hi i am new to foobar, but i notice when i change teh volume, i gotta go through preferences to change it, and then it has like a 5 second delay

is there any way to have its own volume bar on the actual player and not to have a delay

i hate to say it, but is there a way to have volume like winamp

For the delay: you can set the output buffer lower, this way you'll get a lower delay. There will always be a delay. If only 500ms.
There might be a volume slider once, but maybe even not. Your post is about the 100th about this topic, so please USE THE FORUM SEARCH FUNCTION before posting. There is a link on proper forum posting in my signature if you'd like some more tips.
And you can set any keyboard shortcut to change the volume.

i changed the volume to my global hot keys

but they still have a long lag,

is this normal

Yes. Kalmark just answered that..

no i mean i did that, and i still get a LONG delay

i guess its not a big deal just curious to make it as low as possible

That's strange. When I change the buffer length to say, 100 ms (Prefs > Playback > Output > *whatever output you're using*), volume change is near instantaneous. Using Cpt. Footure's foo_out_dsound_ex2 for my output if that makes any difference.

Can you check what Preferences -> Playback -> Status display reports for "Output latency"?

goes between 88-113

i counted, and it takes 15 seconds to change
the dsp latency should be lower too shouldnt it?

edit: i fixed it!! i disabled all dsps so now my dsp latency is 0

volume works good now

kinda sucks that i cant use a fader now though

Your DSP latency was huge...maybe you should only leave the most important ones in the DSP chain, maybe even have a shorter fade...

Volume control should be at the end of the DSP chain. Always.

You can use Direct Sound v2 (see output method) with builtin fade in/out.

yah but when i turn up the fade, the volume control lags alot

Volume control DSP will not make the crossfading DSP plug-ins lag if you place the volume control at the end of the DSP chain.

Please post a screen shot of your DSP list.

ok ill post a few... from dsp to outputs

all i really want is, to have my volume almost instant - and a fade between tracks

thats all

it's ridiculous not to have the volume control in the main gui of a music player program!! Why doesn't this append in foobar?!?!?!!?

Hmm, little offtopic, but I can see on these screenshots Direct Sound output version 2.5... Is it only included in special installer? I don't see a such plugin on foobar's download page...

foo_out_dsound_ex2 file & HA thread.

I doubt I'm the only one who doesn't even have the volume control DSP enabled. The method of liberation is quite simple really: ReplayGain -> set negative preamp for non-gained files -> remove volume control dsp -> enjoy. Go on, try it. It isn't that hard.

For those that aren't ready to take the plunge in the world of no volume control, you could always use the + or - keys or set up whatever crazy hotkeys you would rather use. That isn't very hard either.

If you can't stand not having a volume bar or if you can't stand laggy volume because of DSP and output latency, you might want to consider a different player for general usage.

I recall someone making a Foobar plugin to adjust the Windows system volume (which obviously results in essentially realtime volume adjustment), but I can't be bothered to do the legwork to find it. Everyone should know where the search box and Google is by now.

i just took off all dsps except volume to have instant volume

kinda sucks i cant have both volume instant and fade

How often do you need to adjust the volume? ReplayGain should take care of files or albums being too quiet or too loud, while there is a dynamic compressor for other purposes.

well its just that i have foobar on all day everyday

so when i game, i want it a tad lower, or when im on the phone

stuff like that.. volume is always changing

i cant really tell a client WAIT FOR THE DSP BUFFER TO LOWER MY VOLUME

I would think that adjusting the physical volume control on the speakers themselves or whatnot would be more convenient if you're interested in finetuning.

An alternative idea to the slider route which everyone seems to request would be if the volume changer made a smooth volume transition without dsp delay to user-configurable levels--quiet, normal, and loud (or whatever the user named them). Since it's mostly a desire for a quick, visible, and easily manipulated volume control, you could throw in little toolbar buttons. This is already doable via hotkeys, but those few additions would be rather neat

Any idea why hes getting lag on the volume control DSP? I'm curious since I haven't seen that and Kode seems to think it shouldn't happen.

Just get foo_mixer (it controls the windows volume) and be done with it. No more lag.

I don't understand why everytime a users ask for a volume slide, somebody talks about replaygain.

Replaygain is very nice, but volume is needed anyway. Sometimes I want to listen music loudly and sometimes not, replaygain doesn't help here.



my 2¢

If he is using a large buffer size with the extended version of DirectSound v2, then he will experience output lag on top of DSP lag. I am not sure that DirectSound v2 needs a buffer as large as the fade durations, since the volume is handled by DirectSound itself.

I see you have the output buffer size set to 3150ms. See if reducing this to 150-200ms breaks fade on stop/pause/seek.

I mention ReplayGain to fill the need to change the volume when music forces you to. As for frequently lowering the volume, you can use my Mute DSP control, which can instantly attenuate to a specific level, independent of the volume control DSP. It is toggled by a menu item, which can be configured to a hotkey.

The reason volume control cannot easily be made realtime is because the output API would need to handle the task. That would be easy for DirectSound, where each output stream has its own volume level, but KS, ASIO, and even WaveOut would either need to scale to volume in realtime or adjust the system mixer level, which would affect everything going through the device.

A "possible" solution for realtime volume scaling in output would be for the output to buffer only 50-100ms of audio data, and handle this buffer in its own thread at highest or even realtime priority level, then buffer up to a second of audio data outside of this, and perform volume scaling as audio passes from the larger buffer to the smaller buffer. This is not a nice solution for independent near-realtime volume control.

for instant volume changing, there's also the possibility to do this with foo_looks.
Hadda made a great skin (Foopilot One) that features instant volume changing and muting.

Ahh the ongoing volume control discussion, i truly think there is only one way to get this discussion to stop

Q: is it at all possible to modify, say the foo_out_dsound_ex2.5, to just include a volume control internally. I think the only solution is to include the volume control directly in the output plugin.
The real problem is the delay, the actual gui volume slider isn`t even necessary, and if it is, it can`t be that hard to include.

..and at this point I actually wish it'd be implemented just so people shut the flac up. Kind of like the seekbar "incident" back in the day.

foo_out_dsound_eafboh?

Let me simplify this for bewildered new users who've waded through this topic without finding a clear answer.

- Foobar2000 is a music player with no volume controller.
- In order to adjust the volume, you have to dig through the preferences.
- When you finally make your volume adjustment, there's a delay before it takes effect.

Foobar2000 looks like a very nice programme in other respects, DSPs etc.

But what strain of lunacy, idiocy or cretinism made its programmers design a MUSIC PLAYER with NO VOLUME CONTROL???

To add insult to injury, it also seems clear that foobar users in this forum are bitterly impatient with anyone who complains or inquires about this basic deficiency.

"Why would you need to alter the volume?" they ask.

Well, why would you need brakes on a bike? What could possibly make you need a roof on your house? Why would you need to flush a crapper? Just imagine going to meet your girlfriends parents for the first time, needing the loo, only to find it missing its handle, and then upon embarrassedly inquiring where it might be located, to be met with incredulous expressions and told if you insisted on flushing it, you would have to remove the cistern's lid and fiddle with the ballcock.

It's bound to be apparent that I'm highly amused by this completely barmy piece of kit. I suggest, if you want this to ever become popular,


1. Code in a volume control.

2. Make it respond instantly.

3. Show more courtesy to sane people.

scarriple, you are wrong.

*surprise* There is a volume control.

In order to adjust the volume, you have to press keypad + or -, or anything else you set as hotkeys. And add the volume control DSP to the DSP chain (I guess it's there by default)

You can set up foobar so you won't have a noticable delay. Without plugins. As I do. You can use the foo_mixer plugin and so the volume control will act the same way as with any windows app.

And more importantly, you should read at least one of the answers the developers gave to any of the zillion threads begging for a volume slider without reading the answers to a previous thread with the same topic.

To me foobar is a source, and I don't want to change the volume at the source. That's one of the main purposes of my amplifier(s).

Just the same situation as with the volume control on my stand alone CD-player, I don't need it.

I guess this thread is as good as closed now...

Realtime independent volume control would only work for DirectSound. Every other output method would require a low latency base layer buffer, maintained by a high priority thread, while the higher latency buffering is handled at a higher level of the output. Volume would need to be applied to samples in software just like the DSP, only using this low latency proxy to the volume changes.

That, or it can adjust the system mixer, but then it has to be configured for whether it controls waveout or master volume, if either one exists for the selected device. It gets more complicated for ASIO or KS, which may or may not be affected by the mixer at all.

Winamp just has volume implemented in the output API, DirectSound outputs control independent DirectSound stream volume. WaveOut controls the device mixer settings. I don't know what ASIO does. An experimental KS output released on this forum (HA.org, not the Foobar2000 forum.) doesn't support volume control at all, so the in-player volume control has no effect.

"Works most of the time, good enough, right?" Maybe you should just use what works for you instead.