Leif

Hi Dave!

I understand the problem.

Breakaway handles all signals coming from the computer the same way. However, the line input plug-in in winamp doesn’t work the same as other input plug-ins (such as the mp3 decoder), because the line input plug-in never actually sends audio to the output plug-in.

So, when you’re using the line input plug-in in winamp, it only sends that audio to the dsp plug-in, but it never really plays it — that’s why Breakaway can’t pick it up.

If you used a program like Audio Repeater (available free with the demo of Virtual Audio Cables, http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html, and set input to your sound card, output to Breakaway Pipeline, then the Line Input will get into Breakaway and get processed (albeit with a slight delay).

However, this doesn’t give you crossfading, but you could cheat by doing the switchover between tracks. While waiting for the full webcaster version of Breakaway, it might be a worthwhile tradeoff to give up a couple of seconds of silence during the switchover, and in return get a vastly improved audio presentation.

///Leif

Hi Livelike!

Good answers, thanks.

Here’s what I would do to find out if it’s a WM8-related problem, or a Breakaway related problem:

1. Fast forward the song in WM, so that it starts skipping (=gets into failure mode)

2. Leave WM and Breakaway open and playing in failure mode (so that it’s skipping), and start MediaMonkey player, and play something in MediaMonkey at the same time

3. Leave MediaMonkey playing, but stop WM8.

(The key is to have the audio overlap during the switch from WM8 to BA, so that Breakaway has no chance to reset itself or the pipeline).

After having done all this, is the sound still skipping? If so, it’s a BA-related problem. If not, it’s a WM8 related problem.

///Leif

Howdy!

I haven’t seen those particular skipping issues before, but if you can answer a few questions for me, I can try to get to the bottom of it.

Could you tell me a bit more about your computer specs, such as CPU type, RAM, Windows version, Sound Card?

What buffer size are you using in Breakaway? (May be worth trying a larger one if available).

When it’s making skipping noises, does restarting windows media player help? If you start a different player, does that skip also?

What do you currently do to stop the skipping?

We were toying with the idea of a VL discount before, but the problem is that I really don’t have anything to do with VL other than being the inventor and designer (and programmer). I don’t own any rights to it (not a big deal since it has serious flaws which Breakaway fixes), or access to any of the purchaser records. In short, I’m completely out of that loop since many years back, so there’s little I can do, other than to give a sincere thank you for your continued support.

Thank you for your continued support! 🙂

///Leif

Hi Joe!

Thank you for your comments!

The speaker system does look nice! It’s from Creative – you can actually make out the text of the logo on the front, but only just.

Creative has some decent sounding systems, however, to be honest, I doubt this particular system is one of them. The two one-inch drivers pointing at you may produce decent treble, but the two-inch driver (which is supposed to produce midrange – it’s too small for mid-bass) is pointing sideways, creating phase cancellation issues that are very difficult to get around, especially in speakers of that price class. It’s also difficult to build good inexpensive crossovers. These speakers were obviously designed by a skilled industrial designer, not a skilled audio engineer 🙂.

But yes, it does LOOK very nice. I guess having it on our front page might be sending the wrong message, since I’m definitely function over form myself, but there you go… I didn’t design the website, I was busy designing Breakaway at the time 😉

Breakaway isn’t a codec per say, but an audio processor that could work with any codec. We do have a webcaster version on our roadmap, so we’ll get there one day.

It WOULD be really awesome to have the Breakaway algorithm in a device like the Roku Soundbridge. Breakaway as an algorithm is optimized enough that it IS technically possible. Once the Windows version gets popular enough, who knows where else it will end up. It’s all about numbers – when we have a several million downloads and a few hundred thousand purchases, it gets much easier to get other companies to pay attention. So, please tell everyone you know about Breakaway 😉.

The webcaster version, when done, will definitely support being used from SAM Broadcaster. I’ve never used OTS DJ though – what can you tell me about it?

Here’s a few questions:
What audio interface (Wave/DirectSound/KernelStreaming/ASIO) does it use to talk to the sound card?

Is all the mixing done internally, or does it output different virtual decks through different jacks?

Does it have a separate "headphone monitoring / auditioning / PFL" output?

Does it support any plug-ins (Winamp DSP/DirectShow/VST)?

Using dynamics processing indeed REALLY helps when DJ’ing — suddenly all tracks play at the same level and with the same level of punch. One major thing less to worry about!

Regarding the license, it’s not yet *automatically* transferable (will be one day), but we can do it for you. Just send an email to windows_system@claessonedwards.com with your order number and your new Hardware ID, and we’ll take care of it.

///Leif

[quote author=”CA Joe”]Breakaway is so nice … I’m posting this twice!

I love the Breakaway product! It is comparable to anything from Orban or Omnia … and my laptop sounds better than ever!

I would LOVE to own the speaker system on your homepage … tell us where it’s from? Gorgeous!

Now…as one into streaming media…if you could ONLY make it so that Breakaway would be the main codec for audio streams, as it is for receiving those streams.

Also, I am a big fan of Internet WiFi devices like Roku Labs "Soundbridge" radio systems.

Breakaway does work well on the computer and it encodes Internet streams coming in well…but it does NOT do same for wifi appliances. If that could happen … man!

I would also like to see the system work in the "going out" stream. My OTS DJ won’t allow it to be my audio processor (it has one of its own which is pretty good.) My SAM Broadcaster is WinAmp base and does allow it, but it already has a 5-band EQ built, so, it defeats the purpose.

If I could get my OTS to use it, however, I’d be set, as I do a lot of mobile DJ appearances, too, and know this would add much to my PA application.

Great product…congratulations. I will be purchasing it today or in the next day or so.

Oh, I will be getting a new computer shortly. Is the license transferable to another machine?

Joe Benson
Paso Robles, CA USA[/quote]

Hi Spenlinhauer!

Thank you for your bug report! I’m surprised, as I developed breakaway on a dual monitor system, but indeed there’s bound to be something I overlooked.

The reason Breakaway has its special slider controls is that they allow much higher precision than the number of pixels occupied by the control, as well as being able to easily grab the slider anywhere, without a sudden volume change. However, if it’s causing problems, I can always make a setting to make it behave more like normal sliders. It already uses this mode automatically if you use it through Remote Desktop or with a Touch Screen. You’ll still be able to grab it anywhere (the entire control is the handle) but it won’t hide or move the mouse, the slider follows the mouse pixel by pixel.

Scroll-to-change-volume is not a bad idea. The only problem is that this functionality would break drop list control scrolling (which is standard behaviour in all other Windows programs except perhaps web browsers) – click on a drop list, close it again, then scroll the wheel. Also, what are the chances that you’re inside the breakaway main window when you want to change the volume? If you’re doing something else, the easiest way to change the volume is by the tray icon or explorer toolbar.

If you click on the tray icon, it already supports mouse wheel scrolling!

For mouse wheel scrolling in the explorer toolbar you would have to click on it (to focus it) anyway, at which point you may as well just hold the button down and move the mouse sideways 🙂.

Regarding multiple sources of audio — chances are they never actually play simultaneously. (If they did, you would have a one big cacophony of sounds).

For each source, when it’s actually playing, Breakaway adjusts of the incoming audio to the volume to the volume you actually want.

If we enabled the volume controls in every app (which is possible – we tried it), it actually gets confusing, because as you turn the volume down in your player, breakaway will turn the volume up (to equalize the volume as it is designed to do) until the player volume is so low (below 5% or so) that breakaway runs out of range. So, the volume control would appear to be nearly broken even if it was enabled.

So in short, I’ll make the slider mode option (to make it follow pixels), and if more people agree that it would be better to scroll volume in the main window than to scroll presets, I’ll see what I can do. Until then, I recommend the volume control popup, which already does what you want. 🙂

///Leif

Mayasecret, I just noticed you said "oldish presario" which likely means you’re not running Vista.

Since you’re already familiar with VLC – I believe there is actually a setting inside VLC to adjust lip-sync, to compensate for delay. I’m far far away form home at the moment, so I can’t point you to it, but I’ll look into it when I get home in a few days, and if it’s simple we should make it a FAQ entry.

///Leif