| 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 | |
| 9 | |
| 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/ |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Read the README files for a complete list of requirements. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | |
| 27 | 2. EXECUTION |
| 28 | ========= |
| 29 | |
| 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 | Q. I am having problems with *my CD reading program* reading the drive as a |
| 48 | user. |
| 49 | A. You might have to add yourself (or the users who want to use abcde) to the |
| 50 | cdrom group and change the permissions of the cdrom device to 660. If you |
| 51 | have a SCSI cdrom drive, check the permissions of /dev/sg* as well. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the |
| 54 | encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation. |
| 55 | A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database. |
| 56 | You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n". Also, you can |
| 57 | get the CDDB entry and edit it yourself. abcde has also an option to drop |
| 58 | back to a template if you like none of the CDDB entries, selecting 0 from |
| 59 | the CDDB options. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Q. (Thanks to Amaya) Where are those options and settings defined? Why dont |
| 62 | you include a proper abcde.conf as an example? |
| 63 | A. I do. It should be installed under /etc/abcde.conf and contains more or |
| 64 | less all the defaults abcde uses. You can use $(HOME)/.abcde.conf to |
| 65 | override those defaults. More information can be obtained from the man page |
| 66 | which can be consulted using "man abcde". |
| 67 | |
| 68 | Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong? |
| 69 | A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the |
| 70 | different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE |
| 71 | variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable |
| 72 | in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf |
| 73 | |
| 74 | Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working. |
| 75 | A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if |
| 76 | you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your |
| 77 | own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try |
| 78 | to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output |
| 79 | as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | If abcde seems to be ignoring your configuration options or not running |
| 82 | commands such as the encoder, you may have misquoted something. Config |
| 83 | options such as the following do not work: |
| 84 | |
| 85 | LAMEOPTS=-h -k |
| 86 | |
| 87 | Try this instead: |
| 88 | |
| 89 | LAMEOPTS='-h -k' |
| 90 | |
| 91 | Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output |
| 92 | support? |
| 93 | A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the |
| 94 | different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac) |
| 95 | during playlist creation and file/directory creation. |
| 96 | |
| 97 | Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode |
| 98 | it. |
| 99 | A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think |
| 100 | of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should |
| 101 | a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal. |
| 102 | For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde |
| 103 | specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one. |
| 104 | Version 2.2 includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to try to get this |
| 105 | right. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | Q. I am requested to have "eject" when setting the speed although I do not use |
| 108 | it for anything. |
| 109 | A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the |
| 110 | cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "setcd" with "-x" as the argument, |
| 111 | but you have to install it manually (setcd is, at least, available in |
| 112 | Debian). |
| 113 | Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined |
| 114 | in your /etc/abcde.conf file. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | Q. I have a CD set with 1+ discs, and want to have them in the same directory, |
| 117 | sorted properly. What can abcde do for me? |
| 118 | A. Set abcde to rip the first CD and give it the option "-t 101". Use a generic |
| 119 | name for the CD, and reuse it with the rest of the CDs, editing the CDDB |
| 120 | entries. Use "-t 201" for the second CD and so on. Use "-w <comment>" to |
| 121 | add a comment about the CD you are ripping (-w "disc #"). Alternatively you |
| 122 | can use only the "-t ###" option and then move all the files to the same |
| 123 | directory. If you want the tagged track number to be set to the modified |
| 124 | number you should use "-T ###". Even more! If you use "-W <cd_number>", |
| 125 | abcde will put a comment to every CD set ("CD <number>") and use modify the |
| 126 | number of the tracks. |
| 127 | |
| 128 | Q. I have a live concert. I want to encode it in a single file. How do i do it? |
| 129 | A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file. |
| 130 | |
| 131 | 3. CDDB |
| 132 | ==== |
| 133 | |
| 134 | Q. I need to go through an HTTP proxy for CDDB access. |
| 135 | A. No problem, just export your http_proxy variable first so wget/fetch/curl |
| 136 | can see it. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | Q. I already store CDDB entries in my hard disc. Can I make use of them? |
| 139 | A. Piece of cake. Just edit CDDBLOCALDIR to point to the repository and give |
| 140 | abcde the "-L" flag to make use of it. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | Q. Fine, now it uses local CDDB, but I have no network connection. How can I |
| 143 | disable CDDB checks? |
| 144 | A. Use the "-L -n" combination. It will try to use local CDDB entries, and if |
| 145 | nothing can be found, it will use a template. You will be also given the |
| 146 | choice to edit such template. |
| 147 | |
| 148 | Q. How can I use some other CDDB information provider? |
| 149 | A. abcde now uses FreeDB by default. To use a different FreeDB mirror or |
| 150 | another CDDB service, change the CDDBURL option in your abcde.conf. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | |
| 153 | 3. FORMATS |
| 154 | ======= |
| 155 | |
| 156 | Q. What formats can I encode my music to? |
| 157 | A. As for version 2.2, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, |
| 158 | Ogg/Speex, Flac and MPP/MP+(Musepack). Support for AAC will be added once |
| 159 | an FLOSS encoder/decoder is working. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | Q. I want the new *put the newest and coolest codec there* format to be |
| 162 | supported by abcde. Abcde is so cool but i want to encode also to this |
| 163 | new format... |
| 164 | A. Patches are welcome! ;) |
| 165 | No, seriously, if the format is usable, available for Linux and open |
| 166 | source/free software, it should be fairly easy to integrate. Support for |
| 167 | AAC (m4p) should be the next one to be introduced. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not |
| 170 | working. What am I doing wrong? |
| 171 | A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players |
| 172 | and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering |
| 173 | groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding |
| 174 | tools. |
| 175 | These distributions or operative systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as |
| 176 | the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims |
| 177 | and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like |
| 178 | license). |
| 179 | However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although |
| 180 | some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon |
| 181 | now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | UPDATE *** UPDATE |
| 184 | There are at least 3 known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable |
| 185 | players: Rio, iRiver and Neuros. |
| 186 | Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3 |
| 189 | encoding to your system: |
| 190 | Debian : check http://marillat.free.fr to install lame in your system. |
| 191 | others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google. |
| 192 | RedHat : search on rpmfind.net |
| 193 | FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support. |
| 194 | OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME |
| 195 | support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree. |
| 196 | NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc. |
| 197 | |
| 198 | Others : Please, help me here. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension? |
| 201 | A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The |
| 202 | standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | |
| 205 | 4. MISC PROBLEMS |
| 206 | ==== ======== |
| 207 | |
| 208 | Q. What happened with normalize? |
| 209 | A. Normalize has changed its name under Debian, which is the GNU/Linux |
| 210 | distribution for developing abcde (well, is The GNU/Linux Distribution |
| 211 | i only use, at the moment). Now it is called normalize-audio. |
| 212 | If you are using some other flavour of OS, you need to change the name |
| 213 | of the executable in your abcde.conf file. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde. |
| 216 | A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find |
| 217 | a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools |
| 218 | installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just |
| 219 | complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if |
| 220 | cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such |
| 221 | a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to |
| 222 | work them out with your help. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created |
| 225 | with abcde. What I am doing wrong? |
| 226 | A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an |
| 227 | option in the config file. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | OBSOLETE |
| 230 | -------- |
| 231 | Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along |
| 232 | with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong? |
| 233 | A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory, |
| 234 | if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you |
| 235 | are done. |
| 236 | UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action. |
| 237 | |
| 238 | -- |
| 239 | Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es> |