ReplayGain calculation is broken

[pdinklag]

Hey!
First off, thanks for WACUP! Winamp was becoming a pain to use as it grew slower and slower over time for no apparent reason. So a few months ago, I switched to WACUP and lived happily ever after. 

I've been using ReplayGain since about forever. Now I discovered an album where the computation completely fails using either algorithm, it's freely available here (talking about the FLAC version): https://mathiasfekjaer.com/album/growth

For the first track "Cavedwellers", ReplayGain (original specification) calculates a track gain of +64.82 dB, which is completely crazy. On the other hand, the newer EBU R128 algorithm calculates a gain of -17.78 dB, which is way too quiet and makes it practically silence compared to other tracks.
For the track "Yggdrasil", the original algorithm computes again the same insane value of +64.82 dB, while EBU R128 now computes -8.82 dB, which seems OK for the genre compared with similar albums, but the track is much louder thatn "Cavedwellers" (inconsistent mastering, the album appears to be a collection of compilation tracks) and therefore the gain should be lower.

I booted up Winamp (5.666, latest AFAIK) to see what happens there. It computes a track gain of -2.36 dB for "Cavedwellers" and -7.19 dB for "Yggdrasil", which seems more like it and also reflects the different mastering.

So now I'm sure that something about WACUP's ReplayGain calculation is broken, and the "original specification" is at least not what Winamp did, at all. I'm fairly certain I've never observed this kind of behaviour before the late February update of WACUP, may it be a bug that was introduced? Then again, I never really did a direct Winamp/WACUP comparison before, so I cannot tell for how long this has been this off.

[dro]

I've grabbed copies of it in flac, mp3 & ogg vorbis so I'll look into this over the next few days. I've had reports of some issues with the replaygain processing some time back but didn't have any specific examples to work from (that I can remember).

As i'm not using the exact same code as winamp for the 'original' replaygain specification & there's been other changes, its likely i've just got something not quite right either on the expected form of the input data or it's just software being weird like it can at times The newer r128 solution can differ a bit compared to the old one but seeing a +64.82 from the old version is definitely not right.

-dro

[gulbis37]

I tried RG ( both of options) . Does it work in background? Because there isn't any countdown on screen.

[dro]

When you send files to have RG calculated via the send-to menu then a skinned window will appear to show what's going on.

-dro

[gulbis37]

When you send files to have RG calculated via the send-to menu then a skinned window will appear to show what's going on.

-dro

It's appearing but it's scanned just part of playlist.

[dro]

Not everything supports RG & the plug-in handling things will only accept files where there's an appropriate input plug-in that supports the format converter api which is needed to get the audio data without hacks to fake play things.

Without knowing what you're trying to process & also what WACUP build (as you've mentioned "both of options" which to me sounds like the old 2021 preview build instead of the 2023 one) it's hard to be certain if it's just a build bug or something else that I'm not aware off.

-dro

[gulbis37]

Not everything supports RG & the plug-in handling things will only accept files where there's an appropriate input plug-in that supports the format converter api which needed to get the audio data without hacks to fake play things. Without knowing what you're trying to process & also what WACUP build (as you've mentioned "both of options" which to me sounds like the old 2021 preview build instead of the 2023 one) it's hard to be certain if it's just a build bug or something else that I'm not aware off.

-dro

Yes,I use 2021 build of Wacup. Two options of RG Analyser Settings - EBU R 128 and RG ( original specification) . First one scanned just part of playlist,second option didn't show nothing on screen. Should I use that Wacup beta,please? Because I broadcast my internet radio and I don't need any trouble if something doesn't work correctly. Thanks.

[dro]

https://getwacup.com/preview/ has the current public preview builds available (all of the builds that have been provided are essentially betas whether they're limited access or done as public previews).

If you're concerned about breaking an existing install then you can easily make portable test installs with the WACUP installer to check if the newer build resolves the issue or not. If it doesn't help then I'll need more information on the files being sent &/or some example files.

-dro

[gulbis37]

https://getwacup.com/preview/ has the current public preview builds available (all of the builds that have been provided are essentially betas whether they're limited access or done as public previews).

If you're concerned about breaking an existing install then you can easily make portable test installs with the WACUP installer to check if the newer build resolves the issue or not. If it doesn't help then I'll need more information on the files being sent &/or some example files.

-dro

Installed new version of WACUP. RG calculations works now just some files show -missing required decoder. Thanks for help anyway 👍

[dro]

The "missing required decoder" could be related to a known bug with the newer preview build. There's a fix is already in place with the 18654 beta build ("Fixed a recurring failure when trying to send files to be processed for replaygain due to a timing & feature validation conflict when checking writing replaygain metadata is supported" unless it's actually a real case of being a file type not handled. At least the newer preview build is seemingly working better than the one you had been using when it comes to the RG handling.

-dro