Help / Reference
Glossary of the terms this help uses
Short definitions of the vocabulary these pages use. Where a term has an article of its own, the entry points at it.
Bit depth
How many bits describe each sample of audio. A CD uses 16, studio files are often 24. More bits push the noise floor further below the quietest detail, which is not the same thing as a better recording. The track list shows the figure beside the sample rate, as 44.1kHz/16bit.
Bit-perfect
Audio that reaches your device with its samples exactly as they sit in the file: no resampling, no volume change, no processing on the way. Vesari Stylus reports on this rather than promising it, and names whatever broke the chain. See Bit-Perfect mode and The signal path.
CUE sheet
A plain text index beside one long audio file, marking where each track begins. Every scan re-reads the .cue files in a folder, and every track a sheet marks becomes its own library entry. See Single-file albums and CUE sheets.
Exclusive mode
Short for WASAPI Exclusive, one of the two output modes this build offers. The app takes sole use of the device and asks it for the file's own format, so nothing else on the PC can mix into the stream. It makes bit-perfect output possible without delivering it: EQ, crossfeed, ReplayGain, a volume change or a rate conversion all still alter the samples. It is a Lifetime feature, and a choice about output, not about whether your music plays. See Choosing an output mode.
Fingerprint
A compact numeric summary calculated from the sound of a recording, so it can be identified when the tags are wrong, thin or missing. Super-Tag matches fingerprints against an online index. See What the online lookups send.
Gapless
One track running straight into the next with no silence at the join, the way a live album or a DJ mix expects. See Gapless, ReplayGain & CUE sheets.
Hi-res
Audio stored above CD resolution. The track list marks a file HR when it is 24 bit or deeper, or 88.2 kHz or faster. That describes the container, not what went into it, which is why Analyze Quality exists on the track menu. See Quality Analysis.
Lossless
A format that keeps every sample of the original, so decoding gives back exactly what went in. FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE and WavPack are lossless. MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis are not: they discard detail to save space. See Supported audio formats.
LUFS
The unit loudness is measured in, on a scale where louder sits closer to zero, so a quiet record might read -20 and a loud one -8. A ReplayGain scan measures a whole track in LUFS against the reference level of -18 LUFS to arrive at its gain figure. The meter panel in DSP Rack carries a live LUFS readout that moves with the music.
MusicBrainz
An open, community-maintained music database. The app looks up releases and recordings there for titles, artists, dates and track numbers. See Where tags and artwork come from.
OpenSubsonic
The open protocol the app's built-in server speaks, so phone and tablet apps written for it can browse and play your library over your network. It is free on every tier, with no limit on how many devices connect. See Stream your library to your phone and Choosing a client.
Quarantine
A holding area inside your own music folder where files a cleanup removes go instead of being deleted. Everything moved in one run forms a batch, and a batch can be restored whole. See Quarantine.
ReplayGain
A number in decibels, stored in a track's tags, saying how far to turn that track up or down so a mixed playlist sits at one level. It changes level only, and it stays off until you switch it on. See ReplayGain.
Sample rate
How many times per second the waveform was measured, usually written in kilohertz. A CD is 44.1 kHz. When a file's rate and the device's rate differ, something has to convert between them, and the signal path shows a Resample stage naming both rates.
Shared mode
The other output mode, and the default. Sound goes through the Windows mixer alongside everything else on the PC, so notifications and browser audio keep playing. The mixer is free to resample or add its own enhancements. See Choosing an output mode.
Sidecar
A small companion file kept next to your audio, holding something the audio file cannot. A .tags sidecar carries library metadata for raw bitstream formats such as DTS and AC-3, which have nowhere to store tags; an .lrc sidecar carries lyrics. See Tags and sidecar files.
Signal path
The stage-by-stage view of what happens between the file on disk and your device: Source, Processing, a Resample stage when the rates differ, then Output. It sits in the panel at the right of DSP Rack, under the Bit-perfect mode toggle. See The signal path.
Super-Tag
The batch identification job. It works out what each recording actually is, from the sound itself and any tags worth trusting, then fills in titles, artists, album names and cover art across the tracks you point it at. See Super-Tag.
Tag
Information stored inside the audio file describing the music: title, artist, album, year, track number, artwork. Editing tags rewrites your files, which is why the app keeps that deliberate. See The tag editor.