音のいいAIMP3が、お約束通り、日本時間の2月1日にベータリリースを開始しました。
アナウンス通りのユーザーインターフェースの改良が中心になっているようです。
サウンドエンジンに対する改良は、以下3点です。
大きな変更点は、WASAPI対応と思われる i32V24サンプルフォーマットへの対応を行なっている点のようだが、要は、ロスレスサンプリングで何処までの音が再生できるかという点ですが、本気でサポートしているとなると、今時のサウンドカードを使って音を聞いてみる必要がありそうです。先ずは、基本の44.1k 16Bitがきちんと再生できていなければ、意味がありませんので、微妙なところです。
その他は、クロスフェーダーとイコライザー周辺の追加改良なので、本命は、i32V24対応ということでしょう。
+ Sound Engine: Added support for i32v24 sample format
+ Sound Engine: Now player has separate settings for crossfading in manual and automatic switching modes
+ Sound Engine: Equalizer has been improved - now all frequencies are processed between sliders
以下、リリースノート抜粋
AIMP v3.50 Build 1224 Beta 1 (31.01.2013)
+ Common: Performance has been increased
+ Common: Player no longer supports configuration files from AIMP2
+ Common: Added support of long pathname (more than 260 characters), only for Windows Vista and newer
+ Common: Settings in options dialog has been regrouped
+ Common: Added an ability to split files by chapters (OGG, OPS, M4A and M4B are supported)
+ Sound Engine: Added support for i32v24 sample format
+ Sound Engine: Now player has separate settings for crossfading in manual and automatic switching modes
+ Sound Engine: Equalizer has been improved – now all frequencies are processed between sliders
+ Skin Engine: Potential abilities are extended
+ Skin Engine: An ability to switch off spectrum animation for playable track
+ Skin Engine: An ability to dock window to the top and bottom screen edges
+ Player: Hotkey for the “Reload data from pre-image” command has been added
+ Player: Hotkeys for executing the “Bookmarks Manager” and “Equalizer” dialogs has been added
+ Player: Hotkeys for set mark to playable / selected files has been added
+ Player: Confirmation for the remove equalizer preset operation has been added
+ Player: Equalizer settings has been added to the DSP Manager dialog
+ Player: Now files merge into one queue, when send it to a removable device
+ Player: Added Drag-n-Drop support for the Bookmarks Manager
+ Player: The queue of shuffle playback is now stored on the application closing
+ Player: Playlist tab hint now contains information about playlist content
+ Player: Managing Playlists – added an ability to browse content of closed playlist (with search ability)
+ Audio Converter: Hotkey for start conversion process has been added
+ Audio Converter: Added an ability to save path structure during conversion process
+ Audio Converter: OPUS Encoder has been added
+ CoverArt Downloader: Caching of downloaded files for current work session
+ CoverArt Downloader: Click on image now opens it in external application
+ Scheduler: Alarm Clock – added an ability to execute action after pre-set time period
+ Scheduler: Alarm Clock – added an ability to set playlist as alarm clock ringtone
+ Tag Editor: The “File Size” column has been added
+ Tag Editor: Added an ability to resize window of “Presets Editor” dialog
+ Tag Editor: Rename files – added an ability to replace / remove selected characters
+ Tag Editor: Rename files – bilateral transliteration has been added (Russian – English)
+ Tag Editor: Rename files – new design
+ Tag Editor: Added support of “BPM”, “Disc Count” and “Publisher” tag fields
+ Tag Editor: Added support of OPUS format tags
+ Tag Editor: Added an ability to calculate BPM (powered by SoundTouch Library)
+ Audio Library: Mark reading speed has been increased by 10 times
+ Audio Library: Added an ability to display rating instead of mark, if mark is not set
+ Audio Library: Added an ability to switch off automatic jump to next track during playback
+ Audio Library: Added an ability to send files to playlist
+ Audio Library: The “BPM”, “Composer”, “Publisher” and “File Format” columns has been added
+ Audio Library: Added an ability to add files to data base via Drag-n-Drop
+ Audio Library: Added special context menu for cells of the “Labels” column
+ Audio Library: Hotkeys for playback control has been added
+ Audio Library: New design of the “Labels Manager” dialog
+ Custom Controls: Context menu – added an ability to scroll items via mouse wheel
+ Custom Controls: Context menu – auto scrolling to selected item on menu popup
+ Custom Controls: Now you can switch between tabs via Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab / Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown shortcuts
+ Custom Controls: Scrollbar – added an ability to jump to position under mouse cursor via mouse click with pressed Shift key
+ Custom Controls: ListView and TreeView – per-pixel scrolling has been added
注目の音質に関してですが、変化があるように思います。
早速、聴いてみたところ、今のところ、かなり良くなっているようです。
主観としては、音がクリアーになって、音の輪郭と楽器のスッキリとした泡立ちを感じさせる音作りといったところでしょうか。悪く無いです。
※なお、今回のベータリリースでは、日本語化がまだ追いついていない部分があるようで、オプションメニュー(設定メニュー)の一部の文字が表示されないので、念のため、人柱として報告しておきます。
→英語モードでは操作可能なので、使えないことはないですが・・
それではまた。