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1 | |
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2 | Q. What happened with normalize? |
3 | A. Normalize has changed its name under Debian, which is the GNU/Linux |
4 | distribution for developing abcde (well, is The GNU/Linux Distribution |
5 | i only use, at the moment). Now it is called normalize-audio. |
6 | If you are using some other flavour of OS, you need to change the name |
7 | of the executable in your abcde.conf file. |
8 | |
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9 | Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde. |
10 | A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find |
11 | a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools |
12 | installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just |
13 | complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if |
14 | cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such |
15 | a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to |
16 | work them out with your help. |
17 | |
18 | Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the |
19 | encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation. |
20 | A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database. |
21 | You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n". |
22 | |
23 | Q. What formats can I encode my music to? |
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24 | A. As for version 2.2, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, |
25 | Ogg/Speex, Flac and MPP/MP+(Musepack). |
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26 | |
27 | Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode |
28 | it. |
29 | A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think |
30 | of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should |
31 | a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal. |
32 | For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde |
33 | specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one. |
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34 | Version 2.2 includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to try to get this |
35 | right. |
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36 | |
37 | Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output |
38 | support? |
39 | A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the |
40 | different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac) |
41 | during playlist creation and file/directory creation. |
42 | |
43 | Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong? |
44 | A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the |
45 | different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE |
46 | variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable |
47 | in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf |
48 | |
49 | Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not |
50 | working. What am I doing wrong? |
51 | A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players |
52 | and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering |
53 | groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding |
54 | tools. |
55 | These distributions or operative systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as |
56 | the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims |
57 | and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like |
58 | license). |
59 | However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although |
60 | some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon |
61 | now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3. |
62 | |
63 | UPDATE *** UPDATE |
64 | There are at least 3 known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable |
65 | players: Rio, iRiver and Neuros. |
66 | Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3. |
67 | |
68 | If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3 |
69 | encoding to your system: |
70 | Debian : check http://marillat.free.fr to install lame in your system. |
71 | others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google. |
72 | RedHat : search on rpmfind.net |
73 | FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support. |
74 | OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME |
75 | support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree. |
76 | NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc. |
77 | |
78 | Others : Please, help me here. |
79 | |
80 | Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working. |
81 | A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if |
82 | you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your |
83 | own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try |
84 | to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output |
85 | as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use. |
86 | |
87 | Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created |
88 | with abcde. What I am doing wrong? |
89 | A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an |
90 | option in the config file. |
91 | |
92 | Q. I am requested to have eject when setting the speed although I do not use |
93 | for anything. |
94 | A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the |
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95 | cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "setcd" with "-x" as the argument, |
96 | but you have to install it manually (setcd is, at least, available in |
97 | Debian). |
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98 | Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined |
99 | in your /etc/abcde.conf file. |
100 | |
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101 | Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension? |
102 | A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The |
103 | standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension. |
104 | |
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105 | Q. I want the new *put the newest and coolest codec there* format to be |
106 | supported by abcde. Abcde is so cool but i want to encode also to this |
107 | new format... |
108 | A. Patches are welcome! ;) |
109 | No, seriously, if the format is usable, available for Linux and open |
110 | source/free software, it should be fairly easy to integrate. Support for |
111 | AAC (m4p) should be the next one to be introduced. |
112 | |
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113 | Q. (Thanks to Amaya) Where are those options and settings defined? Why dont |
114 | you include a proper abcde.conf as an example? |
115 | A. I do. It should be installed under /etc/abcde.conf and contains more or |
116 | less all the defaults abcde uses. You can use $(HOME)/.abcde.conf to |
117 | override those defaults. |
118 | |
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119 | OBSOLETE |
120 | -------- |
121 | Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along |
122 | with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong? |
123 | A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory, |
124 | if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you |
125 | are done. |
126 | UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action. |