Roadmap update:

Version 1.3 (due in about a week) will contain the following:

* A conversion summary dialog (when not in automated mode) indicating total conversion time, etc.
* APE (Monkey's Audio) support.
* ID3 album art embedding for the MP3 format (iTunes/iPod compatible).
* An "add folder" menu option, to compliment the folder drag/drop behaviour.


Version 2.0 is more exciting, and its gonna take a month or two:

* Icons.
* Covert art enhancements:
- The ability to manually add cover art.
- The ability to tweak search criteria without changing tag values.
- A size selector (small/medium/large).
* Cuesheet importing/parsing, for lossless codecs that support it.
* Queued tasks (conversion to multiple formats concurrently, or at least sequentially).
* Transposition of non-standard tags (requires a complete tagging system redesign - ugh).
* Non-standard tag writing for formats that support it.
* The ability to simply re-write tags without converting to another format.
* The ability to reorganize files by tag info without converting.

Thank you and congratulations !

May I suggest what I believe to be an interface improvement:
I would combine "select encoder" and "configure encoder" into one window. You could select the encoder from a drop down list, and after that , the lower part of the window changes dinamically to display the encoder properties. So when you hit OK you select and configure the encoder in one step. I know this is just a cosmetic change, less important than features. Still , I believe it would make it better :-)

Also, and very important, a status bar at the bottom, showing what encoder is currently selected, and with what quality level.

cheers
Gonza

Edit: Oh, and for Tagging Options also... in fact, everything that is encoder dependant...

Actually there is a ticket open for that too, I just thought it was minor so I knocked it off the list

First the good news.

I think I found the solution to the problem I was having with apple lossless conversion hanging under Vista. It appears it is due to the difficulty iTunes has with Vista Aero. The solution (which seems to have worked so far but I am still testing for more conversions to confirm the crash is really fixed) is to go into the Quicktime control panel and select Safe Mode (GDI only) on the advanced tab. This prevents iTunes from turning off Aero every time it is invoked and seems to fix the instability with Omni.


--update - there are still crashes but appear less frequent


The bad news is the current version of Omni encoder seems to randomly leave some of the tag info off files. I am transcoding flac->apple lossless and most of the time the essential tag info makes the transition just fine. However, ~20% of the songs in a given album don't get all the tag - most of them have artist, album, track number, art, genre, title, and year but some of them only get art and title. All the songs in an album have a tag - it is just incomplete for some. This is not a case of a special tag element Omni doesn't know about - the majority of the songs in the album have all the info - there are just random omissions. I didn't see this with earlier versions so perhaps it is 1.2.7 specific???

Just to clarify, the iTunes crashes are all itunes itself crashing, right? Not Omni Encoder I assume. I see that happen sometimes too, even in XP, and there isn't much I can do about it.

Regarding the second issue... I'm testing a large batch conversion right now to see if I can reproduce it. I just checked the change history, and I didn't do anything in 1.2.7 that could have broken it though... most recent relevant change was to the FLAC tag reader, in 1.2.6.

Yes, it's iTunes crashes not omni. The aero thing seems to generate them with higher frequency unless quicktime is in safe mode.

How about run multiple(as many as you have cores/processors) files simultaneously? Like MonkeyAudio last version. This can load all processor cores and your programm will be "multicore-compatible"!

Gordo: I can't reproduce what you're seeing. The things you have been describing just scream "overclocked PC". I've seen iTunes crash a few times, but nothing major. And I ran a large FLAC -> Apple Lossless conversion and didn't see a single file with missing tags.

Version 1.3 is getting some extra testing by yours truely, and I'll have it up later tonight... Seems pretty solid. I'm excited to start working on 2.0... which will hopefully be the ultimate conversion app you've all been asking for.

edit: Actually, I found a bug wherein iTunes won't tag the file if one of the fields has more than 54 characters... got a workaround in 1.3. Also, I made some shutdown/startup changes that might help a bit. iTunes is still a buggy beast, however.

Jebus, thanks so much for your work on developing this fantastic app and responding to feature requests -- it's much appreciated. I've been using it heavily since its release and have enjoyed watching it improve through each version. I'm really looking forward to implementation of the Monkey's Audio module.

A very minor feature request -- would it be possible to have the window position remembered after exiting and restarting the app?

And a couple of questions. When I transcode to Apple AAC and select the "source location" as the destination it still adds copies of the transcoded AAC files into my iTunes music folder as well. Is there a setting I'm not seeing that would delete the files from the iTunes music folder or is that just the way Omni Encoder handles it? I'll also add that Omni Encoder bombs out on me on occasion when transcoding Apple AAC and Lossless but haven't been able to link it to anything specific so you could reproduce it. Seems to happen randomly, although perhaps more frequently when I'm doing a large batch and I leave and Windows goes into sleep mode. But again, it's nothing I can make happen on demand -- it usually works fine when I re-run the batch -- but I'll keep trying to figure out what the common link may be, if any.

Also, I'm assuming it's okay to update and change the codecs in the Omni Encoder directory and that it won't break the encoder modules as long as the files are named the same?

Thanks for your help.

Yep... i'm adding that in 2.0 (bugs me too).



Turn off the options to keep your library organized in iTunes, and the "copy to the iTunes folder when adding" option. In regards to the crashes... the iTunes COM interface seems sorta buggy to me. I've made some changes in 1.3 that will hopefully help a bit. Also, I found a bug where iTunes won't write tags longer than 54 characters... that is also fixed.



Yeah, its okay generally speaking to go to a newer version, but older ones possibly not - for instance, I include FLAC 1.1.3 and make use of some features not found in 1.1.2. When Lame 3.98 comes out, I'm probably going to make use of the new features as well.

Feel absolutely free to use different compiles of stuff though.. I personally am using Blacksword's Vorbis, , the SSE build of Nero, and the optimized FLAC compile. Just rename the binaries.

Version 1.3 Released:

* Monkey's Audio support.
* ID3 album art embedding for the MP3 format (iTunes/iPod compatible).
* An "add folder" menu option, for recursively adding entire directory trees.
* A conversion summary dialog indicating total conversion time (in case you want to benchmark something).
* Various bug fixes.

I'd like to hope I didn't introduce any new bugs, but the MP3 tagging engine is completely new so please let me know of any issues and I'll fix them ASAP. I just converted my entire FLAC library (some 3500 files) to MP3 without incident.

Thanks for the update. So far, so good. I'll know tonite when I convert 975 FLAC > MP3.

Any word on COMMENT tag being converted? Or at least make it optional?

One final question... how does one obtain album art w/ your app?

Thanks bud!

@Jebus

I use the v1.3
I have a suggestion for a smal fix.
When I convert flac to mp3 with id3v2.3. The TRACK number is in the flac tag "01" and in the converted mp3 file "1". So, maybe you could fix it to a correct transcoding of the tag data?

Is it possible to create a user defined tag based directory structure?


Thanks in advance.




One smale question. How do you write the id3v2.3 tag? (ISO 8859-1 or UTF-16)
And maybe you could make it possible to switch them?


edit: I found somthing strange. The original FLAC file leght is 8 seconds and the transcoded mp3 file is 9 seconds long. Maybe you could check it out?

Hope this is in the right place.
Having problems running Omni Encoder.
Whenever I open a window from the tool bar, everything freezes, only way to exit is via the task manager.
Have tried versions 1.27 and 1.3, clean installs each time. Don't think I have seen a similar problem here, have searched, sorry if I have overlooked anything.
Thank you very much for any help.

Yeah... version 2.0. I'm workin' on it!

Just click on the art column before converting.


I'm using metamp3.exe for tagging mp3s... will speak to the developer about that one. I'm asking it to write "01" actually - its just ignoring me

Not yet... I will add such a feature though.

I believe metamp3.exe is writing ISO 8859-1 tags, but I'll have to check. As of right now there is no way to change it.

Its probably just the calculation algorithm (rounding). Do they sound the same? MP3s often have a bit of padding to them as well. I'm sure its fine.


I've never seen such an issue either. Try reinistalling the .NET framework 2.0.

Hello Jebus, aa new install of NET Rutime did not help, sorry. Updated it also. I can add files to Omni Encoder, but opening any other window, which by the way always lacks max/min/close buttons, gives the freeze. Never seen it on my pc before, which is very stable. I use XP, no iTunes.
Hope I can get it going, looks great, thank you for your hard work.

Thank you, by the way, to anyone who has made a $5 donation. It is much appreciated! You are all listed at http://omniencoder.autobotcity.net. If you want your name removed, let me know.

And what about multithread suppord (look at my prev. post)? Almost all new processors - multicore, and making single-core programs in this time is archaically.

Well 1.3 doesn't fix my mystery random missing tag info - here's an example - not all the original flac's had full tags like 06:

I dunno man, can't reproduce. As I asked before: is your machine overclocked?

not overclocked and don't have instability problems even when I run cpu or graphics intensive stuff.

How fast is your machine? I'm wondering if iTunes tagging operations don't block like the API says they do... my machine is pretty high-end so it could be tagging quickly on mine, but skipping things on yours.

Is there a track limit? It choked when converting 1900 FLAC to MP3.

Thanks bud!!!

Oh, and stay warm...

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: StartIndex cannot be less than zero.
Parameter name: startIndex
at System.String.Remove(Int32 startIndex)
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.SelectDestinationForm.GetCommonPath(String path1, String path2)
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.SelectDestinationForm.GetCommonPath(String path1, String path2)
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.SelectDestinationForm.GetCommonPath(String path1, String path2)
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.SelectDestinationForm..ctor(List`1 audioFiles)
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.MainForm.StartConversion()
at OmniEncoder.Frontend.MainForm.convertToolStripMenuItem_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripButton.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
OmniEncoder
Assembly Version: 1.3.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.3.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/OmniEncoder.exe
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
FLACModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.7.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.7.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/FLACModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
LAMEModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.1.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.1.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/LAMEModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
MACModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/MACModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
MetaMP3Module
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/MetaMP3Module.DLL
----------------------------------------
MusepackModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.2.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.2.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/MusepackModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
TagModule
Assembly Version: 1.3.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.3.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/TagModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
VorbisModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.3.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/VorbisModule.DLL
----------------------------------------
WavPackModule
Assembly Version: 1.0.2.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.2.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Omni%20Encoder/WavPackModule.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

No limit... transcoded about 3500 files myself in one swoop. That error looks like a problem with path renaming. Where are your source files located, and which destination type are you using? (tag based, mirror or source).

Well, each folder (one was 1026 files and other was 950) were located on separate drive letters. Should that matter? The file structure is ok b/c they accepted each folder individually.

Right now I have my FLACs strewn across multiple hard drives b/c of space issues.

Thanks!

That's probably it... i'll test that out when I get home tonight. My guess is it is trying to find the lowest common directory, and there isn't one because of the separate drives! Do each drive individually for the time being... should work fine.

3.2 GHz P4 Prescott w/ 2 G, one possibly relevant fact is the files involved all reside on a network hard drive (gigabit ethernet so should be fairly speedy but...?)

It looks like the network harddrive is responsible for the missing tag info. When I transcode to my local hard drive I don't have this problem

Are you accessing the network drive via network neighbourhood? Like, does the path start with \\machinename\path? or do you have it mapped to a drive letter? If not, could you try mapping it to a drive letter and then see if it works for me?

It's mapped to a drive letter. The drive is a linux server running samba

Don't you love nested messages? I know I do. Rudundancy ftw.

Which brand and what firmware release? What OS and release are you connecting from?

-brendan

Thanks. I have a samba share myself here mapped to a drive letter, and I'll try it out tonight.

The server is an old homebuilt P4 running gentoo with 2.6 kernel (2.6.18 I think). It is running samba 3.0.24

The client PC running omni encoder is running MSDN released vista with up to date patches.

I know Vista changed the SMB protocol somewhat. I'm upgrading to Vista tonight - I'm first going to try encoding to my gentoo samba share, then I'll try again after the upgrade.

Its quite possible that this is one of those iTunes/Vista incompatibilities, and that Apple will fix it themselves. That's what I'm hoping!

I think more specifically, Vista makes assumptions about what protocol settings are almost always enabled on Windows-based file servers, even though those options may not be the default or most common settings on samba-based servers.

I'd try tracking down discussions of vista-related problems with your particular samba release on mailing lists/forums.

-brendan

I'm encountering write errors (after decoding, before encoding) while transcoding single songs from multiple albums in multiple formats (FLAC, MP3 and APE) to Apple AAC in one batch. Seems like the error usually happens when after transitioning from one format to another, i.e., from MP3 to FLAC. It processes several files in the same format in a row okay until it reaches a different format. I can't get this to reproduce 100% of the time but eventually I will get the error in a batch of mixed formats.

Found another issue that may be related to the above. While transcoding a soundtrack album with multiple artists from FLAC to Apple AAC (with iTunes configured to copy files to iTunes library), Omni Encoder chugs along fine until the artist changes, in which case a write error results.

First, when I open any option/setting windows, the whole menu and OK/cancel buttons don't fit into the window, which I can't resize. Any way to fix this?

I'm trying to set Omni up so that for each CD I rip it will create a FLAC file with replaygain in one directory, and and iTunes AAC with mp3 gain in a separate directory. I haven't found how to do this yet. Is it possible? I thought that this version had that ability.

Thanks for the help. Feel free to give me the idiot's version to this.

Though my tags appear to be in order I am having a problem with converting soundtrack/various artist albums from flac to mp3 when using the tag based folder generation option .
A new folder is being generated for each artist on the album.
What am I doing wrong?

Now that FLAC 1.1.4 is out, any plans for an update to include support for the new version of FLAC? Thanks.

I'll include it in the next release, but in the meantime you can just replace the flac.exe in the installation directory with the new one and it should work fine.

I noticed that when doing batch encodes/reencodes that Omni decodes ALL tracks to WAVs in the system temp directory before starting the encoding process. Couldn't this be a big issue with disk space on systems with a large music collection if doing a library reencode? I mention it because a lot of people do FLAC->FLAC when a new version comes out.

Could this be changed to process one file at a time, or one album at a time?

Error problem.

I'm running a simple test, 2 albums of mp3s to flac 1.1.4, mirroring the directory structure. I'm moving it from D:\music\albums\A Perfect Circle\ to C:\test\A Perfect Circle\

I dragged the main APC directory into Omni and it loaded the songs from both albums. I then chose to mirror the directories to C:\test\. I'm not sure if this is supposed to create the APC directory or not. Anyway, it created the first album directory Mer de Noms (not APC) and encoded all to flac. But it DID NOT copy my folder.jpg album art for some reason. The album art showed up in Omni, so it knew it was there. It should have been moved to the new location.

Then as soon as the album changed to Thirteenth Step it errored on the first track, saying it couldn't write the file -
file C:\test\\01 - The Package.flac

I'm guessing something is wrong as the directory should read
file C:\test\Thirteenth Step\01 - The Package.flac

Ideas? I just installed v1.3 and replaced flac exe's with v1.1.4.

Art copying is a bit goofed up in some scenarios... i'm working on it.

This looks like an amazing program...but does it have the ability to edit the tags?

Also...is it portable meaning I can take it on a flash drive and it will write there and no where else? Does it have registry entries it puts in?

found a bug

When embedding 500x500 high quality album art, the art for the dialogue isn't scaling properly. I sure hope its not getting encoded this way:



the art is from the folder and named folder.jpg

another slight bug

Dialogue box isn't diplaying the "&" sign



right before James Moody to read "Art Blakey & James Moody"

For me, I discovered pretty quickly that "Delete Source Files after conversion" isn't entirely accurate. When I was converting a rip with that option checked, I hit abort and lost my files.