Hi,

Actually, I'm developping a new Graphical User Interface for BeSweet, one of the best audio tools for transcoding. Why a new one ? Coz some newbies can be troubled by the interface of BeSweetGUI or don't like the CLI...That's why I created BeLight.



Features :
- AC3, WAV, VORBIS, MP2, MP3, AVI, VOB, LST & MUX in input.
- AAC/MP4, AC3, MP2, MP3, VORBIS, WAV and AIFF in ouput.
- Most of BeSweet functions (Gain, SSRC, Boost, Partial Encoding, Change Frame Rate, Soundtouch...)
- MultiLanguages Support (German, Spanish, French and English for the moment...more are welcome )
- Possibility to view & edit the command line.
- Delay Detection for input files.
- Some Presets.

How to use it :
First, grab the last BeSweet beta release in DSPGuru web Site. Second, put BeLight in the same folder as BeSweet and load it. That's all.

On my To Do List:
- Job List Support.
- BeSplit functions.


Suggestions and/or feedbacks are welcome...

Very nice! Finally a non sucky GUI for BeSweet.


Yeah that would be my only suggestion, since the settings currently don't represent the latest LAME changes, like the merging of the presets and alt-presets, r3mix is obsolete etc.

Thanks Gambit...

Yeah, some functions are outdated but the *big* problem is BeSweet doesn't recognize the new arguments. By example : -V 2. I'm forced to use -m j -v --vbr-old -V 2 command to have the same result.... Fortunately it works pretty good...

WOW..looks great and not complicated as original one.
Thanks once again

Top notch!

Thanks.

For the users who want to test new things. I've made 0.21 beta 1. But be carefull : it's only for testing. There are always some bugs which aren't resolved.

changelog :
- Added : mp3 tab completely revisited. Please read carefully explanations below.
- Now BeLight enables to ask you if you want overwrite the output file (if you have a file having the same name as your output) or not.
- Some bugs fix.

BTW, I hope to fix all bugs before Xmas.



So, some explanations about the new mp3 tab :

Some functions under BeSweetGUI are outdated. This is the case for MP3 part. We know all that BeSweet uses one of the best mp3 encoder more exactly LAME. But some people as Gabriel Bouvigne by example, one of the LAME developpers, has suggested me to involve the mp3 part to facilitate and enhance comprehension for users. That's why I follow his recommandations and some new things are appeared :



With the latest LAME releases (3.95.xx and sup), the developpers want to simplify as much as possible the using of this encoder. That's why, now we can have the choice between "Target Bitrate" and "Target Quality". This is the most important thing to know actually.
The "Target Bitrate" refers to ABR/CBR Mode. I hope everybody know what is it. So, as soon as you choose it, you can move the Bitrate slider to fix a target following your bitrate. The range is very large as you can see. By default, the bitrate is 128 kbps.
To access at CBR Mode, you must check the "Restrict Encoder to Constant Bitrate" case. In this way, you force LAME to have a constant bitrate. In other word, you can't change the bitrate. If you want to create some encode with this Mode, you must know the bitrate will be restrict to 128 kbps.

Now the second choice : "Target Quality". This Mode is equivalent to the famous VBR Mode. So, if you check this, you can choose a certain quality level (between 10 and 100). If you are used to transcode your files into Ogg Vorbis with the Q-Mode, you know it's the same idea. I think it's more easier to understand a level quality than to choose a bitrate level.
One important thing you must to know : more this quality level is low, worse the result final is. A good point could be to choose between 50-80. It's more safer. By default, it's a value of 80 which is taken. For people who know LAME command, this quality level corresponds to -V 2.
With this "Target Quality", we can have also the choice between the Fast Variable Bitrate Mode and the Standard Mode. By default, this is Standard Mode which is chosen. For information, this Mode refers to --vbr-old LAME command whereas Fast Mode is --vbr-new.

The last part concerns the possibility to active the Mono Encoding. The "Other Settings" is available but *only* for advanced users. In the most cases, the best for you is to play with "Target Bitrate" or "Target Quality".

Due to the fact BeSweet doesn't recognize some single LAME commands, I was forced to use some old arguments.That's why I put here a table to have some equivalences. I hope this help you.


Quality = 10 | -V 9 | 64 kbps |
Quality = 20 | -V 8 | 80 kbps |
Quality = 30 | -V 7 | 96 kbps |
Quality = 40 | -V 6 | 112 kbps |
Quality = 50 | -V 5 | 128 kbps |
Quality = 60 | -V 4 | 166 kbps | --(alt)-preset medium
Quality = 70 | -V 3 | 176 kbps |
Quality = 80 | -V 2 | 192 kbps | --(alt)-preset standard
Quality = 90 | -V 1 | 224 kbps |
Quality = 100 | -V 0 | 256 kbps | --(alt)-preset extreme

If some people or LAME developpers want to add something, don't hesitate.

Some comments:

The quality scale should IMO be from 1-10, since that's how it's in LAME and you can't select e.g. 55 as the scale could suggest now. Also, I think it would be a good idea to add a describtion label with some info. Like the average bitrates one can expect and which preset it represents (to make sure that people know that they still can select aps, only it's hidden under V2 now).

And for the Bitrate mode, the user should be able to select the bitrate in 1kbps steps. Preferably also via text input (TEdit ).

Edit: Well, it's V0-V9 actually, so it's not really the same as in LAME

Gambit, kurtnoise is just respecting Gabriel's GUI guidelines.

Regarding the vbr scale, I think that 10-100 is more intuitive than 9-0 for users.
The 10-100 scale is already usable through libmp3lame.

I put some infos in the last beta. As Gabriel said, 10-100 is more clearly I think. And it avoid to make a possible confusion between Vorbis Q-Mode and that.


It's done with the last beta but not with a TEdit

So, I made a new beta : 0.21 beta 2.

changelog:
- Improvements concerning the mp3 tab, as Gabriel asked.
- Bug correction for the overwrite (the last beta bOrked with this).
- Quick update of the doc concerning the new mp3 part. Read 1st before to use it.

That's all...

Well, I really don't know. A 10-100 scale just raises many questions for the user. Like, why can't I select 75 or 99. Why can't I select values < 10. Why is it called quality 80, when it's V2 from the commandline? I'm afraid it's getting really confusing for the user...

Oh, and kurtnoise, try selecting Presets -> MP3 -> Divx. It's teh b0rk now.

Edit: And I think you should be able to see the bitrate while moving the slider. That's why I suggested a TEdit control. Also for direct number input from the user. Should be easy enough to implement. Too bad it's not opensource, or I could help out

And what's up with the Vorbis settings?
Why is q1 = 0.001, q2 = 0.100? Why can't I select quality modes above 8?
I think the way it's done in oggdropXPd would be preferable.

Btw, if you paid any money for English classes, I would ask for money return. Don't believe anything they tell you. There really aren't any words like "recommanded" in the English language.

mmmh, good point. Gabriel will answer you better than me....


Sorry, it's my fault. I didn't updated the presets...


Which slider ? For Target Bitrate you have the bitrate value in the hints. And for Target Quality, why would you see the bitrate ?? We reason with *quality* for this mode, not in term of bitrate.

because BeSweet uses these settings for Vorbis Q-Mode. It's not my fault.


Well...on such quality level, I prefer to keep my original source. But I can add some new quality modes above 8 for sure.

sorry...I'll fix it.

Perhaps it is confusing to advanced users like you, but it is less confusing to new users.
How do you explain to a new user that -V9 is the lowest quality and not the highest?
I prefer a slight confusion to advanced users, who are quickly able to understand this "change" than a big confusion to new users.

You can not select 75 or 99 because it is not available in Lame, but this might change in the future.
You can not select values <10 because in libmp3lame values <10 are already used for the legacy scale.

If the vbr slider could be shrinked a little, it could be aligned with the abr one regarding bitrate equivalences. With a "smaller files" on its left and "higher quality" on its right, it would be very nice.

note: regarding the English spelling, I am sure kurtnoise would welcome a PM with the corrections from a native English speaker.

A link mirror to download the last beta. Sorry for the damage...

We all know that good coders sucks at dialog design .
*hides*
Don't hit me, I'm just joking Gabriel .

Anyway...
IMO the fact that BeSweet messes up the Vorbis settings shouldn't be represented in the BeLight GUI. I would rather think that the original Vorbis Q modes should be respected.

And here is what I imagined for the mp3 settings:
http://www.burrrn.net/TehBukkake/LAME_GUI.rar

P.S.: Merry Christmas everybody, enjoy the holidays!

Hi Gambit,


I modified a little bit the Vorbis Q-Mode part to respect a little better the original Vorbis Q-Mode. In fact, by example, if we choose q=2,00 from the list then q=0.200 sent to BeSweet command line.


I prefer my GUI personally... BTW, in BeLight the target bitrate values appear into the hints. I think it's more beautiful. And for advanced users, we can see also these values by checking "View & Edit BeSweet Command Line".

Well, it might be prettier that way, but it's less intuitive IMO. At least make the hint visible while moving, otherwise you are moving the slider "blindly". I have updated my code example if you wanna see what I mean.
http://www.burrrn.net/TehBukkake/LAME_GUI.rar

Thanks dude...


BeLight is hosted on CoreCodec now. It's time tu update your bookmarks.

A new beta for a new year...

changes from the last beta:

- Updated : CBR mp3 part. It works great now.
- Modified : new Vorbis Q-Mode. Tell me what do you think about that....;-)
- Fixed : lot of stupid & cosmetics bugs.

The download link doesn't work, it redirects me to https://corecodec.org/.

Edit: Using http://corecodec.org/projects/belight/ works fine.

Edit2: Since it's on CoreCodec now, will it be Open Source? There are still a lot of small things that make my hands itch, if you know what I mean.

Well, I am stumped. All attempts to download just redirect to corecodec.org. And I tried three diffrent browsers.

How exactly do you download stuff from CoreCodec?

Hi, kurtnoise. BeLight is a pretty cool gui, thanks. So far I have used it to encode some vorbis audio, mp3, and AAC and no problems so far so keep up the good work. I must say though back in the day this sort of thing was a lot more difficult. Some of us used to use the command line two or three years ago . Frightning!

Yes It's expected...just give me one-two weeks.

mmmh strange...It works fine here. Try this link.

"This link has expired."

On CC.org when you dl :
Note: Some anonymity tools modify your referrer information.
If you are using these tools, your download will not work. Please disable them.


http://corecodec.org.nyud.net:8090/frs/do_...-0.21_beta3.zip

Oh, oh, so many things... So, here are some of my suggestions, bug reports etc. Don't hit me, just trying to be helpful

The Start button should be dissabled when no file is selected.
Support for adding a file by dropping it on the form.
AC3 bitrate selection isn't working.
The bitrate slider should jump in valid steps when in CBR mode.
Also I don't think it's a good idea that the bitrate slider moves when the quality slider is moved, because it deletes the bitrate setting the user has used before and he might wanna use it again. Now he has to readjust it again.
Variable bitrate mode ComboBox should be set to csDropDownList.
Vorbis quality representing colors should be changed, it's teh ugly and you can't see anything on the blue background. Something like a nice fluent transition from red to green would be nice.

And then there are many, let's call them "design flaws" IMHO. Like:
You can select many encoders, yet you can always see eg the Azid settings, which are useless when you for example encode from wav.
Then, let's take the mp3/Vorbis settings. You pretty much set up the same things (bitrate/quality, CBR/ABR) yet there are too different implementations of the same settings.

Okay, that's about it for now. If you need any help, let me know, I'll be glad to help.

No problem...I'm opened.


Good idea.


mmmh why not but it is not very important though.


Sure ?? I don't think so.


What do you talking about ? For mp3 ??


Just my 2 cents : we choose either Target Bitrate or Target Quality for transcoding. So, it doesn't matter if bitrate setting are deleted because Quality choice is completely different to Bitrate choice. Anyway, this thing can be discuss. I would like to have some other users opinion.


Certainly...


Yeahh I would like too but WinXP style doesn't like it. We can't have the colors...


It's fixed now.


Yes I know but ABR for vorbis is completely different of mp3. For the 1st one, we can choose min, max, nominal values whereas for the 2nd one there is only one thing. In the same way, for CBR Mode: in vorbis we can have a lot of values available whereas in mp3, we can choose only certain values (96, 128, etc... but not 134 or 47 like for vorbis). In addition, we need to think with BeSweet restrictions. It's not easy...And to finish, we need to work for newbies. Much clearer it is, much better it is.


But, If you are really pressed, I can send you the sources to show me what you want.

I just encoded some AC3 test files and they came out like that:

44kHz 16bit stereo file, settings used:
256kbps - encoded ac3 file was 320kbps
320kbps - encoded ac3 file was 384kbps
384kbps - encoded ac3 file was 320kbps

48kHz 16bit stereo file, settings used:
256kbps - encoded ac3 file was 256kbps
320kbps - encoded ac3 file was 256kbps
384kbps - encoded ac3 file was 320kbps

And yeah, if you don't mind, I'd like to play around with the sources. At least I'll have something to do for the night.

Hi,


mmmh, what BeSweet version and what ac3enc.dll did you use ? I tested last night with BeSweet 1.5b29 and all seems to work fine.


As soon as I'm back home, I send you the package.

Latest BeSweet beta, 1.5b29. Something is f*cked up, I just tried again with one file. Selected 256kbps and it came out as 384...

It's really strange indeed...And directly with the CLI did you note the same thing ? Post your logfile please...Does anyone have notice this bug or not ?

For me, it works good.




PS : did you receive the sources or not ? I sent you the package by email. I've some trouble with my mailbox...so I'm not sure.

OK, found out what the problem is. I was selecting the AC3 presets, manually setting the bitrate works fine. So, it's a presets selecting bug.

And no, I didn't get anything. I'll PM you my mail, just to make sure you're not using the old mail.

The 0.21 release is out...

Congratulation: there is a pleasant and clear interface.
Guada is there again, baptized Guada 2.

You think to integrate other formats to your software: Dts, Ape, Mpc..

To soon, KURT

OMG....you're still alive ??


No coz BeSweet doesn't support those formats. But you can write your command lines in the right area. BeLight enables to launch the process....

The 0.22 beta 1 is out.

changelog:

* Added some other input formats (mpa, mp2, mp3, vorbis, wav[**]) compatible with the Batch Mode.
* Bugs fixed concerning Opening & Checking input files.
* Edit window for BeSweet Command Line is now updated then we decide to change settings.
* Several internal tweakings.

[**]only stereo files for the moment.



In addition, a screenshot to show you the transcoding CD-Audio wav files to vorbis with BeSweet by example....

After 3 months without new beta, here is a new one...

Changelog :


Link to download (2 versions available : BeLight.exe only or an Installer package (BeLight + BeSweet + dlls).

corecodec.org is down ATM, so use this link provided by kurtnoise for 0.22beta4.

- Fix the warning loading concerning the aac dlls missing.
- Fix the hints which were disabled.
- Update the Azid command even if the Input File List is empty.
- Update the command line for the 5.1 channels with Advanced Settings.
- Update Spanish language.

Thanks for the tips Digga...

Corecodec works now.

Hi,

Finally, 0.22 beta 5 is out.


changelog :

- Add q negative settings for Vorbis Encoding (libvorbis.dll needed).
- Add some info in the Hint when we select the file in the Input File List.
- Add Polish & Russian Languages.
- Update the AAC presets by introducing the Fast Quality Mode.
- Fix the transcoding aborted flag.
- Fix the mono CBR Mode Setting at 96 kbps.
- Fix the ProgressBar Position for MPEG and Vorbis files during the transcoding.

beta 6 is out...


changelog:

- Add Belight log file (Menu View --> Log). Many thanks to 2Cool for the suggestion.
- Add Italian Language. Thanks to Drak0
- Fix the input lower case extension missing.
- Fix the loop transcoding process with N input files.


btw, don't expect to have some answers for my part or new builds in the next weeks. I take some holidays... I'll be back in september. Thanks for all.

++
Kurtnoise

have some nice days off kurtnoise

à bien tôt.
nous attendons un nouveau bêta

here is the beta 7...

changelog:



Be careful, this is an Unicode Version. So, it works only for winNT, win2k, winXP, winVista. I need to update the non-unicode version (it's not finished yet.)

In addition, you can see there are 3 packages now at CoreCodec. The main difference comes from libvorbis :

• Normal version = like a normal version ^^
• P4 = libvorbis optimised for Pentium 4 core.
• Lancer = libvorbis optimised for speed w/o decreasing the quality.

Will you then have two builds because of unicode? I'm asking because it should be possible to support both in one build.