Amarra 4 Bugs and Workarounds

[Gjoslyn]

Amarra 4 is buggy but often times there are workarounds that let you avoid discovered bugs.  I would like to share mine and also hear your discoveries.

 

Metadata Bug: My music library was entirely Apple Lossless.  I found that metadata was occasionally not read correctly.  The prime problem was a part of a record being assigned to "Various Artists" rather than to the artist that is clearly in the metafile as edited by the Mac software "Metadatics".  Of my 1000 records, about 50 were flakey this way.  Further, different music loadings of Amara 4 luxe would give different results.  Amarra 4 sometimes could read the file like I wanted and sometimes could not.

 

Workaround:  After many experiments, I have found that if I convert the offending albums to FLAC, the metadata is read correctly and consistently by Amarra 4 luxe.  I have fixed about 10 offending records by converting them from Apple Lossless to FLAC.

 

Confidence in Workaround:  With only 10 files fixed, I am cautiously confident.  I am in the process of converting my entire library to FLAC (I use X Audio Compression Toolkit).  Will update this thread with the results.

[skatbelt]

Why even care for this buggy product. There are so many better alternatives! 

[Gjoslyn]

Sorry, I am trying to start a dialog with amarra users for sharing useful tips.   Not here to debate product choices.

[flatmap]

2 hours ago, Gjoslyn said:

[...] The prime problem was a part of a record being assigned to "Various Artists" rather than to the artist that is clearly in the metafile as edited by the Mac software "Metadatics".  [...]

 

So, just to restate, you verified that ALAC metadata was written correctly, but Amarra attributed some of these files to "Various Artists" incorrectly.  Without changing anything with the metadata, just converting to FLAC fixed the problem.  Is that right?

[GregWormald]

I can't be bothered with this--I have 3000+ albums.

 

I use iTunes for everything but play.

 

(Thanks to Dancing Sea): I copy--with iTunes--the files I to which I want to listen to a  separate folder and use the "add to library" in Amarra. Closing everything down without saving, dumping the folder contents to the trash and starting fresh for the next listening session makes the start-up and load fast.

 

I use Chrome as the Amarra 4 Luxe player and have found that if I ignore the activate screen (my trial is expired!) it all works fine.

 

Greg

[Melvin]

12 hours ago, Gjoslyn said:

Amarra 4 is buggy but often times there are workarounds that let you avoid discovered bugs.  I would like to share mine and also hear your discoveries.

 

Metadata Bug: My music library was entirely Apple Lossless.  I found that metadata was occasionally not read correctly.  The prime problem was a part of a record being assigned to "Various Artists" rather than to the artist that is clearly in the metafile as edited by the Mac software "Metadatics".  Of my 1000 records, about 50 were flakey this way.  Further, different music loadings of Amara 4 luxe would give different results.  Amarra 4 sometimes could read the file like I wanted and sometimes could not.

 

Workaround:  After many experiments, I have found that if I convert the offending albums to FLAC, the metadata is read correctly and consistently by Amarra 4 luxe.  I have fixed about 10 offending records by converting them from Apple Lossless to FLAC.

 

Confidence in Workaround:  With only 10 files fixed, I am cautiously confident.  I am in the process of converting my entire library to FLAC (I use X Audio Compression Toolkit).  Will update this thread with the results.

 

This bug has plagued Amarra for quite some time. I converted my library of AIFF files to uncompressed FLAC after much frustration and it fixed the issue once and for all. I was using Symphony 3.0 without iTunes at the time.

[Gjoslyn]

13 hours ago, flatmap said:

 

So, just to restate, you verified that ALAC metadata was written correctly, but Amarra attributed some of these files to "Various Artists" incorrectly.  Without changing anything with the metadata, just converting to FLAC fixed the problem.  Is that right?

Yes, this is what I observed.  The ALAC files had correct metadata as seen in a editor and the files were treated correctly by iTunes. Amarra had trouble with them. The FLAC, on the other hand, performed as expected. 

[Gjoslyn]

13 hours ago, GregWormald said:

I can't be bothered with this--I have 3000+ albums.

 

I use iTunes for everything but play.

 

(Thanks to Dancing Sea): I copy--with iTunes--the files I to which I want to listen to a  separate folder and use the "add to library" in Amarra. Closing everything down without saving, dumping the folder contents to the trash and starting fresh for the next listening session makes the start-up and load fast.

 

I use Chrome as the Amarra 4 Luxe player and have found that if I ignore the activate screen (my trial is expired!) it all works fine.

 

Greg

I have 1000+ albums and the conversion is a chore.

I like your solution, clever. 

[Gjoslyn]

3 hours ago, Melvin said:

 

This bug has plagued Amarra for quite some time. I converted my library of AIFF files to uncompressed FLAC after much frustration and it fixed the issue once and for all. I was using Symphony 3.0 without iTunes at the time.

 

I hope I have the same experience with FLAC solving the problem. 

[indirstr8s]

IRC not woking for me on the Amarra4. The filter when enabled simply shifts the stereo image to right speaker.

[oscarnr]

On 14/8/2017 at 2:55 AM, GregWormald said:

I can't be bothered with this--I have 3000+ albums.

 

I use iTunes for everything but play.

 

(Thanks to Dancing Sea): I copy--with iTunes--the files I to which I want to listen to a  separate folder and use the "add to library" in Amarra. Closing everything down without saving, dumping the folder contents to the trash and starting fresh for the next listening session makes the start-up and load fast.

 

I use Chrome as the Amarra 4 Luxe player and have found that if I ignore the activate screen (my trial is expired!) it all works fine.

 

Greg

Hi Greg. How do you use Google Chrome as Amarra Player?

Oscar

[foodfiend]

@oscarnrThat is the browser mode. You can also launch it in Safari and others, but apparently, Chrome sounds best.

[DancingSea]

On 8/13/2017 at 3:55 PM, GregWormald said:

I can't be bothered with this--I have 3000+ albums.

 

I use iTunes for everything but play.

 

(Thanks to Dancing Sea): I copy--with iTunes--the files I to which I want to listen to a  separate folder and use the "add to library" in Amarra. Closing everything down without saving, dumping the folder contents to the trash and starting fresh for the next listening session makes the start-up and load fast.

 

I use Chrome as the Amarra 4 Luxe player and have found that if I ignore the activate screen (my trial is expired!) it all works fine.

 

Greg

 

Yes, I continue to use this method and it works fairly well.  Not perfect, but it avoids having to wade through the mess involved with importing 40K tracks.  

 

The only downside is that its an extra few steps to getting the music playing.  I just remind myself, "in the old days, you had to sort through a pile of physical CD's in a drawer.  This is faster than that."

 

I paid for the Luxe license and use it every day.  In browser mode, the sound is superior.

[DancingSea]

1 hour ago, oscarnr said:

Hi Greg. How do you use Google Chrome as Amarra Player?

Oscar

 

First, set your default browser to Chrome.  At least on the Mac version, once you launch into A4 Luxe, in the "Window" menu bar option, there is a choice to "launch in browser".  Select it.  Quit A4.  Then relaunch A4.  This should launch A4 into Chrome....

[oscarnr]

1 hour ago, DancingSea said:

 

First, set your default browser to Chrome.  At least on the Mac version, once you launch into A4 Luxe, in the "Window" menu bar option, there is a choice to "launch in browser".  Select it.  Quit A4.  Then relaunch A4.  This should launch A4 into Chrome....

Thank you very much! I will test it. I tried A4 luxe previously but IRC didn't work and the library management is horrible. Probably maintaining A3 playlist mode + IRC that works fine for me, anyway. 

[cosmuk]

The 320+  builds of Amarra Luxe 4 are the best.

 

I recommend doing a clean install first by uninstalling any previous versions.

Then reacquire your library. (If it's a large library scan it overnight.)

I like to let A4 go through this process undisturbed.

A4 will sound better once its done with these background tasks anyway.

If you use IRC filter's, they must be "reassigned" and turned ON, within the IRC "Advanced" pane.

At this point I like to quit then relaunch to save the prefs & metadata.

 

The playlists now default with recently played & recently added playlists.

 

Try to avoid compressing your file's and stick with AIFF, WAV or DFF ect.. when ripping.

Use Kid3 to add or correct extensive metadata to any file's codec.

You can rescan folders without creating duplicates of the bona fide library or just use the "add to library".

 

 

 

 

 

[oscarnr]

3 hours ago, cosmuk said:

If you use IRC filter's, they must be "reassigned" and turned ON, within the IRC "Advanced" pane.

cosmuk, what do you mean with "must be reassigned"?

[cosmuk]

After you've created filters in IRC they need to be assigned to one of the four slots.

You then open a file for the filter selection within Amarra Luxe 4.

Sometimes, say if things became corrupted or you've cleared your library. 

Without reassigning the slots they'll either not work at all or you can end up with a corrupted sound stage. 

[oscarnr]

8 hours ago, cosmuk said:

After you've created filters in IRC they need to be assigned to one of the four slots.

You then open a file for the filter selection within Amarra Luxe 4.

Sometimes, say if things became corrupted or you've cleared your library. 

Without reassigning the slots they'll either not work at all or you can end up with a corrupted sound stage. 

Ok. Thank you. I did that. But IRC doesn't work

[oscarnr]

On 15/8/2017 at 10:32 PM, DancingSea said:

 

First, set your default browser to Chrome.  At least on the Mac version, once you launch into A4 Luxe, in the "Window" menu bar option, there is a choice to "launch in browser".  Select it.  Quit A4.  Then relaunch A4.  This should launch A4 into Chrome....

 

Hi. Do you have a link to that A4 luxe Mac Os build? My version (latest numbers 295) doesn't have that option ("launch in browser") in the "window" menu bar. Anyway I need IRC and that option doesn't work. I paid the upgrade but it is useless for me. I will continue using the trusty (for me) Amarra Symphony 3.0.2 if I can't resolve these bugs.

[Gjoslyn]

On 8/14/2017 at 8:11 AM, Gjoslyn said:

 

I hope I have the same experience with FLAC solving the problem. 

After having trouble with ALAC and metadata, I converted my entire library to flac.  So far, it looks like A4 read all of the metadata correctly.  My experience suggests that ALAC is not a good file type for A4.  fLAC is good and I have not tried AIFF.

[foodfiend]

30 minutes ago, Gjoslyn said:

After having trouble with ALAC and metadata, I converted my entire library to flac.  So far, it looks like A4 read all of the metadata correctly.  My experience suggests that ALAC is not a good file type for A4.  fLAC is good and I have not tried AIFF.

Considering that Amarra evolved on the OS X platform, it is strange that it does not take to ALAC or AIFF (my personal experience), but prefers FLAC.

[DancingSea]

Just now, foodfiend said:

Considering that Amarra evolved on the OS X platform, it is strange that it does not take to ALAC or AIFF (my personal experience), but prefers FLAC.

 

An Idiot Savant cannot be help responsible for its actions!

[copy_of_a]

2 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

Considering that Amarra evolved on the OS X platform, it is strange that it does not take to ALAC or AIFF (my personal experience), but prefers FLAC.

AIFF works (worked respectively) the same as FLAC on my computer in A4.

Never tried ALAC with Amarra (or anywhere on my main system).

[Gjoslyn]

54 minutes ago, foodfiend said:

Considering that Amarra evolved on the OS X platform, it is strange that it does not take to ALAC or AIFF (my personal experience), but prefers FLAC.

My reasoning for thinking FLAC might be more stable and giving it a try was that it is a file type supported on both windows and mac so they had to debug it on two platforms. 

 

Complition albums do do not group well (the album is divided amongst all artists) but that is a stated problem on the sonic studio website. I am thinking of just tagging the artist of each track as "compilation" for grouping and appending the artist to the end of the track title so that information is not lost.