Q. Who created abcde? Who develops it nowadays?
A. It was originally created by Robert Woodcook. He decided to give up
- maintaining it at some point in 2002 and Jesus Climent took over. Contact
- jesus.climent@hispalinux.es if you have a problem or a suggestion.
+ maintaining it at some point in 2002 and Jesus Climent took over. In 2012,
+ Colin Tuckley and Steve McIntyre joined in to help. Contact
+ jesus.climent@hispalinux.es, colint@debian.org or 93sam@debian.org if you
+ have a problem or a suggestion.
1. INSTALLATION
A. To get abcde you can use a pre-packaged version, available for Debian,
FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and others.
In case you want to install your own release, you need to download the
- sources and install the complementary programs (abcde is just a frontend
+ source and install the complementary programs (abcde is just a frontend
and its functionality is provided by other programs).
- Read
abcde needs cd-discid. Grab it from:
http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/files/cd-discid/
Read the README files for a complete list of requirements.
+
+Q. I have a problem, and I reported some time ago. Have you solved it already?
+A. Maybe. Try downloading the trunk of the development from
+ http://abcde.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/
+Q. When are you going to release a new version?
+A. When it is ready. I keep on having new ideas and adding them to the trunk
+ (stored in the URL above), so I dont release until all the ideas are
+ finished.
+
2. EXECUTION
=========
+Q. I want to force abcde 2.x to behave more like 1.x. How do I do it?
+A. Put these options in your abcde.conf:
+
+ INTERACTIVE=n
+ OUTPUTTYPE=mp3
+ ID3TAGV=1
+
Q. Low on disk space?
A. abcde has different algorithms to schedule ripping and encoding - to
optimize for disk conservation, use -l. You can also define
WAVOUTPUTDIR=/some/other/path to your /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf to
store the WAV files on another NFS shared fisk, for example.
+ Also, UNIX pipes have also been implemented, using "-P", so abcde reads and
+ encodes the tracks from the CD at once. However, it has the drawback that
+ only one format can be encoded at a time.
Q. How can i make abcde encode faster? My CD reader is way faster than the pace
it can encode my tracks.
Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode
it.
-A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think
+A. From version 2.2 onwards, abcde includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to
+ try to get this right.
+ (It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think
of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should
a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal.
For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde
- specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one.
- Version 2.2 includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to try to get this
- right.
+ specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one).
Q. I am requested to have "eject" when setting the speed although I do not use
it for anything.
entries. Use "-t 201" for the second CD and so on. Use "-w <comment>" to
add a comment about the CD you are ripping (-w "disc #"). Alternatively you
can use only the "-t ###" option and then move all the files to the same
- directory. If you want the tagged track number to be set to the modified
- number you should use "-T ###". Even more! If you use "-W <cd_number>",
- abcde will put a comment to every CD set ("CD <number>") and use modify the
- number of the tracks.
+ directory, but the tag/comment information on the files will differ. If you
+ want the tagged track number to be set to the modified number you should use
+ "-T ###".
+ Even better! If you use "-W <cd_number>", abcde will put a comment to every
+ CD set ("CD <number>") and modify the number of the tracks both in the file
+ name and the tag/comment information.
Q. I have a live concert. I want to encode it in a single file. How do i do it?
-A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file.
+A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file. Use "cue" as an action to
+ make a CUE sheet file where the information about the tracks is stored.
+
+Q. Can I use abcde to take a backup of my CD collection?
+A. Yes. Use "abcde -1 -o flac -a default,cue" and it will create a single-track
+ FLAC file with an embedded cuesheet. Later on, you can use the command
+ "abcde -o vorbis -d flac-file.flac" to extract the individual tracks in
+ Ogg/Vorbis format. Of course you can select whatever format you want.
+
-3. CDDB
- ====
+3. CDDB and Musicbrainz
+ ====================
Q. I need to go through an HTTP proxy for CDDB access.
A. No problem, just export your http_proxy variable first so wget/fetch/curl
A. abcde now uses FreeDB by default. To use a different FreeDB mirror or
another CDDB service, change the CDDBURL option in your abcde.conf.
+Q. After requesting CDDB data, I received several answers which seem to be
+ quite alike. Can I find out the difference between some of them?
+A. Yes. When asked which one you want to select, use "X,Y" where X and Y are
+ the numbers of the selections you want to find the difference between.
+
+Q. I don't like CDDB/FreeDB. How can I use Musicbrainz instead?
+A. Set CDDBMETHOD=musicbrainz and try it!
3. FORMATS
=======
now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3.
UPDATE *** UPDATE
- There are at least 3 known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable
- players: Rio, iRiver and Neuros.
+ There are known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable players: Rio,
+ iRiver, Neuros, iAudio,...
Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3.
If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3
encoding to your system:
- Debian : check http://marillat.free.fr to install lame in your system.
- others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google.
+ Debian : check http://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat to install lame in your
+ system. Others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google.
RedHat : search on rpmfind.net
FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support.
OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME
a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools
installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just
complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if
- cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such
- a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to
- work them out with your help.
+ icedax/cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have
+ such a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will
+ try to work them out with your help.
Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created
with abcde. What I am doing wrong?
HCoop / clinton / abcde.git / blobdiff