This
Manual is copyrighted 2001 by SysDesk, Holger Kuehnle
All
rights reserved.
SysDesk takes absolutely no responsibilty for the usability of this manual of any kind! This manual was written for the purpose of being a helpful introduction and reference to the user. However, there is no warranty of any kind!
This manual is divided into four different sections corresponding to the menus in AudioCrusher.
Contents
File
Menu
Verify Files...
Save Tracklist
Edit
Menu
Edit ID3 tag...
Rename
Select All
Invert Selection
Copy Tracklist to Clipboard
CD
Menu
Rip...
Play
Pause
Stop
Load
Eject
Refresh TOC
Get freedb Info
Verify Files...
This option allows you to open a SFV file and perform a checksum verification on all files listed in the SFV file.
An SFV file contains checksums for at least one file which can be used to determine whether the contents of a specific file have changed after the SFV file was created.
Please note that the files you want to verify have to be in the same directory as the SFV file.
AudioCrusher can generate a SFV file for all created files of the current job. Enable SFV creation by enabling the 'Generate Win-Sfv check sum report' setting in the 'Post-Process' tab of the 'Rip'-dialog.
HINT: You can use any valid SFV file with the 'Verify Files…' option. This file can be created with any other program which can create SFV files.
So you can basically use AudioCrusher as a simple SFV checker!Save Tracklist
This option will save the current track names, artist, album and genre information to Windows' cdplayer.ini file. This file is a database which is used by many CD player programmes to store information about audio CDs.
If you save the track list of an audio CD there, this information will be available to other CD players like Windows' built-in CD player. And of course, the next time you use the CD with AudioCrusher, all information will be available again.
Edit ID3 tag...
This will open a dialog where you can modify the ID3v1 tag fields of the selected tracks.
Please note that when you select more than one track, only fields which have the same entry will be shown here. Fields which differ for the current selection will be blank. This typically applies to the artist or album fields of a CD which will usually be the same for every track. Additionally, when you leave a field blank, no changes will be applied to that field.
Rename
This allows you the change the title of the currently selected track. This has the same effect as if the current track was clicked two times (not double-clicked!).Select All
This will select all tracks of the current CD.Invert Selection
This will invert the current selection, i.e. selected tracks will become unselected and vice versa.Copy Tracklist to Clipboard
This will copy the whole track list to the Windows clipboard. This includes the track names, time, size, artist, album etc. Each field will be divided by a tab stop.
This option is useful if you want to use the information for archiving purposes or within a database later on for example.
Rip…
This will open a dialog with many configuration options for the ripping process. Clicking the OK button of this dialog will start ripping all selected tracks of the current CD.
The dialog itself is divided into four tabs:Directory
Here you can specify the directory where you wish to save all the output files.
Use the 'Browse' button to get a comfortable directory selection box.
The specified directory will be created if it does not exist.
Format
Here you can select the output format you wish to convert the CD audio to.
The list of available formats varies according to whether you have one or more of the supported encoders installed.
Select your desired output format in the 'Format' drop-down list. The following choices are always available:
Microsoft Waveform
Microsoft Waveform is the common Windows sound format and is compatible with most sound applications. Select this format if you want to use the audio tracks later within any other sound processing applications or if you want to record the audio tracks to a CD-R later. This output format is loss-less, meaning that the quality remains unchanged during the ripping process (if there are no severe scratches on the source CD).Raw Audio
Raw Audio is loss-less as well. However, it does not write any information about the sound like the sample rate etc. to the output file. Use this format if your sound processing application does not support WAV-files (very unlikely).
Audio Compression Manager
The Audio Compression Manager gives you access to various other sound formats such as WMA and the Frauenhofer MP3 Codec. If you select the Audio Compression Manager as the output module, you will be presented with an ACM Codec selection dialog box, before AudioCrusher will rip your tracks, where you can choose the codec you want to use. What codecs are available on your system depends on many other factors. Newer versions of the Windows Media Player usually ship with many audio codecs.
Other output formats are available as well, but these may require you to install additional components:
LameEnc/BladeEnc MP3 Encoder
These MP3 encoders each require you to download an additional DLL file which you have to unzip into your AudioCrusher directory. The files are available for download here. They will become available the next time you start AudioCrusher.Ogg Vorbis
This new open source format is comparable to MP3 with respect to size and quality. It yields good quality and the best thing is that it is free from any software patents. To use Ogg Vorbis, you have to download an additional DLL file which is available here. The installation procedure is the same as with the MP3 encoders: unzip the DLL file from the archive you downloaded into your AudioCrusher directory and the encoder will be come available the next time you start AudioCrusher.Windows Media Audio
This format is Microsoft's answer to MP3, it is comparable to MP3 in size and quality and some say its quality is even better (You best decide about that). In order to use WMA, you must have the Windows Media components installed, which are available for download form Microsoft here.Command Line Encoder Interface
This is not really an encoder but merely an interface to many other encoders that were made for the MS-DOS or Windows command line environment. See the Command Line Interface options section for more information.
Using uncompressed audio formats will yield the best possible quality but will also lead to very large files. The output files will have the same size as stated in the 'Size' column of the track list.
MPEG Audio Layer 3 via one of the supported encoders is the format which you are most likely to use when you rip audio tracks. It yields a very good compression while still giving good quality, in fact most people will not notice a difference between MP3 and uncompressed audio.
Options (MP3 and WMA)
These options apply to MP3 encoders and Windows Media Audio only.
The selected bit rate affects the output quality of the MP3 file. The higher the bit rate, the better the quality and the bigger the output file.
Variable bit rate allows the encoder to use a lower bit rate when possible, i.e. during silence. Only LameEnc supports variable bit rate at the moment.
In general bit rates between 128kbps and 192kbps are best for good Audio CD-like quality. However if you are using a Mono channel mode you only need half of the bit rate you would use for a Stereo channel mode to get good output quality, usually between 56kbps and 96kbps.
The channel mode selects the way in which channel information is stored in the MP3 files. 'Mono' and 'stereo' are probably self-explanatory. 'Dual Channel' will save the left and right signals as two independent channels, 'Joint Stereo' will look for similarities between the left and the right channel and will so reduce the amount of information which has to be stored.
The 'Frame Bits' are used to set specific bits in the MP3 file. Use 'Private' if this is a private file, 'CRCs' if you want to create a checksum for every frame in the MP3 file, 'Copyrighted' if this file is copyrighted and 'Original' if (guess what) this is the original.Options (Command Line Encoder Interface)
These options apply to the command line encoder interface output module only.
The command line encoder inetrface allows you to use various third-party encoders that were made for MS-DOS or are Windows 32 bit command line programs. There is a wide range of such encoders available and this interface allows you to maintain a collection of profiles which can be extended to support more encoders. Some predefined profiles should be already included in your AudioCrusher release.
When using a predefined profile, make sure that the encoder path setting is correct (i.e. that you have the specified file at the given location).
The available profiles can be selected from the profiles drop-down list.
The encoder path points to the encoder executable (program) file which you would like to use. You can use the browse button to select the file with a more comfortable file selection dialog box.
The parameter settings specify the parameters that should be passed to the encoder. You should see your encoder manual for instructions on what parameters are available for your encoder. At the moment, two special place holders are reserved, these have the following meaning:
The input file, including path. As the command line interface will always produce an intermediate WAV file to pass to the encoder, the format of this file will be WAV, 16bit, 44.1kHz, stereo The output file including path, with the encoder specific extension added You should specify the encoder specific file extension (i.e 'mp3' for an MP3 encoder) in the extension field. This will be appended to the output file path.
Enable the 'Delete intermediate files' option if you would like the WAV input files to be deleted after encoding.
In order to add a new encoder profile, fill in all the parameter settings, file extension, encoder path and enter the desired name of the profile into the profile edit field and press the 'Save profile' button. All profiles will be saved to a file called 'cmdline.ini' in your AudioCrusher directory. If you are interested, you may have a look into this file with a standard text editor such as Notepad.
Normalization
Normalization will raise a songs volume to to given percentage of the maxium possible value. Thus, unlike amplification, normalization will not lead to clipping or distortion of the audio signal.
If normalization is enabled, AudioCrusher will scan each track for its maximum peak value (i.e. the loudest position) and will then normalize the track on the fly while ripping. Thus, there is no need for intermediate space consuming files when normalizing and encoding to MP3, for example. However, normalization requires to read each track twice, the first time only into memory to find the maxium peak value and finally again when the track is ripped and encoded to disk. So the ripping process will take longer when normalization is enabled.
You can set the percentage of the maxium value you would like the tracks to be normalized to here with the slider or by typing in the value into the edit box here.Post-Process
Here you can tell AudioCrusher to automatically create a WinAmp play list of all the output files. The play list will be saved in the same directory as the output files.
Select 'Generate Win-Sfv checksum report' if you want to create a SFV file containing a check sum for each output file. This checksum can be used to determine whether the contents of the output file have changed after the SFV file was created. In general, this is a good idea if you want to distribute the files later on.Play
This will start playing the currently selected audio track. To play another track while CD audio is already playing, just select the desired track and press Play again.Pause
This will pause the CD audio playback. To resume audio playback, press Pause or Play again.Stop
This will stop the current CD audio playback.Load
If your CD drive has a tray loading mechanism and the tray is currently open, this will cause the tray to close.Eject
This will cause the current CD to be ejected, i.e. the CD tray will open, if your CD drive has a tray loading mechanism.Refresh TOC
This will cause AudioCrusher to read the table of contents (TOC) of the CD in the current CD drive. This will also check cdplayer.ini for information on the current CD.
Additionally, if automatic freedb query was selected, this will also query the freedb for information on the current CD.Get freedb Info
This will initiate a freedb query for information on the current CD.
The freedb is a global database for CD information available through the internet.
You have to be connected to the internet to use this option.
By default, AudioCrusher will first try to find information on the CD in the local cdplayer.ini file and then, if no information was found, query the freedb if a new CD was detected.
Configuration
This will open AudioCrusher's configuration dialog. This dialog is divided into three tabs:Naming
These settings will affect how AudioCrusher will set the names of the output files.
You can set the character AudioCrusher will use to replace characters which are not allowed for file names here. Not allowed for filenames are characters like \, /, :, *, ?, \, ", <, >, and |.
Use the 'Replace spaces with underscores' option if you would like AudioCrusher to change spaces in any created filename to an underscore ('_'). This option is useful if you want to use the created files on other operating systems or file systems like Unix.
You can change way how AudioCruher will compile filenames through a system of place holders. Each place holder has its specific function:
The track number of the file which AudioCrusher is about to save, i.e. the output file of track one will get 01, track two will get 02 and so on. Play lists, SFV files and directories will get 00 as a track number. The title of the current track The artist of the current track, for play lists, SFV files and directories this will remain empty, if the artist name does not apply to the whole CD. the album name, again for play lists, SFV files and directories this will remain empty, if the album name does not apply to the whole CD. year, behaviour for play lists etc. is the same as above. genre, behaviour for play lists etc. is the same as above. comment, behaviour for play lists etc. is the same as above. To use one of these place holders, just write them were you would like to have them. Any other text is allowed too, for example if you use Track %1 as a template for filenames, the output file for track five would be Track 05.ext where ext is the format specific extension of the output format.
freedb
Here you can change freedb specific settings.
Enter the address of the server you wish to use for all freedb queries in the server address field or use the 'Sites' button to connect to the freedb to get a list of servers. In general you should use a mirror nearest to you. Check the proxy field if you would like to use a HTTP proxy or if you are behind a firewall. This requires you to fill in the proxy server address and port in their respective fields as well.
You do not have to put your real email address into the identity field. Just leave the default address if you think this would violate your privacy.
By default, AudioCrusher will first try to find information on the CD in the local cdplayer.ini file and then, if no information was found, query the freedb if a new CD was detected. If you would like to change this, use 'Ask' or 'Never'. If 'Ask' is selected, AudioCrusher will ask the user if he/she wants to query the freedb. Use of the freedb can be disabled by selecting the 'Never' option.
The 'Silent operation' option can be used to turn of any error messages which might appear during the freedb query, for example if the connection to the freedb server failed because no internet connection was available at the moment.
You can use the 'Auto-detect compilations' option for a simple CD compilation detection scheme. If a freedb request returns an album title of 'Various <something>' or just 'VA', AudioCrusher will assume that the current CD is a compilation and will assign each track its specific artist name. Turn this option off for very unusual album names or if you are getting wrong cd titles etc.CD Drives
This section only applies to you if you have more than one CD-ROM drive installed in your system.
You can select the drive you want to use to rip audio tracks from the drop-down list. All drives which are installed in your system are listed here. If one or more of your drives are not listed here, the reason could be that AudioCrusher did not recognize your drive(s) properly or they were not configured correctly. If your drive surely works but AudioCrusher did not recognize it then your drive is probably incompatible with AudioCrusher. Please contact us so we can fix this and make your drive work with AudioCrusher.
By default, AudioCruher uses the first CD drive it finds in the system.Misc. Settings
This tab contains various settings that do not fit in a special category.
The 'Write extended playlist information' option causes AudioCrusher to include title and track length information into the created playlists readable by WinAmp.
The 'Use last directory' setting causes AudioCrusher to use the last used directory instead of creating a directory from the 'Directory format' setting in the 'Naming' tab.
The 'Use cdplayer.ini' feature allows AudioCrusher to look for CD title information in the local cdplayer.ini file first before querying the freedb. You can save the current CD's title information to the cdplayer.ini file with the 'Save tracklist' option from the 'File' menu.
The number of frames to rip at once also affects AudioCrusher's buffer memory usage. Usually you should keep the default setting here.
The 'Rip dialog refresh rate' sets how often AudioCrusher will update the progress meters and time indicators of the rip progress dialog. Increase or decrease this value if you are encountering screen flicker. However, you should usually be fine with the default setting here.
The 'Tagging' options can enable or disable various tagging types for different audio formats. ID3 tags are available for MP3 files only. As for this version of AudioCrusher, ID3v2 support is prelimenary, meaning that only the corresponding ID3v1 fields of the ID3v2 tag are used. However, there is one mayor advantage in using ID3v2 instead of ID3v1: There is (virtually) no limit to the length of ID3v2 tags, so long track titles will no longer be cut off, for example.
'Info chunks' is a Windows WAV-file tagging format, which basically stores the same information as ID3 tags. Programmes like the Windows Media Player or sound editors can read these tags. Enabling the use of 'Info chunks' will affect both WAV-files created by the Audio Compression Manager output module and the plain WAV output module.
Use the 'Reset to default settings' button to restore AudioCrusher's factory settings.