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I’m using the CGSmooth preset and notice some slight distortion in the upper mid frequencies when input audio reaches a certain level. It sounds sort of like overmodulation. Input levels are fine peaking no more than -3db. Final drive +1, Range 55, Power 55, Speed 50. Source files are uncompressed WAV and sound clean when unprocessed. Leif, or anyone else, have you heard the distortion with that preset?
Hi Dave,
The CGSmooth preset uses very low ratio settings, to retain some dynamics. It’s an awesome sounding preset, but by default (as designed by Cornelius for Breakaway Live) it’s not very loud — so I make up for this with the clipper at the end in Breakaway Broadcast. However, even the advanced distortion-masking clipper in Breakaway can only do so much. How about turning down the Final Drive? It should cure the problem.
///Leif
Backed off final drive to -2db. That did the trick. Lost a little loudness, but my goal is not to be the "loudest internet stream ever". 😉
Hmmm, you know…I think I still hear a bit of distortion even with final drive turned down to -3. Again, with upper mids. If you have time maybe you could run a few songs through and confirm/deny this? Is there a way to see this clearly on the oscilloscopes? Perhaps I could run some sort of test tones through the demo on my other computer to make some observations?
I’ll try another preset on the stream and listen for a while to see if it’s just my ears or whatever…
I’ll check. Before that though, could you make sure to check the Input scope, to make sure the distortion isn’t already in the original (distorted CD)? It’s not uncommon for distortion to already be in the material nowadays (more rule than exception actually), and CGSmooth is pretty mid-heavy and could possibly exaggerate it.
///Leif
Leif,
I did a little more investigating. I do not seem to notice the distortion when running Breakaway Live (the demo version) on my XP computer. The on-air streaming computer where I notice this runs Vista. I also notice the distortion when listening to my station’s stream on the XP box (the stream that originates from the Vista box).On the Vista box my only Breakaway Live interface choices are DS and WAV. I have selected DS. Input sample rate is 44100 and output sample rate is 48000. SRC button is unchecked. Perhaps Vista is doing some sort of internal sample rate conversion making certain songs sound not-so-great?
Download this song clip. This is a portion of a song that sounded absolutely unlistenable when I was using the Reference Classical preset on air. Although there is some inherent harshness to the song, this same file sounds OK on the XP box with that preset and others even with Breakaway Live’s final drive cranked up. Maybe someone with both XP and Vista can run it through Breakaway Live on both OS’s and see (hear) a difference.
Hi Dave!
Vista will absolutely do sample rate conversion, and it’s indeed not very good at it.
Look at the article regarding using Airomate with BBP:
[url=RDS using Airomate]http]
Of course, you’re not trying to do RDS, but in the beginning of this article, I also happen to explain how to avoid the sample rate conversion in Vista. 🙂
It’s a matter of choosing the correct shared format for each device, so that no conversion is necessary.By the way, I do not recommend unchecking the SRC button in Breakaway. The SRC there is actually good, and it’s an adaptive SRC that serves the purpose of compensating for the clock difference between the input and output device. If you uncheck SRC, but select different rates for input and output, you still get SRC, except it will be static instead of adaptive, so you can still have periodical dropouts due to differing clock rates. For example, one device may be running at 44097.3 Hz and the other might be running at 48002.5 Hz. If nothing makes up for this, there must be periodical glitches, due to buffer overruns or underruns. Most programs accept this as inevitable, and allow the periodical glitches to happen, but not Breakaway. I’m far too anal about audio to let something like that slide 🙂.
If you’re doing a stream, chances are it would make the most sense to use 44100 for both input and output. However, you should still keep SRC checked, unless both the input and output devices are pipelines, as they will then have the same clock, and no need for SRC.
Listening to the clip, I could see how that voice would get completely torn up through a bad sample rate converter.
Best,
///Leif[quote author=”Leif”]
…but in the beginning of this article, I also happen to explain how to avoid the sample rate conversion in Vista.
[/quote]
I didn’t see that explained specifically anywhere, but I think I know what you were talking about.quote :By the way, I do not recommend unchecking the SRC button in Breakaway.I left it unchecked because the tooltip for the SRC button states "If both the input and output are on the same sound card disable this option". I will make sure it’s checked now.
I’m pretty sure the Breakaway output and soundcard sample rates are both 48000. I have to take down computer later to update some software so I’ll use that opportunity to double-check the settings.
As always thanks for the very comprehensive explanation.
I meant the screenshots right in the beginning of the article, showing where to set the "Default Format". 🙂
If you’re running input and output on the same sound card, with the same sampling rate for both input and output, you can disable SRC. However, if for example the input is a pipeline, and the output is a sound card, then you should leave SRC on.
///Leif
I just noticed the "speaker" (which is the Breakaway output) setting in Vista was 24 bit/48000khz. I changed it to 16/48000. This seemed to make all the difference. I presume Breakaway prefers 16 bit depth? Where does Breakaway pull the audio data from to feed the encoder?
Now, to decide which preset to use! Classical for it’s clean transparency, or CGSmooth for it’s warmth? They both work well with this format. Hmmm….
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