SPECWEB (Now 2.2)

[zeerround]

Another user mentioned this earlier, but I just wanted to emphasize 'cause I experienced it and it sounds BAD when it happens... If you have an album that has a quiet intro as the first track, which then leads into a much louder song as the second track, it's best to process them both as a single track (join the flac/wav files together before running the single track through SpecWeb); if you don't, the intro will be overly loud and boomy and the transition from the intro to the follow-up track will be jarring.

Example albums please? I want to try some experiments.

 

[mixfo]

The 'Quatermass' album starts with a very quiet track - 'Entropy', before launching into the next track 'Black Sheep Of The Family', which is much louder. I got very good results in general running the Quatermass CD through SpecWeb, but sure enough 'Entropy' is way too loud.

 

[skherbeck]

Example albums please? I want to try some experiments.

I noticed this while processing Styx "Paradise Theater"; the first song (A.D.****) is a quiet keyboard/vocal that leads into the louder "Rockin' The Paradise"; If you process them separately, the vocals are much louder on the first track than the second (but it should be the opposite). Another user mentioned similar problems when processing "The Wall" as separate tracks.

 

[zeerround]

OK, Thanks (soft loud albums) I'll work with those three.

 

[skherbeck]

Observation: I'm finding I get the best sonics on conversions made from 24x96 source material; when I start with 24x192 material, I still get some slight artifactual "swishy" sounds on some of the cymbals (this also occurs sometimes with Redbook CD material as well, but moreso with the 24x192 stuff). I'm running everything through the Helper. Is this me doing something wrong, or is it an issue inherent in the program? (or is it defective ears?@

 

[HomerJAU]

Observation: I'm finding I get the best sonics on conversions made from 24x96 source material; when I start with 24x192 material, I still get some slight artifactual "swishy" sounds on some of the cymbals (this also occurs sometimes with Redbook CD material as well, but moreso with the 24x192 stuff). I'm running everything through the Helper. Is this me doing something wrong, or is it an issue inherent in the program? (or is it defective ears?@

This can be easily tested:

Find a problem (swishy) track.
1. Convert via SpecWeb alone
2. Convert via Helper (Oversampling - try the 'double' Oversample rate and 'resample back to original sample rate' options)
3. Convert via Helper (Oversampling - try the highest Oversample and convert to either original or HiRez rate)

Listen to all three. What do you hear?

NOTE: With a 192kHz stereo source if you chose HiRez for the MCH ouput you don't get 192KHz it will be only 96. Maybe I should change that behaviour to use the higher of the input and output rates? Also with 192kHz source Helper does not Oversample at all.

Some tracks are more affected by 'swishig'. One thing (I think) I found is the swishing is less noticeable on my main 5.1 system. I seem to hear them more on my crappy PC speakers (el cheapo Logitech system) - not sure why, maybe because my main system has way better bass response which may hide the high frequency swish. But I don't know, maybe it's more psychological.

BTW: There will be a new version of Helper released this week. Bug fixes and new features. Beta testing starts today.

 

[JerseyEd]

I am sure we all have our own lists of classic albums that were never released in surround. Personally I'd like to do a few Australian/NZ artist's albums I have starting with Crowded House, Hoodoo Gurus, Australian Crawl, Paul Kelly and Split Enz.

I came across this thread while cruising through the forum this morning. The more I read the more interested I got. Even though I was a programmer (AS400 COBOL and RPG) I was getting a headache from all the technical talks. However, I said to myself, "self, give it a try". I managed to download SpecWeb and get it installed. Inspired by HomerJAU's mention of Split Enz I decided to use "History Never Repeats, Best of Split Enz" for my test (this album needs to have a 5.1 or at least 4.0 release). I had the album ripped as WAV files but went back and ripped it as FLAC. Then I dropped "I Got You" and "Dirty Creature" into SpecWeb and just used the default settings. To my surprise, they converted without any problems. I put the 2 mch files on a flash drive and hooked it into my OPPO.

HOLY SH....,er, I mean HOLY MOLY!!! They both sounded great. And "Dirty Creature" was phenomenal. I then converted the rest of the album (which I will listen to tomorrow, along with "Fish Out Of Water". Can't wait to see how that turned out. :music Hey, if I can do it anyone can.

 

[zeerround]

Glad you like the results!

By the way, wav files are fine to use as inputs for SpecWeb.

 

[JerseyEd]

Oh Oh. Guess I spoke too soon. Tried moving a flac file to the SpecWeb icon today and received an error message... "the program can't start because libmmd.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem". I click OK and get another same message except this one says that "svml_dispmd.dll" is missing.

I clicked on "Install_SpecBat.bat" and the three icons appeared on my desktop (I had moved the originals into a separate folder). Still getting the same error. HELP! I need somebody. :xp:

 

[HomerJAU]

Try reinstalling (manually) the x86 msi file in the folder under SpecWebs's bin folder

 

[JerseyEd]

Try reinstalling (manually) the x86 msi file in the folder under SpecWebs's bin folder

I went in and clicked w_ccompxe_redist_intel64_2013_sp1.0.103.msi. Looks like it's working now. Thanks Homer.

 

[zeerround]

I don't know how those things get uninstalled. Did you uninstall anything or run some kind of cleaner?

 

[JerseyEd]

I don't know how those things get uninstalled. Did you uninstall anything or run some kind of cleaner?

The only thing I did was move the 3 desktop icons to a folder where I keep audio apps. Figured it would be safe since they were only shortcuts.

I do use Peerblock when I'm away from the computer for some time. Could that have done it?

 

[zeerround]

Just looking at Peerblock's site I don't think so.

You should add surroundbyus.com to the list of allowed sites if you haven't already or it didn't happen automagically. SpecWeb needs to communicate to home to check for updates.

Also moving the icons should have been fine. I'm still stumped.

 

[skherbeck]

I had problems initially with my Norton software deleting pieces of SpecWeb and Helper because they were 'Behaving Suspiciously'; I reinstalled, set Norton to ask me before deleting programs (as opposed to automatic deletion), and told it these programs were OK the next time it asked me. Now, no problems!

 

[GOS]

I had problems initially with my Norton software deleting pieces of SpecWeb and Helper because they were 'Behaving Suspiciously'; I reinstalled, set Norton to ask me before deleting programs (as opposed to automatic deletion), and told it these programs were OK the next time it asked me. Now, no problems!

Damn Norton...you never could trust him. lmao

 

[JerseyEd]

Just looking at Peerblock's site I don't think so.

You should add surroundbyus.com to the list of allowed sites if you haven't already or it didn't happen automagically. SpecWeb needs to communicate to home to check for updates.

Also moving the icons should have been fine. I'm still stumped.

I did get a message from the firewall asking if I wanted to allow SpecWeb when I first started. I clicked yes and figured that was all I had to do. Under allowed apps in the firewall I see specweb and specweb.exe are both checked on the left side under name, and only private is checked on the right side. Do I need to check the Public box also?

These are the kind of questions that used to make the IT guys where I worked want to throw me out the 9th floor window !!! :scream

 

[zeerround]

No, firewall sounds good. Everything is fine. I'm just trying to figure out why the Intel library got uninstalled.

Enjoy.

 

[HomerJAU]

I only knew the 'fix' above because my Win 10 PC is uninstalling that msi library quite often. Use to do it every re-start but now not so often. So I cant give a definitive answer to the problem - just the re-install temporary fix. Strange...

 

[JerseyEd]

Thanks zeerround and HomerJAU. I'll see if it happens again next time I use it. WINDOWS 10 BE DAMNED !!! :flame