The Monkey Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 I know it is probably just in my head but I think the new version might actually sound better than the previous version. Jeff, are you listening to the ULN-2, yet?
Hopstretch Posted October 31, 2009 Author Report Posted October 31, 2009 OK, I did a little more digging on this Amarra alternative and they do have an application up and running. It's provisionally called Playback Engine and is going into Beta testing right now. Price will be "$200 - $400" so it's a direct shot at Mini. I'm going to see if I can nag my way onto the Beta test list.
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Dinny, Haven't taken it out of the box yet. I should get a care package from Nate in the next couple of weeks that will let me use it.
tyrion Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Mike, it's still nudge-nudge wink-wink at this point, but my understanding is it'll be using the Wave Editor/Izotope platform. Based on their other stuff, I'd expect it to kick Amarra's ass in terms of application design. Which, let's be honest, is not hard. Amarra is butt ugly and chews through RAM like Dinny goes through DACs. How it will sound, of course, is another question entirely. But Wave Editor is $80, so they've got plenty of room to undercut Amarra Mini, let alone the full Amarra suite. Cool, I think I will hold off on my Amarra Mini purchase for the moment.
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 I would recommend for the upgrade that you uninstall Amarra first and don't think that installing the new version will overwrite all parts of Amarra. I just installed it the first time and while it appeared to just replace the old version I had a lot of trouble with selection of sample rates. After doing it the right way it seems to be back to normal. There is also a new sample rate converter software built in that apparently lets you edit files to other sample rates. Don't know why that would be useful but it is there.
digger945 Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 OK, I did a little more digging on this Amarra alternative and they do have an application up and running. It's provisionally called Playback Engine and is going into Beta testing right now. Price will be "$200 - $400" so it's a direct shot at Mini. I'm going to see if I can nag my way onto the Beta test list. Will this new playback engine be like Amarra products, for Mac only? I know, I know. I'm shopping for a Mac now.(keep hoping to find a compete computer deal at a steal from someone getting out of the hobby, or moving back to analog)
Hopstretch Posted October 31, 2009 Author Report Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) There is also a new sample rate converter software built in that apparently lets you edit files to other sample rates. Don't know why that would be useful but it is there. That's pretty useful if you like to rip vinyl at higher rates, but also occasionally want to burn CDs from those files. A nice feature to have. I don't see that they added the Amarra Vinyl functions they've been talking about to the full 1.1 version? Thought that was supposed to be included? Quite curious to see how it will work. If it takes a lot of the "post-processing" grind out of the needle drop process, it will be fine thing indeed! Digger -- I think all the Wave Editor stuff is integrated with Core Audio on the Mac, so I can't see it running on any other platforms. Edited October 31, 2009 by Hopstretch
morphsci Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Well if Amarra is really such a memory hog my old 1Gb Mini used exclusively as a server does not seem to be a good Amarra server. Looks like I will be waiting for the Amarra killer software also.
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Well if Amarra is really such a memory hog my old 1Gb Mini used exclusively as a server does not seem to be a good Amarra server. Looks like I will be waiting for the Amarra killer software also. There is no reason to believe the Audiophile Engineering software will use any less than the 500mb that Amarra uses. That said, it will be using a less advanced tool to do the work so it could certainly require less.
Dusty Chalk Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 There is also a new sample rate converter software built in that apparently lets you edit files to other sample rates. Don't know why that would be useful but it is there.Up or down? Sample rate conversion is a whole thing, there's an entire industry evolved around it (albeit realtime, but still...).
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 It looks like I bring in a file and then can resample it to anything from 44.1 to 192.
The Monkey Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Well if Amarra is really such a memory hog my old 1Gb Mini used exclusively as a server does not seem to be a good Amarra server. Looks like I will be waiting for the Amarra killer software also. grrr. My (older) iMac is running 1.5 GB. I'll probably need to upgrade that.
Hopstretch Posted October 31, 2009 Author Report Posted October 31, 2009 There is no reason to believe the Audiophile Engineering software will use any less than the 500mb that Amarra uses. True. I probably shouldn't have casually termed it an "Amarra killer" as that's lazily inflammatory and I really don't think this program is intended to have anything like the breadth of features that full Amarra does. The (provisional?) name seems like a pretty good clue to the functionality, it's a playback engine. That said, I do think if people feel it improves their sonics on a similar level, Amarra Mini will have a tough row to hoe, particularly if PE supports 24/192, which I bet it will. It could also be cheaper, prettier and lighter. And if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle, right?
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 True. I probably shouldn't have casually termed it an "Amarra killer" as that's lazily inflammatory and I really don't think this program is intended to have anything like the breadth of features that full Amarra does. The (provisional?) name seems like a pretty good clue to the functionality, it's a playback engine. That said, I do think if people feel it improves their sonics on a similar level, Amarra Mini will have a tough row to hoe, particularly if PE supports 24/192, which I bet it will. It could also be cheaper, prettier and lighter. And if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle, right? Any luck on the Beta front? I would definitely like to try it out as well but the website forum just has a Beta program for the iPhone recording software. I still have not seen anything that says a single thing this software will do so I guess the Beta testers have not seen it yet either.
jp11801 Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) I think the software based on wave editor will sound great but I've seen a screen shot of the payback GUI and it looks a bit like a car radio. The beauty of amarra is it takes what Itunes does best GUI and just takes over the playback. I use wave editor to record my LPs and it is a great piece particularly for $79. If I could afford sound blade from sonic studios to record and edit I would as it is hands down the software of choice for recording engineers for pure audio quality. Sonic Studios will get the issues taken care of and in this release ALAC was introduced. The major outstanding issue right now is gapless playback. Oh on the ram issue if amarra is loading the song in play to ram (and I have no idea if it is) that is a good thing and I think we'd want that. I signed up for the beta but seem to just be on the beta newsletter? Edited October 31, 2009 by jp11801
morphsci Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 There is no reason to believe the Audiophile Engineering software will use any less than the 500mb that Amarra uses. That said, it will be using a less advanced tool to do the work so it could certainly require less. Yep, totally agree. That's why I am in "let's just wait and see mode". I'll probably spring for the Amarra demo after I at least get brave enough to open up the mini and expand it to 2Gb, which I should have done months ago.
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Yep, totally agree. That's why I am in "let's just wait and see mode". I'll probably spring for the Amarra demo after I at least get brave enough to open up the mini and expand it to 2Gb, which I should have done months ago. You can always download the player and run in demo mode. Kind of annoying that it cuts out once per minute for a few seconds but it will at least tell you if it can run on your Mini.
Hopstretch Posted October 31, 2009 Author Report Posted October 31, 2009 I think the software based on wave editor will sound great but I've seen a screen shot of the payback GUI and it looks a bit like a car radio. The beauty of amarra is it takes what Itunes does best GUI and just takes over the playback. Totally agree. Especially if your product is Mac only. iTunes runs like shit on Windows, so I could see the utility having a separate playback interface there.
Voltron Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 What's the best way to uninstall on a Mac? Just trashing the application folder or something else?
VPI Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Go into the Amarra folder in the Applications folder and double click on uninstall, then you delete the folder.
Voltron Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Thanks Jeff. Deleted. Reinstalled. Sounds good with Apple Lossless. Gotta check out the other stuff.
Sherwood Posted November 1, 2009 Report Posted November 1, 2009 Sounds good with Apple Lossless. Whoah, hey, ALAC support is up now? Holy crap.
VPI Posted November 1, 2009 Report Posted November 1, 2009 Al, what do you think of the sound of the new version. Is it different than the previous version? I almost think there might be a bit more detail. The Weiss DAC2, which I think is a bit syrupy/smooth, sounds better with this version than I remember with the previous.
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