Beakaway Audio Enhancer

[Lonman]

Anyone ever try Breakaway Audio Enhancer along with Hoster? I have been trying the demo out for the last week and have to say it's doing a great job in leveling out the volumes of all the music/video formats. The stock setting can create a 'pumping' sound, but I have been playing with it and got it dialed in pretty good to work without the heavy compression. Example - the Pioneer laserdiscs I have ripped were always very low in volume, this takes & brings it up automaticaly, some of the Zoom discs are really hot & will lower the volume bringing them to an even level. It also contains a multiband compresor so it will compress louder frequencies in a song bringing out some of the other frequencies. Music seems crisper & a little punchier in the lower end. I still have to do some minor volume tweaking but not nearly as much between different brands as I normally do.

[Roy Dennis]

Just downloaded it, must say it seems pretty good to me just wondering if the buffering will affect Hoster but in my short time playing with it have not had any audio drop outs.
Notice it takes over the volume control in Hoster so that no longer has any effect but switching from BA, Instabuttons & main playlist all volumes seem consistent.

Since writing above, I can still use Hoster volume control but seems to be a pause before the setting kicks in.
I don't nomally use the volume control in Hoster, just leave it on maxinum.

[Roy Dennis]

A few more observations using this software, As it keeps the volume to what you set it in the first place, if you had your BA settings set to a lower volume than the overall playlist volume it overrides those settings making them all the same so would not suit someone who would like the background audio to play at a lower volume.
Also notice if you do lower the volume of Hoster using Hosters volume control there is a bit of a delay then after initially lowering it Breakaway then returns it to it's own setting unless you lower Hosters volume to zero then it stays off.
Also it overrides the talk over control in Hosters BA initially lowering volume but then returning it to Breakaway setting.
Overall it seems a very good product but has limitations if you want to use the above Hoster features.

[RIKKI TIKKI]

Downloaded... will give it a trial run... initially, I like the normalization of low volume manu's like Nu Tech, and Pioneer... will check against some of my notorious low & high volume kma's... Nice Find Lonnie! Thanks for the heads up!

[Lonman]

I can't take credit, I found it from someone recommending it at K-Scene. I had tried it a few years back, but it had caused graphics lag with Hoster 3.xx and I never tried it again. Figured i'd give it a shot with Win 7 & Hoster 5.xx. I don't use the BA so that isn't an issue on my side. Like said it's not a perfect fix, but it does help quite a bit.
The settings i've found that worked best (from the stock settings)
Volume 0.00 db
Reference Low CPU
Range 100
Power 0 (this is where most of the 'pumping' seem to occur when set higher)
Speed 50
Bass Normal
Bass Shape 0