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Request for additional Crossfade controls


DJK

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There have been several requests for an improved Crossfade feature. It is described as a "Radio Fade" or "Segue" As the first song ends it fades out. During the fade out the next song starts at full or nearly full volume. This is the preferred method. When the second song fades in the first few bars of music is inaudible. This is especially disconcerting when the song begins with lyrics without musical introduction pryor to the vocals. The lyrics are lost. 

The attached photo is a screen shot from the SQR Crossfade pluggin for the old Winamp program. It has all the necessary options and controls to customize the Crossfade to perfection. 

It is my hope that you will alow such customization within the Crossfade portion of your app. Please consider my request. 

sqr_crossfade.gif.c85bb4d70108c03d648937abd22f61e4.gif

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Personally I've always felt that a simple linear A-B crossfade is of limited real-world use. I don't use it at all myself because it only works well if both the end of one track and the start of the next have gradual volume changes anyway. However if either song commences/ends with a bang rather than whimper, a timed linear crossfade never works. For example if a song ends of an abrupt drumbeat or a closing lyric it doesn't make sense for it fade out early, nor does it make sense to fade in a song that starts in a similarly abrupt manner.

My own suggestion would be to use threshold values, so the fade crossover point triggers when the outgoing song level drops below a certain dB threshold, and the incoming song is timed so it starts when the song hits a similar threshold level. 

So for example, if one song ends with a nice long fadeout and the next one starts with an equally gradual beginning, the thresholds would be hit quite a way into both tracks and a simple five second linear crossfade could be carried out which would work perfectly. However if you are going from Queen's We Will Rock You (which cuts-out dead on an abrupt guitar chord) to the Star Wars Theme (which starts with an instantly loud fanfare) then the trigger thresholds would be right at the end/start of the tracks and you would only hear a fraction of a second's fade to avoid losing either the final chord of Queen or the first dramatic note of Star Wars.  

Andre

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I absolutely agree. In the bottom portion of the picture I attached to my post it lists the "Signal Analizer" section. There the user can select what volume level the crossfade will begin... - 3db in this example. 

Songs with a 'cold' ending, like your "We Will Rock You" example, would not triger the crossfade. But a song with a fade out would. 

To achieve a simple segue would require: 1) Threshold - to triger the next song at specified decrease in volume at end of the song and 2) Fade In - for the user to customize overlap initial volume at the start of the next song. 

Thank you, Andre for taking the time to answer my post. Hopefully this requested feature will become a reality. It has been at often repeated feature requests for many years. 

- Dave 

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