Feurio! is an integrated software for creating audio CDs (especially samplers). The Feurio! trial version is not restricted in any way.

http://www.feurio.com/English/index.shtml

geez, I almost thought ahead stopped developing this tool, concentrating on nero...
maybe this should be moved to news-submissions?

Ahead only distributes Feurio!. The development is still being done by Jens Fangmeier.

I had a Sony laptop for awhile, and was disappointed when it didn't work with Feurio. I now use an eMachines with an NEC DVD-RW, and it also was not supported. This time, I ran the test, and sent in the results, and my drive was supported in a new 1.66 beta. Of course, it is listed in the 1.67 drives list.

On second thought, you're right, this is big enough news to put on the portal. As for me, this is the ultimate tool for Audio CDs.

Release notes:

ah, interesting to know. I thought the developer of feurio! was more closly 'related' to ahead, but it realy seems that you're right (as usual )

He's related in some way, I think.
Jens Fangmeier appears in the credits of Nero 5.5.



Data like this:

DVD STRUCTURE INFORMATION - Read by Feurio 1.67

Recorder................................: SONY - DVD RW DRU-500A
Disc Type...............................: DVD-R, Vers. 2.2
Manufacturer ID.........................: TYG01
Disc Size...............................: 120 mm
Number of Layers........................: 1
Linear Density..........................: 0.267 µm/bit
Track Density...........................: 0.74 µm/track
Application code........................: 40: Disc for unrestricted use, Consumer purpose disc
Track pitch.............................: 0,74 µm
Reference velocity......................: 3,49 m/s
Reflectivity............................: 45% to 85%
Media Type..............................: Organic dye
Last adr. of Data Recordable Area.......: FD9ED8h (16621272)
OPC code (recommanded recording power)..: 8.5 mW

As I remeber there is at least one restriction in trial. It doesn't let burn data images. But I have to admit also - I am very happy with Feurio!.

Even the registered version doesn't let burn data discs.
You need Feurio! Professional, and it can't create data images. It will only burn "on the fly" and "simple" data discs. I don't think multisessions discs are accepted.
It also burns Nero images, but I don't know if all kind of images are accepted, apart from the fact that Ahead changes the format of .NRG images too frequently. Combined with the ugly way to create images in Nero, Feurio! Pro is not a program to burn data discs.

The other restriction in non Professional versions of Feurio, is that you can't burn to several burners.
The demo version only lets you simulate multiple burning, either synchronous or asynchronous burning.

http://www.feurio.com/English/Professional/index.shtml

Which is it the advantage of this program over nero? I Think nero is most complete and powerful to create audio cds, but I'm curious for the people that uses this program.

?!

I was and still has been curios as for people using Nero to create audio CDs...

well, it usually comes with your burner and it "usually" works...


well, it's easy:
the only advantages of Nero are that it supports more drives, more audio formats, and has RMS normalization.

Feurio is better in the rest of aspects:
it's better programmed (much less bugs), it needs less resources and works faster, the interface is well thought, the burning engine is better (well, in fact Nero copied the engine from Feurio), it has many more options...

Feurio offered multitasking and multiple burning since the beginning (1998-1999). You can rip, edit track titles, etc., while burning... things that Nero wasn't able to do until the latest versions of Nero 5.5, and only because they use the little elegant method of opening more instances... really poor...
Nero can't even burn gapless discs when the tracks haven't the correct size (and let's not forget the bug that always deleted the last sector of all tracks for a lot of versions).
Try to decode MP3 files to HDD, to play your compilation before burning to check how it sounds, to create an offline CDDB database, things so easy like remembering your settings or loading a CUE sheet in MP3 format... and you'll see why Feurio is much better programmed.

If you don't care about making compilations, then there's not much difference, but if you like to make samplers, they are not comparable.
That's why I use it, because it works, something that Nero 4 couldn't do when I bought my 1st burner.

Well, there was ONE fundamental drawback that prevented Feurio from becoming more popular (and it is not the steeper-than-usual learning curve ): originally it was available only in german language.

Back in '98, when audio burning was still a tricky and sometimes frustrating process (it was kind of an art, really), I had to settle for the dreaded Audiograbber-Nero combination, that at least got (and still do, although I don't use either no more) the job done.

As much as everybody praised Feurio (and it is indeed great), I didn't understand a thing. I had to look elsewhere and, for sure, I wasn't the only one...

Yes, I started with the same tools: Audiograbber or WinDAC + Nero4 or CDRWin3.6x.
None of them worked as they should.
I had a 25% of coasters due to buffer-underruns, and that's without touching the computer while burning. OK, my system wasn't perfect, but I finally found Feurio, the program with the obvious solution: a RAM buffer (Nero 4 didn't have something like that and the configurable RAM buffer in CDRWin didn't work). No more coasters anymore and could use the computer while burning.
I wasn't sure about the interface at that time, but now I don't find anything better (Nero interface is quite bad).

Then, Feurio "sold" the burning engine to Ahead, and Nero 5 was a reliable program (althought rather limited). This is one of the reasons why Ahead could become as big as Roxio: a much better burning engine in Nero5 than EasyCDC.
As long as Ahead added more and more features to Nero, more and more bugs were introduced and good working code was incorrectly modified (like the burning engine in some versions)... and now it's a big monster impossible to mantain.

Feurio remains to be the only burning program that has a working RAM buffer in Windows'98, as well as some versions of Nero5 and Nero 6 (thanks to Feurio), althought this is not that important since BurnProof drives are used.



IMO, the drawback was that it couldn't burn data.
So when someone buys a drive, he finds Nero or Roxio software and that's what he uses, because they usually work and there's no need to use other software. They got the job done.
Now, the drawback is that it only burns WAV and MP3. Feurio!2 is going to natively support OGG and APE, and a interface to support more formats, but we'll have to wait for that version, I'm afraid.

Frankly, I am noticing very few complaints in various forums dealing with Nero since 6302 came out.

minix thanks for your great explication, I think that I should install Feurio . Is Feurio best that Nero 6.3 burning gapless mp3?

To burn gapless MP3, the easiest way is to decode first using foobar2000.
foobar has a perfect (for LAME encodes 3.90 and up) decoding engine that produces wav files of exact track length as the originals, which means they are totally gapless.

You can use Feurio to burn gapless MP3 CD's, but it requires additional audio-editor work, where foobar is as simple as "Convert-->Run convertion"
Then you can use whatever you like to burn those wavs

Another advantage is that it's small and doesn't install any garbage out of its own folder (only the settings in the registry) - it works by copying the folder to another computer -
Nero installs its own drivers in the system or nerocheck.exe now, and, surprisingly, it needs a special separate tool ("Nero Clean Tool" or something like that) to completely remove it...

As said, if you don't make compilations, you won't find special advantages... if you don't mind having to remember to set 0 seconds between tracks and DAO mode EVERY TIME YOU MAKE A DISC !


Check if your burner is supported.
ANd don't forget to see the "Program Paramters" section for options like disabling copyright bits (if you want to transfer CDs to MiniDisc), selecting ASPI or STPI mode (if you have WinNT/2K/XP) or enabling C2-errors reporting if your ripping device allows it...



Not exactly, because the problem lies in the MP3 format.
The files have the silence inside and you have to manually remove it.

If you edit the files and get WAVs without silence, then Nero will cut the last samples of every track because it works like that. The size of the files must be multiple of a CD-DA sector (588 samples) if you want to burn them in Nero without losing anything.

Feurio offers two options:
- fill the last sector with silence, like most burning programs (except Nero, which deletes samples instead of padding with zeroes).
- fill the last sector with the music of the following track = gapless sound.

Select "Do not insert pauses between tracks" Setting to get this behaviour.

It also has a very fast non-destructive Track Editor to easily remove the silences in MP3 tracks. Just use "Action" -> "Set start/end position" in the proper positions.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=17396




Only if the MP3 files were created with those special LAME versions.
In this case, Foobar2k decoder is the best option and you could burn with any program, because the WAV files will have the same size as they had in the CD.

Another would-be drawback to Feurio is that it takes it's deinstallation a little too seriously. I have had Feurio installed and deinstalled in my computer in the past (usually because its uses were too case-specific for me), and maybe a couple of times it deleted my wave files folder, taking my songs with it. No biggie, since I always could access the original CD.
So be careful!




IMHO, if he is using anything else, he shouldn't be in HA to begin with

yes, if you ripped those WAVs with Feurio, I guess.
They're considered "INTERNAL" files.

The same caution if you select "Create project from cuesheet-file", which I recommend very much over Nero.
The project is considered "created" by Feurio, and the tracks are considered INTERNAL. So, be careful when you delete that compilation.

Is there a Monkey's Audio plugin for Feurio? I have only been using Nero 6.3 because (with the APE plugin) I can drag my lossless compressed APE's and they are decoded on the fly. A very handu feature...

Cheers

Feurio! 1.66 comes with CD-Writer utility. I am using it to burn images beacause it's very low CPU consumption. It does support burning .iso an .img files. When it was still not registered it didn't work.

No. Only WAV and MP3 formats.
We'll have to wait for Feurio!2.
It'll have native OGG and APE support, and an interface to add other plugins.


well, my registered version says that data tracks are only possible with a "Feurio! Professional" license.

Yeah, but it is still untypical, unintuitive behavior that could really screw you up.

If "buggy", "stupid", "piece of crap"* Nero did something like this you could actually hear people scream in every forum on the Net.

This is a bad choice of design in Feurio, not two ways about it.

*Just some things you hear about Nero all the time. Remember the Recode "bug"?

Once I was used to the interface, I liked it a lot for burning Audio CD. The advantage IMO is not only with samplers but with any kind of continuous CD (live, mix, long pieces split into multiple parts) if you store them as separate tracks.

It's not only how mp3s are decoded but also how the CD sectors at the end of a track are filled (as minix explained). BTW next to foobar2000 you can also decode Lame mp3's with "lame --decode" (or razorlame) as it knows about its own decoder delay and exact track lengths. Musepack and lossless formats offer this too
Here you touch the real drawback of Feurio, the slow development. (makes me think of Musepack ). This Version 2.x was talked about for more than a year, but it has become rather silent. So when it arrives, it supports (at least) Vorbis and APE, but what about FLAC, WavePack or Musepack? Also (if I remember correctly) the author has looked into adding DVD-A authoring, but the licensing issues (costing too much) prohibit that. The biggies (Nero, Roxio) are in a better position to pay
Nero made a smart move to create a plug-in interface, and now there are plug-ins for almost any audio compression format known to man.

I'm wondering... I always use EAC to rip my CDs, with the correct read offset, to lossless formats. I also configured EAC to use the correct write offset. My PX-708A is able to overread both leadin and leadout.

So, when I use EAC to burn those audio files I ripped previously, there should be no need to pad sectors, right ? (should always be exactly a multiple of 588 samples)

Considering this, and considering the fact that I don't need multiple recording capabilities, is there any practical reason why I should switch from EAC to Feurio for burning audio CDs ?

Maybe the better interface, better CD-Text support and it's integrated wav editor (maybe even better support of rather "exotic" drives/features like Yamaha's Audio Master or the possibility to configure unknown drives) will bring you to Feurio! for burning compilations (or ripped EAC images with combined read/write offset for EAC rips).

Another advantage is that you can point Feurio! to an external lame.ddll for de/encoding ... but -alt-presets are not accessible IIRC

Padding is not necessary at all if the ripper did a good job before ... padding (which should be executed by Nero as well - never encountered any cut-away samples) might be of use for recorded wav's or decoded mp3z, though ...

Another nice feature of Feurio, if you happen to trade live music CD-Rs, is its ability to take a TAO disc that some idiot has sent you in a trade, and easily make a DAO copy of it. And it stitches the tracks up along sector boundaries.

Also, many live CD-Rs are transferred from DAT, which seems to result in lower audio volume on the CD. Feurio allows you to change the gain on the entire project, or tweak the individual tracks if you prefer.

Plus, Jens REALLY knows Redbook CD audio technology.

it's very easy: burn a WAV file with a number of samples not multiple of 588 in Nero.
Nero will cut the remainder of number-of-samples / 588 of that track. Up to 587 samples (13 ms) can be deleted by Nero.
Where are the rest of the samples? Deleted.
Feurio will put those remainder samples at the beginning of the following, which is the only way to have gapless transitions with that kind of WAV files.

Between versions 5.5.0.0 and 5.5.7.8, Nero deleted the last sector ALWAYS, which is a crime with normal WAVs ripped from CD.



Yes, that's thanks to that special gap option in Feurio.
Rip using "kill digital silence" and burn with "Do not insert pauses between tracks". Realy easy.



Right, again, we'll have to wait for Feurio! 2, AFAIK.
Anyway, the decoder is internal and based on Fraunhoffer, and cannot be changed (which is no problem). LAME_ENC.DLL is used only for encoding.



No, if you're happy with the performance of EAC's burning engine, and don't need the special "no pauses between tracks", then there's no reason.
I like the way I can play and manage my compilations in Feurio, and I found EAC quite slow if you want to play a MP3 compilation from CUE to check it before burning, but well, that's something that you can't even do in Nero...

Uh ... must be because the wavs I fed Nero always showed a multitude of 588 samples ... and because I have never ever encountered that any DAE tool (except when you let e.g. EAC kill the digital silence during ripping) producing "odd-sector" wav files.

Concerning the lame dll ... I really believed it is used for decoding as well ... I gotta check this out.

Yes, I am running Pro version

It's a bugger that I can't burn my APE's directly...Wish I could..I guess Nero will continue to do the job
Cheers

It's ALWAYS better, and in here Feurio has no edge whatsoever, to use ReplayGain for this task.

Feurio normalizes, IIRC, that is evil

One very nice feature of Feurio is the way you can work with live albums... In live music there's a lot of applause, mainly in between the songs. Feurio has the ability set the "special" index 0 (which was meant for silence) on the beginning of the applause and when the music starts you set the index 1. The result? By skipping the tracks (fast seeking) on CD you don't hear any applause, just music... Nice feature, isn't it? Isn't so much important, though, but I appreciate it.

Any proggie that supports cue sheets can do that.

It may be so, but as I don't use cue sheets and I use only Feurio! and ocassionally Burrrn (another piece of great soft, mainly due to its simplicity) I haven't known about it... Mea culpa

For audience-recorded live performance CDs, ReplayGain requires lots of tweaking and sometimes gives very odd results because of distance of the mic from the stage (artist banter is very quiet) and the proximity of other audience members to the mic (seatmate banter is very LOUD). It works pretty well on soundboard recordings, but no better than Feurio's less sophisticated adjustments (Feurio can normalize, but you can tweak things manually if you prefer).

Also, since my car stereo is not a ReplayGain-compatible player and I can't tweak as I'm listening, I have to write WAV files out with Foobar several times until I get an Audiophile adjustment I'm comfortable with.

I think ReplayGain is wonderful, but it's not ALWAYS better.

You do.
Index 00 and Index 01 are cue sheet-specific terms.
What I mean is, if you know (and have used/tweaked) Index 00 and Index 01, you have --maybe inadvertedly-- used cue sheet-based software.

I understand that's not correct.
Feurio didn't know anything about cue-sheets until version 1.62, but supported index-0 music since the beginning.
In fact, any software that can burn in DAO mode with pauses, uses index-0 marks: Nero, Roxio, RecordNow, all...

The difference is that Nero or Roxio can't burn music between index-0 and index-1 (unless you make a CUE), and Feurio can do it (and easier than anything, no cuesheet).



why? what's the difference? (I don't know how replay-gain works)
Feurio normalizes based on peaks, so, there will be no clipping if you don't want...

Apart from that, Feurio is very nice to make manual adjustments in volume.
You play the tracks in Track Editor or Wave Player, and you change to your desired levels while playing them.

It's "on the fly" normalization. MP3 files are not modified and you can recover the original volume with no change... play, check, change, play, check, change... volume is calculated on the fly while playing/burning.

Link to ReplayGain site (again)

yes, I saw a bit yesterday, but why normalization is evil?

I understand that normalization based on average volumes is more accurate...
but why based on peaks is evil?

Quote from ReplayGain's site:


Read the info there!

ok, that is well known, I guess...
That's similar to RMS normalization in Nero, which I already said that it's an advantage over Feurio!

But RMS normalization is much more dangerous than classic normalization, because to achieve the desired average volume, a lot of clipping may appear.
With peak normalization, you usually set the highest peak to the maximum value (no clipping).

I've already read several posts of people complaining of the terrible quality of Nero RMS normalization with the default settings.

There is of course no problem to combine RMS and peak normailzation, to assure that no clipping occurs. Like MP3gain does.

But the point is that peak normalization is totally useless for normalizing separate tracks so that they have the same perceived volume. Only replaygain can do that.

Of course, if you apply peak normalization over an entire CD (considering it as one track) is another issue.