Automatic loop - it's not perfect
I have bought a new laptop where Windows XP was pre-installed and I successfully installed your program on that operation system. I have noticed that - even though I have set the end and the beginning of the loop very precisely - the program doesn't jump immediatly to the first marker. There is a little break listenable. I don't know how your program is asking for the data when and where to jump, but I've heard about the same problem with other programs. They usually can fix this problem when you change some data in the INI-file for the program, which may bring up another problem, but only if the overall performance of your PC is not very good. Since I don't have this problem (my laptop is running with 1 GHz, it has a fast hard disc and its main memory is 384 MB) I would like to ask you whether there is a way to change anything like the INI-file so that I won't hear this break anymore.
I mean, usually it doesn't disturb too much, but for some pieces
of music to break really sounds terrible.
Unfortuntately, the music reset is not yet perfect -- sometimes it 'skips'. Believe me, I've tried many times to fix (minimize) this 'problem'. Whenever I get a new idea, I try it out. In this manner, future releases of CSDS will eventually get better with respect to looping, since I spend time thinking about this problem, and I often try new ways of doing things.
Here's a few comments on this issue:
-
As it is, the CSDS program controls either the WinAmp player or
the Microsoft Media Player. It does so by sending commands to those players to load music, set the track position, etc. Sometimes there is a delay from when CSDS sends the command to when the player receives and executes the command. This is what causes the 'jump'. If you don't yet have version 1.09.04, you should upgrade since a change was made to (yet again) minimize the (sometimes unavoidable) 'jump'.
-
I have future plans to try a several things that may fix the problem, the most ambitious of which, is to disassociate the music player portion of CSDS from CSDS itself, making it a separate program, with a higher system priority. I also have plans to try to bypass the players altogether and send commands directly to the sound card hardware via SDK/API commands.
-
I'm currently in the process of modifying how the program controls the Microsoft Media Player. I've found a way to significantly shorten the 'jump', but unfortunately, there are still a few bugs. An advantage of this new (yet unreleased) way is that the looping works correctly even when the tempo is changed.
-
You could try using Winamp instead of the Microsoft Media Player.
Winamp is better at buffering the music, and the loop isn't often as noticable. Unfortunately, your loops may all have to be reset, since a loop set with the Microsoft Media Player may not sound well when played via Winamp and vice-versa.
-
CSDS has a 'manual loop reset' button (the rightmost large button in the music player, entitled 'Loop Reset'). This button is also accessible via the shortcut key 'L'. This function sets the track position to 'Loop start'. If you're having trouble with the 'jump' on a particular piece of music, you can press the 'L' key at the appropriate time (perhaps near the end of the music, while you've got the volume turned down low and you're
delivering a call).
-
One caller discovered (to his delight), that upgrading the operating system with a new sound card driver solved his 'jump' problem.
