The only reason I noticed this problem is because I am an audiophile and I pick up on things, but this one was really blatant.
I thought the Clip was playing music a tad bit slower than it normally does on my computer as certain beats I just know.Ā But I just confirmed it by playing a few different tracks, FLAC, CBR 128, CBR 320.Ā Any song I play, if I start it out in the beginning timed exactly with the computer, after a few seconds it starts to shift.Ā And by around 15 seconds, you can easily tell that the Clip is already ābehindā in playing the song.Ā And even if I give the Clip a head start, eventually the computer version catches up and again, the Clip starts to fall behind.Ā It seems as if the Clip is playing the song 5% slower than it should be.Ā If it makes a difference, I have the latest firmware on it, 02.01.32A** **
Now that Iāve noticed it, itās really starting to bug me as some songs I can really notice that the song isnāt playing at the proper speed.
For whatever reason, the clip is optimized to 48KHz sampling rate instead of 44.1KHz. This was reported by some user earlier (davek?).
I resample my flac files on the fly while encoding to ogg and copying to the clip and I have no issues with 48KHz so far. There is a small error too, but itās unnoticable for me. Iāve already tried 2 different 8GB clips and Iām willing to bet that either the whole batch here is broken or all V2 models.
Fortunately, Iām not an audiophile and I donāt hear any difference in quality between both sampling rates, so I think itās a good way to go while waiting for the firmware fix.
@conversionbox wrote:
Its a reported bug. They tried a fix in the last firmware this past week but many have said it was not enough. The Developement team is working on it.
I donāt think they tried to fix THIS bug last time. They targeted some mp3 cbr playback issue which I believe is something different, because THIS bug is filetype insensitive. Saying ābut many have said it was not enoughā is misleading, because it implies they actually did a fix, which is not truth.
@conversionbox wrote:
Its a reported bug. They tried a fix in the last firmware this past week but many have said it was not enough. The Developement team is working on it.
I donāt think they tried to fix THIS bug last time. They targeted some mp3 cbr playback issue which I believe is something different, because THIS bug is filetype insensitive. Saying ābut many have said it was not enoughā is misleading, because it implies they actually did a fix, which is not truth.
The Change log said āMusic plays slow ā mp3 192kbps 44KHz CBRā This to me means they made an attempt in the right direction. when I say āIt may not have been enoughā I mean that this attempt may not have been the complete fix, meaning it may have only fixed part of the playback issues that people are experiancing.
I just tested my ver 1.,Ā 2 Gig clip with the new firmware andĀ a 1,000 Hz sine wave test tone Mp3 file, when played back from the clip measures at 1,007 Hz.
If you listen to the 1,000 Hz and 1,007 Hz tones at the same time, you can clearly hear that they are out of tune.
This is important to people (like me) who like to play musical instruments along with the recorded music on their Clips.
This problem means that the music coming out of the clip is slightly (but noticeably) out of tune with real world.
In my test example, the Clip is slightly higher in pitch (plays slightly faster) than normal.
Though a small problem for non musicians, it is a big problem for musicians who want to use the Clip for practicing along with or for providing backing tracks to play along with at a performance.
Thanks for the firmware updates Sansa
Please fix this problem in the next firmware update.
I just tested my ver 1., 2 Gig clip with the new firmware and a 1,000 Hz sine wave test tone Mp3 file, when played back from the clip measures at 1,007 Hz.
If you listen to the 1,000 Hz and 1,007 Hz tones at the same time, you can clearly hear that they are out of tune.
This is important to people (like me) who like to play musical instruments along with the recorded music on their Clips.
This problem means that the music coming out of the clip is slightly (but noticeably) out of tune with real world.
In my test example, the Clip is slightly higher in pitch (plays slightly faster) than normal.
Though a small problem for non musicians, it is a big problem for musicians who want to use the Clip for practicing along with or for providing backing tracks to play along with at a performance.
Thanks for the firmware updates Sansa
Please fix this problem in the next firmware update.
Happy Trailsā¦
Wow, thatās incredibly strange. The problem I have on my Clip is that the music is playing too slowly. Your issue is exactly the opposite, that the music is playing too fast?
I just tested my ver 1., 2 Gig clip with the new firmware and a 1,000 Hz sine wave test tone Mp3 file, when played back from the clip measures at 1,007 Hz.
If you listen to the 1,000 Hz and 1,007 Hz tones at the same time, you can clearly hear that they are out of tune.
This is important to people (like me) who like to play musical instruments along with the recorded music on their Clips.
This problem means that the music coming out of the clip is slightly (but noticeably) out of tune with real world.
In my test example, the Clip is slightly higher in pitch (plays slightly faster) than normal.
Though a small problem for non musicians, it is a big problem for musicians who want to use the Clip for practicing along with or for providing backing tracks to play along with at a performance.
Thanks for the firmware updates Sansa
Please fix this problem in the next firmware update.
Happy Trailsā¦
Wow, thatās incredibly strange. The problem I have on my Clip is that the music is playing too slowly. Your issue is exactly the opposite, that the music is playing too fast?
How is that possible?
I just played the same song on my 8GB Clip vs. a CD player. A 3:12 song on the CD player, the Clip was almost 2 seconds behind at the end of the song. I canāt say if both machines go from pause to play with the same immediacy, however, so itās not the most scientific of tests. That said, itās nothing I have noticed just by listeningā¦I just tried it because most say it plays fast, and you thought yours was a little slow. Weird. Iām still going to use the Clip all the time though.
Hmm, so it seems like the speed issue is all over the place.Ā While yours is barely noticeable to be slower, especially if itās only 2 seconds behind in a 3 minutes, mine is comparatively REALLY bad.Ā By the time the song hits 30 seconds on mine, itās already a full second behind, likely even a little more.
I think what Iāll try to do when I get home tonight is to re-encode some of the songs that are currently on the player to CBR 192 MP3 files, since the firmware notes specifically mention that bitrate as having been fixed.Ā The recode will come from FLAC files, CBR 320 files, and VBR files.Ā Then retest and see.
Message Edited by Warrior1986 on 03-02-2009 08:19 AM
@marvin_martian wrote:
Iāve got a couple CDās with 20 minute songsā¦I wonder what would happen there? Either way, I donāt have time to mess with it today.
The clip will be off by ~25 seconds by the end of the song Well, I never tested anything that long, but it was over 5 seconds with a 5 minutes track on both of my 8GB clips.
@warrior1986 wrote:
I think what Iāll try to do when I get home tonight is to re-encode some of the songs that are currently on the player to CBR 192 MP3 files, since the firmware notes specifically mention that bitrate as having been fixed. The recode will come from FLAC files, CBR 320 files, and VBR files. Then retest and see.
That wonāt probably help you, but try it, who knowsā¦ My temporary advice is different. Re-sample to 48KHz. I know, sounds stupid. But 48KHz is almost accurate, for whatever reason. Until they fix 44.1kHz pitch error, Iām sticking to 48KHz.
@warrior1986 wrote:
I think what Iāll try to do when I get home tonight is to re-encode some of the songs that are currently on the player to CBR 192 MP3 files, since the firmware notes specifically mention that bitrate as having been fixed. The recode will come from FLAC files, CBR 320 files, and VBR files. Then retest and see.
That wonāt probably help you, but try it, who knowsā¦ My temporary advice is different. Re-sample to 48KHz. I know, sounds stupid. But 48KHz is almost accurate, for whatever reason. Until they fix 44.1kHz pitch error, Iām sticking to 48KHz.
Any free program that I can use to do the resampling? I use dbPowerAmp for all my converting and encoding, but it doesnāt seem to have anything to do resampling.
Any free program that I can use to do the resampling? I use dbPowerAmp for all my converting and encoding, but it doesnāt seem to have anything to do resampling.
Iām under Linux, so no idea about win/mac, but the encoders themselves have such an option. E.g. Lame and oggenc have --resample input option. Iām sure itās cross-platform.
I encode to flac and then resample & re-encode (to ogg) on the fly when copying to clip. Works like a charm.
