CDex ~ Digital Audio CD Extractor


CDex can extract the data directly (digital) from an Audio CD, which is generally called a CD Ripper or a CDDA utility. The resulting audio file can be a plain WAV file (useful for making compilation audio CDs) or the ripped audio data can be compressed using an audio encoder such as MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA or OGG. Many other encoders are supported.

cdex_screenshot_001

cdex.mu

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Zinf ~ The New FreeAmp Player


The Zinf audio player is a simple, but powerful audio player for Linux and Win32. It supports MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, WAV and Audio CD playback, SHOUTcast/Icecast HTTP streaming, RTP streaming, a powerful music browser, theme support and a download manager.

Zinf is based on the FreeAmp source code. However, AMP® is a trademark of PlayMedia Systems, Inc., and therefore the original name of the project cannot be used any longer. On this website the old project will be referred to as FreeA*p.

Why Zinf? Zinf Is Not FreeA*p!

zinf_main_shot

zinf.sourceforge.net

Cue Sheet Generator ~ Multi-platform, Open-source Utility


A program to easily generate cue sheets for CD images with compressed, or raw (wav), audio tracks, usable, for example, in DosBox.

cuesheet generator

Cue Sheet Generator in action

sourceforge.net/projects/cuegen
Downloads

Tau Analyzer ~ Audio Source Verification


Tau Analyzer is a free program, which can help you to distinguish with reasonable accuracy the original studio-based CDs from poor quality fakes, that have been “reconstructed” using a lossy audio source, such as mp3. Using this program you can check the authenticity of your purchased or borrowed music CDs.

Tau Analyzer features an intuitive user interface, allowing users to work directly with audio CDs, and has some additional functions such as spectrum and frequency analyzers, ATIP and ISRC data readers, etc.

tau_analyzer_main_window

tausoft.org

CUETools ~ CD .cue File Utility & Transcoder


CUETools is a tool for lossless audio/CUE sheet format conversion. The goal is to make sure the entire album image is preserved accurately. A lossless disc image must be lossless not only in preserving contents of the audio tracks, but also in preserving gaps and CUE sheet contents. Many applications lose vital information upon conversion, and don’t support all possible CUE sheet styles. For example, foobar2000 loses disc pre-gap information when converting an album image, and doesn’t support gaps appended (noncompliant) CUE sheets.

CUETools215

cue.tools/wiki/Main_Page
cue.tools/wiki/CUETools
cue.tools/wiki/CUETools_Download
cue.tools/wiki/Category:CUETools_Guides
hydrogenaud.io/index.php?board=74.0

Foobar2000 ~ Playing CDs With Pre-emphasis


Pre-emphasis & CDs

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

As I understand it, the Redbook CD standard calls for decoding of pre-emphasis flags. So any player bearing the CD format logo should handle pre-emphasis discs properly. ~ http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/whats-pre-emphasis.49396/#post-971902

Working with CDs with pre-emphasis

Foobar plugins to de-emphasis pre-emphasized CDs:

  • Postprocessing (foo_deemph): works only with lossless sources; always active during playback and ReplayGain scan.
  • * DSP plugin (foo_dsp_deemph): works with any source

Download ~ http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Pre-emphasis

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

Lists of CD’s with pre-emphasis:

http://www.studio-nibble.com/cd/index.php?title=Pre-emphasis_(release_list)
http://www.discogs.com/lists/CDs-with-pre-emphasis-my-collection-only/243100
http://www.discogs.com/lists/CDs-suspected-to-have-pre-emphasis/308012

CDBurnerXP ~ Freeware CD & DVD Burning


CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multi language interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free.

  • burn all kinds of discs
  • audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
  • burn and create ISO files
  • data verification after burning process
  • create bootable discs
  • multi-language interface
  • bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
  • Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/2008/Win7/Win8/Win10 (x86 / x64)

cdburnerxp.se
cdburnerxp.se/en/download
forum.cdburnerxp.se
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDBurnerXP