caudec: a multiprocess audio converter for Linux and OS X, Leverages multi-core CPUs with lots of RAM Options

[skamp]

I'd like to introduce a little program I wrote.

Caudec is a BASH script that transcodes audio files from one format (codec) to another. It leverages multi-core CPUs with lots of RAM by copying input files to a tmpfs mount, and running multiple processes concurrently (one per file and per codec).

• Supported input codecs: WAV, FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, TAK, Apple Lossless.
• Supported output codecs: WAV, FLAC, Flake, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, TAK, lossyWAV, LAME, Ogg Vorbis, Nero AAC.
• Optimized I/O: input files are copied onto a tmpfs mount sequentially, so as to get the best performance out of the underlying medium (e.g. a hard drive). Transcoding however is done concurrently. Example: file 1 gets copied. When that's done, transcoding of file 1 starts. Meanwhile, file 2 gets copied, etc… Very little time is lost reading the files.
• 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.
• Uses existing, popular command line encoders/decoders.

Tested under Arch Linux. Download here. I tried my best to make sure that it'll run properly outside of my own environment, but I might have missed a couple of things. Please use the issues tracker to report any bugs. Feedback is most welcome!

[skamp]

The encoder/decoder (Takc.exe) works with wine. Linux users can use it for archiving, while transcoding to some other codec (e.g. lossy) for listening purposes. Caudec supports TAK encoding and decoding if the user has installed both Wine and TAK.

This post has been edited by skamp: Feb 16 2012, 00:38