Preferences
General
Metering Point
Determines the metering point used to measure level displayed on the meter in the Player. Use the drop-down menu to select a Pre-Effects, Post-Effects, or Post-Volume metering point.
Volume Knob
Determines which mouse axis controls the Volume Knob on the Player. Use the drop-down menu to select Horizontal or Vertical.
The "Audio device is exclusive to Fidelia" checkbox toggles what is commonly known as "hog mode." Enabling this makes Fidelia the only application that can access the selected audio device.
The "Load audio file into physical memory" checkbox will load the audio file into RAM, rather than stream it from your hard-disk. This is most useful when playing files stored on a network drive or server.
The "Access iTunes Library" checkbox enables or disables iTunes Library syncing. When enabled, all music files currently in iTunes will appear in Fidelia's Library window.
Note: Previous versions of Fidelia utilized iTunes' Library.xml file for iTunes Library access. This is no longer necessary if you have iTunes 11+ installed.
Dither
Select the dither type, bit-depth, dither amount, and noise shaping. When the Dither checkbox is enabled, the output is dithered on-the-fly to the selected bit range using the selected dithering processor. The Auto Blanking checkbox will mute the dither noise when playback is silent for .7 seconds.
Commands
You can easily assign Keyboard Commands to menu commands. Access the Keyboard Commands panel by selecting Fidelia > Preferences > Commands.
Browse Commands
You can browse commands by expanding the categories and scrolling through the list.
Search Commands
Or you can use the Search Field at the top right of the panel to quickly find any existing commands.
Assign Commands
Double-click a command in the list and a sheet is displayed prompting you to assign a keyboard shortcut for the item. Type a Keyboard Shortcut and click the "OK" button. You will be warned if the shortcut is already in use.
To remove a shortcut, click "Clear".
Save, Export & Load Presets
Save Command as Preset
You can save Keyboard Commands as presets. To do this, select "Save..." from the drop-down menu at the upper left of the panel. Saved commands are automatically added to the drop-down menu.
Restore Defaults
Restores all default commands, removing any user-created commands from Fidelia's Keyboard Commands library.
Import Existing Command
If you wish to import an existing keyboard command, select "Import..." from the drop-down menu.
Export Command
If you wish to specify the save location, select "Export..." from the drop-down menu.
Format
Format
Choose the preferred audio file format from the following options: AIFF, Wave, CAF, AAC, Apple Lossless, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC.
Sample Rate
Choose the sample rate of the preferred audio file format form the following options: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, and 192 kHz.
Bit Range
Choose the bit range of the preferred audio file format from the following options: 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit.
Quality
The Quality slider activates if Ogg Vorbis is the preferred format. The Compression slider activates if FLAC is the preferred format.
Create Preferred Version When Adding to Library
Toggle this checkbox for Fidelia to create the preferred audio file when a file is added to the Fidelia library. The converted file is created in the same directory as the original file and does not overwrite the original file.
Note: This action can be performed on an individual basis using the Create File Type Version command from the File menu (or with a Keyboard Shortcut associated to the command.)
Output
Audio Output
Select Fidelia's final audio destination from a list of available system outputs. If the audio output you desire is not in this list, select the "Configure..." button to launch Audio MIDI Setup.
Use the Channel Selection> view to specify the output channels to use for your device.
Device Sample Rate
Using this drop-down menu, you can choose to set a fixed sample rate of 44.1 kHz, 48.0 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96.0 kHz, or have the device change to match the sample rate of the song.
Quality
Adjust the Quality slider to alter the quality of the output conversion process. Choose between getting Faster> results (less CPU intensive) versus getting Better results (more CPU intensive) that take longer to complete.
Using the Headphone Processor
The Headphone Processor was designed to address a number of issues often associated with listening to music on headphones
Designed by mastering engineer, Devin Kerr, the Headphone Processor is a result of extensive research and listening tests. By incorporating several broad spatial characteristics of an ideal loudspeaker playback setup, the Headphone Processor creates a more spacious, natural soundstage over headphones—enabling an exceptional listening experience that will truly inspire and engage. With user controls that are simple and effective, the algorithm can be fine tuned to your personal music library, listening preferences, and hardware.
What's Wrong With Headphones?
In theory: nothing, in the real world: a lot.
The main "problem" with headphones is that most music is created (recorded, mixed, mastered) on speakers, with tools that were primarily designed for loudspeaker playback. Hence, a type of auditory translation error occurs when music is instead played back on headphones.
Crossfeed
The biggest difference between headphones and loudspeaker listening is crossfeed. In the case of stereo loudspeaker listening, a sound fed from the right loudspeaker not only reaches the right ear of the listener, but a portion of the sound also reaches the left, far ear as well.
The inverse is true of the left loudspeaker: sounds emitted reach the left ear first, while a portion also reaches the right ear. Thus, sounds presented over loudspeakers are partly crossfed to each opposing ear of the listener.
Comparing to a headphone environment: sounds fed from the left channel of a pair of headphones only reach the left ear, and likewise, sounds fed from the right channel only reach the right ear. The subjective effects of these differences between headphone and loudspeaker listening are extremely significant.
Equalization
The Headphone Processor utilizes a unique, dynamic-range optimized equalization section to maintain the highest possible digital resolution at any setting. So, you'll never need to worry about digital clipping, distortion, or loss of headroom when using the Headphone Processor.
Monitoring
The Headphone Processor monitoring section offers several key monitoring facilities that are typically reserved for high-end monitor controllers or mastering consoles.
Mono enables a user to monitor the mono summation of the left and right channels. This control is post Balance> and Phase processing.
Phase allows inversion of the right channel polarity.
Swap Channels swaps the left and right channels such that left becomes right, and right becomes left.
Balance allows you to adjust balance of the left and right channels.
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