Hello all. I'm new to these forums and to audio processing as well.

Here's my problem: I have a few soundtracks in APE format, and I would like to know how I can decompress them in different files. All I get when I decompress is one big file with all the songs, which I'd like to make into separate files.

I've noticed they usually come with a .cue file as well, but whenever I try to run it through Nero, I get nothing.

So how do I do it?

Open the resulting .wav file in Audacity, then select out, and save, the individual tracks to new files, one per song.

I was afraid of that... so basically I have to open a wav processor and snip every song into a new file?

No.

Convert the .ape to a .wav using monkey's audio.

edit the .cue file so that it points to the said .wav file
add the .cue to foobar2000
use foobar2000's converter to split the files.

Not necessarily. EAC can split the WAV according to the cue file.

Okay, I'm going to try that now. Thanks!

I can't seem to figure out how to use the converter (or access it, even) on my own. Can someone provide me with a step by step?

Sorry if this sounds whiny, but I'm REALLY new at this.

Bump.

Bumping so quickly is bad etiquette here.


You don't say what kind of separate files. I'll assume APE

1. Open the CUE with notepad. If the file extension isn't ''.ape'', make it so (exa: FILE "Whatever.ape" WAVE)

2. Get foobar2000 and add foo_input_monkey.dll to the components directory.

3. Open foobar2000, go to ''Preferences -> Tools -> Converter'' ,
3a. In ''Output File Names'' add your prefered file naming convention (exa: %tracknumber% - %title%)
3b. In the ''Encoding Presets'' area click ''Add New''
. . . Encoder = Custom
. . . Encoder = Your path to MAC.exe (exa: C:\Program Files\Monkey's Audio\MAC.exe)
. . . Extension = ape
. . . Parameters = %s %d -c2000
. . . Format Is = Lossless
. . . Encoder Name = MAC (ape)
. . . Bitrate =
. . . Settings = Normal

4. Drag CUE into foobar2000 playlist

5. Select all files , right click , select ''Convert -> Convert to... (OR: Convert to Same Directory)
In the converter setup window , select ''MAC'' , click OK , (then select destination if you didn't use ^...Same...^)

Thanks a million, Cosmo. (And sorry about the bumping, I heard these forums have a high rotativity). I should be able to mess around with my files now.

Something odd happened while I tried decoding those files. A lot of them became just plain un-playable, but I know the file should not be corrupted. (Listened to it when it was first converted by Monkey Audio.) Any thoughts on how to prevent this from happening again?

Yeah. Try my method instead. It uses less intermediary steps, and uses official binaries instead of third-party plug-ins (the foobar ape plug-in)

Use Monkey's Audio + EAC as follows:

- Download and install Monkey's Audio (MA) from www.monkeysaudio.com
- Download and install EAC from www.exactaudiocopy.de
- Open (MA)
- At the top left where you see the monkey's head, click and select "Decompress"
- Drag and drop Monkey's Audio file into MA
- Click "Start"

I believe MA's default option is to decompress to the same folder, so the resulting WAV should be exactly where the Monkey's Audio file is.

- Open Notepad
- Drag and drop .CUE file into it
- At the top where it says "FILE..." it should also have a reference to file_name.extenstion, where file_name is the name of the Monkey's Audio file
- If extension = ape, change it to wav. If it's wav, leave it be
- Save .CUE file (CTRL + S)
- Open EAC -> Tools -> Split WAV... -> With Gaps (or whatever you prefer, but that option's best)
- Select wav file created from decompression process in MA and edited CUE file
- Click "Start" or "Split" or whatever EAC's final command for that process is (I don't recall). You should end up with individual WAVs for each track

Hope that works for you