Hi! I recently got over here from the r3mix forum, and immediatly stumbled across ff123's listening test thread, which made me interested in trying out MPC instead of MP3.

I've been using EAC and Lame for quite a while, and from lazyness I haven't made myself to try any other compressed formats, but I've decided that it's time for a change. I found a link to this page:

http://users.du.se/~kdo/mpc/quick_guide.htm#mpc

in this forum, but even though I followed the instructions in fine print regarding EAC, but I can't make it work. I pasted the whole suggested line into EAC and changed the settings accordingly, but the encoder does not approve of the settings, and no encoding starts.

1. How should a correct commandline for the 'standard' setting look like?

2. Are there other frontends which would be recommended over EAC for MPC encoding?

Thanks in advance!

Did you put mppenc.exe into the %PATH% ?

Yes. The encoder window opens, but then stalls. I think the error message was something like that '--tags' was an invalid command (I'm not at home right now). I tried to remove everything from '--tags' and onwards, but that was not good either. I'll try to run it again when I get home in an hour or two.

I had trouble with this too, just figured it out yesterday; use the following command line exactly:

--standard %s

(replace standard by whatever setting you want to use)

I don't use tags, and this doesn't create any.

Also, choose external comressor rather than mp+ in EAC

Try this:

Parameter passing scheme: User Defined Encoder
File extension: .mpc
Program path: c:xxxxxmpcenct.exe
(make sure to download the newest version)

Additional options:
%l--standard%l%h--xtreme --nmt 10%h --verbose %s %d --tags "Artist=%a" "Title=%t" "Album=%g" "Year=%y" "Track=%n" "Genre=%m"

Bitrate: Anything... maybe 192

[x] Delete WAV
[ ] use CRC
[ ] Add ID3 tag

(x) High quality
( ) Low quality


EAC Options -> Tools -> uncheck "do not open external compressor window".


The MPC encoder, mppenc.exe, must be in the path, as said above. Put it into c:windows for example. Make sure to use a proper version, 1.0 or newer (see http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/showth...=&threadid=2174, i recommend 1.01j for now).

This won't work with his setup, he's using mpcenct.exe with a chained mppenc.exe. Also, it normally should say "--standard %s %d".

I think this is it. I just made a little try-n-error. Checking this option crashes mpcenct with no pop-up message. (only drwatson starts in the background).

Gotta tell ErikS. seems to be a bug.

Compression Options in EAC, under the External Compression Tab should read....
Parameter passing scheme: User Defined Encoder
Use file extension: .mpc
Program, including path, used for compression: [b]c:where ever it ismppenc.exe

I am just guessing that this next area is where your problem lies....
Addtional command line option:
hey did you put %s %d after the preset?

example:

--standard %s %d
--xtreme %s %d
--braindead %s %d


hope this helps....good luck

-ty1er

I tried with:

%l--standard%l%h--xtreme --nmt 10%h --verbose %s %d --tags "Artist=%a" "Title=%t" "Album=%g" "Year=%y" "Track=%n" "Genre=%m"

but after the compression windows opens, this happens:

MPCENCT v0.31 Copyright © 2002 Erik Stenborg (erik.stenborg@home.se)

infile: D:MusikMPCE.S.T. - Somewhere Else BeforeEtmp98-!6.wav
outfile: D:MusikMPCE.S.T. - Somewhere Else BeforeEtmp98-!6.mpc
mppenc string: mppenc.exe "--xtreme" "--nmt" "10" "--verbose" "D:MusikMPCE.S.
T. - Somewhere Else BeforeEtmp98-!6.wav" "D:MusikMPCE.S.T. - Somewhere Else
BeforeEtmp98-!6.mpc"
Tag type: APE Tag v1
--- Tags ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist = E.S.T.
Title = Somewhere Else Before
Album = Somewhere Else Before
Year = 2000
Track = 1
Genre =
--- Mppenc output -------------------------------------------------------------
File not found
Press Enter to exit




I had the checkbox for 'do not open external compressor window' unchecked all the time, BTW.

Put mppenc.exe in c:windows, wherever else it is now. Make sure the filename is mppenc.exe and it's a proper version.

ok, I got the same output when I moved mppenc.exe out of my %path% directory.

So, it seems that in your case mpcenct cannot see where mppenc.exe is located.
Please make sure one more time that it is in the path. Maybe reboot windows.

If it doesn't help then I don't know...

P.S.
Quick-check: run cmd console and type "path", it will show all %path% directories.

Well... I discovered the problem, and it was quite embarrassing, too. I had for some idiotic reason created two folders, one named 'Musepack', and one named 'MPC', and the one I set EAC to look in was in the wrong one.

It's all working now! Sorry to have occupied your bright minds with this!