1MP3c and batch-files
2--------------------
3
4MP3c has two different modes: an interactive mode, where you can use the
5menu-environment to do what you want, and the non-interactive mode (also called
6batch-mode), where only a shell script for automatic encoding is created.
7
8You can create batch-files in both modes.
91) In interactive-mode press F5 or '5' to open a directory-requester where the
10batch-file should stored. Select the destination-directory, press F1 and then
11enter the filename you want to use. Voila, your script-file is created. The
12advantage in interactive-mode is that your current settings would be used. So
13you can first enter all data in the correct way, and select the tracks you
14want to encode (in non-interactive mode, all tracks would be used).
15
162) In non-interactive mode you start MP3c with -b option, followed by the
17filename for your new script:
18>[ws1ls@excelsior src]$ ./mp3c -b mp3c-batch1
19>WSPse MP3c - Batchmode, noninteractive
20>reading config
21>loading configuration
22>configuration loaded
23>reading TOC of cd
24>building up data tree
25>lookup CDDB entry
26>look in local CDDB
27>building shellscript
28>ready...
29
30Furthermore you can add the following options:
31-i <config-file>, to define another config-file from default.
32-d <cdrom-device>, to define another cdrom-device.
33
34New in version 0.20 is the option:
35-t <temp-dir>, to define where ripped files should be stored before encoding.
36This Option overwrites tmp-directory definition from config-file.
37
38The batch/script-files:
39-----------------------
40MP3c V0.19 (and older versions) created script-files without any options, they
41would only do for what they were created. With V0.20 this files are totally
42different.
43While creation of the new script-files, MP3c does not look for the settings of
44"on-the-fly encoding flags" and "rip first, before encoding" any longer.
45The magic is now in the script-files itself.
46
47You can see all available options, if you call the script with "-h" parameter:
48>[ws1ls@excelsior src]$ ~/mp3c-batch1 -h
49>
50>Available options for this script:
51>-1: rip tracks only and exit
52>-2: only encode (tracks must be already ripped for this)
53>-3: create mp3's on the fly
54>-a <order>: rip and encode by <order> (default)
55> order = 0: encode track directly after ripping
56> order = 1: first rip all tracks and then start encoding (default)
57>-v: activate verbose mode
58>-O: disable STDOUT from external programs
59>-o: enable STDOUT (default)
60>-E: disable STDERR (default)
61>-e: enable STDERR
62>-V: show script-version information
63>-h: this help
64
65Well, let us look at the different options:
66The first thing is the verbosity of the script. Normally there is a great
67overhead from ripper and encoder-program, particularly if on-the-fly encoding
68is used. You have the possibility to control the stdout and stderr-messages
69separately. By default the script would show the output from stdout, but hide
70all output coming from stderr. You can control this with the options -o, -O,
71-e and -E. In most cases it makes sense to use "-O -E" to ignore any output.
72Well, not only the external programs want to talk, also the script itself. You
73can use the "-v" option to switch the script into the verbosity modus. It will
74then tell you which track is ripped or encoded, in generally whats going on.
75I think it is a great deal to use "-v -O -E", so you have only a small, but
76informative output (great if used from cron-jobs, etc).
77
78Now to the interesting part of the script-modi:
79-1: If you use this option, the cd is read and each track is ripped (and saved
80 into the the temp-dir). After this, the script will exit.
81-2: This is the option you should use, after running the script with "-1",
82 because it will encode the temp-files, set mp3-id tags and updates the
83 m3u-playlistfile. After all tracks are ready, the script exits.
84-3: If you use this option, all tracks will be encoded in on-the-fly modus.
85
86If you plan to encode one cd by another, there are two further modes:
87-a 1: All tracks will be ripped and then encoded. This is like calling the
88 script two times, first with "-1" and then with "-2". You see "-a 1" is
89 a short form for this, without existing after ripping the cd.
90-a 0: This mode would do the same like "-a 1", but you don't need so much
91 memory on your hard disk, because encoding is done after a track is
92 ripped.
93
94Rip more than one cd before encoding
95------------------------------------
96So, this is easily done, with these new batch-files (with a newer version it
97will be possible to do this even in interactive-mode).
98First create batch-files for your cds you want to encode, and start each
99script-file with "-1" (hope you have enough disk space ;-). After you ripped
100all the cds, you can start the script-files with "-2".
101
102Lets say you want to encode 3 cds:
103a) insert first cd and type:
104 mp3c -b batch1 && ./batch1 -1 -v -O -E
105b) change cd now, and insert the second one:
106 mp3c -b batch2 && ./batch2 -1 -v -O -E
107c) so, now your tmp-directory is full, but you have the partition /mnt/part2
108 with some more diskspace. So insert the third cd:
109 mp3c -b batch3 -t /mnt/part2/ && ./batch3 -1 -v -O -E
110
111At this moment all tracks are ripped and sit safely on your harddisk (so
112you give the cds back to your friends, eh ;-). Since encoding takes a lot of
113CPU-cyles you might want to do this over night. No problem at all. Just type
114this, before going to bed:
115 ./batch1 -2 -v -O -E && ./batch2 -2 -v -O -E && ./batch3 -2 -v -O -E
116And in the next morning (if you have a fast CPU ;-) all your new mp3-files are
117ready.
118
119Matthias Hensler, WSPse, 8/1999 (written)
120Matthias Hensler, WSPse, 3/2000 (updated)
121
1 MP3c - an automated audio-cd -> mp3 converter
2
31. What is this program?
4------------------------
5If you like music, you may know the MP3-format. This format was developed to
6save you favourite music in little files (normally about 3-4 MB), so that you
7can save a lot of different songs on your hard-drive and play it.
8
9If you have many audio-cds you may be want to convert it to mp3-format without
10much work. So you got this program, and you will be able to insert a cd and
11encode it without any problems. Yes, you even can put this program into your
12CRONTAB and do the encode automatically (just insert one cd in the evening and
13go to bed. On the next morning you will have your new mp3-files on your
14hard-disk ;-)
15
162. How does it works?
17---------------------
18Unfortunately you cannot find any information about artist and title on the
19cd, at the moment. Therefore an huge database called CDDB exists.
20With a special algorithm you could calculate an hash-value from the number and
21length of tracks on your cd and get an unique ID in most cases. With this ID
22you can receive useful information about a cd (eg album-title and title of each
23song) if you ask a CDDB-server.
24Well, this isn't trivial if you have a sampler-cd with many different artists.
25An CDDB-entry stores only one global artist for the complete cd. Fortunately,
26you often can find artist information in the track-title field. MP3c tries to
27find as much as possible of this informations (I will later explain some
28things about this).
29
30If you only have this program and nothing else, hmmm, you have a problem ;-)
31You know the UN*X-philosophies (you have an UN*X-system installed, do you? If
32not go and get a copy of Linux)? Normally you have one tool for one task, so
33this program does not grab the audio-data from your cds, nor encode it to
34mp3-format. This is a task for some other programs. You should look for such
35programs (you can use any program that you like).
36
373. What do you need?
38--------------------
39Like explained in (2.) you should have a working cdripper and an mp3-encoder
40on your system. To set up MP3-ID-fields you also need a program which can set
41these tags.
42It is also useful to have access to any CDDB-server to receive information
43about a cd automatically (or you have to type in every information by your own).
44You can also look for an current package with lots of CDDB-entries, but it
45costs you a lot of space on your hard-disk.
46
47Here you can get useful software, if you need it:
48a) cdripper:
49 -Cd-paranoia:
50 http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/xiphmont/cdparanoia/index.html
51 -cdda2wav:
52 http://www.fokus.gmd.de/nthp/employees/schilling/cdrecord.html
53
54b) mp3encoder:
55 ftp://wopr.campus.luth.se/pub/mpeg_layer_3
56 http://bladeenc.mp3.no
57 http://www.sulaco.org/mp3
58
59c) mp3info:
60 ftp://ftp.ssi.aaum.pt/pub/linux/mp3info/mp3info-0.3.1.tgz
61
62You also find a package which include all needed programs at once on:
63ftp://ftp.wspse.de/pub/linux/wspse
64
65Using of "cdparanoia":
66If you use cdparanoia with MP3c in interactive mode, you won't see any
67progress information when you grab an audio-track. MP3c reads information from
68cdparanoia over a pipe, and cdparanoia won't output any progress-information
69to a pipe (don't know why). Since MP3c can handle the normal output of
70cdparanoia without any problems, you should patch cdparanoia.
71Look for the procedure "static void callback" in the "main.c"-file of the
72Cd-paranoia package (in the current version its around line 348). You find
73there the expression
74 static printit=-1;
75change it to
76 static printit=1;
77and you can see progress of ripping in MP3c.
78
79Using of "encoder":
80If you want to see information about bit-rate, etc. with encoder 1.02, you must
81insert one line. This isn't really necessary, since progress-information is
82handled correctly by encoder, but maybe you want to see every other
83information ;-)
84The file "musicin.c" has a procedure called "void print_config".
85Just insert
86 fflush(stdout);
87after the last printf-line.
88
89Note about patching:
90It isn't necessary to patch any of the programs, you will only miss some
91progress information. You can find diff-files included in this package, just
92use the "patch"-command to patch cdparanoia and/or encoder (see manual page of
93patch for more information).
94If you downloaded the complete package from
95"ftp://excelsior.kullen.rwth-aachen.de/pub/linux/wspse", you're happy, because
96the included packages are already patched.
97
984. How to build this program
99----------------------------
100You find some useful information in the "INSTALL"-file coming with this
101package. Like usual on UN*X-systems, you can build MP3c by typing
102
103./configure [--enable-oggdefaults]
104make install
105
106in the top-directory of this package.
107If you specify "--enable-oggdefaults" the compiled in default values will
108be suitable for encoding OGG files.
109Default prefix is "/usr/local", you can change it by typing
110"./configure --prefix=[dir]".
111Main-program "mp3c" is stored in "$prefix/bin/mp3c", the manual page in
112"$prefix/man/man1/mp3c.1". There aren't any more files.
113
1145. Configure MP3c
115-----------------
116On startup, MP3c looks for a config-file, containing information about
117default-cdrom-device, CDDB-server, filename-creation pattern, and similar. It
118first looks in the home-directory of the user who started the program, for the
119file ".mp3crc". If it cannot find a config file here, it looks for
120"$prefix/etc/mp3crc".
121You can specify another config-file by calling MP3c with the arguments
122"-i <file>".
123If no config-file is found, MP3c uses in-compiled defaults.
124
125An example-config file will be created, if you start mp3c interactively and
126exit. You can edit the new config-file (look for "~/.mp3crc") manually, or use
127the built-in option-menu.
128
1296. Running MP3c
130---------------
131There are two different modes:
132a) interactively with menu-environment (based on ncurses-library)
133b) batch-mode (where the program only produce a shell-script and exits)
134
1357. Running MP3c normally (interactive)
136--------------------------------------
137On startup MP3c reads config-file and get the TOC of the cd inserted in your
138cdrom-device. It then tries to receive CDDB-information.
139After this you can see the content of the cd (or an error-message if MP3c
140wasn't able to initialise, forgot to insert cd? ;-)
141All entries will displayed with yellow colour to signalise that this tracks
142should be converted to mp3-format (all tracks which should be converted will
143display white).
144There is a long cursor-bar which shows you the current track. On the bottom of
145the screen you also see a little status window about the current track.
146
147You can use the arrow-keys to move the bar up and down. For fast scrolling you
148can also use page-up and -down key, and Pos1 and End-key.
149Each track is displayed with his title and the artist-name in brackets.
150On the bottom you also see the album-name, the output-file name, the year, the
151genre and the on-the-fly field of the selected track.
152
153First you should know, what it means if a track is selected or not:
154As default all tracks are selected (they are displayed with yellow colour).
155These selected tracks will be converted to mp3-format later.
156If you doesn't want to convert the complete cd, you can press "SPACE" or
157"DELETE" to unselect a track (it will then displayed with white/gray colour).
158To reselect a track, just press "SPACE" or "DELETE" on an unselected track.
159If you press "*" you reverse selection/unselection-flag. All tracks which are
160selected at the moment will become unselected and vice-versa.
161
162If you ever encounter a problem, just press "F1" or "H" to get a little help.
163
1647a. How to change information about tracks.
165-------------------------------------------
166If there wasn't any CDDB-entry available, or wrong information, you can
167manually change the information.
168The first thing may, that artist-name and song-title are permuted. This
169sometimes happens on sampler-cds with various artists. You can press here "s"
170to swap artist and title of the current track, or "ALT+s" to swap it for all
171selected tracks.
172
173To input the artist-name for the current track, press "a".
174To input the title press "t".
175With "b" you can input the album-name of the current track.
176"y" let you input the year for the track, and "c" a comment.
177With "g" you can select the genre.
178If you press "o" you toggle the "on-the-fly" flag (I will explain this later).
179
180For some information it is not useful to input it more than one time.
181Therefore you can use the ALT-key.
182This will perform operation on all tracks which are selected.
183If you press "ALT+b" for example, you can input the album-title for all
184selected tracks.
185If this isn't useful, (eg on title) you will asked for each track separately.
186In this case you can press the ALT-key together with the SHIFT-key. So
187"ALT-SHIFT+t" ask you for a title and set it for all selected tracks. This
188isn't really useful for track-titles, but for the year.
189
190It should be obviously how this works
191
192NEW: Alter-menu. See above for more information.
193
1947b. Other keys
195--------------
196"F1" opens a little help-window.
197With "F2" you enter the option-menu.
198"F3" finally starts the encoding of all selected tracks.
199If you only want to convert the current track, press "F4".
200To create a shell-script, press "F5". You can now select a directory and a
201filename for this script.
202With "F6" you can rip all tracks without encoding (see below) or rip just
203the actual track by pressing "F7".
204To exit the program press "F12". If you enabled "auto-save", your
205configuration will saved automatically.
206
207With TAB you can change to the right side of the window. See below for
208details.
209
210After inserting a new cd, press "v" to initialise the new volume.
211One special key is "F" (press "SHIFT+f"). This contacts the CDDB-server and
212receive every available entry for the inserted cd, even if you have an entry
213in your local database.
214
215"w", "W", "r", and "d" for special tracklist handling (see below).
216
217Use "p" to play the current track from CD, press "x" to stop playing.
218With "e" you can open, with "E" (Shift+"e") you can close the tray of your
219CDrom (if supported).
220
221"l" locks/unlocks remote CDDB access.
222"m" saves the data of the current cd in your local CDDB database.
223"M" (Shift+"m") transmits the data to the internet CDDB server.
224
2257c. Options
226-----------
227With "F2" you open the options-menu. Here you can configure all things, save
228and load a configuration (you can of course edit your configuration-file
229manually).
230
231Available options:
232*) cdrom-device: This is your cdrom-device you want to use to grab your
233 audio-cd. (it should be work with your ripper of course).
234 Default: "/dev/cdrom"
235*) cddb-server: This is the server which is connected to get information about
236 your cds. It consists of a server-name and a port-number,
237 separated by a colon ":". If you don't have access to
238 internet, but a local database, or just want to input data
239 manually, input a single zero "0" for cddb-server, and no
240 connect is tried.
241 You can seperate more CDDB servers by comma.
242 Default: "freedb.org:888,cddb.cddb.com:8880"
243*) cddb-mailaddress: To this address your CDDB entries are submitted.
244 You can seperate more address by a comma. Each entry
245 consists of the userpart an "at" (@) and the domain.
246 Default: "freedb-submit@freedb.org"
247*) smtp-server: This is your relaying SMTP server. Like the cddb-server it
248 consists of a servername and a port-number/name seperated by
249 a colon. This server is used to send a mail to the cddb-
250 server, so make sure that the entry is correct (and relaying
251 allowed).
252 Default: localhost:smtp
253*) my-mailaddress: This is your mailaddress which will be used as sender for
254 your CDDB entries. If these address is not correct your
255 SMTP server might refuse relaying.
256 Default: user@localhost
257*) cddb-directory: Each CDDB-entry which is loaded from cddb-server must be
258 stored in a directory. You should insert the cddb-dir of
259 your default cd-player (eg kscd or xmcd). Select directory
260 with the requester and press "F1".
261 Default: "/opt/kde/share/apps/kscd/cddb/"
262*) remote-cddb-access: This enables or disabled remote CDDB access. This
263 switch can also set by pressing "l" outside the
264 optionwindow.
265 Default: yes (enabled)
266*) mp3-directory: Directory where new created mp3-files will be stored.
267 Default: "./"
268*) pattern: You can define how the filenames of new created mp3-files should
269 look like. Input a pattern and be happy.
270 Of course you can use special strings for title, artist, and so
271 on:
272 %1 will be replaced with artist-name.
273 %2 will be replaced with song-title.
274 %3 will be replaced with album-name.
275 %4 will be replaced with genre.
276 %5 will be replaced with year.
277 %6 will be replaced with track-number.
278 %7 will be replaced with track-number zero-padded ("1" -> "01")
279 %8 will be replaced with the CDDB discid.
280 Default: "%1-%2.mp3"
281 Also nice: "%1-%3-%7-%2.mp3"
282 NEW: You can use slashes ("/"). MP3c will create all needed
283 subdirectories automatically, even in batch-scripts (there it
284 uses "mkdir -p <dir>"). So you can even use a pattern like
285 this: "%1/%3-%5/%7-%2.mp3".
286*) pattern-mode: Select how spaces in filenames will be handled.
287 A value of "0" allows spaces in filenames. "1" says that any
288 space should be converted to an user defined character. If
289 you input a value of "2" every space will be killed.
290*) space-replace-character: this character will used to replace spaces if
291 patternmode is "1".
292*) case-change: Select case of filenames.
293 A value of "0" will leave the case untouched. "1" says that
294 the filename should be converted to lower case. If you input a
295 value of "2" the filename will be converted to upper case.
296 Example: the filename consists of "ArTiSt"
297 0: untouched, will output "ArTiSt"
298 1: lower, will output "artist"
299 2: upper, will output "ARTIST"
300 Special: if 1 (lower) and to-upper-mode (see below) is both
301 set it will output "Artist", so this is a really nice setting.
302*) to-upper-mode: If this is enabled every letter of a word in a filename is
303 converted to-upper. eg "my heart will go on" is converted to
304 "My Heart Will Go On".
305 Default: enabled
306*) illegal characters: input here all characters you didn't like in your
307 filename. Each character which you input here is killed
308 in filename if patternmode == 2, or is replaced by an
309 underscore "_" if patternmode == 1.
310*) what to do with ill chars: here you can select if illegal characters should
311 be removed completly (regardless to patternmode),
312 or if patternmode should be used otherwise.
313*) replace slash character: sometimes a track-title or other field contains
314 a slash. To avoid senseless directory creation
315 you can replace this slash by the character you
316 input here.
317*) handling of allowed characters: this increases or decreases the number of
318 allowed characters in inputbox and CDDB
319 entry. Set this to "non-strict" if you
320 want to type in umlauts, or other ascii-
321 characters which aren't allowed else.
322*) m3u-playlist-pattern: pattern for playlistname. Use "0" to disable playlist
323 creation. use "%1" for artistname, "%2" for songtitle,
324 "%3" for albumname, "%4" for genre, "%5" for year,
325 "%6" for tracknumber, "%7" for tracknumber with
326 leading zero and "%8" for CDDB discid.
327 (just the same like for mp3-filename)
328*) m3u-dest-dir: destination directory for playlists. You can select a
329 directory, or simply use the mp3-directory.
330*) creation mode of m3u: Here you can select how the entries in playlists look
331 like. You have three possibilities.
332 Assume your mp3-file has the name "QueenOfRain.mp3",
333 your mp3-dir is "/home/mp3s/Roxette/Tourism/" and
334 your m3u-name is "/home/m3us/Roxette/Tourism.m3u"
335 (eg. mp3-name = "%1/%3/%2.mp3", mp3-dir = "/home/mp3s"
336 and m3u-dir = "/home/m3us" (with m3u-pat "%1/%3.m3u")
337 0) fullpath is used, the entry will look like this:
338 "/home/mp3s/Roxette/Tourism/QueenOfRain.mp3".
339 1) relative to m3u-maindir and the entry looks like
340 this: "../mp3s/Roxette/Tourism/QueenOfRain.mp3".
341 2) relative to playlist produces this entry:
342 "../../mp3s/Roxette/Tourism/QueenOfRain.mp3"
343*) auto-save-flag: If enabled config will be saved on exit.
344*) encode on-fly default: here you can set if you like on-fly encoding as
345 default. So you mustn't change the flag if you are
346 only encoding on-the-fly ;-)
347*) rip all tracks before encoding: if you enable this option all tracks will
348 be ripped before encoding starts.
349 NOTE: This might use a lot of MBs on your
350 harddisk. All ripped tracks will
351 be stored in default tempdirectory!
352*) fancy-colour: not very useful. It changes colours on the active window. If
353 you don't like it, disable it with "0" or enable it with "1".
354 On some windows it is disabled because it looks bad. Input a
355 value of "2" to enable this even on these windows.
356*) cdripper program: input your favourite program for grabbing auto-data from
357 your cds (in wav-format). There are two settings. One for
358 ripping data to file (non-fly) and one for ripping it to
359 stdout (on-fly).
360 usage "%1" for cdrom-device, "%2" for track (numeric) and
361 "%3" for output-file (only for non-fly ripping).
362*) encoder program: like for the ripper program you should input your favourite
363 encoder program here. You also have two settings. One for
364 encoding wav->mp3 from file to file (non-fly) and one for
365 encoding wav->mp3 from stdin to file (on-fly).
366 For non-fly use "%1" for input-file and "%2" for
367 output-file. For on-fly use "%1" for output-file.
368*) program for setting mp3 tags: this is your favourite program for setting
369 mp3-id-fields. You can use these pattern:
370 "%1": artist-name, "%2": song-title, "%3":
371 album-name, "%4": genre (by number), "%5":
372 year, "%6": comment, "%7": mp3filename, "%8":
373 genre (by name).
374*) mp3-comment: pattern for comment (which will be set by Tag-program). Here
375 you can use the same pattern like for filename-creation. There
376 are also some additional patterns: "%8": includes version
377 of MP3c, "%a": encoding-day, "%b": encoding-month, "%c":
378 encoding-year (2 digits), "%d": encoding-year (4 digits),
379 "%e": encoding-weekday (3 letters), "%f": encoding-month (3
380 letters), "%g": encoding-hour, "%h": encoding-minute, "%i":
381 length of track (minute-part), "%j": length of track
382 (second-part).
383 New: "%9" includes CDDB discid.
384*) string for unknown genre: input here the string you like to see if unknown
385 genre is selected (this might also be useful if
386 your mp3-tag program does not like "Unknown" as
387 genre).
388*) open tray: if this is set, the tray of the CDrom is opened after encoding
389 is finished.
390*) size of FIFO-buffer: this value is used for on-the-fly encoding. Input-data
391 from cdripper is buffered before outputting it to the
392 encoder. You can use a value between 16 and 8192 KB.
393 Default: 512 KB.
394 Note: A FIFO isn't really needed, so use no high
395 values, because you will use some memory otherwise ;-)
396*) temp-file: used for non-fly encoding. Ripper outputs his data into this file
397 and encoder reads from this file. Is deleted afterwards.
398 There is some unique data added to rip more tracks and cds before
399 encoding, but do not worry about any ".wav" ending, it will not
400 be destroyed.
401*) del tmp-files on exit: If you rip several tracks without encoding them,
402 they will be put on the right side for later
403 encoding (there you can encode or export/import them,
404 see below). If you quit MP3c with such remaining
405 files, this option controls what should be done:
406 0: each tempfile will be leave untouched
407 1: every file with set "delflag" is deleted
408 2: every tempfile is deleted
409*) exportfile: This file is used if you export tracks from your right window.
410 Just select a file. You can overwrite or add entries to this.
411*) clear delflag: Here you can set which value the "delflag" should have if
412 you export any track to the listfile.
413 Yes: the delflag will be disabled.
414 No: the delflag will stay as it is.
415*) parallel sessions: If you have worries about overwriting your exportfile
416 or other uncontrolled things, you can set this value to
417 "no" and MP3c will output a warning if an other sessions
418 of MP3c is still running.
419*) requester: You always should set this to "yes" and you will get nice
420 requester for selecting files and directories. Otherwise you
421 have to input the names manually.
422
423With "load defaults", in-compiled defaults will be loaded.
424
4257d. Input-box
426------------
427Just input a string here. You can use arrow-keys, and "Pos1" and "End" to
428scroll through the line. To cancel input, press Tabulator-key to select
429"Cancel"-field and press "Enter".
430
4317e. Select-box
432-------------
433Use arrow-keys, Page up/down, Pos1 and End, as usual, to move through box.
434Press "Enter" to select, or "q" to Cancel.
435
4368. Running MP3c in non-interactive mode
437---------------------------------------
438Maybe you don't like programs with an user-interface ;-)
439Or you want to automatise the mp3-creation. So you can run MP3c in
440non-interactive mode and let it create a shell-script which you can run
441afterwards or store it into your Crontab.
442
443Just call "mp3c -b <batch-file>". It reads your config-file as usual (of course
444you can use the "-i <file>" option too), reads cd and outputs a script called
445"batch-file". You can then start this script and your mp3-files are created.
446
447If you want to encode more than one cd at night (and you have multiple cdrom-
448drives), you can use "-d <device>" to specify a device on cmdline.
449
4509. What the heck do I mean with "non-fly" and "on-fly" encoding?
451----------------------------------------------------------------
452Usually a track is ripped from cd and after finishing this, it is encoded to
453mp3. A last the TAG-information is created.
454This is the normal method to convert audio-cds to mp3, but you need a
455temp-file for this (sometimes up to 50-100 MB).
456With MP3c it is also possible, to convert "on-the-fly". That means, that the
457ripper-program outputs his wav-data to stdout. This is redirected (via a pipe)
458to the encoder program. Here no temp-file is needed.
459
460Which encoding type should you use?
461Its recommended that you use "non-fly" encoding, unless you haven't enough
462memory on your hard-drive for the temp-file.
463There are some disadvantages with "on-fly" encoding:
464a) ripping audio-tracks is normally faster than encoding mp3. This means that
465 your cdrom-drive has to spin sometimes longer than normal.
466b) It seems that encoder 1.02 (I have not tested other encoders) produces
467 sometimes a little "click" at the beginning of mp3-files, if data is coming
468 via stdin (maybe because pipes aren't rewind-able).
469
47010. CDDB
471--------
472On sampler cds (with various artists), MP3c tries several things to find
473artist-information for each track.
474Sometimes artist and title is separated by "-" or "/". This is no problem for
475MP3c. Other-times a title looks like this: "title (artist)". MP3c even
476recognises this.
477In some special cases, artist-information is stored in the "extended"-field of
478a CDDB-entry. Of course this isn't a problem for MP3c ;-)
479
480In my tests every cd was recognised clearly. But it may fail:
481-because there aren't really no artist information in the CDDB-entry (you can
482 check this, if you take a look in your local cddb-directory).
483-because MP3c doesn't recognise your cd as a sampler (well, maybe a keyword is
484 missing. It will try to fix this, if you send the CDDB-entry to <wsp@gmx.de>
485-because nobody is perfect ;-) Please send the entry to <wsp@gmx.de>
486
487On sampler CDs, sometimes a track has the information "artist - title" and
488sometimes "title - artist". It is impossible for MP3c to recognise if artist
489or title is coming first (well, it could be possible to program a
490hash-function with a big artist-database, but this wouldn't work 100%, and
491wouldn't really useful), so you should control if information is corrected. If
492Artistname and songtitle is interchanged, just press "ALT+s", and be happy ;-)
493
494MP3c also tries to detect genre and year of the cd automatically. Since the
495year-info isn't stored in a CDDB-entry very often (around 5-10%), you should
496input this manually, just press "ALT-SHIFT+y".
497Currently there are 115 different genres for mp3-files, but only 10 for CDDB,
498so you should select the right genre by pressing "ALT+g".
499
50011. Something about the year-tag
501--------------------------------
502As you noticed the publishing-year of songs is stored in mp3-info tags. But
503there is a problem: this information isn't stored in a CDDB-entry. Only some
504CDDB-compatible cd-software insert a comment with a generated info. If this
505info exists MP3c uses it (it might be that the generation info is not
506correct). Otherwise "1999" is used as default.
507So the first thing you should do before encoding, is to control the year-info.
508In most cases you have to correct this. Just press Meta+j (or use the
509alter-menu).
510
511One additional note: I was informed that pattern in mp3-comment is somehow
512confusing because of lots of year-patterns. Please notice that every year
513pattern use the information stored with a track (see statusline on lower part
514of window), ONLY in mp3-comment there are the patterns %c and %d, which insert
515the current year.
516
51712. Alter-menu
518--------------
519This new feature was added lately. By pressing "Enter" on any track you can
520open an alter-menu. Here you can see all informations about the current track
521at once.
522The first time you enter this menu, you see a lot of lines beginning with
523"[ ]". Once you input any data this will change to "[*]".
524I hope that it is obviously how it works: if you apply the changes (to one or
525all tracks) only the fields marked by "[*]" will be changed.
526You can swap "[ ]" to "[*]" and vice versa by pressing SPACE.
527
528Example:
529Maybe you want to change Albumname and Year for all tracks. Just open
530Altermenu by pressing ENTER. Then select "Album" and input the data. After
531this select "Year" and input the right year.
532Now the fields "Album" and "Year" should be marked with "[*]". If you select
533"Set values for ALL tracks", these new data is stored for all tracks.
534
535You also can store these data only for the current track (you see the track
536number on windowheader) by selecting "Set values for this track", or for all
537marked tracks by selecting "Set values for all marked tracks".
538
539I think this alter-menu is some kind easier to use than all the shortcuts, but
540you can use both things of course.
541
54213. Playlists (*.m3u)
543---------------------
544MP3c supports the creation of playlists (m3u-files) for the tracks you encode.
545You can use a global playlist, or a single playlist for each cd. Go to
546option-menu and input a filename-pattern (this can be a filename like
547"my-mp3s.m3u" or a filename which contains patterns like "mp3s from %1.m3u").
548Allowed patterns are: %1 for artistname and %2 for albumname.
549Normally playlist will be stored in your mp3-files directory. Of course you
550can select a different directory, just go to option menu.
551
552Some more notes about this:
553-an entry is added to the playlist AFTER encoding (of the current track)
554 finished, and was successful.
555-MP3c first looks into the playlist-file if there is already an entry like
556 this. MP3c wouldn't add a second entry.
557-adding to playlist is also implemented in the batch-scriptfile. The script
558 would also add an entry after encoding (but no check if an entry already
559 exists).
560-if you don't like playlists ;-) just input a single zero "0" as m3u-pattern.
561
56214. Ripping only, tracklists and the right window
563-------------------------------------------------
564It is possible to rip several cds without encoding them at once. It is also
565possible to save datas about these ripped tracks and reload them at any later
566time. Therefore the right window is there.
567Every time you rip a track but do not encode it, it will be transfer to the
568right side (this is also be done if encoding fails to any reason).
569By pressing F6 on the left side, all marked tracks of the left side will be
570ripped and transfered to the right side. By pressing F7 this is be done only
571for the actual track.
572
573You can switch between left and right side just by pressing the Tab-key.
574You will be notice that you can do every thing on the right side you know
575from the left one (scrolling with CRSR, marking/unmarking with space, alter
576information in alter-menu (see above) by pressing Return). Only one thing
577changed: there is no "on-fly" flag any longer, it is useless because the track
578is already ripped, so it is gone. Instead of this there is now a "delete" flag.
579This flag controls if the tempfile should be deleting after encoding it (it is
580also used on exit, see options). If you encode any track and the flag is set,
581the tempfile is deleted, otherwise it will still exist on your harddisk.
582You can switch the flag as you did for the "on-fly" flag on the left side
583(by pressing "o", or using the alter-menu).
584
585By pressing "F3" or "F6" you can start encoding for all marked tracks, "F4"
586and "F7" just encode the actual track.
587With "F8" you delete all marked tracks, with "F9" you delete the actual track
588from list. Note: for any track with set "delete" flag, its tempfile is also
589removed.
590
591If you think that there are dead files on the right window, press "d". This
592removes every entry were the tempfile is not longer existing.
593
594By pressing "w" you can export the actual track to your tracklist file, with
595"W" you export all marked files. In this export MP3c write information (all
596datas like artist, genre, filename, etc) into the listfile you specified in
597the option-menu. If this file is already existing you can select if it should
598be overwritten or if the new entries should be added instead (do not worry if
599any track is stored twice in the file, MP3c detect this automaticly).
600
601If you exported all your data you can leave MP3c and do encoding at any later
602time, but watch the "delflag" and the setting in option-menu. You should
603disable all delflags, or set deletion of tempfiles to "never" in option-menu.
604
605Pressing "r" imports all tracks from your listfile, you saved in any session
606before.
607
60815. CVS Repository
609------------------
610MP3c has its own CVS repository with anonymous read access. Here are the
611neccessary informations:
612
613pserver: cvs@wspse.de:/public
614repository: mp3c
615password: anonymous
616
617To get repository:
618export CVSROOT=":pserver:cvs@wspse.de:/public
619cvs login (here input "anonymous" as password)
620cvs checkout mp3c
621
622To update repository:
623cd /your/mp3c-repository/directory
624cvs update
625
62616. Copying
627-----------
628Of course: GNU General Public License
629take a look at "COPYING"
630
63117. Bugs and other things
632-------------------------
633If you find a bug try to sell it to mirc*s*ft ;-)
634If you don't want this, send me a (useful!) notice about this,
635to: "Matthias Hensler <matthias@wspse.de>"
636
637You find this program here:
638ftp://ftp.wspse.de/pub/linux/wspse
639
640My home-page:
641http://www.wspse.de/
642
643Thanks for using this program
644Matthias Hensler, WSPse, in June 1999
645Update: Matthias Hensler, March 2006
646
64718. Suggestions
648---------------
649You miss some feature? Please mail me, and I will try to implement it.
650Actually I got suggestions for most new features from other people, so if you
651want to be added to ChangeLog ;-) mailto <matthias@wspse.de>
652