Zemo

Foobar is capable of sound quality far surpassing that of any other player out there with powerful tools built right into the software. This means there is no need for external plugins.
Because of foobar’s highly customizable nature, setting it up correctly can prove to be a daunting task, hence this guide.
Despite foobars steep learning curve, it’s well worth it…you’re ears will thank you!

The Ultimate Guide To Foobar

Step 1: Download the foobar installer: http://koti.mbnet.fi/chastity/fooba...8.3_special.exe

Step 2: Run the installation and accept the default associations, assuming you’ve never installed foobar before. If you have, just make sure that the Kernal Streaming component gets installed. (try to do a FULL install)

Step 3: Download the ID3V2 tag support component: http://koti.mbnet.fi/chastity/foo_id3v2.zip
-extract the .dll file to your C:\program files\foobar2000\components folder.

Step 4: Open foobar, checking that 0.8.2 does load and select Foobar2000 > Preferences

Starting at the top… (I’m only gonna tell you which ones to edit, so try to keep up!)

>Album List
-click “add new” (its up in the top right in the Views area)
-type “By Zemo” and copy/paste this code into the window:

$directory(%_path%)|$if2([$num(%tracknumber%,2). ]$ifgreater($strstr($directory(%_path%),[%artist%]),0,,[%artist% - ])[%title%],%_filename%)


>ID3V2 Tag Suppot
-check the "write ISO-8859-1 tags instead of UTF-16"

>Core
>Keyboard Shortcuts
-Remove all entries in the upper pane
-find these commands and set a global hotkey to them of your choice by highlighting the command, entering in the key or key combination in the window below, checking the “global” box, and hitting the “add” button:

[main] components/album list
[main] playback/next or random
[main] playback/play or pause
[main] playback/previous
[main] playback/stop

I use:
Ctrl+F7 [g] [main] components/album list
Ctrl+alt+F7 [g] [main] Foobar2000/activate or hide
F5 [g] [main] playback/previous
F6 [g] [main] playback/next or random
F7 [g] [main] playback/play or pause
F8 [g] [main] playback/stop
Ctrl+F8 [g] [main] playlist/clear

(feel free to add other keyboard shortcuts if you so desire)

>Database
-check the “Database Enabled” box
-in the “restrict directories to” box, type in your music filled folders, separating pathnames with a semi-colon. i.e. (no quotes) “D:\Uberized Downloads;E:\Uberized Rips”

-in the “restrict file types to” box, type in “*.mp3” (or other file formats you may or may not use..... *.flac, etc.)

>Playback
-set “output data format” to the highest your card will support. If you don’t know, set it to 24bit. If sound doesn’t work when you hit play, change it to 16bit.
-check the “Dither” box, and set it to whichever sounds best (FIY – Strong ATH sounds best…)

>DSP Manager
-Remove all components from the left pane
-Move “resampler (ssrc)” to the left pane
-Move “advanced limiter” to the left pane
(It has been suggested that you should feel free to use the crossfeed DSP if you're using headphones. It may help spacial positioning, but I don't like it...my amp accounts for that!)

>Resampler
-set target sample rate to 48000Hz.

(NOT to 192000 or anything like that. The reasoning is that all 10k2 based cards [as all creative cards are...audigy, audigy 2, etc, as well as all AC'97 cards, wich include nearly everything onboard, etc] resample EVERYTHING to 48000Hz in the hardware. So it wouldn't matter what samplerate you set it to, it's all being turned to 48000Hz. BUT, a problem arises....the hardware resampler does a crappy job. The solution is to set a GOOD software resampler [like the SSRC algorithm....included in foobar] to resample to 48000Hz, therefore bypassing the hardware resampler. If you are using a higher grade soundcard [such as the E-mu 1212m] then you may set the samplerate to the known best setting [with the E-mu 1212m, 192kHz sounds best.] If you have a truely magical card like the RME HDSP 9632, you can set the card to resample to the best possible rate of 176.4kHz, but few cards can do this.

>Playback
>Input
>Standard Inputs
-set “tag type to write” to ID3V2 and ID3V1 (VERY IMPORTANT)
>Output
-Select Kernal Streaming


Step 5: drag and drop some mp3 into the main window. Hit play. Foobar will warn you that kernel streaming is experimental. Hide that window, and hit play again. If it still won’t play, lower your format type to 16bit (preferences > playback)

Step 6: drag and drop your mp3 folders into foobar’s main window. It will take a while if you have large folders.

Step 7: Close foobar and re-open. Go to components > album list (or use the hotkey you assigned), and select “by Zemo” at the bottom.

Step 8: highlight some album or track or whatever, and click “send to playlist” to erase the current playlist and begin playing the new selection immediately. Click “add to playlist” to append the selection to the end of the current playlist.


Now to do something about that fugly foobar look…

-visit http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/fb2k/index.php and find a look that suits your taste.

-Go to preferences > Default user interface, and set the fonts and colors like the formatting page tells you to.

-Go to “title formatting” and overwrite the code on each tab with the ones from the formatting page (it should be fairly obvious)

-if you want to use “foo_looks” (like winamp skins) check out http://www.barciaonline.com/aural/f...foobarlooks.htm

Congratulations, you now have access to the most powerful audio player known to man!


Time to go all the way.....

If you're going to use foobar, you obviously care about sound. What's the next step in making your setup sound better? Ditch those bloated, bug ridden, and dorky creative supplied drivers or stock drivers!!! There is a 3rd party set of drivers for all 10k2 based cards (a list of supported cards is at http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/faq.php?language=en#Q15)

The Kx drivers will make your sound clearer, more punchy, tighter bass, etc...plus they'll give you a LOT more control over your sound. The one drawback I can see is that they don't currently (as far as I know) have EAX support...so for you people who live for the sound of guitars played underwater, I'm sorry. Also, they are a little tricky to learn at first....

You can get 'em here: http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?language=en

I can't really help you any further than that with Kx drivers, as I don't use them myself (my soundcard is beyond needing them).

Enjoy!

-Z

proxops-pete

Question:
What effect do those access time(?) of each sound processor (esp. Kernel Streaming) have on sound quality? I know that there's a min. threshhold time where it will start crackling... but as long as there's no crackling sound, is there any advantage to having it "as low as possible"??

PCJ

I'll use this when I get my new audio gear.

I'll miss my winamp skin

Saffire

The Foolooks links don't work for me.

Zemo

pete- the latency settings are only important if you are doing time sensative appliciations, like recording or sampling.

I'll work on getting the foo looks links updated!

-Z

proxops-pete

Ok... Thanks Zemo. So how critical is it for me with my AV-710 and resampling @ 96 kHz??

Zemo

Foobar would rock your world with the chaintek....There's a good guide on how to set up the card the right way on head-fi....lemme dig it up....


http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75655

There you go!

-Z

proxops-pete

8)
I already have mine set up that way!! Hee...
It sounds rather great!

LaValva

DO you have any mirrors for the files on Verizon? They all seem to be down.