Foobar2000 and other things digital

[Bob Brines]

Bob, I loaded Foobar and had a cheap DAC that comes out of a USB and has a RCA input and output. Foobar saw my wife's iTunes list and I have been listening to the Fleetwood Mac The Dance she recorded off of my CD. Sounds nice. Playing with the equalizer and it works fine. Not a lot of volume even when turned up all the way. May be the DAC I'm using. Have the DAC going into the second input of the Topping TP-60.

Will do more playing with it. I'm using a ADS tech instant music 16-bit/48kHz unit.

Have any helpful hints? If this is way off topic of this tread. Let me know if I need to start another tread or take this off line.

Kenny

Let's start a new thread here.

Foobar2000 is a great player and frighteningly frustrating to get it to do what you want it to do. The single biggest reason that I use it is that it is the only player that will allow me to list classical music in a reasonable way. The standard artist>album>song paradigm just won't work. I need composer>work>movement. By using Foobar2000 and the Columns UI GUI,I can use either sort when I need it.

For a DAC, get this one. It's the cheapest 24/96 DAC I have run across. Sound Blaster has a USB sound card it this price range than I haven't tried, but remember to disable all of the Creative DSP.

Setting up Foobar2000:

Loading components is a bit tricky. Download the components you need. They should be zip folders. It not we'll fix that later. Copy the downloaded zip folder. Bore down (assuming Windows 7) AppData>Roaming>Foobar2000>user components. Paste the zip folder here. I the file is a bare dll, create a folder of the same name and put the dll in it. Once you have your components loaded, start Foobar2000 and open the properties menu and open Components. Click on Apply and you are done.

Now go to Playback. You stated that output was weak. Assuming that you set the volume to max in the Windows>Sound>Playback to max and >Advanced: Exclusive Mode both checked, set the preamp control up to what ever you need.

Components you will definitely need: Columns UI and Graphic Equalizer. Use the Graphic Equalizer instead of the default. You will see why.

Good luck,
Bob

[loninappleton]

Well I for one am glad to see a new and what's new in Foobar 2000 thread. I had one going ages ago where VST by George Yohng is described and it is quite lengthy. Will see if I can look that up or if this thread gets unceremoniously moved.

I use Fb2000 in raw (no skins) form for classical music listening at a site that uses OGG format. It is now my "radio."

[loninappleton]

From above.

Here is the 'from scratch' foobar thread made a couple years ago.

foobar audio player how-to thread


I'm still only using the Dayton DTA-1 (Sonic Impact) tri-path amp connected to the AMD Regor based computer build I recently completed.

[IG81]

Foobar2000 is pretty good, although I have yet to use components extra to what is in the original pack. Into the Behringer UCA-222, DTA-1 and my FF125K mini-reflex, it makes for some great sound for a very low investment. While I will listen to some ripped CD's on it once in a while, SomaFM sees the most use on this rig.

IG

[Kenny Brant]

Thank you for the help.

Does anybody have a recommendation on a ADC unit so I can go from my preamp to computer so I can rip off my records to my computer?

A couple of yeas ago I used the ADS tech instant music 16-bit/48kHz unit to play with but didn't have the time to do much with it. I am retired and have more time now. It doesn't seem like I do as I seem to be more busy now then when I worked. LOL

Thanks, Kenny

[Kenny Brant]

OK, Bob what format are you using wav. or FLAC. I can get wav. to work but not FLAC. It goes thru all the steps and when it asks for folder and file name and I select it it just sets there and does nothing.

I figured out what I am going to do with my phono setup.

Thanks, Kenny

[von.ah]

I don't recall if f2k comes default with flac.exe, so what you're seeing is probably foobar looking for the codec. If the folder you select does not have flac.exe in it, download it from sourceforge and place it in a folder you can easily get to.

Are you going with the behringer uca 202 or 222 as a line into your PC? For the money, that little DAC can't be beat...

Cheers!

[Kenny Brant]

Originally Posted by von.ah

I don't recall if f2k comes default with flac.exe, so what you're seeing is probably foobar looking for the codec. If the folder you select does not have flac.exe in it, download it from sourceforge and place it in a folder you can easily get to.

Are you going with the behringer uca 202 or 222 as a line into your PC? For the money, that little DAC can't be beat...

Cheers!

Thanks, I'll look into downloading flac.exe and also into the behringer uca 202 or 222. Haven't really decided what hardware just know what I need to do to get it to work. I'm not going to rip all of my 4500 albums just the ones I like and aren't on CD.

Kenny

[Bob Brines]

The FLAC decoder is HERE. Download it and install it, probably in Program Files. Then, when you try to use a FLAC file, Fb2000 should ask where it is. For ripping CD's, you will need EAC. Finally, for MP3 filles, you will need LAME. If you need ACC or MP4, there are converters for that also.

Bob

[RETFYL]

If you use VST plugins look for TesslaPRO