Sound Tweak Rpi4

[TheOldPresbyope]

@hifinet

Mercury Living Presence (e.g. Bloch, Prokofiev Scythian Suite)

Great taste in music!

[grasshopper]

grasshopper wrote:

What distortion please?
I get no distortion through mo0de whatsoever using known well recorded sources I am very familiar with, no audible (to me) noise through the speakers when music is not playing & I crank the pre-amp up high, the SQ is absolutely crystal clear on the standard setup using 32bit kernel, default MPD.
I listen to music at low / moderate volumes.

I also listen to music away from moOde using a DAP & quite sensitive IEM's & the only "distortion" is usually as a result of clipping in badly recorded music.  This is more obvious using the IEM's, in moOde on a speaker setup listening to the same source file it is less obvious (although I can still hear it) but is a problem with the source music not something a tweak can remedy, I am happy to be corrected though.

I am intrigued what you mean by distortion though.

I understand what you are saying. Before changing to MPD 0.22, I described the sound as "excellent". But there were problems with certain recordings, specifically aggressive Mercury Living Presence (e.g. Bloch, Prokofiev Scythian Suite). These recordings are much better now. The best that I have heard them. I thought they were "bad recordings". They are very challenging recordings. Switching to another MPD is a bit of a chore, especially if you have a large library (due to rescan), but the result was very eye opening and rewarding for me. Why does MPD 0.22 sound so much better?

I don't suppose you have a link to that music in Tidal, I am unfamiliar with it.  I'd be very interested in listening to it..

[hifinet]

Bloch and Prokofiev 

The Bloch Concerto Grosso No 1 seems too closely miked. They seem to fix it in Concerto Grosso No. 2 . Schelomo is fantastic, but still quite aggressive at times. Hanson with Eastman-Rochester Orchestra are generally excellent. These are early stereo recordings, so expect some tape hiss. Prokofiev: Scythian Suite, Op.20 - "Ala and Lolly" - 1. Invocation to Veles and Ala is ridiculously aggressive.

UPDATED technical notes from the recordings: The "Scythian Suite" and "Love for Three Oranges" Suite were recorded at Watford Town Hall, outside of London, on July 4, 1957, on Ampex 300-3 3-track half-inch tape using one 201 and two M56 Telefunken microphones. The Concerti Grossi Nos. 1 and 2 were recorded on May 5, 1959, and Schelomo on December 16, 1960. All were recorded in the Eastman Theatre, in Rochester, NY, using half-inch 3-track tape machines and three Telefunken 201 microphones.
Mercury LP also used Westrex 3-track 35mm magnetic film with sprockets for recordings.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Wikipedia has a useful entry on the Mercury Living Presence series and their recording techniques.

When I was a lad in the early days of stereo LPs, their 3-mic recordings were a great introduction to the second-tier orchestras such as Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra with Antol Dorati, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Paul Paray, and the wonderful Eastman groups---the Eastman Rochester Orchestra with Howard Hanson and the Eastman Wind Ensemble with Frederick Fennell.

Then there was their "Screamers: Circus Favorites"---what a hoot.

I haven't held those albums in my hands in 40 years but I can still visualize the covers.


Ok, the wave of nostalgia has spent itself 

Regards,
Kent

[swizzle]

Not "advanced tweaks" but "reasonable set of options". There's some things already in moOde for "tuning and experimenting" including the cpu governor, 32/64 bit kernel and mpd git compiles. Maybe thats enough but it would be interesting to hear what people think would be useful and most importantly why.

Most of the tweaks were essentially to reduce latency but the 64-bit kernel already does that to a greater degree. They might still have some merit especially on 32-bit.

Kind of related (tweaks is tweaks, right?) if mpd ever implements Sox recipes that could be a cool addition but it’s a really old entry so don’t hold your breath. 

https://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/01/m...s.html?m=1

https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD/issues/122

ETA with the play from ram talk that reminds me of the new input_cache directive.

https://www.musicpd.org/doc/html/user.ht...nput-cache

[efung]

IMO, FWIW, MPD 0.22~git (test) is brilliant. Wonderful sound. Reduction in distortion and proper image.

Addendum: Next logical step: add 'Linux Audio Adjustments'. This is probably better. Very resolving. Need to test with aggressive Mercury LP and large choral. Getting too late. Some occasional light tics, which were not there since the USB tweak. Maybe need to remove the network tweaks that aren't needed.

Do you use USB DAC or Allo Boss? When you said that the recording is "aggressive", do you mean high sound volume output?

[hifinet]

IMO, FWIW, MPD 0.22~git (test) is brilliant. Wonderful sound. Reduction in distortion and proper image.

Addendum: Next logical step: add 'Linux Audio Adjustments'. This is probably better. Very resolving. Need to test with aggressive Mercury LP and large choral. Getting too late. Some occasional light tics, which were not there since the USB tweak. Maybe need to remove the network tweaks that aren't needed.

Do you use USB DAC or Allo Boss? When you said that the recording is "aggressive", do you mean high sound volume output?

Using the USB DAC. Yes, high volume and complex wave forms. Full orchestra playing loudly - fortissimo. Also choral music is extremely complex and difficult to reproduce. Prokofiev Short sample Track 11

[hifinet]

I probably understated the improvement with MPD 0.22. It's massive. I've also been listening with the Linux Audio Adjustments added to MPD 0.22, and it's very similar to too much feedback in an amplifier. Less distortion, but the soundstage is severely reduced and overly compressed. I think it could use a bit more of the feedback effect (whatever might be responsible), but it's better without it for most music. It would be very beneficial if there were a way to dial in that effect, like you can with feedback. Another possibility is that one or more audio amplifiers in the chain have too much feedback, and reducing distortion in the DAC process exposes it.

[Tim Curtis]

Not "advanced tweaks" but "reasonable set of options". There's some things already in moOde for "tuning and experimenting" including the cpu governor, 32/64 bit kernel and mpd git compiles. Maybe thats enough but it would be interesting to hear what people think would be useful and most importantly why.

Most of the tweaks were essentially to reduce latency but the 64-bit kernel already does that to a greater degree. They might still have some merit especially on 32-bit.

Kind of related (tweaks is tweaks, right?) if mpd ever implements Sox recipes that could be a cool addition but it’s a really old entry so don’t hold your breath. 

https://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/01/m...s.html?m=1

https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD/issues/122

ETA with the play from ram talk that reminds me of the new input_cache directive.

https://www.musicpd.org/doc/html/user.ht...nput-cache

Is there really a latency issue ;-)

@bitlab has some nice patches for MPD that improve the sample rate options that could be offered in moOde. I normally stick with stock MPD and don't do any patches but these could be very useful and so on the TODO list :-)

Ya, the input_cache option works well in 0.22-git. I'll definitely include it for robustness.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Don't know how I missed the recent addition of the input cache option. 

The reduction of risk of buffer underrun is a huge benefit which I suspect would reduce the number of user's posts to the forum. Sadly, there's not much headroom on RPi Zeros and RPi3A+s for a cache but maybe it could help even those models.

I'll have to start using it.

Regards,
Kent