Hi, I usually have the same amount of steps that I go through each time I rip & encode. I was wondering if I could somehow automate all of this using MAREO, WACK, flacattack, or REACT. Here's what I would like to do:

• Rip to FLAC and mp3 at the same time
• Have both album and track replaygain calculated on the FLAC file
• Have both album and track replaygain calculated on the mp3 file (in the apev2)
• Have the mp3 file be tagged with both id3v1 and apev2 tags
• Make use of my processor's dual cores, having at least two encodes going on at once
• Still be able to use EAC's "make compression tasks sleep" option, so I can be present for the rip but not the encoding and processing
• Not interfere with AccurateRip

Now most of this should be fine with any of our community member's programs, but the part that's hanging me up is the dual id3 and ape tags. If I allow lame to tag the mp3, the ape tag will come after the id3, making the whole "compatibility" reason of having it pointless. I won't be able to tag with EAC's tagger (suboptimal, I know, but it writes the tags after wapet or similar is used, providing correct order).

Now if this is actually really simple and I'm missing something, I'd prefer help setting up either MAREO, WACK, or flacattack. Nothing against REACT, but I just don't feel I'm prepared for that level of integration with EAC.

Thanks,
Trop

Well, my Omni Encoder will do ALMOST all that, and look good doing it! Same restrictions as the other ones, though... why not just suck it up and use ID3v2 like everyone else?

You can use it to automatically rip from EAC to FLAC, with full replaygain tagging automatically afterwards. It doesn't rip to both formats at once, per se, but you can simply drag'n drop the flac files at a later time and do a one-click batch conversion of all your FLAC files to MP3 (with tag copying and all that) AND have the MP3s wavegain-adjusted to album or track gain, if you so choose. Additionally, it can download album art for you automatically.

Dual-core support will be added, but doesn't work yet (Planned version 1.1 feature). I have no plans to support APEv2 in mp3, though. Only ID3v1 and v2.

The final version 1.0 release will be this weekend some time.

Hmm, would it be possible to pass the stuff from EAC to Foobar and then automate in Foobar using this? http://foosion.foobar2000.org/0.9/#runcmd

Jebus thanks for the quick reply, and though your program looks interesting, it doesn't fit my needs. If I were to rip to FLAC and transcode from there, I'd be doing exactly what I'm doing now. I'm also REALLY not into the whole wavegain thing, due to the whole "irreversible" nature of it.

And if you are wondering why I like Apev2, its because I prefer the clean format and the fast re-writing of tags. I believe ID3v2.4 supports writing tags at the end of the file rather than the beginning (faster), but compatibilitywise its about equal to ape, so I have no reason to switch at this point.

Tag can write both at the same time:

Fair enough, and I don't need you to use my frontend, but I wanted to clarify a few things:

First of all, ID3v2.3 tags only take a second to write the first time, but after that (because they add padding) new tags are written just as quickly as APE would be (unless you disable padding for some reason).

I considered having multiple encoders, but then decided that a second conversion to the lossy format was only 1 extra mouse click (well, maybe 2 to select the other codec), so I don't see the big deal. You don't have to transcode either; you can just click encode a second time and go right from the ripped WAVs. I might add a second codec mode at some point though, who knows...

Omni Encoder can be set up to only apply gain adjustment to lossy codecs. Or disabled altogether - your call. When applying wavegain to MP3, it does it the clever way (calculation only, then passes a --scale value to LAME). This saves you about 10% off your MP3 file sizes vs. using MP3Gain, and is more accurate. If you want to reverse it? One-click re-encode from your FLAC backups. That's what they're there for!

Anyhow, that's what I think are sensible solutions. I admit that Wack or MAREO probably have more options - I was aiming more for a slick interface and sensible defaults.

Thanks Synthetic Soul, exactly what I was looking for.

Jebus, it seems a little extreme to have to do a full reencode to get back your original gain. If it works for you and avid users of your program, all the more power to you guys, but a retag (Foobar-type replaygain) shaves a lot of time IMHO.

Also despite Omni Encoder lacking some of the features that would have been useful to me, I appreciate you wanting to keep your program clean and supporting only features that you feel are important. There are so many developers today that ruin their programs by trying to do way too much. It's good to know you won't become one of them.