DSD with Foobar 2000

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by ghost rider, Sep 3, 2019.

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  1. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    I'm getting a demo of Merging Technologies Anubis that does DSD. Looking at Foobar how do I know it's not converting to PCM as it outputs the DSD signal. It plays DSD on any device so it must first convert to PCM.
     
  2. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    What version of Foobar are you using? You need to install DSD specific plugins to get DSD to work with the program and you need a DSD native DAC. From there it is very simple because you have to select a different output option in preferences and output to play DSD. That option won't allow you to play PCM at all, just DSD files. So in other words, you may not have set up foobar correctly if you are confused about what Foobar is doing. Note that I'm only talking about the foobar program for a computer. None of this works on foobar mobile apps.

    Here are a few different guides. It's going to be different depending on what DAC you are using.

    Resources: How To Play a DSD File: using Foobar2000

    Foobar 2000 and Playing .dsf audio files

    Foobar 2000 for Dummies (Part 2) – Playing DSD – New SACD plugin (0.9.x and 1.x.x Series)

    https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,116463.0.html

    FAQs - How to set foobar2000 to play Native DSD
     
  3. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    No I'm just waiting for the UPS guy to arrive. I installed all the plugins so when I get the device lets hope all the magic happens. Thanks for all the links.

    I did notice that all (few) the DSD downloads I bought way back are in 44.1 is that normal? So are they a glorified CD?
     
  4. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Explain please. Are you talking about what the DSD files look like in spectral analysis software? If so they are probably upsampled PCM.

    Note that the only pure DSD recordings - by that I mean recorded, mixed, mastered, etc. in DSD with no PCM are going to be classical recordings and mainly of solo classical instruments. All "rock" music is going to be put through PCM at some point, unless it's some kind of live in the studio thing with very little editing done to it. All the classic rock and pop DSD stuff will have been converted back and forth from DSD to PCM multiple times before you get your hands on it, whether it's an SACD or DSD download. Just the harsh reality of all this.
     
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  5. TimB

    TimB Pop, Rock and Blues for me!

    Location:
    Colorado

    Not always! If the pop/rock music was from a 2 channel analog master tape, it could go strait to DSD from that tape. Now if they are doing any digital enhancements then yes, PCM will be somewhere in the chain before DSD. Analog enhancements could be done before DSD such as EQ compression from the master tapes.
     
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  6. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    These are old rock albums in DSD 64. When I opened any of them in Foobar at the bottom of the player said 44.1. If I load a 2/96 PCM needle drop says 96.
     
  7. TimB

    TimB Pop, Rock and Blues for me!

    Location:
    Colorado
    If you look in the bottom left corner of the FooBar2000 screen, you will see what it is outputting.
     
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  8. MrEWhite

    MrEWhite Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    With foobar, all you need is the latest SACD plugin, set the plugin to output just DSD and not PCM, then set foobar's output to WASAPI (with a plugin) or ASIO. Then, as long as your hardware is capable, it will output pure DSD.
     
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  9. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    If tape is involved it's not pure DSD buy pure DSD I mean stuff recorded in DSD as I said above. To know what the mastering engineer did, you need to ask them in each specific case, though there's a good chance there is more PCM processing going on than people would like to accept in reality. Look at some of Analogue Production's reissue notes for example. They specifically mention mastering THEN converting to DSD for SACD authoring which is done by another guy separate from the mastering engineer.
     
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  10. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    You don't have Foobar set up right then.
     
  11. You can make a flat DSD transfer of the original analog master tapes without any mastering moves - that is what a few of the Japanese SHM-SACDs sound like. Then there are pure DSD recordings, actually recorded and edited in DSD. They are very rare and almost all come from tiny audiophile labels. As said previously, that is mostly classical and some jazz music. The third is the most common - the album is mastered in PCM, then decimated to DSD.

    There is some difference in sound quality between all three on a revealing enough system.
     
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  12. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    I believe when I get the device and it having a DSD DAC options will open up.
     
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  13. GreenDrazi

    GreenDrazi Truth is beauty

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    Foobar can only playback what the installed audio device can support. So if you're currently using your existing computers original soundcard, it most likely doesn't support DSD without converting to PCM first.
     
  14. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    Follow these directions, Foobar2000 is at the bottom:
    Tech help

    Versions might not be up to date, but it should work with the latest version of the plugin. Just ignore the setup for drivers to your device. And point to your device rather than what is suggesting in the guide.

    Foobar does not covert DSD to PCM. It is using PCM as the container to send data stream. This known as DoP or DSD over PCM. But I do own the Schiit Loki and is only does DSD, so if it can't do anything with true PCM.
     
  15. MrEWhite

    MrEWhite Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    The SACD plugin used for DSD can indeed convert DSD to PCM.
     
  16. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    Got the device and still evaluating if I even want it and DSD is not part of that discussion.

    My issue seems to be in the setup. I can't choose "Foo_DSD_ASIO"

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  17. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Go to output and you will get a drop down menu of different items to select. If the component is properly installed and working right that is. Note that I use DSD WASAPI drivers for my hardware, but it should work the same way with ASIO IIRC. If all else fails contact the maker of the hardware.

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    I put this on hold because I discovered that my new audio device was lacking the firmware update to use DSD. So I installed the new firmware today and I still can't get it to work. The components install correctly it seems and are shown in the preference components but I have a few irregularities. The foo_dsd_asio is not a driver option in output ASIO and under playback there is no input DSDIFF decoder option, like in this tutorial Resources: How To Play a DSD File: using Foobar2000 both are present in the components. My current screenshots look the same as the ones I posted above.
     
  19. Soundslave

    Soundslave Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tomsk,Russia
    Well, I'm a newcomer to the thread, so let's start with the basics.
    What format are your DSD files in? I see Santana - ABRAXAS on your playlist - is it a .dsf file?
    Do you have any other option besides ASIO for output?
     
  20. VinyLuke

    VinyLuke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poland
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  21. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Did the DAC not come with instructions for setting up DSD playback? Something is off.
     
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