Media Explorer bug- MP3 stereo files play MONO via select.track if set to 4ch [FIXED]

[akademie]

If media (2 channel stereo audio files, MP3 format specifically) is played from Media Explorer through the selected track:
1) if the track is set to 2 channels, audio plays stereo ... EXPECTED = OK
2) if the track is set to 4 (and more) channels, audio plays mono! (L+R mix) ... NOT EXPECTED = NOT OK

I believe it's a bug.


Tested on Reaper v6.13 and v6.10

EDIT
Formats tested:
WAV, FLAC, OGG, WavPack ... ok, stereo
MP3 ... comes out as mono

EDIT 2 (20201202):
Confirming that this bug is now completely fixed (for MP3 and also for WAV/WavPack/AIFF) in the +DEV1130 release.

[akademie]

bump...

Anyone willing to confirm, please?

[akademie]

Well, confirming myself after further and further testing on differnet configurations of HW, SW and versions.

Even more info:
(even WAv files are affected in some way, as described below)

Preview audio from Media Explorer thriough selected track fills all channels of that "audition "track with ghost channels audio content!

Examples:

1) Stereo WAV (2-channel) file through 8-channel track ... Left channel of WAV on channel-1 of the track, Right channel of WAV on all following channels of the track - that is on channel 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 - That is, in my opinion, also WRONG

2) Stereo MP3 (2-channel) file throuh the same 8-channel track ... Left+Right channel of MP3 mixed as mono on all channels of the track (= channel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) , [note: joint stereo vs dual stereo makes no difference]

It is now quite workflow killer for me (am I the only one?) as I do use more than 2 channel tracks because of extended using of sophisticated PM routing for sound synth/design.

[akademie]

And further tests...:
This wrong behavior of Media Explorer is the same in Reaper v5.211, I just tested it few minutes ago.

Note that only format of WAV/FLAC/MP3 that is working correctly is FLAC, where the stereo FLAC audio file plays L/R on 1/2 channels and nothing on any of subsequent channels (3/4, 5/6, etc.)
(While WAV does duplicate the 2nd (or last if multichannel?) audio channel to all subsequent channels of the track selected for preview).

[akademie]

Uh, here we go again

The same bug applies also to "Project Media/FX Bay" !!!

Preview "Source Media" through selected track is bugy,
while preview "Media Items" through selected track is working correctly.

(Both "Preview source media through selected track" and "Preview media items through selected track" options enabled, of course)


EDIT (20201127): This part of bug was also solved by fixing the MP3 decoder bug in in v6.17rc2

[akademie]

bumping,
because Media Explorer is extensively worked on in actual pre-relase builds

[Justin]

Ah this is a bug in the mp3 decoder, fixing!

[akademie]

Originally Posted by Justin

Ah this is a bug in the mp3 decoder, fixing!

great, thank you

[akademie]

Hi Justin,
while I can now confirm, that the MP3 bug was fixed in v6.17rc2 (thanks), there is still inconsistency between uncompressed vs compressed formats (which I discovered during editing of the thread - so it's not reflected specifically in the title).

Problem:
While compressed formats output only on appropriate channels, uncompressed ones still output signal of their last valid channel to other conseqent channels of the track (the channels above their valid count) as demonstrated bellow:

WAV .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R
AIF. ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R
WV ..... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R

MP3 .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
OGG .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
OPUS ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
FLAC ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul

(Note: Retested right now in v6.17rc1 vs 6.17rc2, 32bit, Windows)

[Justin]

Originally Posted by akademie

Hi Justin,
while I can now confirm, that the MP3 bug was fixed in v6.17rc2 (thanks), there is still inconsistency between uncompressed vs compressed formats (which I discovered during editing of the thread - so it's not reflected specifically in the title).

Problem:
While compressed formats output only on appropriate channels, uncompressed ones still output signal of their last valid channel to other conseqent channels of the track (the channels above their valid count) as demonstrated bellow:

WAV .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R
AIF. ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R
WV ..... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=R

MP3 .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
OGG .... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
OPUS ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul
FLAC ... 1=L, 2=R, 3&more=nul

(Note: Retested right now in v6.17rc1 vs 6.17rc2, 32bit, Windows)

Thanks, we’ll probably address this in the next cycle

[akademie]

Originally Posted by Justin

Thanks, we’ll probably address this in the next cycle

No problem, just reporting to be able to close the bug report as solved

[akademie]

Confirming that this bug is now completely fixed (for MP3 and also for WAV/WavPack/AIFF) in the +DEV1130 release.
Thanks Justin

(Just reminding that the fix is not included in official 6.18 yet)