Foobar2000 & Tidal Static noise on some tracks but not others...

[Earwax]

Foobar 2000 AND Tidal have Same issue with same track.

Audacity and USB audio player pro have no static.
Even music bee plays this track much cleaner but their frequency response is not neutral and very far from that.

Track example is: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica.
Other tracks from other artists are also impacted by this static. To keep it simple I'm only using the above mentioned track as example.

Flac file from my computer foobar2000 adds much static and is terrible quality.
Audacity is purely awesome, Music Bee has much less static but quality is adulterated.

Online player Tidal also very poor quality both online pc and cellphone also same when playing Tidal through usb audio player pro app.

So why the issue could it be bit related if Tidal uses 8 to 32 could that be adding static and degrading source file ?

I think Audacity uses only 8 to 24 bit.

Unsure about usb audio player pro.

I tried finding a contact email to inquire and give a straightforward example but so far no luck.

 

[DVDdoug]

If it's during loud parts it's probably clipping. Clipping is the most common kind of distortion and it happens if you try to push digital audio over 0dBFS or if you try to get 150W out of a 100W amplifier, etc.

Some formats can go over 0dB (including MP3) and then you can get clipping simply by playing at full volume. But that should only happen if the file was "*messed with".*

Most media players don't go over "100%" and their volume control only attenuates. (VLC is an exception that I know of.) BUT, if you boost with EQ and don't use the "preamp" attenuation feature to compensate, EQ can cause it.

It's probably caused by boosting with EQ.

Even music bee plays this track much cleaner but their frequency response is not neutral and very far from that.

Turn off the EQ. The frequency response of digital audio doesn't get altered "accidently".

I think Audacity uses only 8 to 24 bit.

By default, Audacity converts everything to 32-bit floating point. For all practical-audio purposes floating point audio has no upper (or lower) limits so it won't clip. But fi the audio goes over 0dB and you play it at "full digital volume", your DAC is still limited to 0dB and it will clip.



* As part of the lossy compression process, the wave shape changes and sometimes an MP3 will go over 0dB by 1 or 2dB ven though the uncompressed original didn't. But that slight clipping isn't normally audible and if you don't play it at full digital volume there will be no clipping and you won't clip your DAC.

 

[levimax]

Foobar 2000 AND Tidal have Same issue with same track.

Audacity and USB audio player pro have no static.
Even music bee plays this track much cleaner but their frequency response is not neutral and very far from that.

Track example is: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica.
Other tracks from other artists are also impacted by this static. To keep it simple I'm only using the above mentioned track as example.

Flac file from my computer foobar2000 adds much static and is terrible quality.
Audacity is purely awesome, Music Bee has much less static but quality is adulterated.

Online player Tidal also very poor quality both online pc and cellphone also same when playing Tidal through usb audio player pro app.

So why the issue could it be bit related if Tidal uses 8 to 32 could that be adding static and degrading source file ?

I think Audacity uses only 8 to 24 bit.

Unsure about usb audio player pro.

I tried finding a contact email to inquire and give a straightforward example but so far no luck.

That Metalica track is quite "loud", is it possible that you are hearing "digital clipping"? I am not sure how you have everything hooked up and configured and if you are using DSP room correction or not on your computer but if you turn the volume down on Foobar's volume control does the "static" go away? If so it is probably digital clipping and you can either sort it out in you signal chain or use Foobars pre-amp and dial in enough attenuation so it doesn't digitally clip. If that doesn't help not sure as that track plays fine for me on Foobar.

 

[Earwax]

Very low volume even it does the static at the very beginning it is very noticeable when you compare just the 1st 5 seconds even...

I didn't use any eq settings on any of them.

 

[Earwax]

It's not a set up problem It's a software design fault.

 

[kyuu]

Considering that people using Tidal and Foobar are not widely experiencing this static issue, as far as I'm aware, it seems more likely that this is something specific to your setup rather than an issue with the design of the software. I can certainly play that track via Tidal on my systems without any issues. Without a lot more information about how your system is setup and how the audio is getting routed, it's rather difficult to point to anything, however.

 

[Sokel]

It's not a set up problem It's a software design fault.

Do you convert to DSD and stuff? Upsample?
How your set-up in foobar?

There's no way foobar doing this if setup is right.

 

[danadam]

The peak in the first 7 seconds of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is at -10 dBFS, at least in my version.

The recording of the bells is quite noisy, like 12-bit dither, but fwiw to me it sounds the same both in Foobar2000 and Audacity.

 

[Sokel]

Most media players don't go over "100%" and their volume control only attenuates. (VLC is an exception that I know of.) BUT, if you boost with EQ and don't use the "preamp" attenuation feature to compensate, EQ can cause it.

foobar has an additional preamp function which is sadly abused as you can imagine as it offers positive gain too:

Same with DSP I guess, if there's buttons to press or sliders to slide people do it without thought.

 

[Jimbob54]

their frequency response is not neutral and very far from that.

Determined how ? A lot of your posts say this or similar. Are you measuring ?

 

[raindance]

So, to summarize, it sounds like the OP is experiencing digital clipping. Maybe some more info about his setup and settings would be helpful?

 

[Jimbob54]

So, to summarize, it sounds like the OP is experiencing digital clipping. Maybe some more info about his setup and settings would be helpful?

And hearing different FR from different player software . And all the of the issues are definitely software failings .

 

[Earwax]

foobar has an additional preamp function which is sadly abused as you can imagine as it offers positive gain too:

View attachment 449231

Same with DSP I guess, if there's buttons to press or sliders to slide people do it without thought.

Thank You it was the gain setting had to be set to none !

So not a design fault but a default settings over sight as many people will just use the default until they experience the noise in some tracks...

 

[danadam]

Thank You it was the gain setting had to be set to none !

You are talking about replay gain processing and Sokel was talking about preamp gain value.

If replay gain on "For Whom The Bell Tolls"causes clipping (with preamp gain set to 0) then you may have some corrupted replay gain values in your files' tags. Replay gain on this track/album should rather reduce its gain, not increase it.

 

[Sokel]

You are talking about replay gain processing and Sokel was talking about preamp gain value.

If replay gain on "For Whom The Bell Tolls"causes clipping (with preamp gain set to 0) then you may have some corrupted replay gain values in your files' tags. Replay gain on this track/album should rather reduce its gain, not increase it.

I have seen many corrupted RG info files around, I'm not sure what's causing it.
Of course I was talking about the gain settings, you're right, but fix came probably accidentally

Edit: @Earwax it might be a good idea to remove all RG info, foobar has an option for this.

 

[kyuu]

Slightly confusing, as it's not clear exactly what setting is being referred to by @Earwax , at least to me. The pre-gain settings should be set to 0dB by default, right? What is the default setting for ReplayGain processing? ReplayGain shouldn't cause clipping, unless there's something wrong with the values in the files (as already noted), so I can't imagine the default setting there should ordinarily cause an issue either.

 

[danadam]

The pre-gain settings should be set to 0dB by default, right?

Yes.

What is the default setting for ReplayGain processing?

"apply gain". The other choices are "none" (that's on Earwax screenshot), "apply gain and prevent clipping according to peak" and "prevent clipping according to peak".

 

[kyuu]

It is possible for ReplayGain to cause clipping if a quiet track is boosted beyond the actual headroom available in the track, right? It's hard to imagine a Metallica track, of all things, ending up with a boost that causes clipping though. Except that there's probably less than no headroom available in the track in the first place.

 

[Earwax]

Tidal was the same noise but different fix. I had to turn off normalize volume level for all tracks...

Again I was using default settings...

 

[Sokel]

Tidal was the same noise but different fix. I had to turn off normalize volume level for all tracks...

Again I was using default settings...

I'm really curious about this file.
Can you download Audacity and throw it in so we see what it looks like?