Volumio & BruteFIR related discussion

[Paul E]

Thanks m_g_s_g, good to know I’m not the only one…….and thanks Somebodyelse for explaining why this happens. Do you know whether this way of operating (virtual sound device) imposes any sonic penalty - or should it be totally transparent?

In other news, since my earlier post I've been doing more experimenting, and have managed to get DRC to work using what the wiki calls "variant 2" - using rePhase. I'm sure there is still lots of room for improvement, but I do like the sound of my system with DRC applied.

I guess my only remaining issue is that I don't have any form of volume control in Volumio, switching DRC on stops software volume control working - m_g_s_g do you have this also? Somebodyelse, is this a “feature” of using the the “virtual sound device”?

Of course I'd really like hardware vol control, but even though the Tone Board supports it, hardware vol control on the KTB won't work as I'm using a DigiOne HAT between the KTB and the RPi.

I just emailed Allo who tell me that an Allo Relay Attenuator won't work with my system either. Although if I can get some ribbon cable to the right pins on the RPi GPIO connector, I'm not entirely sure I believe them. More research needed…

Thanks both, very useful.

Paul

 

[somebodyelse]

This is from memory again, so might not be quite right. I don't have volumio on anything at the moment to check.

The virtual sound device is passing data through to BruteFIR at whatever sample rate it's configured to run at. Anything that isn't already at this sample rate will need to be resampled. I'm not sure if this is done by the player or by alsa, or which resampler settings they're using. Even if they're using the default alsa one that trades a little quality for reduced CPU use it's pretty good as can bee seen in archimago's measurements. I suspect Volumio changes this to the best quality option. There's a thread somewhere with a link to a site comparing a wide range of software resamplers, but I can't find it right now. (EDIT: It's here) IIRC the ones alsa uses are among the best, so I'd say transparent.

I don't think there's any reason there couldn't be a software volume control. I'd guess it's either a config option you've missed, a bug, or a feature you should request.

If you really want to use the TB volume there are ways and means. There's the semi-official hardware hack which I think can be done with an FPC ribbon and breakout board if you aren't up to delicate soldering. There's the Ian Canada ESS controller which uses the I2C pins, similarly accessed by soldering or FPC - this also lets you change a load of other things.

 

[Paul E]

Hi Somethingelse and thanks again for that really useful reply. I'll definitely check if I've missed a config option, and if not I'll check with the developers if software vol control can be made to work.
If I do go the hardware vol control route, I'm not sure I could use the TB tweaks you describe, as my TB is fed from the Digione SPDIF, and just uses USB for power.
What I'm thinking of is on this thread, pages 2 and 3, where it talks about using an Allo Relay Attenuator between DAC and Preamp, fed with 5v, ground and 3 sets of signals from the RPi.
Normally the ARA sits on top of something like an Allo Piano, plugging into a dedicated connector (not GPIO) on the Piano. Allo helpfully publish tech specs for the Piano, including all the connector pinouts. It seems that the volumio control signals the ARA needs are just passed through from the RPi. They even provide a helpful lookup to tell you which GPIO pins the necessary signals come from, so there doesn't seem to be a technical reason why the ARA can't be controlled "off board".
I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of running some ribbon cable from selected pins on the RPi GPIO to the connector pins on the ARA. That seems like a nice way to implement hardware volume control (albeit I need to purchase an extra board), and Volumio has an "official" plugin to control the ARA.
Cheers
Paul

 

[somebodyelse]

The TB tweaks I described are two routes to changing the volume setting on the ESS9038 without using the USB interface, and should work with the SPDIF connection. They are a little involved though, and don't give you control through Volumio, although the Ian Canada one would support an IR remote. Your ARA solution looks like it should work. Good luck!

 

[frnz65]

Hello, I have just started playing with Volumio on Raspberry Pi 4. I have installed BruteFIR 3, and the system worked the first time I tried to play music. But then I disabled and re-enabled BruteFIR, and now there is no way to hear anything with BruteFIR enabled. I restarted the system a few times already. Did anyone have the same experience?

 

[Paul E]

I've not had that experience.
I have had it not play music once, but a RPi reboot fixed the issue. It has not happened since. I run a RPi 3B+ though, so not the same as you have.

Does the system play music with Volumio in "normal" mode if the BruteFIR plugin is switched off? Do you get any error messages in the browser window when you try to play a track with BruteFIR on?

Other than that, if you are able to access the RPi logs, I'd look for error messages in them when the system boots with BruteFIR enabled, and when you try to play a track. Apologies if you've already done that....

Good luck

Paul

 

[frnz65]

Thanks. I see weird behaviours. Just rebooted, bruteFIR is inactive, but in the playback options I see "audio jack through brutefir". I click there and only "audio jack" appears. No sound in either case, but playback seems stuck, from the play bar it seems it's working (pause symbol displayed), but the time is frozen. Probably I have to uninstall bruteFIR. If I start BruteFIR, no error messages, but the situation is the same.

 

[somebodyelse]

From the description it seems like one or more of the config files isn't being rewritten properly when you're changing settings, or enabling/disabling the plugin. Whenever you change one of the settings the configs are meant to be rewritten, filling in a template with the values you set in the GUI. If you don't have the skills to investigate yourself you can report the bug - I found the developers reasonably quick to respond when I reported things, but don't expect it to be immediate as the plugin is their hobby.

 

[QMuse]

Thanks. I see weird behaviours. Just rebooted, bruteFIR is inactive, but in the playback options I see "audio jack through brutefir". I click there and only "audio jack" appears. No sound in either case, but playback seems stuck, from the play bar it seems it's working (pause symbol displayed), but the time is frozen. Probably I have to uninstall bruteFIR. If I start BruteFIR, no error messages, but the situation is the same.

Reinstall BruteFIR. It is ok to see "audio jack" when bruteFIR is not active. Never change any of the playback options when bruteFIR is active.

 

[frnz65]

From the description it seems like one or more of the config files isn't being rewritten properly when you're changing settings, or enabling/disabling the plugin. Whenever you change one of the settings the configs are meant to be rewritten, filling in a template with the values you set in the GUI. If you don't have the skills to investigate yourself you can report the bug - I found the developers reasonably quick to respond when I reported things, but don't expect it to be immediate as the plugin is their hobby.

Thank you, before bothering others I will flash again Volumio and reinstall BruteFIR from scratch. Will see. Thanks.

 

[QMuse]

Thank you, before bothering others I will flash again Volumio and reinstall BruteFIR from scratch. Will see. Thanks.

You don't need to reinstall Volumio. Deinstall BruteFIR, reboot Volumio and you should be able to get it to play. Then install BruteFIR and it should work. This was probably caused by changing playback options while bruteFIR was active.

 

[Paul E]

Good day all. We have established "up thread" that when BruteFIR is enabled, it switches off use of I2S in the playback settings window, substituting use of "<devicename> through brutefir" instead. fed from a virtual sound device as Somebodyelse has described.

In my quest to get a Allo Relay Attenuator to work, I find it needs I2S on the RPi GPIO pins.

Would brutefir disabling use of I2S for playback, cause problems with other use of I2S between the RPi GPIO pins and a device connected via breakout board?

If there is a more relevant forum to ask this, feel free to point me at it....

Thanks

Paul

 

[QMuse]

If there is a more relevant forum to ask this, feel free to point me at it....

Thanks

Paul

You will get the best answer here. Moderator of this thread (balbuze) is the author of the BruteFIR plugin for Volumio and I'm sure he will answer your question.

 

[Paul E]

Thanks for that QMuse. I'll give it a try.

Paul

 

[ishmeister]

I finally got my umik-1, did measurements in REW and exported the filter settings into rePhase to generate a FIR filter. I followed the latest instructions to generate a text format filter (variant 1). But that caused popping/crackling when installed in brutefir where the sample rate was also set to 96khz (regardless of how low the attenuation is set). Reducing to 44.1 in brutefir plugin fixes the popping issue. I'm wondering - should I remake the filter at 44.1khz? I'm using pi4 and Topping D10 USB Dac.

 

[QMuse]

I finally got my umik-1, did measurements in REW and exported the filter settings into rePhase to generate a FIR filter. I followed the latest instructions to generate a text format filter (variant 1). But that caused popping/crackling when installed in brutefir where the sample rate was also set to 96khz (regardless of how low the attenuation is set). Reducing to 44.1 in brutefir plugin fixes the popping issue. I'm wondering - should I remake the filter at 44.1khz? I'm using pi4 and Topping D10 USB Dac.

Yep, try with 44.1 filters, there's really no reason to use anything with higher sampling rate if most of your music is in CD quality.

 

[ishmeister]

Yep, try with 44.1 filters, there's really no reason to use anything with higher sampling rate if most of your music is in CD quality.

Thanks QMuse, I remade the filter and it works fine.

 

[QMuse]

Thanks QMuse, I remade the filter and it works fine.

I'm glad to hear that, enjoy your music!

 

[shumi]

My apologies for the dumb question...newby here. I can not find brutefir or DRC as an option for a plugin I can install. I only see the option for the two parametric equalizers in the audio interface window. How do I install Brutefir?

 

[QMuse]

My apologies for the dumb question...newby here. I can not find brutefir or DRC as an option for a plugin I can install. I only see the option for the two parametric equalizers in the audio interface window. How do I install Brutefir?

It is still not an official Volumio plugin. On this page you will find commands you need to type via SSH client to install it.

 

[shumi]

thank you very much Qmuse. I just installed it after downloading Putty. My deepest appreciation to the developer of this app!