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1 | 0. INTRODUCTION |
2 | ============ |
3 | |
4 | Q. Who created abcde? Who develops it nowadays? |
5 | A. It was originally created by Robert Woodcook. He decided to give up |
6 | maintaining it at some point in 2002 and Jesus Climent took over. Contact |
7 | jesus.climent@hispalinux.es if you have a problem or a suggestion. |
8 | |
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9 | |
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10 | 1. INSTALLATION |
11 | ============ |
12 | |
13 | Q. How can I install abcde on my system? |
14 | A. To get abcde you can use a pre-packaged version, available for Debian, |
15 | FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and others. |
16 | In case you want to install your own release, you need to download the |
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17 | source and install the complementary programs (abcde is just a frontend |
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18 | and its functionality is provided by other programs). |
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19 | |
20 | abcde needs cd-discid. Grab it from: |
21 | http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/files/cd-discid/ |
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22 | |
23 | Read the README files for a complete list of requirements. |
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24 | |
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25 | Q. I have a problem, and I reported some time ago. Have you solved it already? |
26 | A. Maybe. Try downloading the trunk of the development from |
27 | http://svn.hispalinux.es/svn/abcde/trunk |
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28 | |
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29 | Q. When are you going to release a new version? |
30 | A. When it is ready. I keep on having new ideas and adding them to the trunk |
31 | (stored in the URL above), so I dont release until all the ideas are |
32 | finished. |
33 | |
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34 | |
35 | 2. EXECUTION |
36 | ========= |
37 | |
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38 | Q. I want to force abcde 2.x to behave more like 1.x. How do I do it? |
39 | A. Put these options in your abcde.conf: |
40 | |
41 | INTERACTIVE=n |
42 | OUTPUTTYPE=mp3 |
43 | ID3TAGV=1 |
44 | |
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45 | Q. Low on disk space? |
46 | A. abcde has different algorithms to schedule ripping and encoding - to |
47 | optimize for disk conservation, use -l. You can also define |
48 | WAVOUTPUTDIR=/some/other/path to your /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf to |
49 | store the WAV files on another NFS shared fisk, for example. |
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50 | Also, UNIX pipes have also been implemented, using "-P", so abcde reads and |
51 | encodes the tracks from the CD at once. However, it has the drawback that |
52 | only one format can be encoded at a time. |
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53 | |
54 | Q. How can i make abcde encode faster? My CD reader is way faster than the pace |
55 | it can encode my tracks. |
56 | A. abcde can take advantage of SMP systems, just like make. Try 'abcde -j 2' - |
57 | it'll run two encoder jobs while it rips the next track. |
58 | You can also make use of systems which are networked, with the help of |
59 | distmp3. For example, MachineA has a better CPU power and MachineB has a CD |
60 | drive. Run distmp3host (included in distmp3) on Machine A, and then run |
61 | abcde -r MachineA from MachineB (where "MachineA" is a dns name or IP |
62 | address). Use this in combination with '-j 0' to shift all encoding off the |
63 | local machine. |
64 | |
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65 | Q. I am having problems with *my CD reading program* reading the drive as a |
66 | user. |
67 | A. You might have to add yourself (or the users who want to use abcde) to the |
68 | cdrom group and change the permissions of the cdrom device to 660. If you |
69 | have a SCSI cdrom drive, check the permissions of /dev/sg* as well. |
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70 | |
71 | Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the |
72 | encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation. |
73 | A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database. |
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74 | You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n". Also, you can |
75 | get the CDDB entry and edit it yourself. abcde has also an option to drop |
76 | back to a template if you like none of the CDDB entries, selecting 0 from |
77 | the CDDB options. |
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78 | |
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79 | Q. (Thanks to Amaya) Where are those options and settings defined? Why dont |
80 | you include a proper abcde.conf as an example? |
81 | A. I do. It should be installed under /etc/abcde.conf and contains more or |
82 | less all the defaults abcde uses. You can use $(HOME)/.abcde.conf to |
83 | override those defaults. More information can be obtained from the man page |
84 | which can be consulted using "man abcde". |
85 | |
86 | Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong? |
87 | A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the |
88 | different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE |
89 | variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable |
90 | in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf |
91 | |
92 | Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working. |
93 | A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if |
94 | you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your |
95 | own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try |
96 | to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output |
97 | as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use. |
98 | |
99 | If abcde seems to be ignoring your configuration options or not running |
100 | commands such as the encoder, you may have misquoted something. Config |
101 | options such as the following do not work: |
102 | |
103 | LAMEOPTS=-h -k |
104 | |
105 | Try this instead: |
106 | |
107 | LAMEOPTS='-h -k' |
108 | |
109 | Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output |
110 | support? |
111 | A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the |
112 | different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac) |
113 | during playlist creation and file/directory creation. |
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114 | |
115 | Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode |
116 | it. |
117 | A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think |
118 | of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should |
119 | a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal. |
120 | For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde |
121 | specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one. |
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122 | From version 2.2 onwards, abcde includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to |
123 | try to get this right. |
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124 | |
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125 | Q. I am requested to have "eject" when setting the speed although I do not use |
126 | it for anything. |
127 | A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the |
128 | cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "setcd" with "-x" as the argument, |
129 | but you have to install it manually (setcd is, at least, available in |
130 | Debian). |
131 | Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined |
132 | in your /etc/abcde.conf file. |
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133 | |
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134 | Q. I have a CD set with 1+ discs, and want to have them in the same directory, |
135 | sorted properly. What can abcde do for me? |
136 | A. Set abcde to rip the first CD and give it the option "-t 101". Use a generic |
137 | name for the CD, and reuse it with the rest of the CDs, editing the CDDB |
138 | entries. Use "-t 201" for the second CD and so on. Use "-w <comment>" to |
139 | add a comment about the CD you are ripping (-w "disc #"). Alternatively you |
140 | can use only the "-t ###" option and then move all the files to the same |
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141 | directory, but the tag/comment information on the files will differ. If you |
142 | want the tagged track number to be set to the modified number you should use |
143 | "-T ###". |
144 | Even better! If you use "-W <cd_number>", abcde will put a comment to every |
145 | CD set ("CD <number>") and modify the number of the tracks both in the file |
146 | name and the tag/comment information. |
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147 | |
148 | Q. I have a live concert. I want to encode it in a single file. How do i do it? |
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149 | A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file. Use "-M" to make a CUE |
150 | sheet file where the information about the tracks is stored. |
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151 | |
152 | 3. CDDB |
153 | ==== |
154 | |
155 | Q. I need to go through an HTTP proxy for CDDB access. |
156 | A. No problem, just export your http_proxy variable first so wget/fetch/curl |
157 | can see it. |
158 | |
159 | Q. I already store CDDB entries in my hard disc. Can I make use of them? |
160 | A. Piece of cake. Just edit CDDBLOCALDIR to point to the repository and give |
161 | abcde the "-L" flag to make use of it. |
162 | |
163 | Q. Fine, now it uses local CDDB, but I have no network connection. How can I |
164 | disable CDDB checks? |
165 | A. Use the "-L -n" combination. It will try to use local CDDB entries, and if |
166 | nothing can be found, it will use a template. You will be also given the |
167 | choice to edit such template. |
168 | |
169 | Q. How can I use some other CDDB information provider? |
170 | A. abcde now uses FreeDB by default. To use a different FreeDB mirror or |
171 | another CDDB service, change the CDDBURL option in your abcde.conf. |
172 | |
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173 | Q. After requesting CDDB data, I received several answers which seem to be |
174 | quite alike. Can I find out the difference between some of them? |
175 | A. Yes. When asked which one you want to select, use "X,Y" where X and Y are |
176 | the numbers of the selections you want to find the difference between. |
177 | |
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178 | |
179 | 3. FORMATS |
180 | ======= |
181 | |
182 | Q. What formats can I encode my music to? |
183 | A. As for version 2.2, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, |
184 | Ogg/Speex, Flac and MPP/MP+(Musepack). Support for AAC will be added once |
185 | an FLOSS encoder/decoder is working. |
186 | |
187 | Q. I want the new *put the newest and coolest codec there* format to be |
188 | supported by abcde. Abcde is so cool but i want to encode also to this |
189 | new format... |
190 | A. Patches are welcome! ;) |
191 | No, seriously, if the format is usable, available for Linux and open |
192 | source/free software, it should be fairly easy to integrate. Support for |
193 | AAC (m4p) should be the next one to be introduced. |
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194 | |
195 | Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not |
196 | working. What am I doing wrong? |
197 | A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players |
198 | and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering |
199 | groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding |
200 | tools. |
201 | These distributions or operative systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as |
202 | the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims |
203 | and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like |
204 | license). |
205 | However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although |
206 | some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon |
207 | now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3. |
208 | |
209 | UPDATE *** UPDATE |
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210 | There are known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable players: Rio, |
211 | iRiver, Neuros, iAudio,... |
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212 | Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3. |
213 | |
214 | If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3 |
215 | encoding to your system: |
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216 | Debian : check http://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat to install lame in your |
217 | system. Others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google. |
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218 | RedHat : search on rpmfind.net |
219 | FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support. |
220 | OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME |
221 | support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree. |
222 | NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc. |
223 | |
224 | Others : Please, help me here. |
225 | |
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226 | Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension? |
227 | A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The |
228 | standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension. |
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229 | |
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230 | |
231 | 4. MISC PROBLEMS |
232 | ==== ======== |
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233 | |
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234 | Q. What happened with normalize? |
235 | A. Normalize has changed its name under Debian, which is the GNU/Linux |
236 | distribution for developing abcde (well, is The GNU/Linux Distribution |
237 | i only use, at the moment). Now it is called normalize-audio. |
238 | If you are using some other flavour of OS, you need to change the name |
239 | of the executable in your abcde.conf file. |
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240 | |
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241 | Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde. |
242 | A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find |
243 | a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools |
244 | installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just |
245 | complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if |
246 | cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such |
247 | a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to |
248 | work them out with your help. |
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249 | |
250 | Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created |
251 | with abcde. What I am doing wrong? |
252 | A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an |
253 | option in the config file. |
254 | |
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255 | OBSOLETE |
256 | -------- |
257 | Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along |
258 | with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong? |
259 | A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory, |
260 | if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you |
261 | are done. |
262 | UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action. |
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263 | |
264 | -- |
265 | Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es> |