Neutron Forum

Found Neutron to be a much better player than poweramp and playerpro (although Playerpro comes a close second in sound quality, with the DSP pack installed, and a much easier to use UI). I run it on a Galaxy S3 with shure SE535 IEM's. However, when I try to adjust the equaliser with the music playing, Neutron nearly always freezes the display, then crashes. Maybe I haven't set the player up properly, but it's quite annoying. I also find that, occasionally, Neutron reduces the volume (or gain) while playing various songs.I haven't altered the settings for the sound from the standard settings it comes with when installed. I have also tried deleting the app and re-installing, but it still does it. Has anyone else experienced these issues and what solution did you come up with.

Well this is actually easy to answer I believe.

You have music files with errors is the answer.

Please check this post and scan your music for errors.
http://neutronmp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=410#wrap




I have tested 500 albums in Neutron and no such problem on 3 devices but because I made sure all were perfect before putting them on.
- HTC Sensation XL
- Sony S tablet
- Archos G9 (which died cause it is rubbish)

The link you have provided is to another post of mine concerning album art and not crashing or volume issues. I have tested the same music files (mainly FLAC) on poweramp and playerpro which do not crash or appear to reduce the volume, so I doubt my music has errors on them.
BTW, regarding album art I have since found that 500 x 500 work as well, it's file sizes larger than 1000 that doesn't always show

Guess number 1
- are your audio files really OK ? Often they are not if copying across USB (even if play in other players)

Test here:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1612


Guess number 2 - may apply to SOME hardware
- Is it crashing on 48khz files ?

If so this is an Android problem (not a Neutron problem) that is on the list to be fixed by google (many people are unhappy about it! - I think fixed 4.04 Android OS)

If so reconvert your files to 44.1khz and all will be well - worked for me.

Detail
- 48khz files of a low bitrate MAY work if you increase Neutron's latency
- high bitrates will not work regardless of player (I tested a bunch)
- 48khz comes from video files eg youtube, DVD, video camera
- Itunes and Audio CD rips and other online music will likely all be 44.1khz

Check also replay gain in your files.

Are they live bootlegs? They often have replay gain AND errors (even though will play fine in many players - I have many)

> However, when I try to adjust the equaliser with the music playing, Neutron nearly always freezes the display, then crashes.

I noticed this bug description in Google Play comments and good that you decided to come to forum. Neutron is used on very many different devices and if problem existed in this area I would receive a lot of reports but the problem you faced looks to be some unique and may be unique for your exact device and OS version. For example I had users who reported crash of NEON version and Neutron misbehavior but then it appeared that NEON unit on CPU was partially broken. It also can be a problem of faulty firmware which has faulty mutex implementation which can result in crash on EQ modification. There are quite many Neutron users with SGS S3 and I have not yet had similar report. Have you checked for the latest firmware?

> I also find that, occasionally, Neutron reduces the volume (or gain) while playing various songs.

Yes this is normal. It is Automatic Gain Protection working: when you increase Preamp above 0 or set EQ low-band level too high the digital audio will most likely be truncated causing bad sound (harsh, like heavy metal). So Neutron's AGP core is checking in real-time for this problem and if it detects overloading it decreases Preamp volume automatically. So, you can either play more carefully with EQ & Preamp settings, or you can disable AGP in Neutron's Settings (top-level list).

After problem analysis it appears that the possible cause for the problem is too aggressive optimization done by compiler. Google provides NDK with GCC compiler. Unfortunately GCC has bugs and some unlucky compiler flags may produce unstable binaries. Let's see how 1.61 will behave.

It also crashes when playing music and scrolling through my albums. Checked all my music and there are no errors. Tried the 32 bit standard version and the 64 bit Neon version and both do the same. It even crashes sometimes if the music is paused and I scroll the album list. Got the latest firmware of ICS installed on phone