Can't work out how to enable gapless playback on new version

[tommochocolate]

I opened Poweramp this evening to discover it has updated to a radically different new version. I quickly realised that gapless playback is no longer enabled - there used to be an option to enable it in the audio settings but I can no longer find it there. Does anyone know where that option has been moved to?

[andrewilley]

Gapless playback should now be enabled by default, I don't think there is any way to turn it off.

There is no longer any separate option for Cut Silence though, which previously might introduced gaps or clicks if files have any initial or trailing silent portions. 

Andre

[AndroidUser]

Hi. I've just downloaded the update for Poweramp and it's a sleek looking app but Gapless playback, or rather the cut silence feature, is no longer present. This introduces a tiny gap between tracks on mixed albums, and is a deal breaker for me and many others. This was never the case in the previous version and my mixed albums played perfectly and is the primary reason I used this app.

I have no intention of re-encoding 100 or so CDs, especially when previously it wasn't an issue. I'll be moving on to another music player and will discourage others to use this app because of this reason. I've also left a negative rating on the app store because of this.

The visuals are cool, but the playback of music is more important and this is a huge step back. Shame, I used to really like this app.

[andrewilley]

@maxmp Could you myabe re-add Cut Silence, as it used to make gapless playback much more consistent with tracks that for some reason have a short section of digital silence at the start or end.

Andre

[maxmp]

Gapless always works - and there was no gapless options for v2 (there was silence removal option - not related to gapless).

v3 has gapless smoothing which radically lowers number of possible clicks in gapless tracks.

There is an issue with very slow storages, like slow sd cards (or highly fragmented, etc.). But also there is a dev build with the new gapless preload option (for slow storages). PM me if you want to test it. Thanks!

[Mr. Make Believe]

1 hour ago, maxmp said:

There is an issue with very slow storages, like slow sd cards (or highly fragmented, etc.). But also there is a dev build with the new gapless preload option (for slow storages). PM me if you want to test it. Thanks!

I had trouble playing tracks gapless from SD, but after my first test runs with this dev build, I'm a very happy guy. Gapless now works for me. Will do some more testing but the first 3 gapless albums played flawless. Max, can't thank you enough. Thnx for listening to your users and making Poweramp better with every release. You just made my day!

Hope it works for you guys. @eserim @Kingog can you confirm my test results?

[Deraik]

2 hours ago, maxmp said:

Gapless always works - and there was no gapless options for v2 (there was silence removal option - not related to gapless).

v3 has gapless smoothing which radically lowers number of possible clicks in gapless tracks.

There is an issue with very slow storages, like slow sd cards (or highly fragmented, etc.). But also there is a dev build with the new gapless preload option (for slow storages). PM me if you want to test it. Thanks!

I think Silence removal should come back. A lot of albums that played nicely before now they don't anymore :( is it possible to have it back? Thanks! 

[mr_space]

44 minutes ago, Deraik said:

I think Silence removal should come back. A lot of albums that played nicely before now they don't anymore is it possible to have it back? Thanks! 

If you need silence removal you have a problem with your files, ripped or other sources (  )...

[andrewilley]

2 hours ago, mr_space said:

If you need silence removal you have a problem with your files, ripped or other sources (  )...

Agreed, but it's a simple enough fix for files which include brief segments of extraneous digital silence in the encoding.

Andre

[Deraik]

On 12/21/2018 at 12:02 AM, mr_space said:

If you need silence removal you have a problem with your files, ripped or other sources (  )...

True, I re-encoded. But could be useful. And it was there before

[mr_space]

On 12/27/2018 at 3:35 PM, Deraik said:

True, I re-encoded. But could be useful. And it was there before

True, better with new version? Preloading etc...

[Mr. Make Believe]

I have no trouble with gapless playback since this last built and am very happy whit it. For me personally, V3 is now better than V2. Thanks Max

[Kingog]

On 12/20/2018 at 12:17 PM, maxmp said:

Gapless always works - and there was no gapless options for v2 (there was silence removal option - not related to gapless).

v3 has gapless smoothing which radically lowers number of possible clicks in gapless tracks.

There is an issue with very slow storages, like slow sd cards (or highly fragmented, etc.). But also there is a dev build with the new gapless preload option (for slow storages). PM me if you want to test it. Thanks!

Max, so is this a 'No, Cut Silence will not be coming back?' I thought that it worked beautifully in V2.

[maxmp]

Poweramp v3 automatically cuts micro silence blocks and smoothes gapless transition for gapless-tagged tracks. My tests shows better gapless support vs v2 even with old Cut Silience option enabled, so there is no point in this option for new v3 audio engine.

You may want to enable Preload gapless tracks option in recent Poweramp builds - though this is not related to silience - that’s about rather slow sd cards and other storages which may cause clicks due to track not being ready for playing.

[Kingog]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Max.  I certainly appreciate the time you have put into your amazing app.  I guess the point to me for having the old Cut Silence option is for those of us who have encoded hundreds of CDs over the year in a non-gapless format.  It's just not practical for me to re-rip all of my CDs.  I have no idea how much coding is involved in bringing Cut Silence back, but I imagine there would be many people in my situation who would be grateful for that feature.

[NickIst]

57 minutes ago, Kingog said:

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Max.  I certainly appreciate the time you have put into your amazing app.  I guess the point to me for having the old Cut Silence option is for those of us who have encoded hundreds of CDs over the year in a non-gapless format.  It's just not practical for me to re-rip all of my CDs.  I have no idea how much coding is involved in bringing Cut Silence back, but I imagine there would be many people in my situation who would be grateful for that feature.

Ingeneral any cut silence function often cut out the hidden tracks and intros. So I consider redownload all the rips or recode CDs always will be a more reasonable choice.

[Kingog]

I have never had any problems with cut hidden tracks or intros.

[andrewilley]

Cut Silence should only trim silence before and after any audio content (digital zero, or maybe there's a threshold level?). It should not trim anything once any actual audio has been detected in the file.

Andre

[DeadHead2112]

Max,

First time submitting comments here.  I had emailed your team through the app for a gapless playback issue that did not occur in V2.  I am now on build 816 and the problem persists. 

* Problem  occurs on all of my mp3 files (320 kbps).  There is a slight pause between songs, even with preloaded setting configured to the highest setting "more".

* The same tracks play fine when I downgrade to V2.

* The issue does not occur on V3 if I use WAV files, but my library won't fit in WAV format, so I must use mp3.

* Issue occurs regardless of whether I use SD card or internal phone storage.

* Issue occurs regardless of whether I output over Bluetooth or wired headset.

* Issue occurs regardless of Poweramp output setting (OpenSL ES Hi-Res, etc).

I'm using a Samsung Note 8.

I would like to avoid reverting back to V2 if possible.  

Thanks.

* To provide an example:  I can take a live Grateful Dead show that I have on CD, which features several songs performed in medley fashion (so the songs are all "connected" musically, but separated by tracks on the CD); I rip it to mp3 and play the album back in its correct running order, and the problem is there - a slight pause in the middle of the music where the new track begins.  This does not happen if I downgrade to V2 and play the exact same list of songs.  It also does not happen on V3 if I take the exact same CD and rip it to WAV instead of mp3.  If I could fit my collection on my phone in WAV format I would workaround it that way, but we're talking 5000 songs. And it works in V2; something changed....

Huge Poweramp fan since 2014.  I was on a beach vacation and my 4th iPod broke for no good reason.  Yeah, what a piece of crap those things were.  Expensive pieces of unserviceable crap.  I threw it as far as I could, then tracked it down and threw it as far as I could again.  I did this 10 times until I was on the beach, and then I threw it in the Atlantic Ocean.  Afterward I searched for a phone app, and Poweramp was unbelievably good.  Better UI.  Better play list capability.  Better album art display.  BETTER SOUND!!  With the adjustable EQ, I finally had those old Grateful Dead recordings sounding GOOD.  I've been  recommending Poweramp to everyone I know ever since.  

V3's stereo expansion feature and OpenSL ES Hi-Res output feature makes these old Dead shows sound so good that I don't want to revert to V2.  Really hoping Max can fix this.

[NickIst]

@DeadHead2112 Try to recode your library with cuetools or similar software.

[NickIst]

9 hours ago, andrewilley said:

Cut Silence should only trim silence before and after any audio content (digital zero, or maybe there's a threshold level?). It should not trim anything once any actual audio has been detected in the file.

Andre

In V.2, sometimes it can trim partially hidden tracks or trim too much digital silence, because digital silence often is a part of artist conception. At the time I listened to mp3 too btw. In the v.3 I don't use it because I chose correctly converted FLACs with cue over lossy.

[andrewilley]

37 minutes ago, NickIst said:

In V.2, sometimes it can trim partially hidden tracks or trim too much digital silence, because digital silence often is a part of artist conception.

I thought that silence was only meant to be removed from the point before (or after) any valid audio content, not from the middle of files if it occurs there.

Artist inserted gaps only really apply if you are listening to an album straight-through, with the tracks back-to-back in original order. Most people when ripping songs to individual files tend to ignore any inter-track spaces though and rip just the music portions.  

Andre

[NickIst]

2 hours ago, andrewilley said:

I thought that silence was only meant to be removed from the point before (or after) any valid audio content, not from the middle of files if it occurs there.

The issue is how the album produced I think, I noticed that with the feature turned on the player can trim a part of silence in a hidden track or in a long gap (in broad meaning which consists of digital silence and dithering). But I think further testing will be needed to say it for sure.

[tommochocolate]

Sorry for the massive delay replying - real life got in the way a bit.

On 12/12/2018 at 6:57 PM, andrewilley said:

Gapless playback should now be enabled by default, I don't think there is any way to turn it off.

There is no longer any separate option for Cut Silence though, which previously might introduced gaps or clicks if files have any initial or trailing silent portions. 

Andre

Thanks, yes, you're right, I meant the Cut Silence option - I'd forgotten exactly what it was called but knew it was related to gapless playback.

On 12/20/2018 at 7:17 PM, maxmp said:

Gapless always works - and there was no gapless options for v2 (there was silence removal option - not related to gapless).

v3 has gapless smoothing which radically lowers number of possible clicks in gapless tracks.

There is an issue with very slow storages, like slow sd cards (or highly fragmented, etc.). But also there is a dev build with the new gapless preload option (for slow storages). PM me if you want to test it. Thanks!

If I understand this correctly gapless playback depends on my files being encoded in a particular way. Is there a formal way of checking whether a given file is encoded this way? Or, say, if files play gaplessly on Windows Media Player, does that mean they must be encoded for gapless playback? Or does Media Player have a way of faking gapless?

[blaubär]

52 minutes ago, tommochocolate said:

Is there a formal way of checking whether a given file is encoded this way?

Yes, it's in the tags, and shown in the audio info and tag info.