I just recently found out about the Foobar 2000 player from a posting on www.audioasylum.com. I would like to know what Foobar setting are best for my setup. I am playing MP3s that have been downloaded from www.emusic.com and are encoded at only 128 kbps (I wish they were at least 160 kbps).

Computer:
Windows XP
AMD K6 533 mHz CPU
256 SDRAM
Generic video (4 MB) PCI card
20GB 7,200 hard drive
Creative 24x CD-Rom
M-Audio Sonica (USB soundcard)

Stereo:
My stereo is as follows:
B&K ST-140 amp
Onkyo Intergra P-304 preamp
Polk Audio Monitor 7 speakers

I have a 1M DH Labs Silver Sonic Toslink running from the M-Audio Sonica to a Monarchy DIP. From the Monarchy DIP, I have a 1M DH Labs Silver Sonic 75 ohm Coaxial Cable running to the Digital In of an ART DI/O DAC. From the ART DI/O's 1/4 analog outs, I have 2 mono 1/4 to RCA Monster Cable interconnects running to Line In RCA jacks of my preamp.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

John

Seeing as no one has answered my question, I did a little messing with the settings and here is what I have come up with...

DSP Manager
None

Output Method
Kernel Streaming

Buffer Length
1000 ms

Use 6db Hard Limiter
unchecked

Replaygain
disabled

Output Bit Depth
16 bits (I don't know what this does)

Module Decoder
Interpolation
FIR

Sample Rate
44100

Can someone please explain in laymen's terms what Output Bit Depth does as well as Interpolation and Sample Rate?

I am playing legally downloaded MP3s from www.emusic.com which are encoded at 128 mpbs. I do not believe the M-Audio Sonica does any resampling since my ART DI/O DAC is locking onto the signal at 44.1

Any suggestions and explanations are welcome.

John

The two settings under Module Decoder are the mixing sample rate and resampling method used when rendering modules. The supported extensions are: MOD, MDZ, STM, STZ, S3M, S3Z, IT, ITZ, XM, XMZ, MTM, ULT, 669, UMX, FAR, OKT, and PTM. Use whatever frequency you prefer, higher may be better as long as your hardware supports it. Linear interpolation setting is the only one that is incorrect, as (I think) it still enables FIR interpolation. Not necessarily a bad thing, unless you have a slow system.

If I were you, I'd leave replaygain and the hard limiter enabled.

Replaygain will let you playback all of your files or albums at the same volume (depending on what you pick), and also help manage clipping (in addition to the hard limiter).

As for the bit-depth this relates to the bit-depth of the pcm audio stream (like 16-bit 44.1khz for example). Foobar2000 decodes everything to 32-bit floating point internally and then later dithers or truncates back down to 16-bit or 24-bit. It's better to use the highest bit-depth that your card will support then. If your m-audio card supports 24-bit, then select that.

Also note that you can RG scan a set of files in the player by selecting them and using the right-click context menu. Track scan a whole bunch, or scan the selected group as if they all belong to one album. Former ensures equal loudness from all files, while the latter ensures an average volume level for the whole album while retaining relative volume differences between tracks. Both are lossless as they only set gain levels in the tags without actually rewriting the sample data. For those formats that support it, the tags will be written into the files' metadata. For the rest, it will remain in the database until you clear it or reload info from or move the file.


... or something.

If I use Sonica, do I need to upsample to 48k? I heard upsampling in Foobar is only to override poor hardware upsampling right?

according to the bottom of the second post in this thread, the m-audio sonica doesn't resample and it keeps signals at 44.1... if this is true you need not resample beyond 44.1 unless you dont like its resampling then you can SSRC to 44.1, read manufacturer's website/manual to see what it actually does.