I am in the process of archiving my CD collection to a computer I built just for this purpose. From the start I knew I wanted a lossless codec. I finally decided on WavPack but I have a couple questions. I have tried searching for the answer but in this case it seems the more I read to figure it out the further away from the answer I seem to be. I think it is my old age kicking in.

What I want to do is to have each CD as one file that I can play in Winamp (I use it because I have not found a good reason to change.) and also recreate the CD if I need to in the future. It needs to play in Winamp just like I had the CD in the drive so I would have the ability to skip or randomize tracks as well as play them straight through.

From what I have read it would appear I need to have an embedded cue sheet but I don't seem to be able to figure this one out. I use EAC to rip with as I have for years since it always works and works well. I have figured out how to compress to a .wv file which is easy as well. It is the embedded cue sheet part that is stumping me.

If someone would be so kind as to give me the instructions on how to do this I would be extremely grateful.

Just use "Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet" from Action menu - EAC will then rip all the songs to one file and will create a corresponding cue sheet which you can use in your player.

Download WavPack 4.3b :
http://www.wavpack.com/wp43b.zip

Use this command line in EAC :

-hm -w "Cuesheet=@*.cue" -w "Artist=%a" -w "Album=%g" -w "Year=%y" -w "Genre=%m" %s

There must only be one cuesheet in your ripping directory...

Change -h to whatever you prefer...

-Martin.

I tried this and ended up with a file that Winamp only sees as one track instead of an album with multiple tracks. When I unpack it there is only the .wav file.

Then Winamp dosen't support embedded cuesheets, and you must use the external
cuesheet instead... foobar2000 supports embedded cuesheets...

-Martin.

Well Foobar2000 sees the individual tracks but what a horrible player that is. I will just have to add drive space and leave everything as .cues and .wavs for now. Thanks for the help.

I somehow understand your reaction (although I must say that I find it a bit unpolite, as this is also the home of foobar2000 developpers) because the "look and feel" of foobar2000 is at the antipodes of that of Winamp.

You must anyway understand that foobar2000 is a GREAT player in terms of audio quality and the zillions of things that can do to your audio files. It's learning curve, as has been several times said in this forum, is quite steep, but once you get used to it and discoverd what you can do with it you will never revert to any other player.

Anyway, if you are more attracted by WinAmp look than by Foobar2000 quality, you can still compress your files with WavPack, not embed the cuesheet, and use the mp3cue plug-in for winamp (that IIRC perfectly works with WavPack and external cuesheet). You will obioouvsly need to edit your cuesheet to point to the .wv file and not to the original .wav.

Sergio

I just tried the mp3cue plugin with wavpack and an external cue, and it works fine. foobar2000's cue support is better though. In mp3cue, the seekbar only lets you seek in the entire file rather than in the individual tracks.

screenshot showing the difference

You can see that foobar gives you the length for each track and mp3cue basically just gives you the starting point.

Try using CUE Player for Winamp. You load up a .cue and when you play it the first time, it splits the tracks virtually in the playlist. It's worked pretty well for me so far. I just downloaded wavpack, created a file, and tested it to make sure it works with WavPack. The only thing you have to do is edit the .cue to point to the .wv file and change WAVE to WV

for example. It does have one little quirk, the first time you play the cue it plays the second track, instead of the first.

Yeah, that's a really fine cue plugin for Winamp. I'm using it also. It's better then mp3cue plugin.

Firon, thanks for point to this nice plugin. Really much better than mp3cue. Too bad that it does'nt support embedded cuesheets.

I think it would be better to modify the cuesheet just changing the the file name and not the file type. i.e.:



cheers!

Sergio