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Topic: Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1 (Read 8599 times) previous topic - next topic
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Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Hi guys,

I'd like to announce that Speex is joining the Xiph.org foundation (makers or Vorbis). At the same time, we're releasing the first beta of Speex under a new BSD license, which is less restrictive than the LGPL. With this beta, the Speex API and bit-stream are now in "soft freeze" meaning they'll only be changed if there's a really important reason to do so. Otherwise (most-likely), the format will be the same as the final 1.0 format.

As for the changes, this release brings a new way of encoding comments in the files which is the same as what Vorbis does. Also, a couple bugs were fixed, including a possible crash in the encoder.

Last thing, we've moved the web site to http://www.speex.org. Have fun!

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #1 –
Will speex-files be wrapped in the ogg-container now?

You said you are planning to incorporate a high-bitrate mode for encoding short music-blocks in spoken audio. Would it be possible to use Vorbis for that?

Cheers from the crowd

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #2 –
Quote
Will speex-files be wrapped in the ogg-container now?

You said you are planning to incorporate a high-bitrate mode for encoding short music-blocks in spoken audio. Would it be possible to use Vorbis for that?

First, Speex has used the ogg format almost since the beginning (0.1.0 I think). Also, the high bit-rate mode has been there since the last version (0.8.0) and is at 24.6 kbps for narrowband and 42.2 kbps for wideband. Sure Vorbis can do the job for music, but it's not optimal for speech then, and there's nothing yet that allows switching between the two in real-time...

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #4 –
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Speex has used the ogg format almost since the beginning (0.1.0 I think).

Oops. Why is the extension .spx then? (It isn't .vorbis too)

Forgive me my complete ignorance...

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #5 –
Quote
Quote
Speex has used the ogg format almost since the beginning (0.1.0 I think).

Oops. Why is the extension .spx then? (It isn't .vorbis too)

Forgive me my complete ignorance...

Well you can always use any extension you like... I used .spx instead of .ogg so that people don't get confused and think that it's a vorbis file. With Speex joining Xiph.org, that may change since the tools (oggenc, ogg123) will be able to decode Speex files as well.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #7 –
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Any reason why you didn't use the project files already supplied with Speex? Anything wrong with them?

The reason is that I have never seen them.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #8 –
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Any reason why you didn't use the project files already supplied with Speex? Anything wrong with them?

The reason is that I have never seen them.

They're in the win32 directory. They were made by john33.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #9 –
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They're in the win32 directory. They were made by john33.

And where is this directory? Like I said, I have never seen them, they haven't been included in any source distribution I have downloaded.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #10 –
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Quote

They're in the win32 directory. They were made by john33.

And where is this directory? Like I said, I have never seen them, they haven't been included in any source distribution I have downloaded.

Oops, I just realized that this direcory is only in CVS  I'll make it appear in the next distribution.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #11 –
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Oops, I just realized that this direcory is only in CVS  I'll make it appear in the next distribution.

Okay, there they were. I'd recommend including define for VERSION in the project files, now everything is marked as "unknown version".

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #12 –
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Okay, there they were. I'd recommend including define for VERSION in the project files, now everything is marked as "unknown version".

How do you do that? I never use MSVC.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #13 –
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How do you do that? I never use MSVC.

Just edit all those .dsp files and add '/D VERSION=\"1.0beta1\"' after other /D commands on lines starting with '# ADD CPP', there are two of them in each file. For example in libspeex.dsp the line for debug build should look like
'# ADD CPP /nologo /W3 /Gm /GX /ZI /Od /D "WIN32" /D "_DEBUG" /D "_WINDOWS" /D VERSION=\"1.0beta1\" /YX /FD /GZ /c'

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #14 –
Excellent news, I will knock up an encoding and decoding codec for dBpowerAMP.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #15 –
We made it to Slashdot! See what they thought of the Speex/Xiph merger...

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #16 –
mr. valin, i think you should make sure that links to the existing speex frontends are put in obvious places on speex.org 
A riddle is a short sword attached to the next 2000 years.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #17 –
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mr. valin, i think you should make sure that links to the existing speex frontends are put in obvious places on speex.org 

Yes. I sort of lost track of all the Speex front-ends and plugins. Could everyone on HA with a Speex front-end/plugin/... send me an e-mail with the name of the app and the URL? That would help me a lot get the right links to the right tools.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #18 –
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Could everyone on HA with a Speex front-end/plugin/... send me an e-mail with the name of the app and the URL?

What's your e-mail?

In the meantime, I sent you a PM about SpeexDrop.

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #19 –
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What's your e-mail?

Oops... jm@xiph.org

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #20 –
Do you think is possible to use Speex + multichan Vorbis for A/V apps ?

Is Speex using a different Vorbis decoding engine ?

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #21 –
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Do you think is possible to use Speex + multichan Vorbis for A/V apps ?
Is Speex using a different Vorbis decoding engine ?

Yes, but I asked Tobias (developer of the OGG DS-Filters) to implement Speex so, that there is only one decoder, so it can decode OGG streams with Vorbis and Speex directly without rebuilding the graph. Also he want to fix that bug, that you cannot have stereo and 5.1 toghether etc. All with the great new release within the next two month (he also said that icecast support comes within the next two month... in march! this feature should come within the next weeks).

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #22 –
Going off topic

is there a winamp plugin for SPX or does the ogg.vorbis plugin playback the file if rename to .ogg ?

would it be possible to use speex in the center channels (almost only speech) and vorbis with the rest  in 5.1?
or is speex to lossy (lossing to much quality for clarity)  to this job.

i now acelpt.net codec is not good for this. it is only good for voice if the voice itself is not important (e.g only the info in spokens words are important)as the voice i altered very much to get clarity.
Sven Bent - Denmark

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #23 –
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is there a winamp plugin for SPX or does the ogg.vorbis plugin playback the file if rename to .ogg ?

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/html/other.html
The vorbis plug-in cannot playback speex, because speex is a completly differnet format, it yust uses the same container (ogg).
Quote
would it be possible to use speex in the center channels (almost only speech) and vorbis with the rest in 5.1?
or is speex to lossy (lossing to much quality for clarity) to this job.

No, I don´t thing that´s possible, because in one stream you cannot have different formats´. But maybe you can have the normal sound in a movie in Vorbis and the director´s comment in speex.
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i now acelpt.net codec is not good for this. it is only good for voice if the voice itself is not important (e.g only the info in spokens words are important)as the voice i altered very much to get clarity.

Speex is similar to acelp.net (both using CELP), but acelp.net is a closed commercial codec. Also speex has much better quality. M$ is using acelp.net in Windows Media. Vorbis is the better alternative to WMA, Speex is the better alternative to acelp.net

Speex Joins Xiph.org, Releases Beta 1

Reply #24 –
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i now acelpt.net codec is not good for this. it is only good for voice if the voice itself is not important (e.g only the info in spokens words are important)as the voice i altered very much to get clarity.

I think it would be usable only for very low quality/bitrate, but then it makes no sense to encode 5 channels. As things are for the time being, Speex is far away from transparency, at any preset. Maybe this can change in time?

AFAIK, Vorbis is better for higher bitrates, even for voice encoding.