Hi,
I'm running 2.0 B7 [with Hijack 116 kernel].

During the playback of one particular Track [The Mission Remix from Ennio Morocone], the sound starts gettings more and more mushy and staticy until its almost more white noise than song.

If I skip to a different track in my playlist that plays fine and if I go back to this particular track it does the same problem again.

the song was ripped some time ago using AudioCatalyst 2.0 at 128 kbps CBR - I have other songs ripped at the same time also with AC 2.0 without this problem.

I was really just wondering if the software guys want a copy of the track to see if its a playback engine bug and perhaps use it to fix a bug.

I plan on re-ripping the CD anyway at 192kbps CBR so I don;t plan on keeping the currently ripped track around for too much longer.
Its just if it will help the guys reproduce a fault then I'm happy to forward it. Its 2.65MB in size.

Does the song play fine in WinAmp?

I located what I am sure was the original mp3 I ripped of the song in my collection on my PC and tested it in Winamp and it sounds fine - no distortion or anything.

I haven't actually downloaded the faulty track from the player and tested to be 100% certain its the same track but the file size agrees and I have only 1 copy of the track on my PC - but I think I'll try the download it and test in winamp as well that just to be sure in case the upload process glitched the file but it sounds too much like a playback/mp3 engine decoder bug to me.

If the file sounds OK once you've downloaded it and played it in Winamp, then check it by uploading it (or the original) to the player again. If it's still bogus, then it's probably a decoder issue. We'd appreciate it if you'd email it to one of us. That probably means me (roger@empeg.com). I'll forward it to the relevant people. Don't forget to explain what the email's for -- I've got a memory like a..., like a..., like a... .

Rob, I have a similar problem with another file. I just sent you an email at that regard. Basically, the file sounds ok in winamp, has some glitches when played from empeg, and if downloaded back to hdd it sounds again fine. It's an 8Mb mp3, let me know how you want to get it. There are several options, I listed them in my email.

I apologise, I meant... ROGER.

I uploaded the mp3 files from the source file again and this cured the problem - no more problems.
I also tested it by downloading the track from the empeg and reloading it to a new playlist - this also sounded ok.

So, I guess we put it down to the flawed/experimental normalisation routines in 2.0b3?
[I did play this track when I had 2.0b3 (std) installed so that may have screwed the normalisation possibly?].

Anyway, case closed for now.

I found similar problems: when uploading several albums (=playlists) onto the player, in *some* cases the first song of an album seems to be damaged: severe distortion of the sound starting within a few seconds after it starts playing. The effect is reproduceable. The original MP3 on the pc plays fine in winamp, and re-uploading this MP3 onto the player results in a correctly playing song. Upload issue?

(using emplode 2.00b3)

John G took a look at the file today. There is at least one glitch in it. It's barely audible in Winamp, but it shows up clear-as-day in CoolEdit. He's looking at ways to make it less obvious on the empeg.

I am happy to know it is that mp3 file's fault, and not empeg's. Thank you, amazing support as always.

Well, I just loaded this track onto an empeg, and both copies that you sent me sound fine. I don't think that there's anything in the internal build that I'm running that would have changed the behaviour, but I suggest that you check your copy again when we release the next beta.