How do people use CDEX to rip CDs to MP3 using LAME?

I tried to do it, but had problems.

CDEX, in its encoder settings, has a version of LAME built-in. But it seems to be a very old version, 1.30. I wanted to use the newest stable version, 3.96.1. So, rather than choosing LAME (internal old version), I chose "External Encoder", put the path of my lame.exe file in the "Encoder Path" box, and put "--Preset Medium" in the "Parameter String" box. (I assume a preset parameter will override the setting in the "Bitrate" box.)

I started the rip/encode. It looked like it was progressing normally, track by track, taking a normal amount of time to encode. When finished, the folder for the CD had been created, and there was a file for each track of the CD, correctly named.

However------the file size of each track was only 1KB, and of course they don't play.

What happened?

How do people use CDEX to encode with a recent version of LAME?

You may like to try the Modified dll that is at Rarewares. You set your encoding options for the presets by editing the ini file, set CDex to use the dll and off you go!! It ignores all of the settings in the CDex setup.

well, "--Preset Medium" won't work from the command line too. don't use your shift key too much: "--preset medium"

CDex has a strange way of indicating the LAME version, I guess it says something like version 1.30 engine 3.92 (the latter being the encoder version).

I did the thing mentioned above: downloading the 3.96.1 version from rarewares and replacing the lame_enc.dll in the CDex directory by the newer version. Works!

Actually, the first version number relates to the version of the dll.

Its very easy with cdex:

Grab Lame 3.96.1

Encoder = external

Encoder path = [path for lame.exe]

Parameter = -V4 %1 %2

on-fly = yes

send wav... = yes

hide dos box = yes

Ack! I followed these instructions to the letter and I got this error:

"ERROR: Cannot send data to external encoder"

In the meantime, I've used the LAME version with the DLL and INI file that John33 recommended. But I want to try other switches that are only possible with the EXE version.

BTW, I'm "Extracting CD to a compressed audio file."

Anyone with experience with CDex I would appreciate your expertise in getting LAME to work too.

I didn't mention it, but I tried that too, and got the same result, those 1 kb files.

OT---I also tried that INI file version with a program with which it did work, DBPoweramp. It worked, in that it really created playable MP3 files, unlike with CDEX. However, they did not come out as expected. I had the INI file set as follows:

[lame_enc]
LamePreset=11
Scale=0.0
ExperimentalY=0

which should have been the same as --preset medium, i.e. resulting in VBR files with kbps averaging around 160. Instead, the resulting files were 128 kbps CBR. Why did that happen?

Easier method: copy the new lame.dll to the CDEX directory, delete (or rename) the old "lame_enc.dll", and rename the new lame.dll to lame_enc.dll. That's what I did, and it works just fine. Of course, in that case you do NOT select "External Encoder", but "LAME MP3 Encoder", and it should show "Version 1.32 Engine 3.96" instead of the older one.

Lionel

So, you use the CDEX internal LAME, but overwrite the DLL file with a newer one.

I'm wondering about the settings for the internal LAME then. There is no place there for a command line, but there are many individual settings. In the setting "Quality", a few of the presets are listed. If one chooses one of those presets, does that override the other settings? And there is no preset listed lower than standard-- there is no medium, no v5, etc. How would one encode to --preset medium using the internal LAME settings?

So, it did work for you to use LAME as external encoder with CDEX.

In looking at how your settings were different from mine, I see that you checked those three boxes at the bottom, which I had left (default) unchecked. Do you think that makes the difference, that LAME will not work without all three of those boxes checked?

-V4 means the same as --preset medium, correct? Is it better in this case to use the V designation, or is that irrelevant? Also, why the %1 and %2? What do those refer to?

Thank you.

Ditto. I also tried using shadowking's settings for using external LAME encoder with CDEX, and got the same error message above.

Anything else that might be different with your settings, Shadowking, that made this work for you and not for us?

Anyone else had success using LAME as external encoder with CDEX? If so, what were your settings?

I don't know if CDEX will be developed any further, but if so, I hope that they improve the ability of it to work with LAME as external encoder. Other compression settings in current CDEX also leave something to be desired. For instance, WMA only available in CBR, Standard. No choice of WMA VBR, either one or two-pass, and no WMA Professional, Voice, etc. I would guess the compression settings are limited for other encoders as well.

There are certainly other programs better in that respect, including using LAME as external encoder, including EAC, and DBPoweramp. There are some things that I like better about CDEX though (which could perhaps be improved in the other programs). For instance, the settings for track naming, also include the possibility of directory naming. So, for instance, one could set the default folder for ripping as \Music. Then, if so set, when a CD is ripped, a subfolder of \Music will automatically be created, with the title of the CD as the folder name, and the tracks will be ripped to there. Easier than manually creating the new folder each time a CD is ripped. I haven't seen that in programs other than CDEX, although I could have missed something. Some nice features of CDEX. I just wish they would improve the compression options.

In any case, any more insight into using LAME with CDEX, especially as external compressor, would be appreciated.

Hi moi,

this CDex guide may help.

Cheers,
CD

I'm familiar with that guide. It only instructs on how to use the DLL. That's fine, but the UI is limited to the old presets. With the DLL, there is no way to use the new presets which have no corresponding old preset. What I'd like to do is use LAME.exe so I can use the following command line switch:

V5 --athaa-sensitiivity 1

The special DLL in Rarewares that uses the INI does not include this setting.

the switch is named : -V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 (otherwise it won't work)

Thank you for the reply. However, I can't even get that far. As I said in my previous post, when I try to encode with even the normal -V2 setting, I get the error:

"ERROR: Cannot send data to external encoder"

I followed Shadowking's settings and read the CDex guide referred to by Compact Dick. I still get that error when trying to use the EXE. I have no problems with the DLL. But I want to get lame.exe to work so I can use that switch.

Any more ideas?

I haven't used Cdex for a long time...but I think I switched to EAC for the same reason. Therefore, if you need to do some encoding soon give EAC a shot and see if you like it (and if it works)...it's similar to Cdex, but the results are more accurate and you can do much more with it...good luck