professional project, the AEROMAX-HDFM. But the processor is, according to the website of Linear Acoustic, not available any more. Why?Aeromax-HDFM is on the air on one single FM station in the states – and it’s certainly the best sounding station in the nation. However, they’ve got a prototype unit.
Due to various circumstances such as:
– Hardware difficulties (there is no such thing as one sound card that can do 48khz Digital and 192khz Analog at the same time)
– Funding difficulties (it costs money to make a hardware unit)
– Questionable demand (FM radio in the states is not exactly booming with money at the moment, especially not after the HD-radio fiasco)
…
To make a long story short, it has never *really* been released.
However, I’ve been continuously improving it, and it’s just about as good as it can be now. I’m tired of seeing perfectly good inventions collecting dust on my shelf, so it IS going out this year – even if I have to release it as software initially. Stay tuned. 🙂
quote :And the solution is: band-stop filtering.Well, no – actually that’s basically what VL was (unintentionally) doing. The solution is NOT to do it 😉.
///Leif
Hi Sweetmusic!
I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Unfortunately, it’s not me. (If it was me, I could fix it)
What happens is, the Windows Shell will ensure that all icons are visible on the current desktop area — because of all the support calls they’d get from regular users who can’t find their icons at all. So, it’ll rearrange them to fit. You’ll see the same behaviour if you change to a lower resolution.
I don’t believe there is a way to turn off that windows feature, but there ARE utilities to back up your icon positions so that you can restore them.
I don’t know what they’re called (I don’t use them myself) but maybe Jesse knows? 🙂
///Leif
Howdy!
Thank you for the comments. Not selling stock in myself just yet, but who knows 😉
Hydro, well.. As an example, being an excellent programmer does not automatically mean that you know how to use Microsoft Word. There’s still a learning curve involved. I’ve had to be pretty frequent on the delete button due to some really bad porn spam, so it’s not impossible that I made a mistake.
Watte had a problem with getting a bluescreen while trying to access the breakaway configuration. Likely caused by some interaction between Breakaway and a bug in his sound card drivers. I suggested trying to use Safe Mode in breakaway. Looks like it worked out!
Winamp controls in the Breakaway windows is a definite no – it’s a a can of worms I don’t want to open. Making a Winamp playlist window would be a huge amount of work, for no benefit — Winamp already has one, and it’s even skinnable!
I’ll duplicate the Volume control though – that makes sense to have.
Jesse is correct – the virtual sound card (Breakaway Pipeline) is indeed a licensed version of VAC. Licensed it, paid for it out of my own pocket. Ouch. Well, had to be done!
Breakaway Pipeline’s role is to be the system audio destination, and make the audio available to my code so that it can be processed.
That part is the only part of the code I didn’t write 100% myself. If I had tried to do that myself, Breakaway development would have easily taken another year, I have no experience with driver programming.
///Leif
Hi Watte! I’m sorry, we were having some database trouble before, it must have disappeared. It may also just have been me being clumsy with the controls – I’m still learning how to operate and run the board.
///Leif
Hi Steve!
No worries. I never get tired of talking about audio processing (go figure!).
The VL core (or OctiMax 5.1 / OctiRAMA as it was also called) had a good run. Not only did we sell a lot of plug-ins (primarily for Macintosh/iTunes), but the Pro version ended up in lots of places too. AOL (or was it Yahoo) processed their whole library with it, it was used on the Live 8 streams, Digitally Imported (di.fm) used it on every channel, Max/MSP has OctiMax 5.1 algorithms built in, Cycling 74 ported and released a version for ProTools/TDM, and last but not least, the Linear Acoustic OctiMax 5.1 rackmount unit was used (and still is) on numerous HDTV networks around the united states.
And of course, it’s not a matter of professionals paying thousands of dollars for something that is worth $19.95, but really the other way around – that is, consumers paying twenty bucks for something that is really worth thousands of dollars 🙂. Of course, the professional versions interface with other hardware in a completely different manner, and allow a completely different level of control.
The VL core did have a few inherent issues that couldn’t be tweaked around. It tended to duck vocals too much, particularly with loud, powerful female vocals (think Celine Dion or Whitney Houston). Breakaway lets them through the way the singers vocal cords intended. I’ve learned a thing or two in the years that passed between inventing Volume Logic and inventing Breakaway 😉.
No worries about my keybord – I’m using an original Model M, manufactured in 1991. No joke! It weighs a ton, has that wonderful clickety-click feeling, and NEVER fails (knock on wood). It’s dead-on accurate, and lacks windows-keys! What more could a programmer want.
///Leif
Hi Steve!
Mine too – all three of them. But, I did obviously miss something (it should never ever crash) — reproducing it is the hard part. If I ever do manage to reproduce it, fixing it will be easy.
///Leif
Hi Hydro!
Thank you for your comments.
YES – updates will be free, and new versions such as Winamp Output plug-in as well as Vista Version, will also be free to registered users.
There will be a Webcaster version in the future too – that one will be sold separately, as it will be more expensive than the normal user version.
Ah, sub-bass harmonic generator! I’ll bet that sounds just incredible in combination with Breakaway’s bass boost algorithm. 🙂
