As there was no utility that suited my needs, i decided to write my own one. If such a tool already exists, I didn't find it. Nevertheless it was a nice programming training

For mpc to mp3 transcoding there would also be MPxcange, but you only have the option of ID3v1 or v2 but not both. You are also limited to lame-mp3. With my tool you can copy the tags to any format you want, as long as the encoder has options for tags.

There is also foobar, but not everyone wants to use it, although it's the best player (IMO).

So what's the clue with my tool?

It just pipes the mppdec with ANY commandline encoder that supports it.

It reads the APEv2 tags from a musepack-file and replaces the placeholders in the encoder string.

The encoder string is saved in a config-file. The placeholders are the same as in EAC, so you just have to copy your EAC-string and you're ready to go.

Besides the CLI-tool, I wrote an user interface where you can edit your decoder/encoder strings and drag&drop your files which you want to encode.

The CLI is written in C and compiled in VS.net 2003, the GUI is written VB.net so I don't know if you need a runtime to start it.


I've just finnished the main-work on it and would very much appreciate if you could test my tool and give me some feedback or tipps how i could enhance it.


If you think my tool is useful, it would be nice if someone could help me with open-source licenceing so that I can safely distribute my tool.

you can download 0.1 here

have fun testing it

In case you're still looking, foobar2000 can transcode everything it can decode (which is almost everything itself) to everything you can supply a CLI for

I've mentioned foobar and use it myself, there is no doubt that it's the best thing, but some people don't like foobar

Not only has it a .NET GUI, it has also a unique feature: it can tanscode your files.

Ok I'm not too sure what to put in your Settings fields under Decoder and Encoder for your Musepaxx GUI..

Frontah also can do that job with maintaining all TAGs. So I really don´t see any need for another transcoding-tool. It´s just wasted programming-time. It would be much more useful, if someone would try to develop e.g. Frontah further and eliminate all the remaining small bugs (yes, there are some).

i'm working on a readme and some minor changes.

basically you should have %s in the decoder-settings, otherwise the decoder doesn't know what to decode.
in the encoder-settings you can enter all the tag-placeholders you know from eac (they will be included within the readme). "- %d" at the end is required for lame because the "-" tells lame that the input is from the stdin (pipe with the decoder) and "%d" is the destinationfile.

it should work out of the box. lame is set up with -V4 (preset medium, 160-180 kbit) which i use for my car-stereo



thank you for the info, it's the first time that i see this program.

maybe my tool isn't useful for you, but programming it was very interesting and my programming skills got refreshed

I've just contacted the author, hopefully I'll obtain the source-code and see what can be done in order to improve it...
PS: Nice tool, btw...

Yes Frontha is a very nice tool, but it seriously needs some updating and maintainance by now (almost all the codecs have evolved since it was last updated and such...), so if Miriam will pick up the development that would be cool....

Nice way to tell someone about his mistake.

Anyway, I would like the ability to drag and drop whole directories in the GUI.

Today I've finnished Musepaxx 0.1

It's now licenced under the GPL. The sourcecode is included in the package so you can modify it if you want to have some features implemented. A readme is also incuded.

If you want to download the new version, you only have to click the link in my first post, I've edited the link.



I'm afraid but I don't have the time to include this feature in the next time

The typo is still there. And I doubt you have permission to use picmixer's icons.

I created some icons, musepaxx-westgroveG

Picmixer has written a PM to me, stating that using his icon is illegal.

i've updated the package with the new logo from westgroveG and corrected the typo.

Gamit, if you would have described the typo a bit more precisely, i would have been able to correct it sooner!

westgroveG, i want to thank you for your effort! i included you in the readme, stating that the icon belongs to you.

No problem, good luck with your program.

Ok, I'll tell Gamit next time I see him...

Miriam:

About Frontah
Do you already have a serious contact with Madah ?
Or did you just send an email & are now waiting for answer ?

Cuz I think I already emailed Madah on how the lack of update was a pity, asking why no update & why not free the source ?...
All I get was no answer ... so I tryed to post here as Madah used to be on HA ...

see
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=28230

but it seems Madah is lost in the cyberspace ... he suddenly vanished from everywhere ... & then silence ...

so I am still pessimistic ... unless you have already had an anwser ... have you ?

... Frontah is slowly becoming a sadware ;(

Gambit:
Do you have any news of Madah-Frontah ? I ask you specially as I see you are both in the MAC team

Also why did boereck coded universalfront when he was also in the same MAC team instead of upgrading Frontah ?
I don't really understand the logic behind all this ... (except "I can do better" which ended not to be true IMHO)

with time Madah-Fontah's silence has really became a mystery for me ...

No. He surely hasn´t. ´Cause Madah really seems to have gone. Probably he´s working on his career in "real life".


Because Frontah and Universal Front have different goals in transcoding. Frontah was made for transcoding one format into another (and does that job quite well btw), while Universal Front was designed to transcode different formats into others in one step. And I doubt, if Frontah would have been lifted quite easly to that level of UF by Madah. It would have made much much work, ´cause it must have been redesigned completely. And: AFAIK Frontah and UF are even written in different programming-languages. And Böreck would not have been able to do any additional programming on Frontah, even if he would have wanted it. ´Cause he simply doesn´t have the skill to program in that language. - Once UF was initiated on an idea by me, and I think Böreck did quite a good job on it. Nevertheless it also would be time to update it a little and at least fix some small bugs. But I lost the contact to him for months now. Also I don´t see him online on ICQ or the MSN-messenger anymore.

No, both Frontah and UF are written in Delphi. They even share some code, IIRC.

Okay, then I was wrong. - To be honest, I have no idea of programming.
Last post of Böreck here on that forum was at the beginning of November 2004. So, he´s also quite a long time away from here. The chance that I can catch him again seems to be quite small at the moment.
Last post of Madah was even in June 2004. - So I suppose he has also gone forever.

Greetings!


Indeed, I'm very busy right now with my career in "real life". There's a lot of work to do, so my ha.org schedule gone messed up.
Actually, I contacted Frontah's author (Madah) via email, just the day I said I will, but unfortunately I haven't received any answer.
As I already stated, I'll be pleasured to work forward on Frontah.

Cheers!

If you could write to him and convince him that is in the best of community to share Frontah's source code with us, especially me, Gambit and other Delphi programmers around here, that shall be great.

Miriam:
sorry but as I said I already tryed ... I won't spam Madah's mailbox as it seems he doesn't read it anymore anyway ... you'd better lower your hopes on a Frontah revival, it seems too late now that he vanished in real life ...

but be sure if he ever pops up here again, I will ask him instantly ...