Update:

Increasing the sample rate to 88.2kHz or 96kHz in the standalone Synchron player makes the high digital buzzing much worse, to the extent that the original sample being played is unrecognisable. 

It's like there is a huge mismatch between the Synchron player and the audio interface (RME Hammerfall DSP Multiface II).

No such problems in the Vienna Instruments standalone player

Brett

ps - tested in the just released v1.1.1949 too

Thanks Ben.  I really appreciate your reply

I'm using Windows 10 Pro, version 1903, OS build 18362.30 (my DAW builder has it locked down so there are no unexpected updates). 

Perhaps I could try a much earlier version of Synchron player to see if there is something missing in the OS that the newer players rely on? Is there any specific targeted component update I would need to install for compatibility with current Synchron player versions?

Brett

Hi Ben.

As you suggested I just tried uninstalling the RME drivers, rebooting and re-installing and rebooting again.  There's no change.  And as I mentioned above, if I switch the sample rate to 88.2kHz or 96kHz it sounds even worse than at 48kHz - more like 6-bit or 8-bit samples, despite the sample rate of the RME and Synchron player matching.

Everything still works fine at all sample rates with the stand alone Vienna Instruments player, although during stress testing this player (forcing multiple sample rate changes in the preferences) I did manage to reproduce the digital buzzing sound but toggling the engine on and off fixed this.  Short answer, is that I can play all Vienna Instruments libraries perfectly at any sample rate but the Synchron player only plays cleanly without digital artifacts at 44.1kHz.  Is there a 'reset engine' setting or 'restart engine' setting on the Synchron player?

As an experiment I tried installing the oldest version of the Synchron player I had an archive of (v1.1.1559) but there was no difference.

Any other suggestions?  This is becoming time sensitive now because I'm keen to integrate my recent Synchron purchases into my template for an upcoming commission.

Thanks again for your assistance Ben.  Much appreciated.

Brett

Thanks Ben!

Want to hear something weird?  As I have onboard sound disabled, to test your suggestion I installed ASIO4All to bypass the RME driver.

ASIO4All works perfectly at 44.1kHz AND at 96kHz BUT the digital ringing is present at 48kHz
The RME works perfectly at 44.1kHz but gets progressively worse at higher sample rates BUT if I toggle the preferences wrench without changing anything I can get the RME to work at 96kHz perfectly (This is a new discovery).  So on my system it's a problem with upsampling to 48kHz only.

My concern is that VSL will say 'it's a driver issue' and RME will say 'it's a Synchron player issue'.  Well, clearly it's not just a driver issue because there are problems with both RME and ASIO4All drivers at 48kHz in my system.  And because there's no problem with the Vienna Instruments player at 48kHz it's true that it is a Synchron player issue. 

It feels like that there is a problem with the Synchron player upsampling from the native 44.1kHz to 48kHz in some systems, and this can be demonstrated with multiple ASIO drivers.

I've attached a video with me illustrating the behaviour I described above and you can clearly hear the digital ringing at 48kHz and not at 44.1kHz even through my iPhone's crappy mic.  Listening to the movie through headphones makes it even clearer. The same behaviour is exhibited by the RME driver and the ASIO4All driver so is driver independent.

Looking forward to hearing more

Brett

File Attachment(s):

SynchronU0020PlayerU0020upsamplingU0020issue.mov (27,079kb) downloaded 9 time(s).

You cannot view/download attachments. Try to login or register.

Firstly, thanks for much for the reply Martin

Originally Posted by: MS

first of all - ensure to close down the Standalone and delete your Synchron Player Standalone preferences file:
%APPDATA%\VSL\Vienna Synchron Player Standalone.ini

There was a 'Vienna Synchron Player.ini' and 'Vienna Synchron.ini'.  I backed up and deleted both. I had to point the player to correct 'volume scan path' for my presets to appear.

However, regarding the sample rate issues, deleting the preferences made no difference.  The digital 'bit-crushing'-like artifacts are present only at 48kHz but not at 44.1kHz, 88.2kHz or 96kHz .  In other words the behaviour of the Synchron player is still identical to the quicktime attached to my earlier post.

I posted my findings over at VI-control (linked to here) and there are other users who are experiencing the exact same digital artifacts only at 48kHz.  This means it is not something that is unique to my system.  Ben has promised me over there that he would look into it, informing me that has been assigned my tech support case.

Originally Posted by: MS

Please note that using a samplerate other than 44.1kHz will just cause a higher CPU usage and worse sound, since everything has to run through a sample rate converter.

I didn't realise your real-time sample rate conversion resulted in noticeably worse sound working at a sample rate other than 44.1kHz.  I know plenty of us working in film and television who work at 48kHz (this is not unusual) and trade off the modest CPU hit for the convenience of receiving and delivering files at the same sample rate as the the edit suite and mix stage. I will do some tests with VI Pro to see if the sound is noticeably improved working at 44.1kHz (Obviously I can't test the Synchron player because unlike VI Pro it does sound noticeably worse at 48kHz as described above)

Originally Posted by: MS

Regarding ASIO4ALL, I have tested this driver together with RME Fireface UCX, and I cannot make it work at all when switching between samplerates, regardless if I'm doing so in a VSL product or simply just in Cubase or Nuendo. I would not recommend anyone using this driver, if you already have a proper soundcard with a proper ASIO driver.

As mentioned above, I only tested the ASIO4All driver to rule out my RME driver as being the culprit.  I would never advocate using ASIO4All in a professional situation.  The digital sample-rate related artifacts were present using both drivers only at 48kHz, and only using the Synchron player, not VI Pro or Kontakt either standalone or within Cubase. 

Thanks for your suggestion above RE the 'ini files.  If you have any other ideas I'd love to know. Please read the thread over at vi-control for more information - https://vi-control.net/community/threads/synchron-player-strange-high-ringing-sound-issues-running-at-48khz.96889/

Brett

Just a quick head up for those affected, VSL has discovered the cause of the issue and is working on a fix.  No release date as yet.  Thanks to Andreas at support for all his help.