BatchEncoder is audio file conversion software. It supports most of popular audio file formats including both lossy and lossless compression. The program is very simple to use. BatchEncoder is basically a GUI front-end for command-line tools. All it does is create background processes and pass arguments to it with options set in the presets / format menu and additionally adds input and output file paths.
Some players display, or play files, in the order that the file was originally copied to a USB drive or stick. YAFS (Yet Another FAT Sorter) allows the order to be changed to whatever you prefer. YAFS is a multi-platform, open source, freeware, command line utility with a GUI (Graphical User Interface).
Although rarely used, there exists the capability for standardized emphasis in Red Book CD mastering. As CDs were intended to work on 14-bit audio, a specification for ‘pre-emphasis’ was included to compensate for quantization noise. After production spec was set at 16 bits, quantization noise became less of a concern, but emphasis remained an option through standards revisions. The pre-emphasis is described as a first-order filter with a gain of 10 dB (at 20 dB/decade) and time constants 50 μs and 15 μs ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphasis_(telecommunications)#Red_Book_Audio
Emphasis came about because of early converter design. The entire sampling process was new, and A to D converters exhibited low level noise because of bad linearity in the conversion process. This process added some high frequency broadband noise to the digital signal. Manufacturers overcame this byproduct by boosting (emphasis) the high frequencies during the conversion from analog to digital, and then rolling off (de-emphasis) the high frequencies by the same amount after the conversion back from digital to analog. This process was optional and there was a switch to select emphasis on each track during record. A flag was set in the digital bit-stream, which automatically activated de-emphasis during playback. All CD players, DVD players, and DAT machines detect this flag and turn on a high frequency roll-off in the analog domain during playback. If the digital signal contains emphasis and the flag is missing or turned off, then the roll-off does not occur and the audio will be brighter than normal.
This emphasis feature was the biggest reason why different CD players sounded different when playing back the same CD, or DAT machines differed playing back the same DAT tape. The digital part and the conversion to analog were basically the same in all of the machines. The de-emphasis circuit was implemented in the analog domain using the least expensive circuit to perform the operation. There was high-end EQ on the output of every digital playback device, and there was no standard or calibration for how it was performed. If you played back a CD without emphasis, then all of the CD players sounded pretty much the same. If you played a CD with emphasis, then each playback device sounded very different from every other player.
Producers and engineers started turning off the emphasis switches. Converters were getting better so there was less converter noise, and the use of de-emphasis circuits was eliminated. ~ Roger Nicolls
Use post-processing if you want to add correct ReplayGain tags to your files.
Use DSP if you have lossy files that you want to de-emphasize.
Otherwise, there’s no difference. ~ http://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,99394.50.html
This software simultaneously displays instantaneous peaks, VU, PPM, CBS Technology Center loudness, and ITU BS.1770 loudness. All meters include peak-hold functionality that makes the peak indications of the meters easy to see.
The software accepts two-channel stereo inputs. The VU and PPM meters are split to indicate the left and right channels. The PPM meter also displays the instantaneous peak values of the L and R digital samples. ~ Hydrogen Audio
REW is free room acoustics analysis software for measuring and analyzing room and loudspeaker responses. The audio analysis features of REW help you optimize the acoustics of your listening room, studio or home theater and find the best locations for your speakers, subwoofers and listening position.
Greatly extend the information in your music files by using the foo_discogs component to tag albums with Discogs information. Once the additional Discogs release information is stored in the song tags, it’s possible to search for catalog numbers, secondary artists or studios, etc. You can now also create toolbar buttons which open the corresponding artist or release pages in Discogs, the artist’s own website or other links.
download Discogs album and artist artwork
retrieve more information than most taggers
goes that extra length to make sure retrieved data is correct and well formatted
flexible tag mapping allows you to write only what you want, where you want
use meta-data in tags to display Discogs artist / label / release web pages able to later update specified tags (useful in update ratings)
These standalone audio level meter programs allow the optimum setting of input levels for various sound recording functions, particularly for video editing.
Exact Audio Copy, also known as EAC is often used to create an exact copy of a CD which can be stored in a digital media archive or audio library. The goal is to preserve all information from a CD, such that the CD can be recreated from an archive and / or is playable from an audio library. With EAC, the original audio files and a .cue file, an exact copy can be reburnt back onto a CDR; and with FLAC files, a compressed lossless music library may be built. Creating an individual folder which contains the album’s compressed audio files and a cue file is done via the following method:
Open EAC and select the FLAC encoder
Insert the CD you wish to archive
If using the freedb or CTDB plugins, select the correct cover art
You may also add lyrics to each track at this point
Verify that the downloaded information is complete and correct
Convert all CD information to title case
Remove any extra spaces
Detect the CD’s gaps
Create the cue sheet and album folders
Rip the CD in Burst Mode, which creates the individual audio files
Switch to Secure Mode and re-rip tracks any tracks that did not rip accurately
This process also creates an EAC log file in the same folder.
ReplayGain is … a technique invented to achieve the same perceived playback loudness of audio files. ~ Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase
ReplayGain … allows players to normalize loudness for individual tracks or albums. This avoids the common problem of having to manually adjust volume levels between tracks when playing audio files from albums that have been mastered at different loudness levels. ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain
If you’re using track gain, every song is played at 89 dB; no song is any louder than any other. If you’re using album gain, tracks will be played at 89 dB plus or minus a few dB, depending on how much louder or quieter each track is relative to the other tracks on the album. By definition, album gain is not going to make all tracks as loud as possible; the quieter tracks are going to remain that much quieter than the louder tracks, and they’ll average out to 89. ~ Hydrogen Audio
Using ReplayGain in Foobar
(1) First set the ReplayGain target values:
Preferences / Playback / ReplayGain Source mode: by playback order Processing: apply gain and prevent clipping according to peak
Foobar2000 Preferences – Playback – ReplayGain
Recommended Values:
Set Preferences / Preamp / Without RG values: to around -8.0 db
If you are also playing tracks which aren’t RG-tagged, they’ll be playing quite loud in comparison to the RG-tagged ones. To mitigate that, you can set the “Without RG info” Preamp level to, say, -11.9. This will make the player pretend they have -11.9 dB album gain. Thus if you played a non-RG-tagged copy of that loudest track, it would be played at 89 dB instead of its natural 100.91 dB, and would thus match the level that all the RG-tagged tracks are played at. However, then the quieter non-RG-tagged tracks would still be that much quieter. So you may find -8 or so to be a better “without RG info” preamp level, on average.~ HA Forum
I usually set my non-RG preamp to somewhere in the range of -7.0 dB to -9.0 dB. ~ HA Forum
If you listen to modern music -7dB/-10dB value should be correct. If you listen to older music, keep the value a bit lower because the average level of recently released tracks are higher. ~ eolindel.free.fr/foobar0.9/Replaygain
(2) Next scan files:
Select Files / Right mouse / ReplayGain / Scan selection as single album (adds album and track ReplayGain tags)
Once the files are scanned, they can be played.
True Peak Scanner
The foo_truepeak component scans ReplayGain, Dynamic Range, LUFS, PLR RMS values, etc.
Foobar ReplayGain Override Component
For older versions that lack the “by playback order” option, this component provides a way to specify which ReplayGain modes to use for each playback order. Track gain is probably desirable for random playback while with regular playback album gain is more suitable.
Track Volume (-18dB is equivalent to the ReplayGain target volume of 89dB) $if(%replaygain_track_gain%,$puts(X,$sub(-1800,$replace(%replaygain_track_gain%,.,)))$ifequal($get(X),0,0,$ifgreater($get(X),0,$replace(+$substr($num($get(X),4),1,2),+0,+),$replace($substr($num($get(X),5),1,3),-0,-))).$substr($num($get(X),5),4,5) dB)
Album Gain (relative to the ReplayGain target volume) [%replaygain_album_gain%]
ReplayGain’s Album Volume $if(%replaygain_album_gain%,$puts(X,$sub(8900,$replace(%replaygain_album_gain%,.,)))$ifgreater($get(X),9999,$substr($get(X),1,3).$substr($get(X),4,5),$substr($get(X),1,2).$substr($get(X),3,4)) dB))
Album Volume (-18dB is equivalent to the ReplayGain target volume of 89dB) $if(%replaygain_album_gain%,$puts(X,$sub(-1800,$replace(%replaygain_album_gain%,.,)))$ifequal($get(X),0,0,$ifgreater($get(X),0,$replace(+$substr($num($get(X),4),1,2),+0,+),$replace($substr($num($get(X),5),1,3),-0,-))).$substr($num($get(X),5),4,5) dB)
