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 Forum index » How-tos » Ambiophonic Sound Reproduction
Standalone Ambiophonic Audio Player & Transcoder
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shotto



Joined: Jan 14, 2010
Posts: 3
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 2:04 am    Post subject: Standalone Ambiophonic Audio Player & Transcoder Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm a newbie to the forum and like to advertise two JAVA programs which I developed to allow Linux, Mac and Windows users to listen to Ambiophonics.
There are already a lot of great solutions in the forum, but I thought it would be probably useful to have some free JAVA-Apps at hand to use Ambiophonics on any operating system which supports JAVA.
I'm very much interested in your feedback, especially regarding sound quality and usability.

1.) Ambiophonic Audio Player: http://www.hotto.de/software/ambiophonicaudioplayer.html
The app opens wav audio files of the format 16Bit/44.1kHz and applies a modified version of RACE. Please refer to the web page which describes all functions in detail.

2.) Ambiophonic Transcoder: http://www.hotto.de/software/ambiophonictranscoder.html
Whereas the Audio Player is limited to wav files the Transcoder can take any signal from the input mixers including "What-U-Hear" (Stereo Mix).
If you use two soundcards or virtual mixing devices then you're able to connect your favorite audio player (e.g. iTunes, foobar2000, ...) to the transcoder which sends the signal to the selected output mixer (device).
Furthermore, you could connect a CD player via SPDIF-IN or an iPod, LP via LINE-IN to apply ambiophonics to your existing music collection by connecting the computer sound card output (e.g. SPDIF-OUT or LINE-OUT) to your HiFi equipment.

I hope both apps are useful for you.
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durwood



Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Posts: 30
Location: Chicagoland

PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hello, I like your site. The description is very nice and clear. I especially like this:

Quote:

Key advantages in comparison to stereo by playing the same material from CD, LPs or your computer:
1.) Elimination of Comb filtering effects and pinna direction finding errors
2.) By having the speakers close together reflections by walls and the bass mode response of the room are much easier to control
3.) The center presence is very stable and therefore always easy to locate


People under-estimate how closely this resembles the usefulness of mono or a centrally located speaker especially in small rooms.

This is what I found when listening to the left/right/center track from this site. The sides are stronger than the center with center set to zero. If I turn center up to 100% it is closer to being the same and the response sounds similar between sides and center but some width is lost. I had some other thoughts but trying to figure out how to best describe it. Maybe later I will have more feedback. It is similar but not exactly the same as the VST available here but they do have some differences. I'll try to sort them out later if I can.
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shotto



Joined: Jan 14, 2010
Posts: 3
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hello durwood,

I've implemented the algorithm in a way that a higher center value reduces the cross talk cancellation of signals that are equiphase and of similar amplitude. That puts an emphasis on the mono signal.

Just yesterday I've uploaded the four channel version 1.0 of the Ambiophonic Transcoder which provides the following options:
1.) 2 Input- and 2 Output-Channels to apply standard RACE on stereo material
2.) 2 Input- and 4 Output-Channels to expand 2 channel stereo to 4 channel Ambiophonics
3.) 4 Input- and 4 Output-Channels to convert multi channel source material (e.g. Dolby 5.1) into 4 channel Ambiophonics

Download: http://www.hotto.de/software/fourchannelambiophonictranscoder.html
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poldus



Joined: May 12, 2010
Posts: 13
Location: basque country

PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Stephan: I am using your transcoder for music but use the VST plug-in to watch dvd´s because, unlike the VST, the transcoder delays the audio noticeably even when the smallest buffer is used, creating lip-sync issues.

Overall, I prefer your transcoder though (operating over the whole frequency range) because it manages to expand the higher frequencies along the stage with the rest of the range, rendering a more satisfying experience.

With the VST plug-in I hear highs mostly where the speakers are, so cymbals for example always seem to come from the center, regardless of their position in the recording. This happens regardless of the knob settings. I guess this could be a result of it not operating over the higher range? I will ask on their thread and see if others have heard this.

So congratulations on your implementation and thanks again for making it available to everyone.
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shotto



Joined: Jan 14, 2010
Posts: 3
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:51 pm    Post subject: VST-Plugin Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi Poldus,

I've just created an Ambiophonic VST-Plug-In on JAVA-Basis. So, it would be great if you could test it as well:

http://www.hotto.de/vstplugins/vstambiophonictranscoder.html




poldus wrote:
Stephan: I am using your transcoder for music but use the VST plug-in to watch dvd´s because, unlike the VST, the transcoder delays the audio noticeably even when the smallest buffer is used, creating lip-sync issues.

Overall, I prefer your transcoder though (operating over the whole frequency range) because it manages to expand the higher frequencies along the stage with the rest of the range, rendering a more satisfying experience.

With the VST plug-in I hear highs mostly where the speakers are, so cymbals for example always seem to come from the center, regardless of their position in the recording. This happens regardless of the knob settings. I guess this could be a result of it not operating over the higher range? I will ask on their thread and see if others have heard this.

So congratulations on your implementation and thanks again for making it available to everyone.
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shitso



Joined: Nov 05, 2009
Posts: 8
Location: wiesbaden, germany

PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:33 pm    Post subject: Delay setting Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi Stephan,

the plugin works fine but delay settings are not stored. Delay defaults to 70us after reloading the plugin or restart of audiomulch vst-host..
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poldus



Joined: May 12, 2010
Posts: 13
Location: basque country

PostPosted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Stephan, my computer fails to load the file with new plugin. I will try again.
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poldus



Joined: May 12, 2010
Posts: 13
Location: basque country

PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Still can´t open the Java based transcoder. Java is supposed to be installed in my computer (it appears in the programs listing)but there is no icon to be seen anywhere. I use a program called savihost to run electromusic´s VST application. Stephans`s requires both VST and Java? I´m a bit confused. Any ideas how I can make it work?
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poldus



Joined: May 12, 2010
Posts: 13
Location: basque country

PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Disregard my previous post. I have been using the Java transcoder all along but was not aware of it!
There is one issue: With all parameters identical, in 4:4 mode the sound in the front speakers is different from 2:2, showing a lack of high frequencies and a muddy sound. So the four channel transcoder is unusable as it is. Could you please check this? Note: I´m using the 20 to 4khz. limited crosstalk feature.
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Miketheyellowdart



Joined: Oct 11, 2019
Posts: 2
Location: West Coast, USA

PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2019 11:38 am    Post subject: My Reccommendation
Subject description: Review of Existing, Available for Purchase Standalone Ambiophonics Player & Transcoder
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Personally, I've found XiVERO's AMTRA (Ambiophonics Transcoder) to be an excellent Standalone combination player and Transcoder. It costs about $15-$20 if memory serves, but is versatile enough that I consider it well worth the cost. You can install a demo version from their website xivero.com, which I think has the limitation of working for up to only one minute of audio at a time. Best aspects are:
-Acts as both a transcoder and a player. You can load your desired songs and run them through the transcoder real-time, or batch process them to create new audio files in the desired settings.
-You can fine tune the delay time, RACE attenuation (in dB) and can choose to boost the center image as well. It can be applied to WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, MP3 and even DSD file formats, and gives you the option of outputting the audio files in WAV, FLAC, or AIFF.
-You can choose whether to overwrite the existing audio files when transcoding or keep them and output the audio files to your directory of choice. You can also set the naming scheme for those audio files, and the setting is preset to rename them with the addition of the files new RACE attenuation, delay and center image boost values ("filename [Limited RACE [on/off] - [xx dB] - [yy us (microseconds)] - [zz% (center boost)]]")
-One license allows you three parallel installations, which will run on both Windows and MacOS. I think they have a Linux version to, but I have not tried it out.
-Most impressively, in my opinion, it will transcoder high resolution audio as well, without converting down to 16-bit, 44.1kHz, as most alternatives seem to do, if they even process high resolution audio files in the first place. I find this feature to be the most compelling, as I purchase a lot of high resolution audio. Past testing seems to indicate high res audio provides no discernable listening difference from standard res audio, but I feel like there's a noticeable difference. Placebo effect, perhaps, but if I've managed to delude myself into thinking the listening experience is more enjoyable, the real question is "is the perceived difference worth the money?" For me, the answer is yes, but to those of you who would answer no, this entire bullet point is moot, which is why I've relegated it to the last point, and it should be treated as nothing more than an aside. I fully comprehend the skepticism about high res audio, and I make no effort to advocate for its usage here.

So if you can afford the $20 price, check the program out. Word of advice: it runs on Java, and I've found that on my Windows machine, any parallel installation of Java interferes with the program running correctly. It will attempt to open, and you can see it in the Task Manager as a process, but it won't ever materialize on screen. Clicking to open the program more than once creates multiple instances of the program in processes, which can be a detriment to proper system functioning. Running the program on a Mac does not seem to have the same problem.
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