REACT 2 Released, New version of this popular ripping tool Options

[tycho]

Thank you, Martin. You have been a great supporter for this tool. I must say I'm pretty pleased with it myself now. I guess the only thing that would have made it even simpler for beginners is a GUI for the settings in the INI file. Would be fairly easy to do using AutoIt, but I'm afraid I won't find the time to program it.

Cheers.

[Martin H]

Thank you very much tycho Yes, the app surely has increased it's newbie friendlieness alot in this release and although no GUI present, then the new setup system shouldn't be as intimidating to the new users as it probably was for many before.

Thank's again tycho

CU, Martin.

[awnm]

Can I add my thanks Tycho - REACT is a great tool and this new version is excellent. Adding custom frames and replaygain via your metamp3 is fantastic stuff.

[Martin H]

@tycho

I have actually just now for the first time set REACT v2.0 up on my system and i am having a problem unfortunetly. The problem is that when trying to run either your own metamp3.exe or wavegain.exe, then the CLI window just reports : "The system cannot execute the specified program". I'm running a newly installed Windows XP Pro. SP2 system with all post-SP2 hotfixes and security updates installed and i also have a "msvcr71.dll" file placed in the "tools" folder, as else acdir.exe will complain about it missing and i have also tried to place a "msvcr80.dll" file in the folder, but still without any luck. I'm pretty sure that it's just a matter of some missing dependency, but i don't know which one unfortunetly ?

Thank's in advance.

CU, Martin.

Edit: Sorry tycho I haden't even seen your announcement thread for metaMP3 and when i found it, then it clearly said that it required the VC8 runtimes. First i just downloaded and copied the two files msvcr80.dll and msvcp80.dll into the "REACT2\tools" folder, but that didn't work. Then i tried with the official installer and deleted the files from the tools folder and then everything worked perfectly.

Sorry for wasting your time reading this tycho and again many thanks for this wonderfull timesaver

CU, Martin.

This post has been edited by Martin H: Dec 16 2006, 13:05

[Martin H]

Well, after having played around with this new REACT release for some ours now, as to get it setup exactly to my own preference, then i really have to say that this release is simply just absolutely fantastic Thumbs up to tycho for doing such a very well done scripting job, to say the least Also his app metamp3.exe is also a really great and needed invention IMHO and it's great that it e.g. has options for setting any TXXX frames to MP3s + doing RG scans and adding the RG tags as ID3v2 tags instead of APEv2 tags + also being able to list what precise frames a MP3 file has in it and also list the contents of the LAME info tag etc. etc. Just bloddy brilliant Also the ability to bypass lame.exe's anouying ID3v2 genre problem, so we don't need that '--ignore-tag-errors' switch anymore and having to edit those 'Other' genres afterwards. Another thing that also just totally blew my mind, was the ability to add an 'Album Artist' tag to VA albums in addition to the standard 'Artist' tag and all is done fully automatic Just absolutely brilliant Thank's again tycho for this great release and also you don't need to respond to this post, but i just wanted to express my deepest gratitude for your absolutely fantastic work and not only that, but also for sharing it with the community for absolutely free Thank's alot mate

Anyway, to others that make WV images + MP3 track files and like me only want's AG REM comments in the embedded cuesheets and not stored as extra tags in the lossless images or in the lossy track files, then the following changes needs to be done :

Add REM in front of line 43 :

REM SET add_rg=1

Add REM in front of line 179 : (i have adjustalbumgain_db set to 0, but nonetheless...)

REM IF @ApplyAlbumGain@==1 @tools@\metamp3.exe %ApplyAG_MetaMP3% *.mp3

Also, if not wanting an external cuesheet, then add REM in front of line 120 also :

REM MOVE /Y "@cuesheet@" %dest%

Also, if not wanting a "REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_SCALE X.XXXX" line under the two "REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN" and "REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK" lines in the embedded cuesheet(something new in this release and wasen't made in v1.0), then also add REM in front of line 73 :

REM ECHO REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_SCALE %album_scale%>> %wg_tmp%.cue

Finally, i change the "-w cuesheet=xxx" and -w "eaclog=xxx" under the WavPack image part of the script to instead : "-w CUESHEET=xxx" and -w "EACLOG=xxx", since that was the format used in REACT v1.0 and i want the new rips i make to be in the same format as the old ones made vith REACT v1.0.

The first "REM" line(line 43) i did several ripping runs to find, and then only after doing a debug run, then i saw the problem. I didn't saw it at first, since as i haden't enabled %replaygain% = 1, then i couldn't understand why the RG tags where still made...

Personally i have also edited the config to not add any other tags to the WV images except 'cuesheet' and 'eaclog' and for the MP3 track files, then i have only made it to include the standard ID3v1 tags i.e. artist,album,title,tracknumber(not xx/xx, but just x),year, genre and comment and i have changed the comment tag to show how much scalling had been done like this : "--comment $qAG applied: %album_gain% dB$q", which then shows : "AG applied: -x.xx dB". Also i have added the "--fit" switch, as to only add ID3v2 tags in addition to the ID3v1 tags, when the fields are to big to fit in ID3v1 fields. Also if an album is a VA album, or if the genre is not on the standard LAME genre list, then an ID3v2 tag is also still made, even though the fields are maybe small enough to fit in ID3v1 tags, since the ID3v1 spec. dosen't allow any "Album Artist" tags, or adding the "Genre" tag as a text string, instead of just an index number.

Anyway, i just posted this post to first show my appreciation to tycho's great work and then also to list my own setup preferences, so as to maybe give some inspiration to others...

CU, Martin.

This post has been edited by Martin H: Dec 18 2006, 18:01

[Martin H]

I would just like to make a correction to my previous post.

I said that i had added the metamp3.exe "--fit" switch to my LAME track file command line, which would only make ID3v2 tags besides the ID3v1 tags, when the fields where to big to fit in ID3v1 tags. Still this is of course correct, but the problem then arises when ripping VA albums. I didn't catch it at first, since i nearly never rip VA albums myself and actually dosen't even own a single one of those albums, but just to test that part of the script out, then i decided to rip a normal CD as a VA album and that way i found out that the "--fit" switch will make it so that no "Album Artist" ID3v2 tag is made unfortunetly. So if one wants only ID3v2 tags when the fields are to big to fit in ID3v1 tags, but still also would like to have VA albums tagged with an "Album Artist" ID3v2 tag, then one should not add "--fit" to the metamp3.exe command line, but instead add e.g. "%Fit_tag%" to the metamp3.exe command line and then also at an earlier place in the script add this line also : "IF @various@==0 SET Fit_tag=--fit". I personally add that line right after this line : "IF @various@==1 SET VA_tag=--user-text $q[album artist]@VA@$q". Note, that this line used to have an extra switch that added a TPE2 ID3v2 frame besides the "Album Artist" TXXX frame, but as i only wanted the TXXX frame(as fb2k also makes when making an "Album Artist" tag) and not the TPE2 frame(which will show up in fb2k as "Band"), then i deleted that last switch i.e. "--frame "TPE2:@VA@"".

CU, Martin.

Edit: D***, that "--fit" switch is making me crazy right after posting this thread, then i just thought off another potential problem with that switch, and sure enough, i have just tested it and it also was a problem there. What i'm reffering to is genre's wich dosen't fit the LAME genre list and hence, can't be written in an ID3v1 "Genre" tag with just an index number. I would have hoped that if using the "--fit" switch and a non-standard genre was used, then an ID3v2 tag would just be made, but unfortunetly, thats not the way that switch works and instead it just dosen't even add a genre tag . Hmm, not the end of the world, as genre tags aren't really that important to me personally, but it's just a little bit annoying, that's all

Also please note that this isn't tycho's fault, but only because of id3lib - the ID3v1/2 tagging library which metamp3.exe is statically linked against and uses that libraries functions for all it's ID3 tagging operations(instead of re-inventing the wheel ).

CU, Martin.

Edit2 : Well, i have thought about this issue some more and i must confess that i'm now actually pretty pleased about the functionality of that "--fit" switch after all The reason for that is that i personally only wants to have ID3v1 tags on my MP3 track files and then only added ID3v2 tags also, whenever it is absolutely un-avoidable i.e. whenever a tag field is to big to fit in an ID3v1 tag field, or if the album is a VA album and hence, needs an "Album Artist" ID3v2 tag also. The problem about VA albums is now easilly overcome by instead of using the "--fit" switch directly, then instead adding a conditional variable holding the switch instead and then the final problem with that switch, was about non-standard genres, but come to think about it some more, then i would actually think that adding an ID3v2 tag just because of a non-standard genre is used, isn't very good anyway, and i actually like that it just ignores it instead, since i personally don't really care that much about "Genre" tags anyway and to me it is the least important one of the ones i use.

CU, Martin.

This post has been edited by Martin H: Dec 21 2006, 11:23

[Martin H]

First of all, i'm sorry for making so many posts after eachother and i promise that this will be the last one untill i get some feedback

@tycho or Synthetic Soul(or if there are any others which the same great amount of REACT knowledge )

Mates, i would be very happy if one of you guys would answer something for me. I have my "ImageNaming" variable set to "$artist$ - ($year$) $album$" and also the same folder structure for the MP3 track files. This is fine for standard albums and i like this naming-sceme very much because of the cronological sorting of an artists albums based on release year. Now the problem then arises when dealing with VA albums, since IMHO it dosen't make sence to sort VA albums cronologically by release year which the following example will show :

Various - (2001) Dance Hits Vol. 1.wv

Various - (2002) Summer Hits Vol. 1.wv

Various - (2003) Dance Hits Vol. 2.wv

Various - (2004) Summer Hits Vol. 2.wv

Now because of this bad sorting for VA albums, then i would like to have another "ImageNaming" variable which would be used for VA albums and it should look like this : "Various - $album$ ($year$)" and also the same for the folder of the MP3 track files.

I would then like to ask if there is an easy and elegant solution to doing this ?

I have actually allready made it to work, but i don't think that it's very elegant and i would like a better implementation. Also the way i do it, will make it so that the log file will still show the old naming scheme for the file name of the image that's ripped when ripping VA albums. This solution additionally requires Tangerines excelent little console app "cuemod.exe", since i need that to change the "FILE "FOO BAR.wv" WAVE" line in the cuesheet from the old naming-sceme to the new one for VA albums, before it gets embedded. If anyone else should be interested, then "cuemod.exe" can be downloaded here : http://tangerine.uw.hu/prog/cuemod_060406.rar.

Basically i have added these two lines right over the line of the wavpack.exe command line :

IF @various@==0 SET Image_path="D:\Musik\WV\$artist$ - ($year$) $album$"
IF @various@==1 SET Image_path="D:\Musik\WV\Various - $album$ ($year$)" & @tools@\cuemod.exe --cue "@cuesheet@" --f "Various - $album$ ($year$).wv"

Then for the actual wavpack.exe command line that follows, i have replaced the "@image@" at the end, with instead %Image_path%. Also i have added REM in front of the line that moves the image from the temp folder to the destination folder, as the changes i made encoded the image directly to the destination folder and not in the temp folder.

Then under the MP3 track file configuration, i have just added(besides the changes explained in my previous posts) : "IF @various@==1 SET dest="D:\Musik\MP3\Various - $album$ ($year$)"".

So again, if another more elegant solution is available, then i would love to hear about it, since allthough it dosen't really matter, then it annoyes me alittle that the log file shows the wrong file name when ripping VA albums i.e. the old naming scheme and also if i could get to skip the extra "cuemod.exe" step.

Thank's in advance.

CU, Martin.

[Synthetic Soul]

I am not familair with REACT 2 at all. In fact I am currently having my first play with it as I type.

I've just read your last three posts and it seems to me that you have consistently solved your problems with good solutions. Thanks for the --fit tip BTW; I've just added --fit to my command line, but will make the change that you suggest.

With regard to your latest post, I think yours is the only solution that a user can make. To resolve your log file issue I think Tycho would have to add the ability to specify an alternate ImageDir for VA albums in the INI.

With regard to the tracks it may be possible that you could do:

CODE

TrackDir_MP3=@mymusic@
...
TrackName_SA=$artist$ - ($year$) $album$\$track$ - $title$
TrackName_VA=Various - $album$ ($year$)\$track$ - $title$ ($artist$)
TrackName_SA_acdir=$A - ($r{DATE}) $T\$n - $~t
TrackName_VA_acdir=Various - $T ($r{DATE})\$n - $~t ($~a)

Not sure though, I haven't tested. You may need to do something to ensure the folders are created (ACDIR will create folders IIRC, but REACT may not at this point). I may test out of interest.

If you are really bothered about the log file and Tycho sees no reason to add a VA alternate my only other thought is using an app like SED to do a find and replace on the log file.

Edit: I have just tested my track solution above and by golly I think it works! No need to do anything else. I think this is slightly more elegant than your solution, as it keeps user config in the INI, rather than having to adapt the cfg file, which I think is Tycho's intention. Not sure though. I'm still a little confused about REACT 2...

This post has been edited by Synthetic Soul: Dec 22 2006, 12:08

[Martin H]

Hi Synthetic Soul

Thank you very much for your reply - i really appreciate it Also that MP3 track file ini modification you suggested is IMHO pure genious and indeed it's much better than my retarded way of doing it, so again many thanks for giving me that solution and for being so nice as to also test it out for me

Also i must say that i really appreciate your always helpfull attitude Synthetic Soul and i wish you a merry christmas together with your nice looking family (as seen from the picture in your profile )

Cheers mate and best regards

CU, Martin.

[Synthetic Soul]

I don't think your solution was at all retarded. Unfortunately some workarounds do have to be achieved in the cfg file.

Thank you very much for your kind words. A very Merry Christmas to you also Martin, and to Tycho, and all REACT users!

[Meddler]

CODE

TrackDir_MP3=@mymusic@
...
TrackName_SA=$artist$ - ($year$) $album$\$track$ - $title$
TrackName_VA=Various - $album$ ($year$)\$track$ - $title$ ($artist$)
TrackName_SA_acdir=$A - ($r{DATE}) $T\$n - $~t
TrackName_VA_acdir=Various - $T ($r{DATE})\$n - $~t ($~a)

Not sure though, I haven't tested. You may need to do something to ensure the folders are created (ACDIR will create folders IIRC, but REACT may not at this point). I may test out of interest.

Now that is excellent, I was gonna start hacking around to solve this and then I read this

Wonderful, I don't need to play with the AU3 file which is what I feared

[drbeachboy]

Hi,

I need some help with changing from AtomicParsley to NeroAACTag in my REACT-image.cfg. I use foobar2000 to play my music and it apparently cannot read tags produced by AP. I've messed with this for hours and I cannot get it to work. I had NeroAACTag working fine with REACT 1, but so far unsucessful in React 2. Any help would be surely appreciated.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Dirk

[Martin H]

I would just like to add that i haven't got any REACT problems anymore, since i have reconcidered my approach and have now changed my mind about my naming-sceme to instead use : "cdartist" - "album", since afterall, my only interface to the files is through fb2k, which i have setup as automatically sorting by year before album for SA albums and no year before album for VA albums. Also i have decided that i will not have RG comments in the cuesheets anymore, since i don't use the lossless images for playback, but only for archiving. Also i now use tycho's new fantastic tool metamp3.exe to analyze and add RG ID3v2 tags to the MP3 track files. I have just spend the last many ours to rename my current WV images and to extract the cuesheets and logfiles to change the filename + delete the RG REM comments, and then reembed them, and then i have deleted my current MP3 track file archive(-V2 --vbr-new), and transcoded all my WV images to MP3 track files(-V5 --vbr-new) + RG analyze and tag them afterwards. Now i'm completely satisfied with my new approach, and have ammended my REACT script to reflect this new system and now everything is absolutely perfect (also my final adjustment was to disable fb2k's clipping prevention and add the Advanced Limiter DSP instead, so as to avoid clipping while still keeping the same relative loudness between albums, since the clipping prevention will scale down clipping tracks/albums i.e. lower the loudness).

CU, Martin.

This post has been edited by Martin H: Dec 27 2006, 19:20

[ESP85]

Well I've tried React 2 and it works great but is there a way to set it up so it can encode two sets of mp3s?

I want one set using -V2 for listening on my computer and one set -V4 or -V5 for the car audio so I can fit more mp3s on an mp3CD (I don't have an ipod :-/ )

[drbeachboy]

Hi,

I was finally able to figure out how to use neroAacTag in place of AtomicParsley. If anyone is interested, post here, and I will gladly post the Nero portion of the config file.

[dummptyhummpty]

I've noticed a small bug in REACT 2. EAC is set to put everything in C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\My Documents\My Music. I notice all the temp files and things end up just in the "My Documents" folder and everything gets placed in the right spot after (so I don't care). But cover downloader puts the .jpg file in the "My Music" folder so REACT doesn't find it unless I move it to "My Documents".

Also how can I add the Replay Gain tag (that says XXdb) to all the flac files i've ripped with REACT 1?

From my REACT.ini file:

CODE

[UserOutputNames]
OutRoot=@mymusic@
ImageDir_Flac=@OutRoot@\FLAC\$cdartist$\$album$
TrackDir_AAC=@OutRoot@\AAC\$cdartist$\$album$

This post has been edited by dummptyhummpty: Dec 27 2006, 11:22

[ESP85]

I've noticed a small bug in REACT 2. EAC is set to put everything in C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\My Documents\My Music.

That's weird. I have the same settings as you but my files are automatically put into "C:\EAC"


Is there anyway to set it up so the log files aren't deleted after the files are compressed? I want them automatically moved to a log folder.

[dummptyhummpty]

I've noticed a small bug in REACT 2. EAC is set to put everything in C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\My Documents\My Music.

That's weird. I have the same settings as you but my files are automatically put into "C:\EAC"


Is there anyway to set it up so the log files aren't deleted after the files are compressed? I want them automatically moved to a log folder.

You need to edit REACT-image.cfg or REACT-track.cfg it should be towards the bottom. What folder do you want them moved to i'll try to write out the code.

[ESP85]

Well the mp3s are put in C:\EAC\MP3 on my system so C:\EAC\logs would be good. Thanks.



Edit:

Actually I think it would be a better idea to copy the log file to each output folder.

So if I rip a FLAC image and have REACT2/ACDIR split it up into MP3s then the log should go in the FLAC folder AND the MP3 folder.

This post has been edited by ESP85: Dec 28 2006, 00:51

[Martin H]

Just a little tip...

If you are using metamp3.exe to ReplayGain scan your MP3 track files, then besides the normal RG tags :

REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN
REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK

Then there are also added :

MP3GAIN_MINMAX
MP3GAIN_ALBUM_MINMAX

If you, like me, would like to skip having metamp3.exe add these tags to your MP3 track files, then you just add this line :

CODE

IF %add_rg%==1 @tools@\metamp3.exe --remove [mp3gain_*]TXXX *.mp3

Just after this line :

CODE

IF %add_rg%==1 @tools@\metamp3.exe %RG_MetaMP3% *.mp3

So it should look like this :

CODE

IF %add_rg%==1 @tools@\metamp3.exe %RG_MetaMP3% *.mp3
IF %add_rg%==1 @tools@\metamp3.exe --remove [mp3gain_*]TXXX *.mp3

CU, Martin.

This post has been edited by Martin H: Dec 28 2006, 15:26

[dummptyhummpty]

Well the mp3s are put in C:\EAC\MP3 on my system so C:\EAC\logs would be good. Thanks.

Edit:

Actually I think it would be a better idea to copy the log file to each output folder.

So if I rip a FLAC image and have REACT2/ACDIR split it up into MP3s then the log should go in the FLAC folder AND the MP3 folder.

In the flac image section of REACT-image.cfg add

CODE

COPY /Y "@eaclog@" %dest%

Between:

CODE

MOVE /Y "@cuesheet@" %dest%
IF %have_cover%==1 COPY /Y "@cover@" %dest%\"cover.jpg"

Then in the MP3/LAMEMP3 track section add it above:

CODE

REM COPY /Y "@eaclog@" "EAClog.txt"

Let me know if something dosn't work.

Also how can I add the Replay Gain tag (that says XXdb) to all the flac files i've ripped with REACT 1?

I figured it out. Any word on the bug i'm experiencing?

[ESP85]

Thanks alot. The code snippets work great.


But I'm having a problem with long wav image filenames. There is this one wav filename that is 84 characters long (88 if you include ".wav" )

This is the original image file that EAC rips. My REACT2 is set up to compress the image to FLAC, move it to the FLAC folder, split up the image into individual MP3 tracks and move those to their respective folder.

The FLAC dir is created but only the log is copied to there. The FLAC encoder says "The filename or extention is too long." after it finishes compressing and because of this, never moves the FLAC file.

Is there anyway around this? 88 characters definitely isn't that long of a filename; the maximum Windows will allow is 255 I think.

This post has been edited by ESP85: Dec 29 2006, 05:01

[ESP85]

But I'm having a problem with long wav image filenames. There is this one wav filename that is 84 characters long (88 if you include ".wav" )

This is the original image file that EAC rips. My REACT2 is set up to compress the image to FLAC, move it to the FLAC folder, split up the image into individual MP3 tracks and move those to their respective folder.

The FLAC dir is created but only the log is copied to there. The FLAC encoder says "The filename or extention is too long." after it finishes compressing and because of this, never moves the FLAC file.

Is there anyway around this? 88 characters definitely isn't that long of a filename; the maximum Windows will allow is 255 I think.

Sorry to bump the thread but does anyone know a work around for this problem?

[Synthetic Soul]

Are you sure that FLAC.EXE is the problem? I have just encoded a file with a 100 character filename successfully.

I don't have the cfg here to check what the sequence is, but it may well be worth posting the relevant part of your log to diagnose further.

It appears that one of the apps has an issue with long-ish filenames, and we need to find out which one.

[ESP85]

Are you sure that FLAC.EXE is the problem? I have just encoded a file with a 100 character filename successfully.

I don't have the cfg here to check what the sequence is, but it may well be worth posting the relevant part of your log to diagnose further.

It appears that one of the apps has an issue with long-ish filenames, and we need to find out which one.

Ok. I turned Debug on. Apparently the problem is not with FLAC. It's right after FLAC encodes and tries to move the cue and FLAC image to the FLAC dir.

Here's where the problem is..

CODE

C:\EAC>MOVE /Y "C:\EAC\Sublime - What I Got (Very Clean Radio Version) (Promo CD Single GAS5P-3874) [1996].flac" "C:\EAC\FLAC-images\Sublime - What I Got (Very Clean Radio Version) (Promo CD Single GAS5P-3874) [1996]"
The filename or extension is too long.

C:\EAC>MOVE /Y "C:\EAC\Sublime - What I Got (Very Clean Radio Version) (Promo CD Single GAS5P-3874) [1996].cue" "C:\EAC\FLAC-images\Sublime - What I Got (Very Clean Radio Version) (Promo CD Single GAS5P-3874) [1996]"
The filename or extension is too long.

This post has been edited by ESP85: Dec 30 2006, 23:59