Lysoniq Switcher

On by default. Most tracks end in a fade-out: the music gets quieter and quieter until it's gone. In the last seconds of every track, the Listening Window, the Switcher listens to how loud Music.app is playing. Once the sound has stayed near-silent for the Minimum Quiet, with at least the Relock Time still to go, it switches the rate right there, inside the fade, where the DAC's mute can't be heard. The next track is handed to Music.app and follows on without a gap, already at its rate. A track with no fade at all is left to the fallback method you choose.

1. The Listening Window opens: the Switcher starts listening to how loud the music is. The next track's rate differs, so it is kept back from Music.app.
2. The fading music drops below the Silence Threshold: quiet enough to count as silence.
3. It has stayed quiet for the Minimum Quiet, with at least the Relock Time still to go: the switch is sent and the next track handed over.
4. The outgoing track ends under the last of the quiet and the next runs on at its rate.

The same method when the music only goes quiet late, with less than the Relock Time left. It still switches: playback pauses at the Pause Point for only what the relock has left. Then the last moment of the track is lost under the mute and the next track starts as the mute ends. That's Extend a Late Fade with a Brief Pause, on by default; off, a late fade is passed over and the fallback method takes the change.

1. The fading music drops below the Silence Threshold, but late.
2. It has stayed quiet for the Minimum Quiet, but with less than the Relock Time left: the switch is sent anyway.
3. The Pause Point: playback pauses.
4. Playback resumes: the last quiet moment of the track is lost under the mute.
5. The mute ends and the next track starts at its rate.

The default fallback. Music.app is only handed the next track a few seconds before the end, and only when it plays at the same rate, so same-rate tracks run on without a gap. At a rate change Music.app stops at the end of the track, to its last sample, and the switch is sent in that stop; after a short delay Music.app is asked for the next track and loads it. Nothing is clipped and nothing is paused mid-music. The cost is a short silence at every rate change, the delay plus Music.app's own load.

1. The next track's rate differs, so it is kept back from Music.app.
2. Music.app stops at the end of the track and the switch is sent.
3. After the Delay Added, the next track is asked for.
4. The first note, once Music.app has loaded it.

Playback is paused at the Pause Point, just before the end, and the switch is sent into the pause. Playback resumes while the mute still has the last moment's length to run, so that last moment is lost under the mute and the next track starts as the mute ends, already at its rate. What you hear is the pause; the track's very final moment is lost.

1. The Pause Point: playback pauses and the switch is sent.
2. Playback resumes: the last moment of the track is lost under the mute.
3. The mute ends and the next track starts at its rate.

The switch is sent the Relock Time before the end, so the DAC's mute covers the outgoing track's final moment. That much of it is lost, and the next track starts already at its rate with no pause and no gap. For anyone who would rather lose a track's last moment than hear any silence.

1. The Relock Time before the end: the switch is sent, quiet or not.
2. The next track starts at its rate as the mute ends.