Can I make Crossfade always work?

[Mattias_Lindgren]

I am preparing the playlist to be used on the dancefloor om my 50-year party. For me two things are important. Crossfade between ALL songs and good audio quality. The playlist consists of tracks from Tidal and Qobuz.

I have an SSL 2 external soundcard connected to my PC and I am using that as my audio output device.

The Roon server is on a decent NAS.

My simple question is: Is there any configuration I can do so that I know for sure that all tracks in my playlist will crossfade? Now crossfade works between some tracks, but not others.

[connor]

Hi @Mattias_Lindgren,

Thank you for your post.

Please note that tracks must be at the same sample rate and bit depth for crossfade to function.

For the Zone in use, what is the Crossfade Time in the Device Setup window?

@Mattias_Lindgren

Now crossfade works between some tracks, but not others.

Are the tracks that fail to crossfade different file types and formats? Please provide a screenshot of an example in your queue or play history and we’ll gladly investigate in diagnostic logging.

[Mattias_Lindgren]

Here are some example where crossfade does not work:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Here are some examples where crossfade work:
Example 3:

Example 4:

[benjamin]

Hey @Mattias_Lindgren,

Thanks for the screenshots! If you examine them closely:

In Example 1 , one track is MQA, and one is not. Roon can’t simultaneously uncoil/restore an MQA track while it’s trying to play a 16/44 FLAC file on the same Zone. So, crossfade doesn’t work here.

Example 2 , the sample rates don’t match. Same problem - Roon can’t be sampling the source at 44.1khz on the Zone while also sampling at another sample rate. That would require a separate transport. Crossfade won’t work unless the tracks are the same sample rate and bit depth.

Hope this helps!

[Mattias_Lindgren]

Thanks. I was just hoping that it was possible to configure Roon in some way to make all tracks crossfade no matter what the input source are, but I guess that is not possible.

It was worth a try. I really like the sound quality of Roon together with Tidal and Qobuz, but since crossfade does not work I will switch back to Spotify

[Rudiger_Birkemeyer (Rüdiger Birkemeyer)]

Maybe this is a solution:
resample all music to 16 bit, 44.1 KHz (regardless of the source)
and then apply the cross-fade.

[benjamin]

Hi @Mattias_Lindgren,

There is nothing broken with Crossfade, the DSP functions properly, it just needs to be in the same file format.

If you aren’t set on requiring the MQA version of the tracks in question, you can likely update the format version to match the rest of your playlist, allowing for crossfade to work through out.