FAQ
This is what puzzles people
Does Apollo support hotkeys?

I have been using myself a HotKeys plug-in by Vassili Bourdo for some time now. I'm not sure if it's officially available any longer, but you can download it here. There is also a native Apollo hotkeys plug-in.

Why does Apollo sound so good?

The sound quality has always been an important factor when making decisions in the decoder code. Recent addition of 32-bit and 24-bit output has resulted in further improvements in the quality. To prove this, I measured the difference of Apollo 37zm 24-bit output to the MPEG-1 audio layer 3 compliance test reference signal (ISO/IEC 11172-4). More info on the test and results for a bunch of other players (including an old version of Apollo) can be found here. The results for Apollo 37zm 24-bit output are RMS level 7.169×10−10 and maximum difference 1.192×10−7.

For comparison, the same values for the latest MAD decoder (MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.1b) built with accuracy optimizations enabled and 24-bit output without dithering are RMS level 8.804×10−8 and maximum difference 4.768×10−7. The difference is quite obvious and favorable to Apollo: RMS level is over a hundred times the one produced by Apollo 37zm and the maximum difference is four times the one by Apollo (interestingly the results for MAD 0.11.4b seem to be somewhat better than for the latest one but they are still worse than Apollo's). Actually, the maximum difference of Apollo's output is the smallest possible deviation in 24-bit data, the only smaller possible value would be zero. This means that at any time, Apollo's output is either exactly the same as the reference output or differs from it by the smallest unit expressible in 24-bit data. Of course, this only goes for the provided test signal, but it should give some picture about the sound quality.

How do I enable the 24-bit MP3 decoding?

Open the Plug-ins dialog (Ctrl + P) and go to the Input tab. From there, select the Apollo MPEG Decoder and click Configure. Choose the desired bit resolution, click OK and restart Apollo.

Note that unless your soundcard is able to play 24-bit data, enabling 24-bit decoding makes no difference. The decoder will always use the same bit depth internally regardless of this setting.

Why don't you reply to my emails, you worthless piece of shit?

I'm quite busy doing other things and I won't be able to reply to all emails concerning Apollo. So don't be angry if you don't get a reply — all of the messages will be read eventually but they won't be replied.

There has been a lot of new releases lately. Are you supporting Apollo again?

No. The current development is based purely on my own needs. I fix bugs that I find annoying and add features that I miss myself. So, please do not send me feature requests.

Does Apollo support ID3 tag editing?

No. It will never do. The reason is that I don't use ID3 tags myself and the current development of Apollo is based on my own needs.

Where do you work today?

From Daimon Technologies, I switched to our most interesting client, Smartner Information Systems Ltd., which in turn was acquired by SEVEN Networks, Inc..

Why won't you release Apollo as open source or let someone else continue the development?

Developing Apollo further from its current sources would not be a good idea. It should be redone from scracth using better object oriented design. The ideas and concepts of the old Apollo could of course be used, but there is no point in using the old lousy sources.

I installed a new version of Apollo and now it won't play any of my files.

You probably installed into a different directory than where the old was. Your plug-in search paths are pointing to wrong directories (probably to where they used to be). Change them from the Plug-ins dialog and restart Apollo.

How do I decode MP3s to WAV?

From the options dialog (available through the hammer-button) select the Output tab. Select the "Decode to .WAV file without playback" radio button. Then press the Browse button and select the folder where you want the WAVs to be written. Then press the OK-button and start to play the MP3s you want to decode.

You won't hear any output during the decoding. For decoding in background, it might be wise to set the process priority to low from the General section. This is because Apollo will use all the processor time it gets to do the decoding.

After playing the MP3s you should find the corresponding WAVs in the directory you selected. To switch back to playback, select "Wave Out" or DirectSound again from the Options->Output.

What encoder do you recommend?

I personally use LAME with the following settings: MPEG I, VBR0 (new method), 160-320 kbps, J-stereo, q=0.

What CD ripper do you recommend?

I personally use CDex.