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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: Xanxi on July 29, 2006, 10:20:40 PM
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Hello.
My A1200T is now fitted with an Apollo 1260 but i still can't play mp3 with good sound.
I have of course AHI and i use AmigaAMP with mpega.library.
I have read many topics about a 14bit mode with Paula and AHI that could give proper sound.
However, although i can read mp3 without lag, the sound output is really bad and parazited.
I could use the help of someone with this setup in order to configure this famous 14 bit mode.
Thanks.
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hahahaha! welcome after.... you must get a melody1200 sound card or that mpeg audio decorder card called MAS-Player....
here are links for you...
http://mp3.mas-player.de/
http://www.katodev.de/english/melody1200.html
________
Brook (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/cam/Brook/)
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I would get a MAS player if i had a 020 or 030 cpu. Here i have a 060 and people are reading mp3 with no more hardware than the good old Paula.
I just have to learn how :-)
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You can play mp3's on a 060 easily!
On Aminet there should be some players around. I'm using AmigaAMP and Delitracker.
Have you tried those ?
Oh, I just read. You did install AmigaAMP.
I don't think you need AHI as I'm using Paula directly.
This 14bit mode I never tried though.
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I play MP3's on a Blizzard 1260@50Mhz without other hardware. I works very good. I use Amplifier from AmigaOS 3.9 with X-audio sound driver.
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I have no problems with my A4000t and 060 to play mp3,s.
Anyway, from my point of view there is no such thing as good sound from mp3.Or any compressed sound at all for that matter.Buy CD's! Cheaper than Itunes and you roughly get 10 times the data.
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XANXI,
ppl that have replyed you don't know much about mp3 good sound on the Amiga
get here the best audio player for the Amiga:
http://uk.aminet.net/mus/play/SongPlayer.lha
it have volume boost control and bass and trebel controls as well and offers the best audio output quality than any player on the amiga
Songplayer was written by Stephane Tavernard (mpega.librart author) (one of the best coders for the miggy)
enjoy it
bye, Laser
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Use the AHI prefs tool to increase the audio rate. By default, it's at some awfully low setting. 22KHz or higher should improve things.
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@Laser
I agree, SongPlayer was always my favourite for MP3's... I set the buffer to 30 seconds and almost never had breakups in the sound even while browsing.. and the treble/bass/volume boost was great!
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I have to disagree with most of the other posts here.
AHI can be tricky to configure, and even then you get mediocre sound.
Try using mpega. The sound is near perfect, and 060 will be more than enough. There are lots of GUI utils for it, my favourite being BMG (on Aminet). Don't expect to multitask much though!
If you run it from shell, try using
mpega -d2 -q2 -t3000 -T
You can configure things like Dopus with these parameters as well.
Cheers
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Try using mpega. The sound is near perfect, and 060 will be more than enough. There are lots of GUI utils for it, my favourite being BMG (on Aminet).
BMG is ugly. DiamondGUI is much nicer and has more options.
When I play MP3s on my A500, I use DiamondGUI/mpega and buffer for 15 seconds. This gives about 25-30 seconds uninterrupted (on max quality stereo setting). I change to 90 seconds if I want to listen to the whole thing uninterrupted, but it can get painful waiting. If I like the MP3 and don't want to keep waiting for buffering, I use mpega to convert the MP3 to 16 bit AIFF, then listen to it in SongPlayer with AHI set to 14 bit++ calibrated. The AIFF takes up huge file space, but at least I can listen uninterrupted and without buffering - and the sound quality is great.
But this is with a measly 020. I would've thought an 060 can handle MP3s without problem.
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not sure if these issues apply to an A1200 but on my A2000 I can get very good sound quality by disabling the low-pass filter and by taking advantage of the higher sampling rates available in VGA screen modes
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I don't know if this still applies, but AHI v5 used to crucify any genuine 680x0 you could throw at it. v4 seemed to be a lot less CPU intensive on 040/060. We are talking the difference between 5-10% cpu time on my 040+Paula for v4 versus 40% or more for seemingly the same output quality on v5.
Next up, I seem to recall there were some fixed point (read integer) versions of the mpega.library. Although the 060 has reasonable FPU speed, it also has two integer units. I imagine a properly written integer version of the library would be faster.
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Use Hippo-Player. It´s easy to use and has a breathtaking soundquality.
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Just to give feedback on this subjet, i am using now SongPlayer and indeed the sound output from mp3 is much better than with AmigaAmp and AHI, using 44 KHz and stereo from 196Mb/s encoded mp3.
However, there is still a minor problem: for exemple, Madonna seems to sing as if she has hair on her tongue (it means in french "avoir un cheveu sur la langue", not sure of the english for this expression), so that any "s" becomes "sssssss".
Maybe Paula is not able to make better, but it is still not perfect output.
PS: i am still using my Apollo 1260, now at 66Mhz.
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Whilst your AHI might be streaming out 44kHz, what is the mpeg player doing? I would doubt it's decoding at 44kHz stereo, not on a basic 680x0. Perhaps its rerplaying at 22kHz and AHI is resampling the stream on the fly?
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Have you tried Prayer2? I always got very good quality out of it with the least CPU load of any player I've tried on my A4000T/060. Also, have you played that Madonna mp3 on anything other than your Amiga? Maybe the mp3 file, itself, is of low quality. (Just because it has a high sample rate doesn't necessarily mean it's high quality)
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are you using a GFX card or AGA?
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I tried SongPlayer after all the recommendations, but however I configured it, the sound was not as good as Mpega.
Seriously, use Mpega and see my previous post on how to configure it.
I have tried every way of playing MP3s I could find, and nothing beats this. I have it going 8 hours a day in my shop on my Amiga.
BMG might be ugly, but it is nice and clear and simple and functional with its own prefs gui.
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However, there is still a minor problem: for exemple, Madonna seems to sing as if she has hair on her tongue (it means in french "avoir un cheveu sur la langue", not sure of the english for this expression), so that any "s" becomes "sssssss".
Madonna does have hair on her tongue, so this is normal.
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Thank goodness it wasn't a cheval !
Oops ! Off topic :lol: its a Chimay Bleue pour moi s'il vous plait !!! :pint:
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mr_a500 wrote:
Madonna does have hair on her tongue, so this is normal.
Britneys?
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haha
So remind, that Paula can only output a tricky 14 bits sounds @ 56 Khz (VGA mode only.. or 22.7 Khz) not a full 16 bits @44.1 Khz, so this explain why you have these "sssss" effect and much more if you use the equalizer to boost High Frequency level.
As Paula is absolutly -12V completly dependant, check your PSU too !
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Just try Prayer2, the best mp3 player on 68k amigas.
Prayer2 have nice skins, need low CPU power, 14bit output without ahi, and best sound quality.
One of my favorites mp3 players.
http://de5.aminet.net/mus/play/Prayer2.lha
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Karlos writted:
mr_a500 wrote:
Madonna does have hair on her tongue, so this is normal.
Britneys?
:roflmao:
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@ Karlos & mrA500
You guys crack me up!
I would say that I'm getting FM quality sound through Paula with both Amiga Amp & Amplifier (configured for X-audio). (SongPlayer was not as good, but, I haven't tweaked it as much.) There is no noticeable clipping or distortion. When I compare to my Palm or the Mac next door, Paula lacks a subtle dynamic range. It doesn't sound live, it sounds recorded. I think that this is the difference between 14bit and 16bit sound.
Once again, is anyone aware of a source for Masplayers? There's a project a hardware vendor should resurrect! I would buy a couple.
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Amazing noone suggested you to actually do the calibration!
Don't just use 14bit, use 14 bit calibrated mode and do the calibration (otherwise it will sound just like 14bit). Start by doing the calibration (Cybersound from aminet), then setting up an AHI unit to 14bit calibrated mode, then in the player you're using you NEED to select that unit. Calibration can make a big difference in some cases.
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Yes, calibrate the 14bit outputs. It doesn't take long for a basic run-through, a few minutes, but you could easily throw an hour or so at it too. The audible difference can be quite substantial.
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Try Eagleplayer, the fastest mp3 player I´ve tried on Amiga. Not compatible with all mp3 files though. Mostly those with an odd bitrate like 112k or similar. Sounds great with Paula too...
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Just try Prayer2, the best mp3 player on 68k amigas.
Yes, Prayer2 is pretty good. Thanks for suggesting it. I read that it was made open source in 2002, but unfortunately the site containing the source is no longer active. I wish I knew how to create a "robe" for it. All the robes I found are pretty ugly. It also would have been nice if there was an option for buffering like with DiamondGUI.
Amazing noone suggested you to actually do the calibration!
I suggested 14 bit calibrated, but I guess nobody read it.
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@mr_a500
Yes, you did suggest using a 14bit calibrated mode, but you did not suggest actually doing the calibration. Your arrangements did seem rather involved, as well. Does all that work nicely on an 020 (presumably not 14MHz EC020)?
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I can't find the tool Cybersound on aminet. Only on some links that appear to be broken.
Anyone got a link?
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@Xanxi
I think I heard the "hairy tongue" of which you speak. Is it in the song "Sorry"? Even after converting the MP3 to 16 bit AIFF, the "hairy tongue" was still there so maybe it was the MP3. There is also a spot where it sounds like Madonna is singing with a couple marshmallows in her mouth. Besides that, the sound quality (after converting) was so good it gave me shivers.
@mr_a500
Yes, you did suggest using a 14bit calibrated mode, but you did not suggest actually doing the calibration. Your arrangements did seem rather involved, as well. Does all that work nicely on an 020 (presumably not 14MHz EC020)?
Ah, I see. Yes what I described does work nicely on an 020 (33Mhz). AmigaAMP is total crap on an 020 (have to turn off the Amiga to stop it because it doesn't respond!) and playing MP3s without buffering is like Max Headroom gone berserk. But playing MP3s with buffering gives good quality (if a bit of a pain waiting for buffer) and converted 16 bit AIFF with 14 bit calibrated plays perfectly with no skipping.
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Which tool do you use to convert to AIFF please?
By the way, the hairy thong was more in the first song of this very album, hung up, but after all, maybe she simply eats marshmallows while in studio ;-)
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Which tool do you use to convert to AIFF please?
I use mpega. I usually do "mpega -s -A -T ". This will convert to AIFF without playing, showing the time so you can see the progress. As I said, AIFF takes up huge disk space. (example: Madonna's "Sorry" takes up 49Mb!)
For me, I don't consider this much of a problem because I have a huge harddrive and Amiga software takes up very little space.
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Cybersound can be found here:
http://it.aminet.net/disk/cdrom/14Bit_CDPlayer.lha
After the calibration is done save it and the program will create the necessary files in your env: dir automatically.
Let us know the results :)