Tuesday, March 22, 2011

StealthAudioPlayer: Now Playing

Continuation of Minimalist Audio Player, ASIO Support (and WinXP), Cue Sheet Support And StealthAudioPlayer and StealthAudioPlayer: Next Step

Version 0.1.9
http://rapidshare.com/files/454695202/stealthaudioplayer_0.1.9.zip
  • Buffer size aligning in WASAPI bug fixed. .... SQ!?
  • When opening a folder with SAP changed to not processing m3u playlists inside that folder.
  • After fast forwarding (un-pausing), not exiting right away when the last track ends. Fixed.

    Version 0.1.8
    http://rapidshare.com/files/453780733/StealthAudioPlayer_0.1.8.zip
    • Playback has been slightly modified which allows for a new setting - N_Setting=1 in the StealthAudioPlayer.ini:
      [Playback]
        N_Setting=1
          By default N_Setting=1 and it does not change anything (no change in SQ for example). On the other hand Setting=0 is more "optimized" but may change SQ.
            • When playing folder with right click files are played in alphabetical order now.
            • Add Autohotkey script for media keys. See Autohotkey website for details.
            • Add the current m3u playlist "StealthAudioPlayer.m3u". Preserves current playlist after exit. It also shows currently played track. You can open it in notepad and use it as "Now Playing" functionality. So now when StealthAudioPlayer.exe starts without parameters it will resume the StealthAudioPlayer.m3u from the saved track.
            • Pause does not show a dialog anymore. It exits preserving StealthAudioPlayer.m3u and also remembers current track position in the current m3u playlist StealthAudioPlayer.m3u. When you start pause.bat again it resumes at the saved position of the current track.
            • *.wv files added to the converters list. You need to add the following line to the [Converters] in StealthAudioPlayer.ini
                  [Converters]
                    wv=sox\sox.exe %1 temp.wav
                    • InstallStealthAudioPlayer.bat should be run for some of the above changes to take effect.
                    Only in case you really feel like it, here is a chance to thank/support/encourage me by donating a few bucks.



                    Posted by at

                    37 comments:

                    1. AnonymousMarch 31, 2011 at 7:12 AM

                      What exactly are you optimizations?

                      ReplyDelete
                    2. AndyMarch 31, 2011 at 7:21 PM

                      I'd rather not tell.
                      The important thing is that whatever these "optimizations" are they will not be in effect if N_Setting=1.

                      N_Setting=1 will keep SAP playback the same as previous versions.

                      ReplyDelete
                    3. suerteenpila.comApril 5, 2011 at 6:26 AM

                      As always, impressive

                      ReplyDelete
                    4. PeterApril 9, 2011 at 6:14 AM

                      Andy - Like everyone else, I want to say thanks for the great sounding player. It's heads above many of the other big name (and big $) players out there. If I understand the README correctly, one I right click on the audio file and select Play with Stealth Audio Player, it should start the conversion (from FLAC) and begin playing. I am finding that when I select the file, it starts the conversion, puts the temp.wav file in the SP folder then stops.Then I have to click on StealthAudioPlayer to play the music. A two step manual process. Is that correct?

                      ReplyDelete
                    5. AndyApril 9, 2011 at 8:07 AM

                      Hi Peter,
                      Thank you for your feedback!
                      Hmm.. that is of course not what SAP is expected to do.
                      When you right click on flac audio file and select "Play with SAP" It should start conversion to the temp.wav and automatically start playing not even waiting for conversion to complete.
                      I have just tested it here on a fresh install of SAP with both flac.exe (default) and sox.exe - all work fine.
                      What version of flac.exe are you using? I have flac 1.2.1 b.
                      does it happen to other formats as well?
                      Is it Wasapi or ASIO?
                      XP or later?

                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    6. PeterApril 9, 2011 at 12:49 PM

                      Hi Andy,

                      I'm using flac 1.2.1b, also. I've only tried it with flac so far, since most of my music is in that format. This was through Wasapi. Output is to a usb dac, which shows up correctly on the .ini file. I have had problems with Wasapi exclusive mode on other players (except foobar), so maybe that plays into it.

                      ReplyDelete
                    7. suerteenpila.comApril 14, 2011 at 5:28 AM

                      I've had an issue with long file names not being recognized, yet SAP starts playing the last known file via the m3u... Has this happened to you?

                      Thank you for the exceptional program!

                      ReplyDelete
                    8. AndyApril 14, 2011 at 6:04 PM

                      Please give the full path name (length and non English characters if any are important) of the file you have issues with, I will take a look

                      ReplyDelete
                    9. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 7:43 PM

                      http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/3550/desktopbn.jpg

                      Decided to do a simple interface around stealth audio player. Nothing complicated(just folder work). Was working on a faux GUI to handle the commands but I lack the ability to make it pretty artistically.

                      ReplyDelete
                    10. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 11:39 PM

                      Having trouble with libmad and sox, doesn't seem to be accepting the libmad(only one I found).

                      ReplyDelete
                    11. suerteenpila.comMay 17, 2011 at 10:50 AM

                      I was finally able to reproduce the "long name" problem.
                      Here is an example
                      F:\INXS - The Best Of INXS\INXS - The Best Of INXS -01- Need You Tonight.MP3

                      Although it does seem more a problem with the "start" .bat as I can play the file if I start SAP from the command line.

                      Thank you for the best sound around!

                      ReplyDelete
                    12. suerteenpila.comMay 17, 2011 at 11:02 AM

                      Actually the files that don't play have some kind of tags while the ones that don't have any tags play well

                      ReplyDelete
                    13. abokMay 20, 2011 at 4:01 PM

                      A big THANK YOU for this fantastic work of yours! I play my music with the 0.18 for some time now, and the realism and clarity is quite stunning. Though I love browsing my collection by cover, after listening to stealth in realtime I'm glad you didn't make a GUI.
                      For any version to come: please don't...

                      ReplyDelete
                    14. AndyMay 21, 2011 at 7:51 AM

                      Thanks abok!
                      no GUI was my original point, so no worries that won't change ;)

                      ReplyDelete
                    15. AndyMay 21, 2011 at 7:56 AM

                      Hi suerteenpila.com,

                      Haven't tried the filename yet but I plan to soon... Also It would be great to have a sample of that mp3 file with tags that cause troubles.

                      Thanks
                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    16. suerteenpila.comMay 27, 2011 at 9:25 AM

                      It definitely is not the name...
                      It is something about the files and they way the program starts. The file that doesn't start by dragging or selecting "open with..." starts perfectly if SAP is invoked from the command line.

                      ReplyDelete
                    17. AndyMay 27, 2011 at 9:47 AM

                      Hi,

                      Well it is the filename or its extension case to be precise. Try renaming *.MP3 to *.mp3.
                      Anyway, I have fixed it here. Next version will be available soon.

                      Thanks
                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    18. suerteenpila.comMay 30, 2011 at 11:00 AM

                      Good catch! Thank you again for the awesome sound!

                      ReplyDelete
                    19. AnonymousMay 31, 2011 at 12:32 AM

                      I use Avast antivirus and it won't let me download your app from rapidshare, complains of malware. Is it available via another mechanism? Anyone else had antivirus complain?

                      ReplyDelete
                    20. abokMay 31, 2011 at 12:38 AM

                      Hey Andy, looking forward to a new version.
                      I just upgraded to 0.19, but the virus check of that version is a complete disaster.
                      AntiVir shut my player down.
                      The online check site VirusTotal.com where you can check it with all scanners anyone can get his hands on delivers nearly everything from ARTEMIS to trojan, malware etc...
                      Any explanations, anyone? (sad face...)

                      ReplyDelete
                    21. AndyMay 31, 2011 at 12:55 AM

                      It's the way antivirus software works: it detects anything that has no UI, creates exe/bat files, modifies registry and creates temp files.
                      SAP does it all and that is why it is an easy target for an antivirus software, which tries to detect as much as possible to please their customers.

                      All I can recommend is to add StealthAudioPlayer.exe to an exclusion list (every AV has this) so that AV will skip/ignore it.

                      BR
                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    22. AndyJune 1, 2011 at 9:39 AM

                      Hi Abok,

                      Avira Antivir just got back to me with the following
                      "Filename Result StealthAudioPlayer.exe FALSE POSITIVE

                      The file 'StealthAudioPlayer.exe' has been determined to be 'FALSE POSITIVE'. In particular this means that this file is not malicious but a false alarm. Detection will be removed from our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates. "

                      With the next virus db update Avira should stop detecting StealthAudioPlayer.exe 0.1.9 as a virus.

                      Kaspersky Labs Antivirus said it failed to detect any malware in SAP.
                      AVG does not complain about SAP 0.1.9 as well.
                      I sent a request to avast - waiting for response.

                      BR
                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    23. AndyJune 3, 2011 at 10:17 AM

                      Avast responded that SAP 0.1.9 is not detected as a malware by their AV. I sent them rapidshare link so they must have gone all the way from downloading from rapidshare to scanning after unzipping to a local folder.
                      I also double checked avast and SAP 0.1.9 locally - there was no threat found.

                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    24. abokJune 7, 2011 at 10:05 AM

                      Hey Andy,

                      thanks for looking into this again. What troubled me was the following report:

                      http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=db9d03de75a97ba540522a8562646c73e9aa65aba43f3b511c881875fb28d7a4-1306824890

                      I have put the player on AntiVirs exception list in the meantime, and I'll check the updated scanners time and again. Thing is, your player is highly recommended in german "stereoplay" magazine 7/2011 and with e.g. Avast and AntiVir out of the way, some new people might get to love this great player of yours easier...
                      Cheers & thanks again

                      ReplyDelete
                    25. AnonymousJune 8, 2011 at 1:14 PM

                      I have tried a lot of players with a WASAPI driver, like Foobar, JRMC, XXHighend, XMplay, XBMC and others but I found this the best sounding player so far. Everybody who takes quality serious should try this great player. I use this player with N_setting=0 and the PC is optimized with fidelizer. It is unbelievable but fidelizer has really influence on the sound quality.

                      ReplyDelete
                    26. amilucasorakselJune 9, 2011 at 10:58 PM

                      Yes fantastic player. But how can I play streaming audio. Now in 2 step process I capture radio stream that play with SAP. Is there a way to get SAP to play streaming audio, maybe some kind of FIFO trick.

                      ReplyDelete
                    27. AndyJune 13, 2011 at 6:12 PM

                      SAP does not support streaming yet! But things change...

                      ReplyDelete
                    28. AnonymousJune 27, 2011 at 7:18 PM

                      Hi Andy,
                      I just discovered your Stealthplayer and I like it a lot.
                      In my soundcard I see my musicfiles clipping though. Is there a way to lower the output gain of the player?
                      Good man!

                      ReplyDelete
                    29. AndyJune 27, 2011 at 8:02 PM

                      Hi,

                      Lowering the gain in SAP would mean digital processing. I try to avoid any DSPing in SAP.
                      So no. :(
                      I hope you will find the solution for your setup!

                      Cheers

                      ReplyDelete
                    30. abokJuly 15, 2011 at 4:23 AM

                      Hi,

                      as Andy promised, AntiVir, Bitdefender & some others do not detect stealth as a threat anymore.
                      Here's a new report from virustotal:

                      http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=db9d03de75a97ba540522a8562646c73e9aa65aba43f3b511c881875fb28d7a4-1310727697

                      Thank you, Andy, for solving this!

                      ReplyDelete
                    31. AndyJuly 15, 2011 at 8:27 AM

                      NP! BTW, add to playlist feature is almost finished, soon it will be available for you to try.

                      ReplyDelete
                    32. SocratesOctober 19, 2011 at 1:26 AM

                      Thank you! I have never thought that software player can influence the quality of sound. So I used foobar until I came accross your player. I use a standard laptop with the integrated audio and Windows XP SP3. I also use ASIO4ALL for output. The difference in sound quality is stunning! The only problem is I have to keep my system volume as low as possible as there is no way to adjust volume in your player.

                      ReplyDelete
                    33. JosefNovember 13, 2011 at 4:01 PM

                      Hello Andy

                      many thanks for this miraculous audioplayer. I have tried out many others,but your player is outstanding.

                      He has functioned always perfectly, but now I have a problem.
                      After playing one music-file, the player stops. I must delete “temp.wav” from hand. Afterwards the next file automatically starts. This procedure must be repeated constantly. No matter whether version 0.2.2-,-0.2.0-,-0.1.9-, it is always the same problem.

                      I have an Acer Netbook with Win7 STARTER, Wasapi, preamplifier / DAC asynchronously.
                      With installed Win7 Home BASIC the same problem.
                      This is a pure Audio-Netbook, Win7 installation is only in the basic version, without Internet and without Microsoft updates.

                      Help would be great

                      ReplyDelete
                    34. AndyNovember 13, 2011 at 5:08 PM

                      Hi Josef,

                      Could you please try installing SAP to the root of drive C:.
                      for example C:\SAP\. make sure to use latin characters only.
                      I could help you offline if you give your email address.

                      Thanks
                      Andy

                      ReplyDelete
                    35. JosefNovember 14, 2011 at 3:34 PM

                      Hello Andy,

                      many thanks for your tip.
                      I have installed to C:\SAP\, and now the player functions again.
                      My old installation was C:\StealthAudioPlayer_0.2.2\.
                      Maybe was the sum of all file names too long for windows.
                      Again many thanks for the really good service.

                      Josef

                      ReplyDelete
                    36. AnonymousNovember 16, 2011 at 11:47 AM

                      Stunning player, using 0.2.2 with usb dac, Win7 and WASAPI. Simply put, blows other players out of the water. No comparisons. Thank you very much. Will follow your fantastic work with much interest.

                      ReplyDelete
                    37. AnonymousMarch 4, 2012 at 1:59 AM

                      Norton Internet Security removed .exe file
                      reported as: WS.Reputation.1
                      ak

                      ReplyDelete

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