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