Copyright: Audiograbber version 1.60


What is Audiograbber

What is Audiograbber and what can it do?

Audiograbber is a program that copies music and stores it on your computers harddisk. Its main purpose is to copy music from CD's. This process copies the music digitally and thus you will get perfect copies. It includes functions to check that the copies made are true to the original. Not all CD-ROM drives can however read digital audio so there is also an option to copy the music through the soundcard with a slight sound degradation. It is also possible to copy sound via the soundcard from an external source, like a turntable or a radio.

Audiograbber can connect to a database (CDDB) on internet and download and upload disc information like tracknames etc. It has a normalize function to make tracks from different cd's sound equally loud. Tracks can be saved as wav files or converted to MP3 or WMA files with external programs like Fraunhofers L3enc or internal codecs like Fraunhofers acm CODEC or BladeEnc's freeware MP3 DLL or Microsofts Windows Media Audio codec.

System specifications:

•	Windows 95 / 98 / NT

•	CD-ROM connected to IDE or SCSI.

•	A CD-ROM reader that can actually read digital music (Not all of them can) is useful but analog sampling is also possible. A soundcard is however needed for analog sampling.

Choose Contents in this help file for further information on Audiograbber.

What's new? See version information

The difference between audio CD's and normal data CD's.

The latest version of this program can be found at:

http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net (primary site)

http://www.dezines.com/audio/ (mirror site)

I can be reached on the following e-mail address.

Please read the hints section before sending me any e-mails asking for support.

jackie@audiograbber.com-us.net


OSR2 problem
The Problem with reading digital audio under Windows 95 OSR2 release and Windows 98

The latest version of Windows 95 (known as the OSR2 release or windows 4.00 build 1111) and Windows 98  normally can't read digital audio through MSCDEX calls (There is no problem with the ASPI calls however.) The problem has been located to the scsi1hlp.vxd file. Even though the name suggests that the file should only be used for SCSI devices, it actually handles IDE CD-ROM's as well.

Either way, in most cases it helps if the file Scsi1hlp.vxd is replaced with the old version.

To check which version of Windows 95 you are running, do one of the following:

•	Settings, control panel, system. If it says Microsoft Windows 95 4.00.950 B it means you have the OSR2 release. Note the "B" after the version digits. There is also a version 4.00.950a that doesn't work either.

•	Audiograbber, help, System information. If it says build number 1111 it means you have the OSR2 release.

To check which scsi1hlp.vxd version your computer is using, do one of the following:

•	Explorer, right click on the file C:\windows\system\iosubsys\scsi1hlp.vxd. Click on properties and then version.

•	Audiograbber, help, system information. The version number is written to the left of Scsi1hlp.vxd version.

It doesn't matter which Windows version you are running as long as the right scsi1hlp.vxd file is used. If the CD vendor has provided its own drivers for the CD, it may happen that it works with the wrong scsi1hlp.vxd version. If you are using another version than 4.00.950 and it is not working, I recommend that you replace it with the 4.00.950 version. The file is located in the C:\windows\system\iosubsys directory. I suppose that Microsoft doesn't want me to distribute one of their files so I can only give you a link to Sony's site with the file:

ftp://ftp.sony.com/ccpg/pc/scsi1hlp.exe

If it is not found on that site, try to find it on the Internet. Search for scsi1hlp.exe or scsi1hlp.vxd. A good search engine is

http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/ftpsearch

Make a backup copy of your scsi1hlp.vxd before you replace it. Beware of renaming it to scsi1hlp.vxd1111 or something like that. When Windows uses this file, it seems to search for a file that loosely matches scsi1hlp.vxd. Rename it to osr2vxd.bak or something similar.

You have to restart Windows after you have replaced the file!


Digital audio
The difference between audio CD's and normal data CD's.

(Or why is it so hard to copy a track from a music CD?)

A CD-ROM is divided into sectors of 2352 bytes. Data CD's use 2048 of these bytes to store the data file. The other bytes are start / stop information and information of the sector's number. This makes it easy for a computer's CD-ROM device to find the right sector. An audio CD on the other hand uses all of the 2352 bytes to store audio information. This makes it hard for the CD-ROM reader to find exactly where the track starts. All bytes are coming in one long sequence. When the CD drive starts reading it usually has no problem delivering the right data but most CD drives have problems with starting on the correct byte (sample).

A sector (it is called a frame on audio CD's) on an audio CD, as stated earlier, is 2352 bytes. There are 75 frames per second which gives 2352 * 75 bytes per second of music. (This can also be calculated by 2 (stereo) * 2 (16 bits) * 44100 Hz per second). Philips "Red Book" standard specifies that a CD player should be able to position its head on the right frame but not where on the frame.

Since a computer program has to read a little piece of the track, write it to the hard disk, read another piece etc. there will be problems all the time. The program solves this problem by reading a little bit more data than is written and then compares the end of the previous reading with the beginning of the present reading and in that way can synchronize the readings. (This is called overlapping, synchronization or jitter correction).

Audiograbber can use two different ways of reading the audio, MSCDEX or ASPI, of which ASPI is the preferred one. ASPI can be used in a kind of multi threaded mode which means that the program can ask for data and get a notification back when the data has arrived. This way the program can do other things while waiting for data and it is often possible to not use any synchronization at all, the data can be copied correctly in a burst copy mode. If the drive spins faster then the computer can handle the data there will be "possible speed problems".

In MSCDEX mode you can select how many frames of audio should be read in every chunk and with how many frames overlapping. The program does not always get enough memory for all the frames it wants which means that it sometimes has to use a smaller audio buffer. (Under MSCDEX the program uses the low DOS memory to buffer data from the CD drive and depending on what other device drivers and programs want memory from that area, it can differ a bit from time to time or computer to computer)

The more sectors that are used for overlapping, the slower the CD driver will read. When windows 95's protected mode CD-ROM driver is used, the data from the CD drive is always cached and it seems to make the synchronization unnecessary. If a real mode driver is used for the CD drive and if the data is not cached the synchronization is necessary.

Whether the CD drive reads the audio perfectly can be tested by:

•	Compare two files

•	Calculate checksum


Driver mode
Windows 95 protected mode driver and real mode driver

Before Windows 95, all CD's read data through 16 bits real mode drivers and mscdex.exe. Those drivers were delivered with the CD player and were installed in config.sys and autoexec.bat. Windows 95 has built in support for CD-ROM and the real mode drivers are not normally needed.  Anyhow, there are some cases when digital audio can not be read, or is not read correctly with Windows 95's internal driver. If so, you can try to use a real mode driver instead. Under the OSR2 release of Windows 95 the file Scsi1hlp.vxd often causes digital audio to be not read at all. You should then replace it with an older version.

•	How to install a real mode driver

•	How to replace the Scsi1hlp.vxd file

Note that this is old stuff only valid for MSCDEX as read method. Newer CD-ROM drives and computers usually work better with ASPI as read method.


Real mode driver installation

This is a bit complicated and if you don't know what you are doing pretty well, you'd better avoid doing this.

•	Install the CD-ROM drivers in config.sys and autoexec.bat. Make sure that you can read an ordinary data CD when you are booting into DOS mode.

(config.sys looks like this

DEVICEHIGH /L:1,15488 =C:\MTM\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MTMIDE01

and autoexec.bat like this

LH /L:1,46672 C:\WIN95\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MTMIDE01 /M:10)

•	Connect the CD-ROM unit to secondary IDE and not together with any hard disk.

•	Open Control Panel, choose System and the tab Device Manager.

•	Click "View devices by connection"

•	Locate Secondary IDE controller. (not the CD itself but the closest higher connection).

•	Select the checkbox "Disable in this hardware configuration".

•	Click OK. It sometimes happens that the computer crashes at this moment so make sure you are not running any other programs.

•	Reboot the computer.

To restore Windows 95's protected mode driver just unselect the checkbox instead.


Buy Audiograbber
How to buy the full version of Audiograbber?

The price is $25. Go to http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/buy.html  for information on how to buy Audiograbber online.

If you like the program and can afford the $25 please buy it. I have spent a lot of time on this program and more money makes it easier to continue the development of Audiograbber!

If you are young and can't afford the $25, go on and use it anyhow. You are still allowed to use the free version as much as you want!


The difference between the full version and the freeware version.

There is only one difference between the free and the full version. The free version has been limited to only handle half of the tracks and those tracks are selected randomly at program startup (with a slight advantage for odd tracks). By restaring the program the checkboxes will be in front of other tracks. The full version can of course handle them all and has checkboxes in front of every track.

Here is how to buy the full version


Version information

Version history:

•	Version 1.60	12 October 1999

Line in sampling function.

Can now finally rip the last audio track on multimedia discs without problems.

Possibility to rip all tracks before encoding.

Can append id3 tags to wav files. Good to use if the files are going to be encoded at a later time.

Can rip parts of tracks much easier.

•	Version 1.50	29 May 1999

CDDB Submit function.

Windows Media Audio (wma) support.

Analog sampling from CD-ROM drives.

Remembers the previous window size and position.

Can run multiple instances.

Can now rip multimedia discs under MSCDEX.

•	Version 1.41	17 March 1999

Direct rip and encode options.

Better detection of drives that uses inversed byte order.

Integration with MP3 players.

An option to auto-query CDDB if a disc is not recognized.

Speed selection for Plextor drives.

•	Version 1.40	10 December 1998

Support for BladeEnc's MP3 DLL.

Enhanced normalizing and sound compression options.

Better naming options.

Better support for external programs.

•	Version 1.31	25 August 1998

Support for Philips, HP and new Toshiba SCSI drives.

Improved speed selection for IDE drives.

Added a spin up disc option.

Improved the volume meter.

•	Version 1.30	17 July 1998

Added CDDB retrieve support.

Better naming options which give more flexible control over the filenames.

Added a progress bar for the played track on the main window. A volume meter is also added.

•	Version 1.21	10 June 1998

Added support for Panasonic (Matsushita) SCSI drives.

Implemented a new rip method (Unbuffered Burst) and renamed the old Burst Copy method to Buffered Burst.

Implemented an unlock method for the full version to prevent software piracy.

Fixed a few minor bugs.

•	Version 1.20	22 April 1998

Added ASPI as read method. This enabled Audiograbber to work with SCSI cd's and Windows NT.

Support for setting a rip offset has been added. This helps CD-ROM's that don't position their head exactly correct.

Added a tip of the day function.

An option to let Audiograbber shut down the computer when finished has been implemented.

A way to easily see how fast a track was ripped.

•	Version 1.10	15 February 1998

Added support for Fraunhofers internal MP3 CODEC.

Better ID3 tag options.

Some bugs fixed, (and undoubtedly some new created !)

•	Version 1.01	6 January 1998

Selects which tracks that can be copied randomly instead of only the odd ones.

Supports Wav2mp3 for MP3 creation.

Two new check boxes so that one can easily see if normalization / MP3 creation are selected.

•	Version 1.00	24 December 1997

The first version was released.


Normalizing

This function is found under the file menu.

Normalizing means how loud a track is recorded. Different CD's, just like LP's from the old days, are usually recorded at different volumes. All tracks on the same CD are individually, recorded at about the same level and as long as one listens to only one CD at a time there is usually no problem with the loudness of the CD.

The problem starts when you mix tracks from different CD's because they occasionally have an output level that differs from one CD to another. One CD can play quite loud and another noticeably quieter. The normalize function comes in handy in these cases and you can select the same level for all your CD's.

Most of the CD's are properly recorded and the normal level is usually between 95-99 %.  By choosing to normalize only the tracks normalized to less than about 91 %, your result will be that all the songs will have approximately the same volume and most tracks will be left in their original condition. These percentage values detect when the sound is loudest on the track. Normalize to 0% means absolute silence.

From version 1.40 of Audiograbber you can also use a much more Advanced Normalizing routine which also includes sound compression options to ensure that all your songs will sound equally loud.

It is possible to normalize the tracks right after they have been grabbed from the CD or normalize already stored .wav files from the hard disk.

If you want to normalize wav files you can then choose files from the file menu, directly from the normalize dialog box or by dragging and dropping them from Windows explorer.


Send to MP3 program
Send to MP3 program.

This function is found under the file menu.

An audio file on a CD takes quite a bit of space to store (exactly 1411200 bps), and that's the reason that only a few tracks can be stored on a CD.  MP3 is a standard that compresses the music to make it take about 1/11 of the size and still sound as good as the original. The disadvantage with this file format is that it has to be decompressed when playing. This means that you must play it on your computer. It can normally not be played on an ordinary home stereo cd player.

Many major electronic companies are now making devices for playing MP3's on ordinary stereos etc. The most successful company this far is Diamond Multimedia and their RIO MP3 player (A Walkman type MP3 player that can hold up to 20 songs of decent quality).

MP3 stands for mpeg audio layer 3 and should not be written mpeg3 as some people do by mistake. Mpeg is lossy compression, and that means that the file has lost information and can no longer be restored to it's original content. Audiograbber can use a variety of external programs like Fraunhofers L3enc to create such MP3's.

If your external command line program does not automatically close when finished you can fix that this way: Start Windows Explorer and right click the command line program (l3enc.exe for example). Choose properties -> program and tick the box "close on exit".

Audiograbber also supports Fraunhofers CODEC to create MP3's. This means that it looks as if Audiograbber is doing the compression itself with a progress bar and time estimating. It is still Fraunhofer technology that compresses the wav though. This CODEC is a lot faster than the DOS program L3enc. Other codecs that are supported internally in Audiograbber are BladeEnc's freeware MP3 dll, QDesigns MP2 codec and Microsoft WMA.

Audiograbber can automatically send the tracks to an external MP3 program right after they have been grabbed. First the track is copied to the hard disk; then it is sent to the external MP3 program and Audiograbber waits for it to finish. Audiograbber can then delete the wave file from the hard disk to release valuable disk space and continue with the next track. One of the main purposes with Audiograbber is to create MP3's when you are doing something different (like having a cup of coffee).

Many people find L3enc and other command line based MP3 encoders a bit complicated to use since it is not a Windows GUI program. For that reason, some front-end programs have been created to use L3enc easily under Windows. Audiograbber can also be used as such a front-end program for external MP3 programs. This means that you can send .wav files directly from Audiograbber to your MP3 program without grabbing them from a CD first. They can be sent from the file menu, from the MP3 settings dialog box or by dragging and dropping them from Windows Explorer.

To play these MP3 files on your computer, I recommend the Sonique program. Your soundcard can not play compressed files and you need a program to continually decompress them while playing. The audio data is usually sent to the soundcard in 16-bit stereo, 44.1 kHz. (this is called PCM, pulse code modulation and is the same format that is stored on an audio disc.)


Compare two files

This function is found under the file menu.

The purpose of this function is to test if your CD player reads digital audio perfectly.

When digital audio is read from the CD there is a problem with the beginning of the frames. That is because there is no proper beginning and end of the frames, rather a long consecutive sentence of bytes. This means that if a track is read twice from the CD, the files should most likely be almost exactly the same. Usually, it is only some 1/1000 of a second difference, so it does not matter much.

The disadvantage is that the DOS command fc /b track1.wav track2.wav can not be used to test that the files really are equal. The Compare Two Files function does a comparison in the same way but takes into consideration that the tracks may start a little bit differently. This function also skips the first 44 bytes because they are not part of the track, they contain file size and file format information.

The offset tells how many bytes (not samples, a sample is 4 bytes) the beginnings of the tracks differ from each other. The comparison is halted as soon as a difference is detected. If the track differs, it tells at which position. You can open the file in a program like Cool Edit and see how they differ. Remember that the hexadecimal value Audiograbber gives you should be subtracted by 44 and then divided by 4 to get the exact sample.

Another test function is the checksum function of Audiograbber.


Calculate checksum

This function is found under the file menu.

Some CD players that actually can read digital audio do not necessarily read 100% correctly. The resultant files are then not exact copies of the originals. This can also happen if the CD is scratched, has fingerprints etc. It is hard to tell if a track is read perfectly only by listening to it. Checksums are therefor a good way to test if the CD player read 100% correctly. When a track is copied from a CD disc, Audiograbber automatically calculates a checksum. By reading the same track on two different CD players the checksums can be compared. If they are the same then the tracks are also the same and the reading is perfect.

But hey, readings do not usually start on exactly the same byte, so how can a checksum be calculated then? Yeah, a presumption for this is that the track begins and ends with silence. The checksum will then be calculated on only that part of the track that is over a value of 127.

(A sample from the CD can be between -32768 to +32767 (16 bits). -32768 means that the speaker's membrane is pulled back as much as possible, +32767 that it is pushed forward to maximum position and 0 that it is in its middle position. The more the membrane is moving back and forth the louder the speaker is playing. Samples in the interval -127 to +127 are interpreted as silence in Audiograbber. When a checksum is calculated, Audiograbber finds the first sample outside this interval. Then it finds where the file goes outside the interval for the last time and after that it starts to calculate the checksum. It does not matter if there is a bit of silence in the middle of the track, that part will also be included in the checksum.)

NOTE! If there is not enough silence (one frame = 2352 bytes) in either the beginning or the end of the track an X is added to the checksum. This indicates that other readings from the CD may give other checksums even if they are read in the same way. The checksum can not be used if it contains an X.

By comparing checksums from tracks you have grabbed with your own CD with already known and confirmed correct checksums you can test if the CD reads the way it should. There are some correct checksums on http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/checksums.html that you can compare with if you are lucky to have some of the CD's listed. Understand that you must have a copy of the exact same CD, it is not enough to have the same song.

You can report your own checksums on http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/checksums.html. Those tracks should then have been read at least twice on a CD player that you are sure reads digital audio correctly. Report checksums from track 1,3 and 5. When you only want the checksum and not the entire track the function test comes in handy and you don't have to save the track on the hard disk.

Compare two files is another function that controls the CD's audio reading. If two checksums are not the same the compare two files function can see where the files are different. Checksums can also be calculated on tracks that have been read by other programs.


Store in cdplayer.ini

This function is found under the file menu (Store in cdplayer.ini now).

Windows internal CD player uses a file called cdplayer.ini to store information about CD's. Audiograbber can also use this file for storing and recognizing CD's. Checking the box "Use cdplayer.ini" under "General settings" will enable the alternative "Store in cdplayer.ini now". Clicking "Store in cdplayer.ini now" will store the information and both Audiograbber and Windows internal CD player will recognize the disc the next time it is used.


Copy tracklist to clipboard

This function is found under the file menu.

This function copies the information about the tracks to Windows' clipboard. You can then paste it into another program like notepad. It can be good to use this function when testing checksums.


Refresh Tracklist

This function is found under the CD menu.

The track list is automatically filled when Audiograbber starts. When you change CD you should use this function to fill the track list with information about the new CD. If the CD is recognized and you are using "Use cdplayer.ini" from "General settings" the track list will be filled with correct track names. If not, the track titles will be Track xx where xx indicates the track's ordinal number on the CD. Pressing F5 can also refresh the track list.


Grab

This function is found under the CD menu.

This is the program's main function and it copies the chosen tracks from the CD to the hard disk. You choose tracks to copy by checking the appropriate checkboxes.

NOTE! Do not run other programs when Audiograbber is copying a track. It sometimes happens that the reading will not be correct if Audiograbber is not given full access to the processor.

When a track has been copied it will optionally be normalized and processed by L3enc or Fraunhofers internal codec.


Test

This function is found under the CD menu.

The purpose of this function is to calculate checksums without saving the files to the hard disk. Test is basically the same as Grab but nothing gets saved to the hard disk; neither normalization nor MP3 creation through L3enc.


Shuffle

This function is found under the CD menu.

If you want to use Audiograbber as an ordinary CD player this function can be nice to use. By using shuffle, the tracks in the track list will be rearranged in a randomized order.


Select all

This function is reached by right clicking a track in the track list.

This function selects all audio tracks.


Select none

This function is reached by right clicking a track in the track list.

This function unchecks all tracks in the track list so that they are no longer selected.


Properties

This function is reached by double clicking or right clicking a track in the track list.

By double clicking a track you will get a dialog box in which you can adjust the track's properties like start and stop of the track etc.


Rename

You can rename a track by clicking an already selected track in the track list. Another way to rename a track is to right click it and choose Rename or by selecting the track and pressing F2.


Refresh button
Refresh

Press this button when a new CD is inserted or if you want to refresh the track list. The saved track names will be used if you have checked "use CD player.ini" under "General settings" and the CD is recognized.


Grab button
Grab

Press this button to copy the selected tracks. You select tracks by checking the box in front of the track names.


Settings button
Settings

Press this button to adjust the program's general settings.


Normalize button
Normalize

Different CD's are recorded at different volumes. Press this button in order to select that copied tracks automatically are adjusted to the same recording level.


L3enc button
MP3

MP3 is a standard for digital audio compression. Audiograbber can send the tracks to an external program or internal dll for automatic creation of MP3's. Here is where you select your MP3 options.


CDDB retrieve

Press this button to automatically retrieve the track names from an internet database.


MP3 Player

Press this button to launch your prefered MP3 player. If you right click this button then the MP3 Player will be launched with a playlist (an .m3u list) based on the currently selected tracks.


Exit button
Exit

Press here to exit the program. Your settings will be saved in audiograbber.ini.


Artist

The name of the artist who made the disc. If this is a compilation disc then leave the field empty and include the artist's name with the track name.


Album

The album name.


Track name

Double click to go to the properties menu for each track. Right click to get a pop-up menu. You can also change the order of the tracks by dragging them to new positions.


Play time

Describes the length of the track in minutes and seconds.


File size

The track will take up this much space on the hard disk. The file format is PCM wav, 16-bit stereo, 44.1 kHz, same as on the CD. Audiograbber can not handle any other file formats. The file size is in direct proportion to the track length.


Information

Here is information about how the copying has gone and which checksum has been calculated. Sync OK is no guarantee that the copying is completely perfect.


CD info

Pretty obvious eh…


Total time left

The copying of the tracks is estimated to take this long.  Any normalizing and mp3 processing are included. The more often the program is used, the better it gets at estimating the total time left.


Disk space needed

This tells how much hard disk space is needed and how much disk space is available on the hard disk being used to store the tracks. Click here to quickly switch to the play buttons.


Play time status
Play time

Information telling which track is currently playing and for how long it has been playing - how much time remains. Click to switch between showing time elapsed and time remaining.


Play button
Play

Plays selected track. Use the other play button with a check mark to play more tracks than one.


Pause button
Pause

Use this button to pause and resume the audio.


Stop button
Stop

Stops playing the track(s).


Play list button
Play list

Plays the tracks selected with a check mark in the track list. Note: The playing starts from the track that is selected.


Fast back button
Fast back

Jumps quickly backward in the track. It jumps more and more quickly the longer the button is held down.


Fast forward button
Fast forward

Jumps quickly forward in the track. When the end of the track is reached it will continue with the next one if you are playing tracks from a list.


Track back

Skips to beginning of the track. If it already is in the beginning of the track it then jumps to the beginning of the previous track.


Track forward

Skips to the end of the track. If tracks from a list are already playing, the next selected track will start playing.


Empty space

Click here or on one of the disabled buttons to quickly hide all buttons.


Random play

Plays the tracks selected with a check mark in random order. Playing does not stop until the stop button is pressed.


Speaker

Switch between display of the volume meter and status bar.


Progress bar
Play progress

Indicator that displays how much of a track has been played. You can manually drag this meter to a new position.


Volume meter

Adjusts the volume of your CD-ROM drive.


Show play buttons

This function is found under the Settings menu.

This option toggles between showing CD play buttons or disk info in the statusbar. It can also be changed by clicking on an empty area of the right part of the statusbar.


Track bar

Shows the position of the track. One can manually drag it to set a new position.


Play button

Starts playing from the position of the above meter.


Stop button

Stops playing the track.


Set start

Sets the track start position to the value of the above meter.


Set end

Sets the track end position to the value of the above meter.


Position

Shows from where on the CD the track is playing right now. Position in the track is shown in minutes and seconds while position on the CD is measured in frames. One frame is 1/75 of a second.


Track name

Simply the name of the track. Can be changed from here or by clicking an already selected track in the track list.


Track size

This many bytes will be used to store the track on the hard disk. (Frames * 2352 bytes).


Minutes, seconds

The tracks start and stop in absolute position on the CD, reported in minutes and seconds.


Sectors

The tracks start and stop in absolute position on the CD, reported in sectors. Frames and sectors are the same and it is 75 sectors on every second of music.


Apply

Performs all the changes you might have made without leaving this dialog box.


Cancel

Leaves this dialog box without performing the changes you might have made.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.


Use normalizing

Select this box if you wish to automatically adjust the recording level, leave this checkbox unchecked if you wish to copy the track exactly as it is.


Normalize to

Select the recording level between 0 -100%. 0% is equal to silence and 100% is the highest volume. 98% is recommended.


Conditions

Use this option to adjust just those tracks that were imperfectly  recorded at the CD factory (too low output level). It is recommended that this function be used.


Lower than

Those tracks that have a peak level lower that this value will be normalized. Approximately 90 % is recommended.


Higher than

Tracks with a higher peak level than this are normalized. 99% or 100% is recommended.


Browse

Click here to choose one or more wav files from the hard disk to normalize. They will be normalized to the values selected in this dialog box.


Cancel

Leaves this dialog box without performing the changes you might have made.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.


Send wavefile

Use this option to send the wav file to your MP3 program or to Fraunhofers internal acm CODEC after it has been copied and automatically create an mp3 file.


Delete wavefile

Deletes the wav file after an mp3 file has been created. Use this option if you are only interested in the mp3 file, it will then save a lot of hard disk space.


Force to top

Puts your MP3 program in the left corner above all other programs, which gives the external program maximum processor time. If no other programs are running then the program will have maximum processor access anyway.


Direct rip and encode

Select this option to rip directly to an MP3 file without first creating a wav file. This does not work with MSCDEX as rip method and normalization can not be used in combination with this option.


External MP3 program information

BladeEnc is one of the freeware programs that creates mp3 files, compressed music. It can be downloaded from http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-82625/

You can also go to Audiograbbers homepage at http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net and find information about other programs that can be used as external encoder


MP3 program name

The name of the executable MP3 program. Use the browse button to locate your version of the program. The most common ones are L3enc.exe, BladeEnc.exe or Plugger.exe.


Browse

If you have an external MP3 program you can use this button to locate it.


HQ flag

Tells the MP3 program that it should take a longer time to analyze the wav file and create an MP3 file with extra high quality.


CRC flag
Cyclic Redundancy Check

Makes L3enc create a 2-byte checksum once in a while. It doesn't take more time but it is not used as a default by L3enc itself. Some other encoders may also use this CRC option.


Bitrate

Chooses how many bits per second the MP3 file will consist of. The higher the bitrate the better the quality and the larger the file. Most songs sound good with a bitrate of 128000 bps but a very few need 196000 bps to sound equal to the original. It's hard to say in advance which tracks these are.


Own arguments

Check this box if you want to specify your own arguments to send to the external encoder program.


L3enc arguments
Own arguments

Type your own arguments here. Audiograbber will send "program.exe filename.wav filename.mp3 " and the text in this box to the external MP3 program. This means that other programs besides L3enc can be used.


Use ID3 tag

ID3 tag contains extra information about the song that is added to the end of the MP3 file. An ID3 tag will be created if this option is selected. It is Audiograbber that creates this ID3 tag when the MP3 program has finished, not the MP3 program itself.


Browse

Click here to choose one or more wav files from the hard disk to send to your MP3 program with the options specified in this dialog box.


Cancel

Leaves this dialog box without performing the changes you might have made.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.


Edit
Edit ID3 tag

Press this button to edit the info that goes into the ID3 Tag.


External MP3 program name

Select this option if you use an external program to create your MP3's.


Internal MP3 CODEC
Internal MP3 CODEC or DLL

This option becomes available if you have one of the Fraunhofers acm codecs or BladeEnc.dll installed on your computer. It will look as if Audiograbber is doing the MP3 creation however this is not the case. Audiograbber is just a frontend to Fraunhofers codec or BladeEncs DLL.


CODEC Name

4 different encoders can show up here: Any of Fraunhofers acm codecs (If you only have 56 Kbit options with Fraunhofer then search the helpfile for l3codecp.acm for more info). Qdesigns MP2 acm codec, BladeEnc's freeware MP3 DLL or Microsoft MS Audio codecs are also internally supported if they are found on the computer.


Mode

Select what bitrate should be used for the MP3 or WMA file. Under WMA there is the option "Packaged WMA" which means that the file can only be played back on the computer it was created on.


Own extension

Check this box if you want to give the encoded files a different extension than .mp3


extension name
Own extension

Type the extension here if you want your encoded files to have a differnt extension than .mp3.


Info button

Press this button to get information about the parameters you can specify on the own arguments line.


Directory

Select a directory to store your wav or mp3 files in. Audiograbber also uses this directory for temporary files.


Browse

Click here to select an appropriate destination directory for your files.


Time estimation

This is used to calculate how much time the program will need to process its tasks. How fast the external MP3 program or internal codec runs can not be changed from here because there are too many bitrates that are involved.  Those settings are stored in Audiograbber.ini and can be changed by editing that file manually.


Normalize speed

Detects how fast the adjustment of the recording level is done compared to how fast a track is played. The speed of the hard disk is also a vital part of this.


CD audio read speed

Detects how fast the CD-ROM drive can read digital audio compared to normal playing of the audio. Music is normally read much slower than ordinary data from the CD.


Delete silence
Silence Tab

Silence can be deleted automatically from the start and the end of the tracks. Normally, there is quite a bit of silence between the tracks on the CD, and Audiograbber checks the first and last four seconds for silence.


Leading silence

Select this option to delete leading silence.


Trailing silence

Select this option to delete trailing silence.


Keep

It is best to let the tracks start with at least a little silence; this value can be between 0 and 4 seconds.


Keep

This value can be between 0 and 4 seconds. A CD does not have a value for the end of the track; it only has values for the beginnings of the tracks. This means that there is usually quite a bit of silence at the end of the track. The recommended value is about 0.5 seconds.


Audio blocks

Determines how many audio frames should be grabbed each time. One second is 75 frames.


Synch size

Detects how many extra frames should be grabbed each time for synchronization. This is explained in more detail in the help file.


Continue

Tells Audiograbber what to do if synchronization fails. The track will not be a perfect copy if sync is lost. Check this box if you want Audiograbber to continue with the copying even if sync is lost.


Use CD player.ini
CD player.ini

Check this box if you want to store the track names and the order of the tracks in cdplayer.ini. That file is also used by Windows 95's default CD player. If this option is used and the CD is recognized the track list will be filled with the track names when you press the refresh button.


Autosave

Check this box if you want to have the data retrieved from CDDB stored in your cdplayer.ini file automatically.


AutoQuery
AutoQuery CDDB

Check this box if you want Audiograbber to automatically look up the disc in CDDB (internet) if it is not recognized. Note: this checkbox is only enabled and working if you have selected to use cdplayer.ini under General Settings, Misc tab.


CD-ROM Unit
CD ROM unit

Tells which CD-ROM Unit that should be used for ripping through MSCDEX calls.


Cancel

Leaves this dialog box without performing the changes you might have made.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.


Lock values

The time estimation values are recalculated every time a track has been processed by Audiograbber. If you don't want any recalculation of the time estimation variables then check this box.


First file

Enter the name of the first file. The complete path must be used.


Second file

Enter the name of the second file. The complete path must be used.


Browse

Browse to find a file to compare here. You can select two files at once with any of these browse buttons.


Offset

A 0 offset means that the files start at exactly the same positions. A positive offset means that file 1 starts after file 2 and a negative offset means that file 1 starts before file 2. The offset will most likely be a multiple of four because every sample takes 4 bytes. (16 bit * stereo).


Progress bar

Detects what percent of the files have been compared and found equal.


Value list

If the files differ from each other, the first values that do not match are found in here. All values are hexadecimal. It is not possible to continue to search for more differences after a mismatch has been detected.

The first 44 bytes of the files are the wav header and will not be compared.


Start / Stop

Starts and stops file comparing. This button is only enabled when two valid file names have been given.


Close

Closes this dialog box.


Windows version

Detects which version of Windows you are running.


Build number

Detects which minor version of windows you are running.

950 is the first windows 95 version.

1111 is the OSR2 release.

There is also a 953 version that is reported the same way as the 950 version.

More versions to come…


Scsi1hlp
Scsi1hlp.vxd version

This file is important when reading digital audio through MSCDEX calls. Usually the only version that works is Windows 95's original version 950. Read more about Scsi1hlp.vxd in the help file.


Frames allocated

This value is only useful when MSCDEX is used as reading method.

Audiograbber will not always get as much memory for the MSCDEX ripping as it wants. This value is the number of allocated frames Audiograbber received this time.


MSCDEX version

Audiograbber can call either MSCDEX or ASPI to read digital audio. MSCDEX is only available under Windows 95/98 and with IDE drives. Version 2.25 or lower means that a real mode driver is used for the CD-ROM drive. Version 2.95 or higher means that Windows 95's protected mode driver is used.


CD number

This is the serial number of the actual CD. This serial number is used by Windows for storage in cdplayer.ini. The number is shown in hexadecimal form. Audiograbber can not detect this number when a real mode driver is used and the serial number will then be "UNKNOWN".


CDDB number
CDDB Disc ID

This is the CDDB serial number of the actual CD. This number is based on track information of the disc and is used when the disc is looked up in the CDDB database on internet.


Close

Close the dialog box.


Filename

Enter the name of the file. Use the complete path.


Browse

Browse for a file to calculate checksum by using this button.


Progress bar

Detects what percent of the file has been scanned and calculated.


Checksum

The checksum that was last calculated in this dialog box. Checksums are also calculated directly when tracks are copied form the CD. This value and the automatically calculated one are naturally the same.


CD number

This is the serial number of the actual CD. The number is given in hexadecimal form.


Start

Entering a valid file name will enable this button. It is then used to start the calculation of a checksum. When the calculation is in progress the button can be used to abort.


Close

Closes this dialog box and aborts eventual checksum calculation.


Cancel

Makes Audiograbber stop waiting for the external MP3 program. The external MP3 program must be aborted manually (usually by pressing Ctrl+C).


Title
ID3 Tag title

The ID3 tag title is normally taken from the track name or from the name of the wave files. The title will be taken from this field only when a single file is sent to MP3 creation.


Artist

The name of the artist or the band that has made the song. This can also be set directly from Audiograbbers main window.


Album

The name of the CD. This will also be stored in cdplayer.ini if that file is used for storing info.


Year

The year the song was released.


Genre

The genre of the song. It is only possible to use one of the 147 predefined genres that are specified in the ID3 tag specs.


Comment

You can type any comment you like here, for example your nickname.


Append checksum

If this box is checked then Audiograbber will append the checksum of the track if it is ripped through Audiograbber. The comment field, that is 30 characters long, must have 14 characters left for the checksum. This means that you can only use 16 characters for your own comment.


Cancel

Leaves this dialog box without performing the changes you might have made.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.


Properties

Properties is a dialog box from which you can adjust a track's properties. You go to the Properties dialog box by double clicking a track in the track list. From here you can adjust exactly which sectors the track shall include. The track can also be played in here and you can set the beginning and end position "on the fly". By dragging the meter on top of the dialog box you can easily rewind / forward the track and that is handy if you want to copy just a refrain, for example. You should then click "Set start" and "Set end" at the right time.

By pressing the Apply button your changes will be performed. This button differs from the OK button in that sense that it will apply the changes but not leave the dialog box.


General Settings

The following functions are adjustable from here:

•	The program's working directory, where files should be stored. It is also possible to let Audiograbber create sub directories based on artist and album name.

•	CD-ROM access method. Access method of CD data given here. Audiograbber is able to use either ASPI, MSCDEX or Analog calls. MSCDEX  only works whilst running Windows 95/98 and an IDE CD-ROM's. ASPI works with both Windows 95/98/NT and IDE/SCSI readers. It is hard to predict which is best for a particular computer and CD-ROM, the best method (as always) is trial and error! There are more detailed descriptions of MSCDEX and ASPI in this help file. Analog is not as good as the digital rip methods ASPI and MSCDEX but if your drive does not support digital reading of audio then you will have to use analog. The soundcard you specify here is also the one used in the line in sampling function function.

•	Naming. This is how your wav and mp3 files will be named. Simply check the boxes from where you want the filename taken. You can change the order by using the arrows at the left side. All fields are separated by a blank, a dash and another blank " - ".

It is also possible to store the files in sub directories based on the artist and album name.

Another option is to only store encoded files in sub directories. This option is primarily intended to be used in conjunction with the option "append ID3 info to wav files" found under MP3 settings. Selecting it lets the optional ID3 info and track names in the wav files get the correct directory structure but leaves the wav files in the base directory. This way you drag and drop a lot of files on Audiograbbers main window and they will end up in correct sub directories after encoding.

•	Delete silence automatically. There is usually quite a bit of silence between tracks on a CD. From here you can select how much silence in the beginning and end of a track should be kept. Values from -127 to 127 are treated as silence. Read more under checksums about what these 127's are.

•	Rip offset. If your CD reader has problems finding the exact start and stop points of tracks, different offsets can be given here. You can also tell Audiograbber to simply discard a few of the first frames if your CD reader produces a click at the beginning of the track. Normally these values should be set to zero if you don't experience any problems though. Some crappy drives has problems to start reading from a non moving disc. By checking the "spin up disc" box Audiograbber will try to spin up the disc for 3 seconds before it starts reading.

Some drives also tends to try to read outside the last frame of the last track due to bad positioning of the read head and gives an "ASPI error" just before they shall finish the last track. Check the "Shorten..." box to simply skip some frames and be on the safe side.

•	Partial rips. Use this if you want to make short samples of the tracks. You can define how long each sample shall be and from what position in the track it shall start. It is also possible to have the tracks faded in and/or out to avoid abrupt starts/endings. The fade time is normally 3 seconds and is a logarithmic fade type. The fade time and type can be changed by modifying these lines in audiograbber.ini:

FadeTime=1   (It is possible to use 1, 2 or 3 seconds).

LogarithmicFade=False

•	Time Estimation. Normalize speed indicates how quickly your computer can normalize a track. Both processor speed and the speed of the hard disk are important for this value. Here is also the value for how quickly the CD reader reads digital audio. 100% means that it reads just as quickly as the track is normally played. These values are recalculated when the program is used but they can also be adjusted manually. The values will not be recalculated if the check box "Lock values" is checked. The speed of L3enc is not adjustable from here since there are too many factors to be taken into consideration (like hq-bit and bitrate). The speed of L3enc is also dependent on the actual type of music that is being compressed. Sometimes it's quicker; sometimes it's a bit slower. The L3enc values can be adjusted manually by editing the file Audiograbber.ini. The values there correspond to the different bitrates without hqbit and they too are recalculated. They should be compared with normal audio speed, for example 5.0000 means that the compression is 5 times slower than playing the track.

•	Miscellaneous, with the following settings:

Select all tracks by default

If this option is selected then Audiograbber will put a checkmark in the boxes in front of the tracks as default. If not selected then all tracks will become unchecked by default.

Continue even if synchronization fails

The copy will not be perfect if the synchronization fails. By clicking "Continue even if synch is lost" will save the track regardless of how the synchronization is achieved, otherwise the track will be skipped if synch problems are detected. (This is called "jitter correction" in some programs).

Don't calculate checksum during the rip process

By choosing this alternative, the program won't automatically calculate a checksum when reading a track. This frees up more processor time which can be used for the actual reading and can be useful when using Burst copy and ASPI in conjunction with a fast CD-ROM.

Use cdplayer.ini

If this option is selected the track list will be filled with track names if the CD is recognized when you press Refresh. To enable the command Store in cdplayer.ini now this option must be selected.

(Note: An ini file in Windows can normally not exceed 64 KB. If your cdplayer.ini should be full then it can not hold any more disc data. In that case you can simply rename it and start all over with a new one. Not a good solution and I will fix a workaround later).

Autosave CDDB queries

If this option is selected then your successful disc queries from CDDB will be saved in cdplayer.ini automatically.

AutoQuery CDDB if a new disc is not recognized

If this option is selected and the disc is not found in cdplayer.ini then Audiograbber will look up the disc in the CDDB database on internet automatically. Audiograbber will only try once per disc, ie if the disc is not found in the CDDB database then Audiograbber will remember that it has already asked about that disc and not ask again.

(Note: this checkbox has now been moved to the CDDB settings form instead).

Shut down the computer when finished

This function only works with certain mother boards that support automatic "power off" to the computer. If the board doesn't support this operation, then only Windows will be shut down. You may find this function useful if you want to read in and create some MP3's but at the same time are in a rush to the office/school or bed! Audiograbber waits for two minutes after reading and then shuts down the computer. The result of the reading can then be read from the copyinfo.txt file, which will be found in Audiograbbers program catalogue.

Soundcard

Tells Audiograbber which soundcard to use for playing audio in the advanced normalizing function. This is also the soundcard that is hooked to the volume meter.

•	Misc 2, with the following settings:

Use internal sound effects

Audiograbber will play a little click sound when the buttons on the main form are clicked.

Allow multiple instances of Audiograbber

Multiple instances lets you run more than one audiograbber at a time. You can have two copies of Audiograbber.exe in separate directories and they will then be used with individual settings. This can be useful if you have more than one CD-ROM drive. It is however not recommended that you rip from two programs to the same harddisk at a time. That would make the read head of the harddisk to move a lot between the two files ripped to and may cause problems. Two programs ripping to different harddisks may work however.

Continuous ripping

This is an interesting feature. You need to run two copies of Audiograbber for this feature to be of any use. If you rip from one copy of Audiograbber then it will post a message to the other copy of Audiograbber when finished. The other copy of Audiograbber will then start ripping as soon as the first one is finished. When the second copy of Audiograbber has finished ripping it will post a message to the first one. If there has been a new disc inserted in the first Audiograbber's selected CD-ROM drive then it will start ripping again. If it is still the same disc which has already been ripped then no action is taken. This feature is intended to be used with two copies of Audiograbber, if you are running more than two copies of Audiograbber then it is undefined which of the other copies that will continue ripping.

By using this feature and have the option to "select all tracks by default" and have the Auto Insert Notification for the drives selected in Control Panel then you will be able to not do anything more than just changing discs. Rip, normalize and encode without any clicks at all! Just insert a new disc once in a while.

Replace spaces by underscores in filenames

If selected then all spaces in filenames will be replaced by underscores. Some people that moves their files to a Unix system has asked for this feature.

Prevent screensaver from starting while ripping

A screensaver can quite often be CPU intensive and it is not good if it "steals" valuable CPU time during the ripping process as this can cause "speed problems". It is also a nuisance to disable/enable a screensaver manually before and after using Audiograbber.

Select this option to prevent the screensaver from activating during the ripping process.


Other good programs
Other useful programs

Xing technology has made a very fast MP3 encoder that works good as external codec in Audiograbber. You must have their registered version and use x3enc.exe as external encoder (x3enc.exe does currently not come with their trial version). It cost however only $19.95 to register (12 October 1999).

http://www.xingtech.com/products/mp3encoder/

Another good encoder that works good with Audiograbber is BladeEnc. This encoder is totally freeware so it won't cost you a dime! It is far from as fast as Xing's encoder but many people thinks this encoder produces better sound quality. The author Tord Jansson has also released a DLL that is very good to use with Audiograbber and highly recommended! Download his DLL, unzip it and simply place it in Audiograbbers program directory and you will have internal MP3 encoding options.

http://hem.bredband.net/tord/

There is also a very good freeware MP3 encoder called LAME ("Lame Ain't no MP3 Encoder"). As the name indicates it deals with Fraunhofers MP3 patent issues in an unusual way. The encoder is only distributed as source code and not as an executable! That seems to be legal. There is a lot of people improving the LAME MP3 encoder and it is usually not too hard to find an executable version on Internet. Recently it was also developed a "lame_enc.dll" which works internally in Audiograbber (from ver 1.60 build 3), just as BladeEnc's dll. There is no official download location for either the dll or the executable but here is the homepage:

http://www.sulaco.org/mp3/

Another freeware MP3 encoder is called Plugger+ and works fine with Audiograbber. It's fast too! http://members.tripod.com/~mp3nkoder/

There has also been a general Encoder plugin released by Alexander von Gostomski. With his plugin you can use both AAC, VQF and a Real Audio encoder! See this homepage for more information:

http://www.login-net.de/jugger/ag_vq/

Fraunhofers L3enc was previously used to create MP3's. It can no longer be downloaded from http://www.iis.fhg.de/audio but I keep the link here anyhow. They have also made a CODEC for MP3 creation that can be used by Audiograbber.

You can also check out http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/faq.html and see if there are any new encoders available.

Cool Edit is one of the best programs for general editing of audio files and it can be found here:

http://www.syntrillium.com/


Hints

•	CD-Ripping is a jungle! It usually works fine without the need for special adjustments, but not always ...  When the process doesn't work it's often hard to be able to suggest a definitive remedy other than trial and error. Try  both the  ASPI and MSCDEX methods to see which works best on your system. If you still experience problems, try with another computer.  When you find a working system, swap CD readers to see if the problem lies with your computer or reader. By a process of elimination, you can maybe determine what the problem is. Some CD readers quite simply can't read digital audio which is not the same as being able to play a track!

In the worst case you will have to use Analog as copy method.

•	If the CD-ROM drive reads audio very slowly (at 0.1x something) then it often helps if the CD-ROM is moved to the secondary IDE connector  and is the only device located there.

•	If wave files are incorrectly read and are found to contain pops and clicks then it sometimes helps if you click the box "Synch data transfer" under Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> CD-ROM. This may help for both IDE and SCSI drives.

•	There are often problems with the reading of the first sectors of a CD if Windows 95's internal driver is used and with the read method MSCDEX. Audiograbber therefore reads the first 30 frames one by one and those that can't be read properly are skipped. (It is usually the first 16 or 17 frames that can't be read.) Because the first track usually starts with silence one will not usually notice any difference. This problem does not occur when a real mode driver is used… It does not occur with ASPI as rip method either.

•	Do not disturb Audiograbber when it is reading from the CD. Whilst Audiograbber itself will not develop any problems, the device driver between Audiograbber and the CD player may.

•	If you are about to buy a new CD player put Audiograbber and the ag12free.dll / ag12full.dll on a floppy disk, go to the retailer and test the CD player before you buy it. There is a list of tested CD's on http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net./cddrives.cgi

•	You can drop wav files from Windows Explorer into Audiograbber's main window to easily normalize / create MP3's (assuming you already have the wav's.)

•	If you want to record many different cd's and encode them at a later time you can use the option "Append ID3 info to wav file" under MP3 Settings in combination with "Use sub directories only for MP3 and WMA" under General Settings. Then all your ripped wav files will be stored in Audiograbbers base directory. The final filename/destination and ID3 tag is taken directly from the wav file when it is later encoded.

•	If you want a track span over more than one song you must first double click the last one of them. Check the end frame for that track and double click the first one. Change the end frame of the first track to the value you got from the last one. Note: This can only be done with the full version. The free version won't let you go outside the original start / end frames.

•	If you get ASPI error on the last track it usually helps if you doubleclick the track and lower the last sector a little. Try with 75 which equals one second.

•	No, I don't know why some CD readers occasionally gives an ASPI error. You have to test yourself to see if you can find any settings that make your CD reader work reliable.

•	You need a free MP3 encoder? Download Blade's DLL which works damn good with Audiograbber!


Credits
Credit goes to:

I would like to thank the following persons for direct or indirect help with this program:

•	Michiel Overtoom, For releasing the source code to DIDO, another CD-ripper.

•	Simon Chang, for providing a way to thunk down from 32-bit to 16-bit code.

•	Jordan Russell, for an excellent component for the toolbar buttons.

•	François Piette, for his Internet Component Suite.

•	Steve Scherf and Ti Kan, for making the CDDB server.

•	John Mertus for the AudioIO component. Dean Bowers that converted the component from Delphi to Builder.

•	Ian Kennedy, For helping me with the calls to Fraunhofers CODEC.

•	Clark Tisdale, for tips on the volume meter.

•	Ivan Azic, for an enhanced status bar.

•	Kenn Nesbit, for a component that simplifies the read / write to .ini files.

•	The beta testers, especially moonroy has been very thoroughly and demanding ;-)

•	Hillary Cutler, Sean O'Neill, Paul Genins and Randolph MacKenzie, for help with the english translation.

If anyone of you above would like to have the full version of Audiograbber, just mail me and I will send you one for free.


CONTENTS

    Welcome

    Functions

        File menu

            Normalize

            Make MP3

            Line in sampling

            Compare two files

            Calculate checksum

            Store in cdplayer.ini

            Copy track list to clipboard

       CD menu

            Refresh track list

            Grab

            Test

            Get from CDDB

            Undo CDDB query

            Submit to CDDB

            Shuffle

       Settings menu

            General Settings

            MP3 Settings

            Normalize Settings

            CDDB Settings

            MP3 Playback

            ID3 tag

            Show play buttons

       The pop up menu

            Properties

            Rename

            Select all

            Select none

            Copy status

            Create M3U list

    Miscellaneous

           Hints

           Other good programs

           Version information

           Credits

How to buy Audiograbber

           Buying  Audiograbber

           The difference between the full version and the freeware version


Fraunhofer CODEC
Fraunhofers acm CODEC

An acm codec is a kind of program that works almost like a DLL. That means that it has functions that can be called from other programs but it can not be run separately.

Fraunhofer has made such a codec for MP3 creation and it is a lot faster then the L3enc program. The codec comes in two versions, the advanced and the professional. The advanced version was previously shipped with Microsofts Netshow which is free but unfortunately it supports only low bitrates for encoding. It does however support higher bitrates for decoding.

The professional version is better and supports bitrates up to 128 Kbit for encoding. This one has to be purchased and is quite expensive however... Contact Fraunhofer directly for price information.

(It seems as Fraunhofer now has stopped distribution of this acm codec for good. I believe the reason is all the software piracy that went on with this codec. Don't ask me for information where to find a pirated version of that codec, I won't tell you. Use BladeEnc's freeware DLL instead).

The filename of the codecs are l3codeca.acm and l3codecp.acm. They should be placed in the c:\windows\system directory. The file c:\windows\system.ini must also be updated in the section [drivers32] with this:

[drivers32]

msacm.l3codec=l3codecp.acm	;for the professional one.

msacm.l3acm=l3codeca.acm	;for the advanced one.

I you want to install them in Windows NT they should be placed in the c:\windows\system32 directory.

You also need to change in the registry. The easiest way to do that is to create a textfile with the following and name it to l3codec.reg. Then you just have to doubleclick it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc]

"L3codecp.acm"="Frauenhof L3 Codec Professional"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32]

"msacm.l3codecp"="l3codecp.acm"

You can look in the Control Panel -> Multimedia and the advanced tab to see what sound compression codecs you have installed.

Audiograbber can use these Fraunhofer codecs to create MP3's in a way that it looks like Audiograbber is making the compression itself.


ASPI

This lets Audiograbber know which preferences are to be used when reading digital audio via ASPI calls.


MSCDEX

This lets Audiograbber know which preferences are to be used when reading digital audio via MSCDEX calls.


CD-ROM unit

Choose here which CD reader should be used for ASPI calls. If you change CD-ROM drives here, Audiograbber automatically alters other alternatives which it thinks best suite your needs. It may be necessary here to change these alternatives manually.


CD-ROM type

The command set used for accessing the CD reader. All IDE CD-ROMs use the same command set but SCSI use several different ones. Because the SONY command set is the most common, all unknown SCSI drives are set here by default.


Rip method

Burst copy should be the best and fastest, however, some CD readers may display problems with it. If you do experience problems, first try using dynamic synch width, there after with the others. Burst copy doesn't use any synchronizing ("jitter correction".) The other rip-methods do use this.


DAE speed
Digital Audio Extraction speed

Not all CD readers support choice of reading speed. Speeds here are intended for those readers that claim to support it. Whilst many claim to have this function, the reality is often not the case.


Soundcard

All soundcards available on the computer are listed here. Audiograbber uses the soundcard when it plays a wav file in the preview function. It can change the CD volume for the choosen soundcard from its main window.


Detect

Rescans the SCSI bus for drives and refills the CD-ROM unit box.


Start offset

Some CD readers exhibit problems in finding the exact start/stop reading points on a CD. If you find it necessary, you can manually adjust the program to read a few frames earlier or later. A maximum of 150 frames can be set (75 frames=1 second.)


End offset

Some CD readers exhibit problems in finding the exact start/stop reading points on a CD. If you find it necessary, you can manually adjust the program to read a few frames earlier or later. A maximum of 150 frames can be set (75 frames=1 second.)


Discard

If your CD reader occasionally begins reading with a click, you can set an amount of frames to be read but not used. Max. 100 frames can be given.


Dont calculate
Don't calculate checksum during the rip process

Audiograbber can experience problems with the re-calculating of data if a very fast CD reader is being used. This is most common when using the ASPI rip method and burst copy. By not calculating the checksum of a wave file valuable processor time can be saved and the problem avoided.


Shut down
Shut down the computer when finished

If so required, Audiograbber can shut down the computer when it has finished. On certain modern mother cards the power supply can also be turned off. If this function is activated, Audiograbber waits two minutes after finishing it's job and then tries to shut down the computer. The result of all copying can then be read in the copyinfo.txt file, residing in the Audiograbber program catalogue.


checkmarks
Select all tracks

Check this box to put a checkmark in front of every track when a disc is refreshed. Uncheck the box to have all tracks unselected as default.


Play after ripping
Autoplay after grab

If this box is checked then Audiograbber will start playing the tracks after the ripping is finished. The tracks that are played are the ones that have been ripped and are played in random order (if you choose to play the grabbed files then the settings in your MP3 Player dictates how they are played).


Naming

Select what parts the filenames shall consist of. You can move the fields up and down with the arrows. Selected fields are separated by a space, a dash and another space.


Arrow

Press this arrow to move the selected item on position up.


Arrow

Press this arrow to move the selected item on position down.


File name items

Check the individual fields you want to be included in the filename. You can move the items up or down with the arrows to the left.


Directories

If you want to have your files stored in sub directories based on the artist and album names, select  here. Audiograbber will create the directory if necessary.


Advanced names

Check this box if you want more control over your filenames. Press the info button to get information on how to specify the names.


name string
Advanced naming string

Type your file name options here if you want more flexability naming your files. Press the info button to get information on how this name format string should be defined.


Spin disc
Spin up disc

Some crappy drives has problems to start reading from a non moving disc. By checking this box Audiograbber will try to spin up the disc for 3 seconds before it starts reading.


Shorten last track

Check this box to automatically skip the last 10 frames of the last track. CD-ROM drives gives an ASPI error if they read outside the end of the last track. Some drives are not very good at positioning the laser exactly correct and it is a risk that they will go outside the last track. Check this box to be on the safe side.


Show detected speeds

This option works for IDE drives only. Audiograbber tries to ask the drive what DAE speeds it supports and displays the speeds it responds to.


Show all speeds

This option works for IDE drives only. When show all speeds are selected, all speeds are displayed. You will see yourself it the drive later responds to the speed you set.


Show in tracklist
Show direct in tracklist

State which value is to be displayed in the information column in the track list.


Copy result

Shows how the copying went. Cannot be removed.


Checksum

Shows the checksum calculated for the track.


Rip speed

Shows how fast the track was read compared to the speed it is normally played. At least 1x speed should be attained. Some readers however can go up to 20x speed!


Lost synchs

How many times it has not been able to synchronize between two blocks during reading. The value should be 0 in an error free file. Though this is no guarantee in the real world! Synchronization is not used at all with burst copy (only with ASPI.)


Speed problems
Possible speed problems

This value is only used with burst copy and ASPI as the rip method. When using burst copy, it's important that the CD reader delivers data in an even stream. When using a very fast reader, the computer can experience problems in keeping up. If possible, you should choose a lower reading speed, or choose the "don't calculate checksum" during the rip process. (under general settings, tab miscellaneous.)


old peak
Old peak value

Shows what the peak value was on the track on the disc.


new peak
New peak value

Shows the new peak value after an eventual normalization. This value is only calculated if the peak value has been changed.


old avg
Old average output level

Shows what the average output level was on the track on the disc. This is only displayed in case advanced normalizing has been used.


new avg
New average output level

Shows the new average output level for the track. This is only displayed in case advanced normalizing has been used.


old compact
Old compact ratio

Shows how compact the song was. This is only displayed in case advanced normalizing has been used. The higher value the more compact song and 100% is the maximum.


new compact
New compact ratio

Shows the new compact ratio for the song. This is only displayed in case advanced normalizing has been used. The higher value the more compact song and 100% is the maximum.


Rip offset

If your CD reader has problems finding the exact start and stop points of tracks, different offsets can be given here.


Miscellaneous

Here you'll find various settings that didn't fit into any other category.


ASPI manager

The name of the ASPI manager for the currently selected CD-ROM drive.


Next tip

Displays next tip.


Previous tip

Displays previous tip.


Show tips
Show tips at startup

Uncheck this box when you're tired of all the tips. You can also reach this tip box from the help menu.


OK

Close this dialog box.


MSCDEX

MSCDEX is a tried and trusted method for reading digital audio from a CD reader. Originally it comes from the good ole DOS days but works fine with Windows 95. Unfortunately with the OSR2 release of Windows 95 and Windows 98 it is necessary to change the  scsi1hlp.vxd. file to the original version.

MSCDEX calls are not accessible with Windows NT, rather one needs to use ASPI calls. MSCDEX calls don't work with SCSI units, so again ASPI calls need to be used.

When the program uses MSCDEX calls to read a certain number of sectors/frames of audio, everything freezes and the program must wait until the reading of these frames is complete. During the time when the program then writes these frames to the hard disk, the compact disk manages to rotate a bit, meaning that synchronization is necessary. This however is normally corrected for by Windows caching a little data in advance.

One example is that Audiograbber asks for sectors 1-26. The CD-ROM reads these sectors and passes them to Audiograbber. During the time it takes for Audiograbber to convert them and write them to the hard disk the cd has managed to rotate a little. Windows 95 however takes care of this and caches a little data from the CD. When Audiograbber then asks for, and receives, sectors 25-50 it thinks they have come directly from the CD. In reality though sectors 25-27 have come from the cache memory! Only when the program asks for sector 28 does it receive it from the CD (These numbers are only illustrative!)

In this case, Audiograbber thinks that synchronization should occur between sectors 25-26 and detects this to be true. A problem however may occur with the synchronization of sectors 27-28 and a small "click" can occur. Normally, the problem is solved, if however it doesn't sound good, install a  real mode driver. The data here will  not be cached, all data will be read directly from the CD. In addition you could try using ASPI as a read method, again caching is not used here.

The following preference under General settings dictates how many frames are read at one go with the MSCDEX call:

•	Read audio in blocks of. This tells how many frames of audio should be read at each chunk and how many frames should be used for synchronization. Every frame is 1/75 second. You can read more about digital audio and how the reading is done.


ASPI

ASPI is a relatively new way of reading data from a music CD. Originally it was devised for use with SCSI units but often works well with IDE CD-ROMs. (via a command set known as ATAPI.)

Certain versions of ASPI however don't seem to be able to detect IDE CD-ROMs. It appears that the wnaspi32.dll file between versions 4.01 and 4.53 doesn't work with IDE. Earlier and later versions do work though. To see which version is installed on your computer, rightclick on it with the mouse.

Windows 95/98 originally came with a version of ASPI that worked with both SCSI and IDE. Unfortunately this is not the case with Windows NT and one is forced to install your own. If you don't have one read these instructions on how to obtain one.

The configurations needed by Audiograbber to read via ASPI are as follows:

•	CD-ROM unit. The CD readers that Audiograbber has detected via the ASPI interface are displayed here.

•	CD ROM type. The command set to be used for the CD reader . Unfortunately, different CD readers use ASPI calls in different ways. All IDE CD readers use ASPI calls in the same way. This is not the case with SCSI units. Those SCSI CD readers that are recognized are listed with the correct drive type. Unrecognized readers are listed as SONY by default (As SONY is the most common.) If however your SCSI drive doesn't work, you can try another call method. If no call method works, send an e-mail to your CD-ROM manufacturer and ask them to send a description of their command set for audio extraction to me.

•	Rip method.

Buffered Burst copy means that no overlapping or synchronization occurs. This is the fastest method of copying and should be attempted first. With this method it's important that the CD reader is requested for data continuously. As long as the reader doesn't need to reposition it's head and Audiograbber asks for 3 seconds of music and processes all the data in step with the process, this shouldn't be a problem. Directly after the reader has delivered some frames, Audiograbber requests some new ones, in this way a schedule of 3 seconds is maintained. If Audiograbber (or the computer) is unable to process the incoming data, the 3 second buffer will diminish. If the buffer is reduced to 0 a "possible speed problem" will occur, which generally means that the reader has been "idle" for a time. A "possible speed problem" doesn't necessarily mean that there is a problem, it is only a warning signal. If the CD reader reads at 8x speed Audiograbber's buffer will be filled in less than 0.4 seconds. It is therefore important that no other program interferes. The slower the reading speed is, the less danger the buffer underrun is exposed to.

Unbuffered Burst copy is basically the same as buffered burst copy but the CD-ROM drive is never asked for more than one block at a time. Theoretically the buffered burst should be better but testings have proven that this copy method is better for some drives.

Dynamic synch width means that sector synchronization is occurring. The buffer that's used to synchronize the previously read block is dynamic and grows or reduces in size as required. If synchronization fails, Audiograbber re attempts the process with a slightly larger overlap area.

Fixed synch width  means that a set amount of frames are used for sector synchronizing. Some CD readers seem to work best with this alternative, though theoretically dynamic synch width should yield the best results. "When in the real world ........... "

•	DAE speed, Digital Audio Extraction speed. This block is occasionally filled by the value requested from the reader as to which speed it supports. Different readers can manage different speeds, but often the speed they can actually read at isn't the speed reported to the program. In addition this only works with IDE readers. I have sent an e-mail to Plextor and asked how to adjust the reading speed for their readers but have received no reply .....  If you experience problems whilst reading and are able to decrease the read speed, do so.

•	Show speeds, This option works only with IDE drives. If "show detected speeds" are selected Audiograbber will ask the drive what DAE speeds it supports. Some drives does not respond to speed selection before the reading actually starts and in that case you can try with all possible speeds. It can also be a good idea to use "show all speeds" in case you already know what speeds works for your drive, Audiograbber will then start just a little faster.


ASPI for Windows NT

When being run with Windows NT, Audiograbber reads data via ASPI calls for both IDE and SCSI CD-ROMs. Unfortunately, no ASPI manager is distributed with NT, so a manual installation is sometimes required. If you have a SCSI reader you probably already have an ASPI manager installed. There is currently an ASPI manager delivered with Windows 95 and 98 which works with both IDE and SCSI drives but it may have been replaced by some other software. In case you need an ASPI manager you can find a good freeware one here that works with both Windows 95/98 and NT: http://www.grc.com/freesetuff.htm

(Direct link: ftp://grc.com/aspi_me.exe)

Last minute UPDATE: The very good and reliable aspi_me ASPI manager seems to be no longer available from the above link. Mayeb you can find it somewhere else on the internet if you search for aspi_me.

Here is another old one that works for windows NT:

ftp://ftp.irnet.ru/pub/Windows/NT/ASPI/aspi_update.zip

It appears to work with NT4 even though it was written for NT 3.51. The installation instructions may however be inaccurate. You can clip out the text given below and save it as a file called aspi.reg. By Double clicking on the file the registry will be updated. Either way, be sure to read the installation instructions that came with the aspi_update.zip. Pay close attention to the ExcludeMiniports part as it is essential in making it work.

You can also try to get an ASPI manager directly from Adaptec at

http://www.adaptec.com

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ASPI32]

"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001

"Start"=dword:00000001

"Type"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ASPI32\Parameters]

"ExcludeMiniports"=""


CD-ROM error
NO CD-ROM drive access

This error occurs under the following conditions:

•	You don't have a CD-ROM installed.

•	You are running Windows NT but you have not installed any ASPI manager and MSCDEX calls can not be used under Windows NT.

•	You are running Windows NT and have an ASPI manager installed but it hasn't been started.

•	Audiograbber was unable to allocate enough memory in the low memory area (640 Kb.) As a result  MSCDEX can't be used. In addition you have no ASPI manager installed. In this case, try re starting Windows and start Audiograbber before any other program.

•	You are running Windows 95/98 but have no ASPI manager installed and Audiograbber can't find it's MSCDEX-DLL.


CD rom tab
CD-ROM tab

Use these tabs to set the rip method for your CD-ROM drive. If the ASPI tab is grayed out it means that no ASPI manager is loaded (wnaspi32.dll). If the MSCDEX tab is grayed out it means that you are running Windows NT or that MSCDEX could not be loaded. If Analog is grayed out it means that there is no soundcard available.


Various settings
Various settings tab

Use these tabs to set various options for Audiograbber.


Unlock code
Unlocking of the full version

This unlock method was only used in Audiograbber version 1.21 and is now obsolete.

It worked damn good however and the pirates had to release a program that changed your harddisks serial number. Unfortunately it was not so good for the real registered users so I simply skipped it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am sorry about the inconvenience with this unlocking procedure. Unfortunately there has been some software piracy going on and illegal copies of Audiograbber have been quite easy to find on the internet.

I don't like it, and I suppose that customers like you that have paid your $25 don't like that some people could get  for free what you have paid for. Hopefully this puts and end to it!

This method has not been done in order to prevent you from running Audiograbber on more than one computer. The purpose of this unlock method is to prevent illegal piracy of the full Audiograbber on the net.

On the page http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/unlock.cgi you will be asked for your personal serial number of Audiograbber (which you got in the registration e-mail from ShareIt) and your computer's identity number. When you submit these numbers at the internet page your browser will immediately get the unlock code.  You will only have to do this once for every computer you install the full version on.

If you have any questions, or if there is a problem with the unlocking, please send an e-mail to jackie@audiograbber.com-us.net


CDDB server

The internet domain name of the database to ask for disc information.


CDDB location
CDDB server

This is where the server is physically located. Select one close to where you are.


Get list

Press this button to get a list of available CDDB servers.


Connect via

Select whether you want to connect to the disc database via TCP/IP or HTTP.


Direct TCP/IP

This should be the fastest way to retrieve disc information.


HTTP

Not all servers support connection through HTTP. Select another CDDB server if this option is disabled.


Proxy settings

Proxy can only be used under the HTTP protocol. As a rule, you shouldn't use this alternative but if you are accessing internet behind a firewall this can be used. If your proxy server needs username and password you can enter this in audiograbber.ini:

ProxyUsername=jackie

ProxyPassword=hacker

and replace jackie hacker with your own username and password.


Use Proxy

This box is only enabled if you select the HTTP protocol. Use it if you are accessing internet from behind a firewall.


Proxy port

The port number you use for proxy access.


Proxy Server

The IP address for your proxy server.


E-mail address
E-mail settings

The CDDB server wants to know your e-mail address so enter it here.


CDDB credits

These are the awesome guys that has made the CDDB server.


CDDB settings

CDDB is used for retrieving disc title and track names from an internet database. This means of course that you have to be connected to internet to use this function.

This database is hosted on various servers around the world, so select one that is close to you. By pressing the "Get list" button, your computer will try to fetch the current list directly from the internet. If this fails for some reason (30 seconds timeout) Audiograbber will let you choose from the latest known list.

There are two ways to connect to the CDDB server: Direct TCP/IP (also called CDDBP) and through the HTTP protocol. Both methods are about equally fast and generate the same result, so it really doesn't matter which you choose. If you are accessing internet from behind a firewall and must use proxy you will however need to use the HTTP protocol. It is not possible to use proxys under direct TCP/IP.

Not all servers accepts HTTP transfers though. You can check the list (from "Get list") and check the HTTP-path to see if HTTP is supported.

If your proxy server needs a username and a password you will have to enter that manually in the audiograbber.ini file. Simply type these two line in audiograbber.ini:

ProxyUsername=jackie

ProxyPassword=hacker

and replace jackie hacker with your own username and password.

Audiograbber needs to send an e-mail address to the CDDB server when asking for data so you will have to state your e-mail address (or at least something that looks as an e-mail address!)

AutoQuery CDDB if a new disc is not found in cdplayer.ini

If this option is selected and the disc is not found in cdplayer.ini then Audiograbber will look up the disc in the CDDB database on internet automatically. Audiograbber will only try once per disc, ie if the disc is not found in the CDDB database then Audiograbber will remember that it has already asked about that disc and not ask again. You need to check the box "Use cdplayer.ini" under General Settings, Misc tab, to enable this feature. It is recommended that you also check the box "Autosave CDDB queries", also under General Settings.

Audiograbber can also Submit (upload) disc info to CDDB. This was new in version 1.50 of Audiograbber.

CDDB™ is an acronym for Compact Disc DataBase and it is owned by the company Escient®. It is a huge database available on the internet where individuals has submitted their disc data. Programs like Audiograbber can connect to this database to see if the disc is found in the database and download various disc information. Read more about CDDB™ at http://www.cddb.com


Get from CDDB

This function is found under the CD menu.

The purpose of this function is to retrieve the track names from an internet database. You can read more about what this is under CDDB settings.


Undo CDDB Query

This function is found under the CD menu.

If you weren't satisfied with the answer from the CDDB server you can then go back to the track names prior to the query.


Copy status

This function is reached by right clicking a track in the track list. Here you can tell Audiograbber what information to show in the information field.


Create M3U list

This function is reached by right clicking a track in the track list.

It simply creates an M3U list which is a play list that can be used by Winamp. The M3U list is a plain textfile and is stored in your default directory. The tracks that are selected with a checkbox will be included in the M3U list. The name of the M3U list is taken from the album field.


advanced norm
Advanced Normalizing

Selects which options you want to use for normalization of your files. Normalization simply means how loud a song is played. Instead of adjusting the volume for each song you play, you can now ensure they will sound equally loud already when you rip them.


Use normalizing

Select this box if you wish to automatically adjust the recording level, leave this checkbox unchecked if you wish to copy the track exactly as it is. Also set the compression option to "Never" if you wish to get an exact digital copy of the tracks.


peak
Peak level to

Select this if you want to use the peak level as criteria for how loud the song shall be. Peak level means the absolutely loudest part of the song.


average
Average output

Select this option if you want the output level adjusted, based on the average output level of the song.


peak level
Normalize to

Select the recording level between 0 -100%. 0% is equal to silence and 100% is the highest volume. 98% is recommended.


avg level
Average output to

Select how loud you want the song to be on average. 65% is recommended


Peak condition

Select if you want to exclude songs, within a certain range, from being modified. If this option or the average output condition is not realised the song will be neither normalized nor compressed. It will simply be left unchanged.


avg condition
Average output condition

Select if you want to exclude songs within a certain range from being modified. If this option or the peak level condition is not realised the song will be neither normalized nor compressed. It will simply be left unchanged.


Compression

Compression essentially means making the sound more compact and giving the song a more equal output level. This is often used by radio stations to have the volume around the same level all the time.


Never

Choose this to not compress your songs.


Always

Choose this to compress all songs. This option is not recommended to be left in this state but can be useful if you are only modifying a few songs and you know what you are doing.


Only when needed

This option is only available if you have chosen to adjust the average output level. If the desired average level cannot be reached by ordinary normalizing it will use as much compression as needed to reach the desired average output level (but not more than the maximum compress value of course).


Maximum compress

This tells Audiograbber by how much it is allowed to compress the sound. A value of 60% means that every sample in the sound will get a new value that is within the range of 100% - 160% of the original value.


dont compress
Don't compress songs

It is a good idea to not compress songs that have already been extensively compressed. Chose this option to leave already highly compressed songs in their original form. It is recommended that this option is used.


Max compact ratio

This is the limit for when a song is considered "already compact enough". Compact ratio basically means how close to the average output level the song is generally playing. For example classical music usually changes the volume a lot from low to high and does not stay on the average output level much. That gives a low compact ratio. Rock'n roll songs often play at the same output level throughout (often very loud!) which gives a higher compact ratio. 100% is max and would mean that there is no dynamic in the song. Recommended value here is 80%.


To new file

By choosing this option your original song will be left unmodified and a new modified song will be created. This option works only when you are in this dialog already. If you normalize/compress files from Audiograbber's main window, or drop them on the main window, it will modify the chosen file directly regardless of this setting. The same goes for ripped tracks.


Add file

Add files to the list from here. Newly added files will be placed on top of the list and not the bottom! The files must be .wav files, 44,1 KHz, 16 bit, stereo.


Remove file

Removes the selected file. They can also be removed from the list by pressing "Delete".


Modify

Press this button to start modifying the selected songs.


Test

This function will scan through the selected files so you can easily see what values they will get if they are modified with the chosen settings.


Preview

Press this button to view and listen to the last modified/tested song.


Abort

Aborts testing or modifying of the songs.


List

The order of the songs can easily be rearranged by drag and drop. Mark the songs you want to test/modify with a checkbox.


OK

Leaves this dialog box and performs the changes you might have made.

Note that you must leave the dialog in advanced state to have the advanced options used when ripping.


Toggle

Switch between the simple and the advanced normalizing/compression.


Advanced normalizing

This function is found under the settings menu.

Occasionally it simply isn't enough with ordinary normalizing. The peak level value does not say much about the average output level of a song; the average output is better to use as an indication for how loud the song is. That's why I made this function. I realized that I had to change the volume on my car stereo all the time when I played my own compilation discs. This function will put a clampdown to the movement of that volume button!

Audiograbber can now scan through a song and split the song into parts of 133 ms. The peak value in each 'frame' is then used to calculate an average output volume. This average is based on the 90% loudest 133 ms frames in the song, leaving the silent parts of the song out of the calculation.

This average value can then be changed up or down just like with ordinary normalizing. Usually with no problems.

Some songs do however have many silent parts and can not reach a certain average output level by only altering the peak level for the song. Here is where compression plays a role. Compression is something that radio stations and music studios use to even out the output level.

Basically, it is something like a continuous and rapid movement of the volume level, raising the silent parts of the song more than the loudest.

There are some concepts that I would like to explain:

•	Peak level: Easy. This is simply the loudest sample of the song.

•	Average output level: A value that tells how loud the song is on average.

•	Compact ratio: Tells how compact the song is and how much each 133 ms frame differs from the average output level. The closer to 100% the more the song is playing at its average output level all the time. Can vary between 0% and 100%.

•	Maximum compress by: Tells how much this function is allowed to compress the song. For a maximum value of 60% no single sample can be modified by more than 60%. This means that every sample will be between 100%-160% of its original value. I have limited this value to between 0% and 100% but there is theoretically nothing that says that this value can't be higher (or even less).

There is also a preview function where you can view and listen to a track, both in its original form and how it will sound after it has been changed. You can quickly switch between listening to the original or modified song which gives good testing options.

To change position in the song you simply click the position where you want it to play from and it will play from there. It's a good idea to use a pair of good quality headphones for more professional listening tests.

The green drawing is the original song and the yellow is the modified.

If you have a special song, maybe one you have made yourself and want to make sure it is not over compressed you can do this:

Compress it by 100% and save it to a new file. Then compress the new file by another 100%. Now listen. You should try to listen for general changes in the volume in some parts of the song. You may have to compress by another 100% to make sure that you can hear the parts that do not sound correct. Now you know in which parts of the song an eventual error will be first noticeable.

Go back to the original song and compress by 60-70%,  listen carefully to the parts where you know the error will first occur.

If you choose to always compress then Audiograbber will first compress the sound and there after change the peak level to achieve the correct average output. If you instead use compression only when needed, Audiograbber will first change the peak level and if a peak of 100% is not enough to achieve the desired average, it will use as much compression needed to reach the desired average output. It will of course never use more compression than specified by the maximum compress  meter.


Play grabbed
Play grabbed files

This option will send a playlist (an .m3u list) with the grabbed files to your MP3 Player. The settings in your MP3 Player dictates if they are played sequentially or in a random order.


selected tracks
Play selected tracks

This option will make Audiograbber play the selected tracks when the ripping is finished. They will be played in a random order.


Default MP3 player

Press the browse button and select your preferred MP3 player.


Audiograbber icon

Select this option to let Audiograbber display its own nice player icon in the main window.


Icon from MP3 player

Select this option to let Audiograbber display the icon from the MP3 player in the main window. You can click the icon here to select which icon you want to use (in case that the MP3 player has more than one icon). Left click for next icon and right click for previous.


Which icon

Left click for next icon and right click for previous icon. This works only if the MP3 player has more than one icon.


submit artist
Artist

The name of the artist who made the disc. If this is a compilation disc with more than one artist then type "Various" here.


submit album
Album

The album name.


submit category
CDDB Category

The disc category. These are predefined values on the CDDB server and you can not make up your own categories. It has nothing to do with the categories in the ID3 tag for MP3 files.


Additional info

Additional info for this disc. You can for example include the year the disc was released and the musicians that performs on the disc. Not used by Audiograbber but other programs may use this info.


Same artist
Same artist for all tracks

This is the normal value and should be used for discs with only one artist. If more than one artist performs on the disc then select "Different artists for the tracks" instead.


Different artists

If this is a compilation disc with many artists / bands then check this option. You will then get two fields on the next page, one for the artist and one for the track title.


Clear list

This button clears the list and makes it easier to fill in the track names for a new disc. When all information is entered you can then press the "Export to tracklist" button to send the info back to Audiograbber.


Tracklist
Track names

Fill in the names of the tracks here. The tracklist at the main form of Audiograbber does not accept characters that cannot be used in file names under Windows, but this tracklist accepts all characters. Invalid characters have been replaced on the main form with a dash "-" so check for dashes extra carefully here.


Additional track info

Type additional info for the track here if there is something special to mention. This info is not used by Audiograbber but may be used by other programs.


E-mail address

If the disc submission is not accepted then an e-mail with the reason will be sent to this e-mail address. Simply enter your e-mail address here.


Submit

Press this button to upload your disc to the database. Watch the penguins for a few seconds and then you should get a confirmation message back.


Export
Export to tracklist

Click here to send your changes back to Audiograbber.


Back

Press this button to go back to the previous page.


Next

Press this button to move on to the next page.


Help

Press this button to open the helpfile with detailed help on how to submit a disc.


Cancel

Press this button to abort your disc submission and go back to the program.


OK

Press this button to go back to the program.


Analog

This lets Audiograbber know which preferences are to be used when reading digital audio via Analog sampling.


CD-ROM
CD-ROM unit

Choose here which CD reader should be used for Analog sampling.


Input Soundcard

All soundcards available on the computer are listed here. Choose which soundcard to use for Analog sampling.


Don't change
Don't change volume

Select this option if you don't want Audiograbber to change the input volume of your soundcard. Make sure that you have selected your CD-ROM drive as an input source for the soundcard if this option is used.


Set to

Select this option to make Audiograbber set the input volume of your soundcard. Audiograbber will also make sure that the CD-ROM drive is selected as the input source for the soundcard.


Input volume

Drag this meter to a desired input level for your soundcard. You will get best results if the peak level for a track is around 98% when the track is sampled.


Mute
Mute Speakers

Select this option to mute the speakers while analog samling is performed.


Encoder priority

You can lower the CPU priority of your encoder here. This only works when encoding is the only task that is going on, ripping is so sensive that normal priority is always used. Useful if you are doing other things on the computer during encoding.


Possible speed problems

A "possible speed problem" occurs when the computer/harddisk can't keep up with the flow of information coming from the CD-ROM. This forces the CD-ROM to take breaks from reading the CD. Because the CD disc is always spinning, difficulties can occur in finding the correct start position when reading recommences. Quality CD-ROM drives can handle "possible speed problems", but cheaper drives sometimes generate a pop or a click.

You can use the checksum function to find out if there are problems with this. Rip a track twice and see if you get the same checksum. If you do, then the files have been ripped exactly the same and "possible speed problems" can be ignored. If the checksums don't match then you must listen to the file and see if the speed problems have affected the song. Sometimes it is only a minor error and not audible. If you get annoying pops and clicks in your final file then change to a synchronized read method.

Note that for Analog sampling the term is changed from "possible speed problems" to "speed problems". If you get a speed problem when sampling analog then there is definitely a piece of audio missing in the final file. Normally it should be no problem at all for the computer to handle incoming data when the analog mode is used. It is only 1x speed and even a 486 computer should be able to handle this. However, If you are sampling directly to an MP3 file then you may get speed problems whereby you should create a wav file and then encode it.


Submit to CDDB

This function is found under the CD menu.

CDDB It is a huge database available on the internet where individuals have submitted their disc data. Audiograbber can also submit (upload) disc info to this database. Before you submit a new disc you shall first check if the disc is already present in the database. Press the penguin button to see if it is already in the database. If it is not found in the database or if you want to correct some spelling errors then go to the CD menu and press "Submit to CDDB".

The first page that welcomes you is where you enter artist and album name. If you are submitting a compilation disc with many artist then type Various in the artist field. The categories available here are the categories used in the database. You can not make up your own categories and they are not compatible with the MP3-ID3 tag categories. Use "Misc" in case you don't find an appropriate category.

Here is also a field with additional info for the disc. You can enter which artists that performs on the disc or any other interesting data. It is optional to use this field and it is not used by Audiograbber. Other programs may however use this information.

Audiograbber does not allow you to name tracks or artist/album name with characters that can not be used in file names ( \ / : * ? " < > | ). In this submit function you are of course allowed to use such special characters. When the disc info is retrieved from CDDB then special characters are replaced with a dash "-". A copy of the original name is however saved so it shall be correct spelled in this submit function.

You can also notice that after a disc retrieve from CDDB then all data on the submit form is exactly as it came down from the database. All additional fields with data that is not normally used by Audiograbber may have been filled in.

Check if it is a compilation disc or an ordinary disc with only one artist and move on to the next page by pressing the "Next" button.

Now go through each track and correct spelling mistakes and optionally fill in additional info about the tracks. The additional field for each track is normally left empty but if there is something special to note about the track then enter that info here.

If you are submitting a totally new disc then it is a good idea to press the erase pen in the upper right corner. The track name list will then become empty and it is faster to fill in the tracknames. When you are done then you can press the "Export to tracklist" button and send the info back to Audiograbber.

When you have filled in all the track names and checked the spellings carefully then press the "Next" button. On the next page you will only have to check that your e-mail address is correct. If your disc submission should fail for some reason then you will get an e-mail telling you why. If the disc submission is accepted then no e-mail will be sent. Press the Submit button and the disc info will be uploaded to the database. It should normally only take around 10 seconds to upload the disc info.

It is recommended that you use ASPI (under General settings) to fill the tracklist of the disc if it is a multimedia disc with a data track at the end. MSCDEX and Analog will not see the data track at the end and it is good to have that included in the database. For normal discs it doesn't matter if you use ASPI, MSCDEX or Analog.

There is a small risk that two different discs has so similar TOC (Table Of Contents, ie the discs has equally many tracks and the tracks are also equally long) that they generate the same CDDB disc ID. It is still possible to have both discs in the database but the only thing that separates them from each other will be the category. This means that if you want to submit a disc that is already in the database but is a completely different disc then you must specify another category for your disc.


Analog

If your CD-ROM drive can't read digital audio or if the disc is so scratched that digital reading fails then you will have to use Analog sampling instead of digital reading (ripping). Some people like to say analog ripping but I don't like that expression. Analog sampling is a more appropriate expression.

When you sample analog you will lose quality twice: First when the CD-ROM drive converts the digital data to an analog signal for transport to the soundcard. Second when this signal is reconverted back to digital data by the soundcard. However, if your CD-ROM drive has a digital out and your soundcard has a digital in, consider yourself lucky, as this conversion becomes unnecessary. In this case quality loss should be minimal or nonexistent. Nonetheless, white noise (hiss) can be added to the track due to processing in the soundcard. With a decent soundcard though, this should be minimal.

In either case your CD-ROM drive has to be connected to the soundcard via a thin little wire that goes from the rear of the CD-ROM drive to the soundcard. Some soundcards have more than one socket to connect this wire. If this is the case make sure it is connected to the CD-ROM socket. (If this wire for example is connected to a TV input on the soundcard then normal playback from the CD will work but Audiograbber will not use the TV input and no sound will be sampled).

For best results with analog sampling try to set the input volume to a level so the peak level of the sampled file ends up at around 98%. If you have told Audiograbber to set the input level to a specific value then Audiograbber will also choose the CD-ROM drive as input source. If you tell Audiograbber not to change the input volume then the currently selected input source will not be changed either. You can manually start the mixer control to check this by double clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray (or by starting the program sndvol32.exe). When the mixer program start it shows the output settings for the soundcard instead of the input (recording) settings. You will have to go to "options", "properties" and select "recording" under "adjust volume for" to see the input settings.


MS Audio describtion
Description

Description of the song or the album. For example: "An upbeat song that made quite of a rumble when it was released 1987. Listen carefully to the lyrics!"


MS Audio copyright
Copyright message

A copyright message of this song.


MS Audio Album cover
Album cover URL

An internet link that points to a picture associated with the disc. Something like http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/jackie.jpg


MS Audio Promotion URL
Promotion URL

A link to the artists or distributors homepage. Something like http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net


MS Audio
Windows Media Audio

Windows Media Audio is Microsoft's answer to MP3. It is basically another file format for compressed audio and the file extensions for such files are .wma. Microsoft itself claims that the sound quality should be the same for a file that is only half the size of an MP3! This may be true or close to true for lower bitrates like 64 Kbit but I am not sure how good it sounds for higher bitrates. I rather stay out of the debates of which formats and which encoders that gives best quality. Other people are more suitable to judge that. Encoding to wma is however very fast, almost as fast as Xing's MP3 encoder and not so much slower than QDesigns MP2 encoder.

It is definitely a file format to check out and with the power of Microsoft promoting it wma has a great chance to be a widely used file format. The encoder and decoder doesn't cost anything.

The WMA modes marked "Packaged WMA" means that the file can only be played back on the computer it was created on. Microsoft requires all files encoded at 160 Kbit to be packaged WMA files. Packaged WMA files are locked to the local PC to help the user avoid copyright infringement. If you want to transfer your WMA file to another computer then you shall not use Packaged WMA and thus you can't use 160 Kbit.

You can hopefully find more info at Microsofts own page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/

Audiograbber can now internally compress to Windows Media Audio too (It can also use Fraunhofers MP3 acm codec, BladeEnc's freeware MP3 dll and QDesigns MP2 acm codec) if  the computer has the proper codecs installed. You might be able to find the file wmaudioredist.exe on some other major MP3 players homepages. Sonique and Winamp, for example. Both Sonique (ver 1.20) and Winamp (ver 2.50) currently comes as a "full" version which includes Microsoft WMA too. By downloading and installing on of them you will get WMA working in Audiograbber too.

http://www.sonique.com/

http://www.winamp.com/


Send startstop
Send StartUnit

With this option checked Audiograbber will send a special Start Unit command to the drive before it starts reading. Some drives rips better with this option checked but some other drives fails if this command has been sent. Check this option if the drive occasionally returns an "ASPI error".


Append id3 to wav
Append ID3 info to wav file

Select this option to make Audiograbber store ID3 info and information about the final filename and destination of the track at the end of the wav file. When the wav file is later used for MP3 encoding the correct filename and ID3 tag is taken directly from the source file.

Some not so well behaved applications may treat the ID3 info at the end of the wav file as audio data so do not use this option in case you will use the wav file in some other program. This extra ID3 info does however not violate the wav standard and well written programs will just ignore it.


Rip all tracks first
Rip all tracks before encoding

Normally Audiograbber rips and encodes tracks one by one. Select this option to rip all tracks first, before encoding. This is useful if you only have access to the disc for a short while. The downside is that more temporary harddisk space is required.


No subdirs for wavs
No Sub directories for wav files

This option is primarily intended to be used in conjunction with the option "append ID3 info to wav files" found under MP3 settings. Selecting it lets the optional ID3 info and track names in the wav files get the correct directory structure but leaves the wav files in the base directory.


Partial rips

Check this box if you want to make short sample clips of the tracks.


Rip only

Tells the duration in seconds of each clip. The clip will never be longer than the original track, no matter what value you enter here.


Start at

Tells how many seconds into a track ripping will begin. If this value is too high so that the remainder of the track is shorter than the specified time in the "rip only" box, the start point will automatically be set earlier. This occurs because Audiograbber always tries to rip the time specified in the "rip only" box.


Fade in

If the rip selection does not start at the beginning of the track and this option is selected, Audiograbber will "fade in" the first three seconds to create a less abrupt start.


Fade out

If the rip selection ends before the end of the song and this option is selected, Audiograbber will do a "fade out" the last three seconds to create a less abrupt ending.


internal sound
Use internal sound effects

With this option selected, Audiograbber will play a click sound when the big buttons on the main form are pressed. There is one sound when the button goes down and another one when the button goes up.


multiple instances
Allow multiple instances of Audiograbber

Normally only one session of Audiograbber will run at a time. Selecting this option will allow multiple sessions to run simultaneously. The benefits and drawbacks of this are explained in more detail in the help file.


Continue ripping
Continuous ripping

If you run two sessions of Audiograbber simultaneously with this option selected, the second session of Audiograbber will continue ripping after the first one has finished.


Replace spaces
Replace spaces by underscores

Select this option to have all spaces " " in filenames replaced by underscores "_". This is useful if the files are going to be moved to a Unix computer.


Disable screensaver
Disable screensaver when ripping

A screensaver can quite often be CPU intensive and it is not good if it "steals" valuable CPU time during the ripping process as this can cause "speed problems". Select this option to prevent the screensaver from activating during the ripping process.


Line in sampling

Line in sampling.

This function is found under the file menu.

The "line in" sampling function is used to record from audio sources through the soundcard either internally, ie. from the cd rom, or even a music file on the hard disc, or from an outside audio source such as a phonograph or radio, through the "line in" jack on the soundcard. You can plug whichever audio source you desire into your soundcard and let Audiograbber record from it. For best results, always try to send as good a signal to the soundcard as possible. To record from vinyl it is best to connect the turntable to the stereo and then the stereo to the sound card. Do not connect the turntable directly to the soundcard, as the signal from the turntable is too weak.

The "line in" function has three different recording modes: "manual", "track splitting", and "time scheduled". These different modes are described in more detail later on in text.

To name the tracks is easy. Just enter all the names in the fields in the upper right hand corner. The current track is the one marked with an arrow. It is possible to change current track by clicking on another number. The arrow will move to verify this change.

The "volume meter" (middle of the window) displays the recording level of the incoming sound and is always active even if Audiograbber is not recording. This allows for easier adjustment prior to actual recording. When there is no incoming sound the meter should stay under 0.10% (Good soundcards should however be able to reach as low values at 0.00% - 0.02%). To achieve the optimum recording level adjust the "mixer" so the meter occasionally peaks at 100%, but not too often.

You can click on the "Mixer" button to start Window's internal soundcard mixer. By default, this mixer, when activated, displays the playback controls. Audiograbber will however attempt activate the mixer so that it displays the recording controls instead (should this fail though, it will be necessary to do this manually). All the audio sources that are not going to be used, ie. "mic, midi", "wav", etc... should be deselected and their respective slide bars dropped to the lowest value to unsure minimal undesired background noise.

Right above the status bar there is a field which displays which recording settings you are using. These refer to the settings you have selected in Normalize settings and MP3 settings. You need to go out of the "line in sampling" window and back to the main window to change these settings.

You can "shortcut" to the main window however, by "right clicking" on this field and selecting "enable main form" from the pop up menu. Make your changes and then right click on the same field again to close. Be careful however, as it isn't too hard to crash the program by misuse of this shortcut).

At the bottom there is the status bar which tells you what is going on and optionally what you are supposed to do.

A button will be visible right below the "Close" button if there are any files waiting to be normalized and/or encoded. Press the button to initiate this process. This button will not display when the program is recording.

It is also a good idea to click on the help menu, choose "Help for this window" and thereafter click on whatever you want to learn more about.

If you need more professional editing options of your wav files, like click removal, noise reduction and manual fading options etc, then Cool Edit is a very good program.

Manual recording mode, do not split tracks:

This is the most basic recording mode. You will have to press the "Start" and "Stop" button for each track you want to record to a separate file. It is wise with this method of recording to limit recording to a certain amount of minutes using "the minutes to stop after" option in case you forget to come back and press the stop button!

Manual recording mode, auto split tracks:

Enabling this useful function when recording two or more tracks from vinyl (LP's) will allow Audiograbber to detect the silence between tracks, and create separate destination files for each one. Thus saving you the bother of doing it manually. Just play the record straight through in one go and let Audiograbber do the rest! It is a complicated process for Audiograbber to differentiate between record noise during silence and an actual quiet passage of music but it does its best! Use the "track split sensitivity" slide bar to change Audiograbber's perception of silence. Slide the bar to a lower value if Audiograbber clips the songs during the final fade and to a higher value if the program fails to separate tracks.

Time scheduled recording:

This mode is useful for recording from radio when you are away from your PC. It works like a VCR timer, but for radio (or for that matter whatever audio source is connected to your soundcard).

Times can be set flexible. When the program is in "time scheduled" mode it will display the current date and time below the "Close" button. How this is shown is dependent of your computers regional settings (in the Control Panel). Use this same format when entering information in the "Date" and "Time" field (see below).

"Date" field:

Enter a date here (using the proper format) to record only on that specific day. You can leave the field empty if you want, whereby Audiograbber will then record at the same specified time every day. It is also possible to specify a weekday like Monday or Tuesday etc, (in English) whereby Audiograbber will record once a week (on that day) during the specified time.

"Time" field:

Specify the start time (time of the day) for the recording in this field. Remember to use the proper format.

"Length" field:

Specify the duration of the recording here using the following format: hh:mm:ss where "hh" are hours, "mm" are minutes, and "ss" are seconds (for example, One hour two minutes and three seconds should be written as following: 01:02:03).


Record

Press this button to start recording. In "track splitting" mode Audiograbber will wait until sound is coming in before starting to record. In "time scheduled" mode this button may be disabled when the program is either waiting for a time to be reached or is already recording.


Stop

Press this button to end the recording. The sound that has already been recorded is saved. If there are files waiting to be normalized and/or encoded, a button will appear in the lower right hand corner. Press that button to proceed with normalizing and/or encoding or press the "record" button to record more files first.


Abort

Press this button to abort the recording. The track that has been recorded is not saved. If there are files waiting to be normalized and/or encoded a button will appear in the lower right hand corner. Press that button to proceed with normalizing and/or encoding or press the "record" button to record more files first.


Recording mode

Choose between "manual recording" or "time scheduled" mode. "Manual recording" requires you to press the "start" and "stop" button yourself. "Time scheduled" means that Audiograbber will record at predefined times.


Do not split tracks

Choose this option if you want to split the tracks from an LP manually. You will have to press the "start" and "stop" button yourself for each track in order to save each one as a separate file.


Auto stop after

This option is useful if you want to be sure that not too much data is recorded and written to the harddisk. Audiograbber will stop recording after the specified number of minutes if this option is selected. You can of course press the "stop" button to stop earlier.


minutes
Minutes to stop after

Select how many minutes (maximum) shall be recorded.


Auto split tracks

Choose this option if you are recording two or more track from an LP and want Audiograbber to create a separate destination file for each individual copied track, thereby sparing you the hassle of having to do it manually.


Track split sensitivity

Audiograbber splits tracks by detecting silence. This slide bar affects Audiograbber's perception of silence. If the bar is set too high there is a risk that tracks will be cut off during the fade. If it is set too low there is a risk that the tracks will not be split at all.


At least 35 seconds
All tracks are at least 35 seconds

Choose this option to overcome the problems of tracks being split due to silence after intros.


Date

This field holds the date the recording shall start. The date format is dependent upon your computers regional settings. You can see in the lower right hand corner how dates are expressed on your PC. This field can also be left blank or you can specify a weekday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday).


Time

This field holds the time the recording shall start. The time format is dependent upon your computers regional settings. You can see in the lower right hand corner how times are expressed on your PC.


Length

This field Defines long time Audiograbber shall record. Use the following format: hh:mm:ss (hours, minutes and seconds).


Time scheduled recording

You can specify up to 24 different recording times. All recordings are faded in and out for 3 seconds.


Append date and time
Append date and time to filename

If you have many files recorded at different times it will sooner or later be difficult to tell which file was recorded when. Select this option to include the date and time the recording started in the filename.


Artist

In this field you can write the artist or band that has created the track. If you record from radio you can type "Radio" instead.


Album

In this field you can write the album name or leave it blank.


Track number
Track number / Current position

The arrow in this column tells which tracks are presently being recorded or will be recorded next. You can easily change by clicking on one of the track numbers.


Track name

Enter the track names in this field. Characters that can not be used in file names can not be used here either and are replaced with a dash "-". If you are recording from radio it is a good idea to type the name of the radio channel or another identifying word or number. If you leave these fields empty the default name "track x" (x being the current track number) will be assigned.


Copy status

In this field Audiograbber will fill in the recording time for that specific track. It will also tell how many speed problems occurred (if any). If no speed problems occurred it will show "Copied OK".


Clear

Clears the copy status column.


Used CPU time

Displays if the computer is fast enough to handle the incoming data. If you get speed problems there will be dropouts in the files. The CPU speed should not be a problem if you record to a wav format but it can be problems if you record directly to MP3 or WMA format. In that case use an intermediate wav format/file instead.


Volume meter

Displays the level of the incoming sound. Press the mixer button to adjust this level. When there is no incoming sound the meter should stay under 0.10%. Set the mixer so the volume occasionally peaks at 100%, but not too often.


Mixer

Press this button to launch Window's internal sound card mixer. The mixer should start in the recording mode. Deselect all the sources you are not recording from and drag their respective volume meters to "0" to get minimal undesired background noise.


Close

Press this button to exit from "Line in" sampling and return to the main part of the program.


Encode / normalize now
Normalize/Encode now

This button is shown when there are files waiting to be normalized and/or encoded and there is no recording in progress. In "track split" and "time scheduled" modes it will pop up automatically and start a countdown from 10 before normalizing and/or encoding starts. If you have previously pressed the "stop" or "abort" button you will have to resume the normalizing/encoding process manually by pressing this button.


Label 13
Date and time

In "time scheduled" mode you will see the current date and time here. Use this same format to enter the dates and times in the "time schedule" field.


Label 14
Name of the song

Displays the name of the current song and recording time.


Recording to...
Recording to:

Displays in what order things are going to happen and what settings you are using.


Status bar

Displays what is presently occurring and periodically what you are supposed to do.


Blink button
Recording in progress

This indicator button blinks when recording is in progress.


Auto tracknames
Auto load/save tracknames

Select this option to load and save the track names automatically when Audiograbber starts and exits. The file name used for holding the file names is "Auto.Nam".


Auto times
Auto load/save times

Select this option to load and save the scheduled times automatically when Audiograbber starts and exits. The file name used for holding the times is "Auto.Tim".


Start timescheduled
Start Audiograbber in time scheduled mode

Select this option to make Audiograbber start in "time scheduled" mode. This is useful if used in conjunction with the option "Start Audiograbber when the computer starts".


Start when PC starts
Start Audiograbber when the computer starts

If this option is selected then Audiograbber will start when the computer starts. Useful if you have some electronic timer to start up your computer. This is the only instance where Audiograbber uses the registry to store information.


Shut down when finished

Select this option if you want Audiograbber to shut down the computer when recording is finished. It works in "track split" and "time scheduled" mode. If there is another time scheduled in less than 15 minutes then the computer will not be shut down even if this option is selected.


MP3 Playback
MP3 Playback.

This function is found under the settings menu.

If you want to be notified when the computer has finished ripping it is a good idea to use this MP3 playback function. You can either let the computer play the tracks from the cd or launch some external MP3 program and let that program play the ripped tracks. Select here which MP3 program you want to integrate with Audiograbber. This MP3 program can then also be started by clicking on the MP3 player button on the main window. (If you right click that MP3 player button then the MP3 player will be launched with a .M3U list of the currently selected tracks.)

If you rather want Audiograbber to play a short sound when finished then you simply select a wav file to be played. Audiograbber will play that file internally and not launch any MP3 player.

Check http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html, hopefully there are some useful wav files for this purpose.


ID3 tag
ID3 tag.

This function is found under the settings menu.

ID3 tag contains extra information about the song that is added to the end of the MP3 file (128 bytes at the end of the file). You can choose to let Audiograbber append an MP3 tag to the MP3 file.

The format of the ID3 tag is like this:

Track name, 30 characters.

Artist name, 30 characters.

Album name, 30 characters.

Year, 4 characters.

Comment, 30 characters.

Genre, 1 byte.

See further down for a list of all defined genres. These are predefined and that is the reason that you can't make up your own.

It is also possible to let Audiograbber use a part of the comment field for storing the checksum of the ripped track. This can be useful if you listen to an MP3 file and gets suspicious if it really was ripped correct. Rip it again and see if you get the same checksum.

Microsofts Windows Media Audio (WMA) can also contain ID3 tag and WMA has the advantage to have some extra fields and are not limited to max 30 characters per field.

(Extra fields used in Audiograbber are: Description, Copyright message, Album cover URL and Promotion URL).

Here's the list of the predefined ID3 genres:

char tags[][22] = {

{"Blues"}, // 0

{"Classic Rock"}, // 1

{"Country"}, // 2 etc

{"Dance"},

{"Disco"},

{"Funk"},

{"Grunge"},

{"Hip-Hop"},

{"Jazz"},

{"Metal"},

{"New Age"},

{"Oldies"},

{"Other"},

{"Pop"},

{"R&B"},

{"Rap"},

{"Reggae"},

{"Rock"},

{"Techno"},

{"Industrial"},

{"Alternative"},

{"Ska"},

{"Death Metal"},

{"Pranks"},

{"Soundtrack"},

{"Euro-Techno"},

{"Ambient"},

{"Trip-Hop"},

{"Vocal"},

{"Jazz+Funk"},

{"Fusion"},

{"Trance"},

{"Classical"},

{"Instrumental"},

{"Acid"},

{"House"},

{"Game"},

{"Sound Clip"},

{"Gospel"},

{"Noise"},

{"Alternative Rock"},

{"Bass"},

{"Soul"},

{"Punk"},

{"Space"},

{"Meditative"},

{"Instrumental Pop"},

{"Instrumental Rock"},

{"Ethnic"},

{"Gothic"},

{"Darkwave"},

{"Techno-Industrial"},

{"Electronic"},

{"Pop-Folk"},

{"Eurodance"},

{"Dream"},

{"Southern Rock"},

{"Comedy"},

{"Cult"},

{"Gangsta"},

{"Top 40"},

{"Christian Rap"},

{"Pop/Funk"},

{"Jungle"},

{"Native US"},

{"Cabaret"},

{"New Wave"},

{"Psychadelic"},

{"Rave"},

{"Showtunes"},

{"Trailer"},

{"Lo-Fi"},

{"Tribal"},

{"Acid Punk"},

{"Acid Jazz"},

{"Polka"},

{"Retro"},

{"Musical"},

{"Rock & Roll"},

{"Hard Rock"},

{"Folk"},

{"Folk-Rock"},

{"National Folk"},

{"Swing"},

{"Fast Fusion"},

{"Bebob"},

{"Latin"},

{"Revival"},

{"Celtic"},

{"Bluegrass"},

{"Avantgarde"},

{"Gothic Rock"},

{"Progressive Rock"},

{"Psychedelic Rock"},

{"Symphonic Rock"},

{"Slow Rock"},

{"Big Band"},

{"Chorus"},

{"Easy Listening"},

{"Acoustic"},

{"Humour"},

{"Speech"},

{"Chanson"},

{"Opera"},

{"Chamber Music"},

{"Sonata"},

{"Symphony"},

{"Booty Bass"},

{"Primus"},

{"Porn Groove"},

{"Satire"},

{"Slow Jam"},

{"Club"},

{"Tango"},

{"Samba"},

{"Folklore"},

{"Ballad"},

{"Power Ballad"},

{"Rhythmic Soul"},

{"Freestyle"},

{"Duet"},

{"Punk Rock"},

{"Drum Solo"},

{"A Cappella"},

{"Euro-House"},

{"Dance Hall"},

{"Goa"},

{"Drum & Bass"},

{"Club-House"},

{"Hardcore"},

{"Terror"},

{"Indie"},

{"BritPop"},

{"Negerpunk"},

{"Polsk Punk"},

{"Beat"},

{"Christian Gangsta Rap"},

{"Heavy Metal"},

{"Black Metal"},

{"Crossover"},

{"Contemporary Christian"},

{"Christian Rock"},

{"Merengue"},

{"Salsa"},

{"Thrash Metal"},

{"Anime"},

{"JPop"},

{"Synthpop"},   //147

{""}}; //255 Unknown


delete wav file
Delete wav file after encoding

Use this if you do not want to keep the wav files. The wav files will be deleted one by one as soon as they have been encoded and harddisk space will be restored.


tracknames and times
Tracknames, Times

Tracknames and times are saved in plain textfiles with the extension .Nam for tracknames and .Tim for times. The filename for auto loaded tracknames is "Auto.Nam" and for auto loaded times "Auto.Tim".