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In Reply to: RE: Easy tweak ...sonic benefit of which is significant posted by theob on April 07, 2012 at 09:22:00
This tweak was originally identified by Ryelands . . .
Hmmmm. Not by this Ryelands, it wasn't. Not quite.
I've never advocated having all of a library's cuefiles in one folder though my original motivation for not doing so that was that I couldn't work with cMP's UI. I still can't but I now also think that browsing for data should not be performed by the music player or shell for "sound quality" reasons.
1. To clarify, by "absolute cuefile" I mean one whose text includes the full path to the target data (e.g. M:\Jazz\Duke Ellington\Duke Ellington - 1960 - Piano in the Background\01 - Duke Ellington - Happy go lucky Local.flac) and by "relative" I mean one that has the filename only. Obviously, the latter must sit in the same folder as its data;
2. As we all know, when "cMP" is selected in cPlay's settings dialogue, the player loses its browsing capability and is launched by clicking on a target cuefile in cMP's main window;
3. cMP sees cuefiles only; it does not load music data into RAM though it does load every cuefile in the "watched" folders selected in cMP's Folder > Add dialogue. The watched folders are scanned at boot time and when the "Refresh" button is hit. If there are many relative cuefiles, this can, as riboge notes, take several minutes. If the files are absolute and all in one location, it is significantly faster;
4. That this is how the two programs work is shown by cuefiles that "point" to data that are in fact missing. The error is recognised only when cPlay is launched, not before. It follows that cMP does not load music data or check cuefile integrity (there being no compelling reason why it should);
5. However cMP is configured, "watching" a large number of cuefiles eats up significant RAM, in my case (a medium-sized collection of a little over 6,000 albums), probably about 30 MB. Even for a small collection, it's unlikely to be less than an MB or two.
Given the heroic efforts of pioneer "slimmers" to reduce OS footprint, it seems to me worthwhile to see how this footprint might also be reduced. Ideally, cMP should load the target cuefile (typically < 10 KB) only;
6. The easiest way to do that is, it seems to me, to copy the target cuefile only to the one folder that cMP is configured to "watch", to use cMP's "Refresh" facility to recognise when the file is changed and to delete the file once play is finished. Obviously, the files have to be absolute but such are easily written with AJ's "CueFileCreator";
7. It's certainly easy (better, in my view) to work this way in a networked cMP setup without loss of SQ. I'm not sure that it's quite as simple on an isolated cMP2 box where Sonic Trappists have long since sacrificed File Explorer in pursuit of SQ (OK, OK, I'm one of them). If anyone's interested, I'll happily explain how I do it but, if no-one is (fair enough) I'll not bother.
Dave
Follow Ups:
Hello, please tell us.
Serge.
That might be misunderstood but I'll assume it's audio we're discussing . . .What follows describes how I configured my "headless" cMP2-with-networking setup to ensure that cMP never needs to load more than one cuefile into memory.
I developed the scheme (which went through several different permutations but which I haven't changed for over a year now) to get round cMP's restrictive UI which IMHO is simply not up to handling a medium-to-large library. It was only later, after a series of exchanges with theob, that its sound quality advantages became clear. Well, to him at least - I don't really have anything to compare it with.
My music library resides on a shared drive on a desktop "server" which I also use to run my two cMP2 boxes. It should not be hard to adapt the routine for different scenarios as it relies on nothing more than cuefiles with absolute paths (which many already use in any case), a few shortcuts and a little batch file.
++++
1. If you don't already have one, create a library of cuefiles with absolute paths separate from main music library (the boring bit).
Tip 1: use Xcopy /T in a command window quickly to replicate the source library's directory structure and the "Set Output Folder" facility in AJ's CueSheetCreator to create cuefiles with abolute paths.
Tip 2: Use TextCrawler to edit cuefiles in bulk if e.g. you move them to a different drive or just screw up.
Tip 3: use the same character (typically M:) for the desktop's drive letter and the cMP2's network share so that the cuefiles are valid on both.
Tip 4: be sure to make regular backups of the new cuefiles.
2. Create a folder called M:\00. You later set cMP to "watch" this folder, i.e. to load its contents on boot or after a "Refresh".
3. The cuefile library is not seen by the cMP2 box and can sit anywhere on the desktop box. Browse it to select an album and copy its cuefile to M:\00.
Tip 1: for easy browsing, create a series of shortcuts to your library and put them in a separate folder called (e.g. and with imagination) "Music". This folder acts as a proxy for the cMP UI with the benefit that it doesn't depend on accurate tags to maintain structural integrity, is under the user's control and, crucially, doesn't gobble up resources on the cMP2 box.
Create a shortcut to it, give it a distinctive icon (so you can find it quickly) and put it on the QuickLaunch bar. To browse, click on the icon, select your cuefile, right-click on it and use SendTo to copy it to M:\00. Pictures H/W. You can then close the Explorer window.
Tip 2: create a batch file called "00-ClearList" (the 00 bit ensuring it appears at the top of the window) that reads "Del M:\00\*.cue /s". Put it in the same folder as your shortcuts - see above. Double-click on it to remove cuefiles from M:\00 for albums you have finished playing.Tip 3: create a shortcut to M:\00 and put it the "Send To" menu - set Explorer to show hidden files and put the shortcut in the user's SendTo folder in "Documents and Settings".
4. In cMP's "Settings" dialogue, clear the "watched folders" list and add M:\00 to it.
Tip 1: to avoid any error messages on caused by cMP not seeing any cuefiles (e.g. before logging on), create a dummy cuefile, put it in C:\ and add C:\ to the watched folders list. To make a dummy file, copy these lines into Notepad:
REM GENRE 0
REM DATE
PERFORMER " "
TITLE " "
FILE "Theme.flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "1"
PERFORMER "2"
INDEX 01 00:00:00and save the file as Dummy.cue. At about 150 bytes, it can safely be assumed to have no effect on SQ.
5. Back on the cMP2 box, even after you replace a cuefile in M:\00, cMP still reports it (demonstrating again that it does indeed hold cuefiles in RAM). Click Refresh to lose the old cuefile and make the new one visible; play it as normal.
I quickly got used to this routine and find it faster and easier than messing about with cMP's UI. Aside from any SQ benefits (for which I have only theob's word as I haven't used the cMP UI for years), I do not intend to return to the old way.
Anyone interested in trying it is welcome to come back with questions where my notes are not clear.
Now, off to Evensong . . . Trappists have no time to gossip.
Dave
Edits: 04/08/12 04/08/12
Thank You!
Serge.
Tell, please.
Dying of suspense here.
Expecting your normal clever, lucid directions... don't disapoint!
Greg in Mississippi
Everything matters!
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