Tag Archives: utility

caudec ~ Multiprocess Audio Converter

Posted by tom2tec on

caudec is a command-line utility that transcodes (converts) audio files from one format (codec) to another, among other things.

It leverages multi-core CPUs and runs multiple processes concurrently (one per file and per codec, and more than one thread per codec when it supports it). The objective is to hog the CPU as much and as long as possible. One strategy is to sort input files by size, so that the largest files potentially get more threads towards the end of the job.

Features:

  • Supported input formats / codecs: WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio, ALAC.
  • Supported output formats / codecs: all of the above, as well as LossyWAV / LossyFLAC, MP3, AAC (.m4a), Ogg Vorbis, Opus.
  • Supported platforms: macOS, Linux.
  • Transcoding to several different codecs at once is possible. In that case, decoding of input files is done only once.
  • Metadata is preserved (as much as possible) from one codec to another.
  • Artwork can be embedded into each file, and / or copied to the output directory. It can be done selectively (e.g. embed and / or copy one image for lossless files, and another image for lossy files).
  • Audio can be resampled (e.g. 48kHz to 44.1kHz) and downmixed (e.g. 6 channels to stereo). A profile can be provided to set a maximum value for the number of channels, bit depth and sampling rate. When a profile is provided, the source will only be altered after decoding and before encoding, if some metric of the source is above the given profile.
  • Multiprocess ReplayGain scanner for FLAC, WavPack, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus.
  • Ability to hard link lossy files to a different directory when encoding to WavPack Hybrid. The point is to have two libraries that takes the storage of just one, with a lossy collection that has its own root directory and that’s easy to drag and drop to a device such as a smartphone or a Digital Audio Player (DAP).
  • Ability to touch files and album directories using metadata to reflect the music’s release date and duration (see example below).

github.com/gcocatre/caudec

CUE/WAV Extract Utility

Posted by tom2tec on

This is an utility for batch extraction of individual tracks from .CUE/.WAV audio disk images, which for instance, are created by Exact Audio Copy software.

While PC users still have other methods of playing tracks from CUE files (by e.g. using Foobar2000, or mounting the image via Daemon Tools), Mac OS X users’ choice is limited, so therefore this utility was written.

The utility is built using Trolltech/Nokia Qt, and those, who would like to rebuild it from the source code – will require this library.

This software is in a public domain and thus can be used or modified for any purpose.

www.yohng.com/software/cuewavextract

RTL Utility ~ Measure Round Trip Latency

Posted by tom2tec on

RTL Utility is a tool for measuring the Round Trip Latency of your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and audio interface. The utility is used for low latency performance testing by system builders, reviewers, device manufacturers and at dawbench.com.

When your DAW sends data to your audio interface for playback, it doesn’t send a continuous stream of data one bit at a time. What it does is fill up a section of RAM called a buffer and sends that in a single message when it is ready. Before sending the next message it has to fill the buffer again. This wait time introduces a latency, or delay, between something happening in your DAW and when you actually hear it.

While you are recording, the audio interface buffers and sends data to your DAW in a similar fashion. This introduces latency into your recordings.

If you send a signal from your DAW, out through the audio interface and back in via a loopback patch, then there will be a round trip latency which is the sum of the output and input delays. This is the RTL.

oblique-audio.com/rtl-utility

TidyMP3 ~ Metadata Removal Tool

Posted by tom2tec on

This tool removes every kind of trash from your mp3-files. It searches for valid mp3 audiodata-frames and removes everything else. This has the big advantage that it will also remove tags which are in the middle of the file (as is the case with joined tracks) as well as broken frames (half-downloads) and malicious tags (Tag-buffer-overflow bug in WinAMP and Windows XP). Use this tool to cleanup your mp3 files before you add your own tag. No more double tags, or annoying ‘Lyrics’ data containing group names or misspelled song names.

cuemaster.org/tidymp3

MusicSync ~ Synchronize Music Libraries

Posted by tom2tec on

MusicSync is a cross-platform tool that synchronizes your music library between devices and drives with advanced settings.

You can use it through CLI, that makes easy to sync you library with only a click using a script, or through GUI, that is more user-friendly. Here there are two examples:

python musicsync D:/Music sdcard/Music --adb --min-rating 4.5 --output-format opus --output-bitrate 128k
python musicsync D:/Music sdcard/Music --adb --min-rating 3 --min-year 2020 --output-format opus --output-bitrate

github.com/serpest/MusicSync
hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=121169.0

audiovolumesyncer ~ Sync Output Device Volumes

Posted by tom2tec on

Use this application to sync the volume of several audio playback devices.

sourceforge.net/projects/audiovolumesyncer

CueListTool ~ Swiss Army Knife For Cue Lists & Cue Sheets

Posted by tom2tec on

This utility allows you, among other things, to read, edit, and write back the cue lists embedded in WAV files by audio editing programs such as Adobe Audition. Cue lists can be saved as small text files and shared with other users.

www.stefanbion.de/cuelisttool

Axone.jar ~ mp3 Examination

Posted by tom2tec on

Axone.jar is a utility allowing you to view all the information available in an MP3 file. This is not to be misunderstood: all the possible information. In the tag version 2 (ID3V2), the information is subdivided into frames and there are many more frames declared than frames actually displayed by MP3 players. Well Axone.jar knows how to display them all, without exceptions and whatever the version!

  • Very classic frames such as title, album, artist, year, genre, track and comment.
  • Other frames displayed by only some MP3 players.
    • the image(s).
    • the composer.
    • the text of the song.
    • volume control (itunes)
  • The frames that are hidden from you (not necessarily with bad intentions).
    • private frames (MusicMatch).
    • encapsulated objects (RealJukebox).
    • abusive comments (iTunes, Mediaplayer, MusicMatch, SoundJam).
    • identification of coding software (LAME, iTunes)
    • the identification of the original CD (LAME)
    • internet links (MusicMatch)
  • Undeclared frames, not understood and therefore clearly hidden from all MP3 players.
  • The other frames usually not used.

Other data

The Lyrics and TAG+ tags, which are completely obsolete, may remain forgotten in certain files. If they are present, Axone.jar displays them.

When the software reads an MP3 file to display the current tag, it does a summary check of the audio data. It gives you the classic information on bitrate, sampling frequency, duration, etc.; but also if it finds excess or erroneous data. Excess data can be a sign of corrupted audio data, or of data intentionally hidden if the file was purchased on a merchant site (or if you did P2P). At this level, it is important to understand that the audio decoder is robust in the sense that data that is incomprehensible to it is simply skipped. It is therefore very easy to hide data between audio data, without risking disturbing MP3 players.

flying.guy.chez-alice.fr/Axone

LosslessSwitcher ~ Mac Sample Rate Utility

Posted by tom2tec on

LosslessSwitcher switches your current audio device’s sample rate to match the currently playing lossless song on your Apple Music app, automatically.

Let’s say if the next song that you are playing, is a Hi-Res Lossless track with a sample rate of 192kHz, LosslessSwitcher will switch your device to that sample rate as soon as possible.

The opposite happens, when the next track happens to have a lower sample rate.

github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher

metamp3 ~ mp3 Command Line Utility

Posted by tom2tec on

I wrote this because I wanted a command line tool that could
add album art to (and save from) mp3 files, compute replaygain
and save them as ID3 tags (readable by Winamp, etc).

Features:

  • Write (all) Text, URL and Picture frame tags, with description.
  • Compute replay-gain values and set them as ID3v2.3 tags.
  • Apply and Undo volume gain (as mp3gain).
  • Extract pictures from mp3 files.
  • Inspect ID3 v1.1, v2.3, and v2.4 tags.
  • Inspect detailed info on mp3 files, including lametag data.

hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,49751.0
www.flumps.org/mp3z/tagging/metamp3.exe

Quiet on the Set ~ Windows Volume Limiter

Posted by tom2tec on

Prevent someone from turning up the volume on a Windows machine beyond a maximum volume.

This is a very simple Windows Forms application that lets you set a maximum value on for your volume, and then lock the setting so that a user cannot change the volume.

Disclaimer: This app is primarily geared toward young/special needs children. The “lock” provides a basic level of control, but it could be easily bypassed by someone with technical knowledge.

github.com/troylar/quiet-on-the-set

MKVToolNix ~ Matroska Tools For Linux / Unix & Windows

Posted by tom2tec on

With these tools one can get information about (via mkvinfo) Matroska files, extract tracks/data from (via mkvextract) Matroska files and create (via mkvmerge) Matroska files from other media files. Matroska is a new multimedia file format aiming to become THE new container format for the future. You can find more information about it and its underlying technology, the Extensible Binary Meta Language (EBML), at www.matroska.org

mkvtoolnix.download/index