Dithering lowers digital-to-analog conversion ("requantization") error, linearizing output, lowering distortion and replacing it with a constant, fixed noise level, which is more pleasant to the ear than the distortion.
Guidance:
- On S24, S24_3 and S24, the default is to use triangular dithering. Depending on personal preference you may use Gaussian dithering instead; it's not as good objectively, but it may be preferred subjectively if you are looking for a more "analog" sound akin to tape hiss.
- Advanced users who know that they have a DAC without noise shaping have a third option: high-passed dithering, which is like triangular dithering except that it moves dithering noise up in frequency where it is less audible. Note: 99% of DACs are of delta-sigma design with noise shaping, so unless you have a multibit / R2R DAC, or otherwise know what you are doing, this is not for you.
- Don't dither or shape noise on S32 or F32. On F32 it's not supported anyway (there are no integer conversions and so no rounding errors) and on S32 the noise level is so far down that it is simply inaudible even after volume normalisation and control.
New command line option:
--dither DITHER Specify the dither algorithm to use - [none, gpdf,
tpdf, tpdf_hp]. Defaults to 'tpdf' for formats S16
S24, S24_3 and 'none' for other formats.
Notes:
This PR also features some opportunistic improvements. Worthy of mention are:
- matching reference Vorbis sample conversion techniques for lower noise
- a cleanup of the convert API
This is a squashed commit featuring the following:
Connect:
- Synchronize player volume with mixer volume on playback
- Fix step size on volume up/down events
- Remove no-op mixer started/stopped logic
Playback:
- Move from `connect` to `playback` crate
- Make cubic volume control available to all mixers with `--volume-ctrl cubic`
- Normalize volumes to `[0.0..1.0]` instead of `[0..65535]` for greater precision and performance (breaking)
- Add `--volume-range` option to set dB range and control `log` and `cubic` volume control curves
- Fix `log` and `cubic` volume controls to be mute at zero volume
Alsa mixer:
- Complete rewrite (breaking)
- Query card dB range for the `log` volume control unless specified otherwise
- Query dB range from Alsa softvol (previously only from hardware)
- Use `--device` name for `--mixer-card` unless specified otherwise
- Fix consistency for `cubic` between cards that report minimum volume as mute, and cards that report some dB value
- Fix `--volume-ctrl {linear|log}` to work as expected
- Removed `--mixer-linear-volume` option; use `--volume-ctrl linear` instead
