I currently have a very much work-in-progress version of lamedropXPd that has all-new wave and FLAC input routines. The single binary will encode from wave files and transcode from ogg and FLAC files. This 'alpha 1' version appears to work perfectly OK and performs the functions of the current normal and libsndfile versions in one binary. I should mention that oggflac files are not catered for but I don't really see that as an issue.

If anyone would like to try this, and I'd appreciate the file routines being given a 'good seeing to', it can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0a1.zip

The intention is to extend this to copying ogg and FLAC comments into id3 tags, but I've not even looked at this yet.

EDIT: I should just mention that this is compiled against the 3.98 release libs.

EDIT 2: Alpha 2 can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0a2.zip

EDIT 3: Alpha 3 can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0a3.zip

EDIT 4: Beta 1 can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0b1.zip

EDIT 5: Beta 2 can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0b2.zip

EDIT 6: Beta 1 can be downloaded from: http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp3/lamedropXPd3.0b3.zip

I encoded some flac and ogg files, flawless :-)

Thanks.

I've tested this first alpha somewhat extensively as well. I encoded single FLAC files, small sets of FLAC files and large sets of FLAC files. I tested all of the files in foobar2000 and everything appeared to be normal up to this point.

If you end up creating tag copying functions from input files, lamedropXP would be a boon to novice users everywhere. One other feature to give some thought potentially, to have directory creation from tag values in the output directory.

Excellent work sir.

P.S. - I would like to personally thank you for all the time and effort you put into compiling new versions of encoders and creating excellent utilities like lamedropXP.

I'm not sure if this thread is a solicitation for features, but the one nice thing I'd like to see is the ability to apply replaygain values directly to the encoded MP3 files (just like OggDropXPd can do) from the replaygain tags in the FLAC files. Foobar also has this feature for MP3 encoding and it's useful for portables and/or other hardware that does not read replaygain values directly from tags. That would make LameDropXPd complete i/m/o.

I work a ton during the week, but I can test this alpha version thoroughly during the upcoming weekend. In the meantime, I'd also like to thank John33 very much for working on this encoder.

P.S. I noticed this alpha version still has the Variable Bitrate Mode setting options of Fast and Standard. I'm assuming we still need to toggle "Fast" in order for Lame 3.98 to use --vbr-new (which is now Standard in 3.98). I think this could be a source of confusion for people if not clarified or re-worked.

Thanks for the input, guys.

This is really the first stage in doing what I've said I would in past and have not yet done!! So, yes, I do intend providing tag copying, the use of RG values on conversion and, finally, the oggdropXPd tagging option set. I'm not sure how long this will take, but I'll probably release in two or three stages pretty much in the order outlined above.

I'll use this thread for updates.

Some progress to report!

I'm at the point now where I have a version that copies comments from both FLAC and ogg files, and seems to work fine. Once I've enabled this as an option, it always copies at present, and I've also provided the option to use RG values for scaling, I'll upload another version for testing. I'm hopeful of doing this either later today, or sometime tomorrow.

OK, now we're talking. I'll start cracking my knuckles for some weekend testing.

I've just uploaded alpha 2 - download link on the first post.

This provides the option to copy the basic set of vorbis tags from ogg/FLAC files. The tags supported are: Artist, Album, Title, Date, Track Number and Genre. Your on your own for anything else. I've also provided the option to use either the Track or Album RG vorbis tags, from both ogg and FLAC input, to scale the input prior to mp3 encoding. This does not use mp3gain in any way, the input data is scaled.

You may want to place this in a different directory/folder to the normal versions as the ini file has been expanded. Either way, probably best to delete the old ini file and start fresh.

This has been tested, but not exhaustively by any stretch.

Any comments welcome. Please post here and as I'm away in a couple of hours until late Sunday, I'll check this thread on my return.

I do still plan to expand the general tagging along the lines of oggdropXPd, but that will take rather longer. This may have to wait until after a short break away from 22 until 29 July.

Have fun!

I was so happy to hear of the new lamedrop version with flac support. Big thanks to john33!!! :P

The transcoding process from flac to mp3 is working flawless for me.

Maybe you can create an option to chose the tags to copy. like "Trackname", "Artist", "Album", "Track".... Just the main ones.
That would make the tool perfect in my eyes. :-)

Have a nice one John

I tried to convert some flac files with alpha 2, and it works quite well

One thing is buging me however :

My track numbers have a zero before the first digit, ie.

Tool - Lateralus 01 The Grudge

The zero is not included in the mp3 tag ; I get this :

Tool - Lateralus 1 The Grudge

It's not that important however, just wanted to point it out

This is because LAME converts the text to an integer. I don't know whether id3 requires it as an integer, or whether LAME stores it this way to be sure it's numeric.

LAME 3.98 will store the track number as-is in case of ID3v2.

Tagging Setup Options is stuck on "Copy oggvorbis/FLAC comments" radio button. Selecting either Default Options or Custom Options and hitting Accept will not hold as a setting, it keeps going back to "copy oggvorbis/flac comments". Also, there needs to be an option to turn off tagging in case someone doesn't want to copy over tags from FLAC files.

Replaygain scaling seems to be working OK, however I'm getting slightly different peak readings when compared to foobar. I don't know enough about how the scaling of these two tools are set up to know if these peak readings should match or not. But they're close enough and the feature seems to be working.

On my tests, using an Approx. Bitrate setting of 179 kbps and Variable Bitrate Mode: Fast seems to be equivalent to -V4 --vbr-new in Foobar. I still wish you'd line up the quality settings scale with the various -V(0-9) settings we are all used to using and as recommended in the Wiki. A scale of 10-100 (low to high) uses opposite quality logic of -V0 through -V9 (high to low).

Lastly, any thought of eliminating altogether the Variable Bitrate Mode: setting of Fast and Standard since 3.98 is using --vbr-new as default? If anything, "Standard" should now be the toggle for --vbr-new, and Fast should probably be changed to something like "Old". I thought you mentioned in a previous post you had already addressed that issue.

I know most of the above is cosmetic feedback, but I thought I'd share my thoughts anyway. As far as the encoding, it seems to be working fine. I'll keep testing to see what else I discover.

Thanks again for all your efforts!

Thanks for the feedback. I had thought I'd got the Tagging Setup sorted, but I did do it rather hurriedly on Friday and, clearly, it's not quite right. I'll get on it!

Regarding the Quality settings, it's set the way it is because that was Gabriel's recommendation as it matches the Fraunhoffer Quality setting scheme. However, I think I may amend it to show both schemes, hopefully without introducing confusion! I think, also, that it is probably time to retire the vbr-old method thus removing another opportunity for less than optimal settings.

Again, thanks for the input and I'll try to post a 'sorted' and slightly re-worked compile later today.

(I'm glad that at least the transcoding and re-scaling appear to be OK! )

Dealing with Robert's comment, yes, if you select id3V2 only, then the 2 digit, with leading zero, Track Number is preserved. The leading zero is lost if id3V1 is used at all.

Alpha 3 is now available for download - link on 1st post.

I have added the corresponding Vn values to the Quality scale indicator.
I have removed the VBR Method option - fast is always used.
I have fixed the Tagging Option dialogue. Please note that if you have selected to use ogg/FLAC RG values for scaling, copying of the ogg/FLAC tags is non-optional and the other options are 'greyed out'.

I think this now all works OK, but, as always, please let me know.

This build seems perfect to me.

I encoded some albums, from flac and raw wav, averything is fine

Thanks for your work !

Is it possible to add a feature to copy the album art from the flac tag to the id3v2 tag?

I have been wondering when that question might be asked!

The honest answer is that I have no idea. I know nothing about how it's held and whether the formats are compatible, let me look into it and get back to you. But, in the meantime, if anyone can provide the info, I'm all ears, or should it be eyes in this case?

Right now, the comments copied from the FLAC files are the vorbis-style comments. The Album Art is stored in a FLAC Metadata Picture block. While, as I understand it, the Album Art is stored in a format that is similar to how it is stored in ID3, it's introducing a level of complexity that I don't want to pursue at this time. That's not to say it won't happen at some future date, but it will be near the bottom of the current schedule.

Sorry about that, but I have a habit of over-committing which I have to control!

I have uploaded Beta 1 of this version and it can downloaded from the link on the first post.

I have slightly changed the Encoding Dialogue so that the precise VBR quality setting, to two decimal places, is shown when moving the slider. I have also added a small piece of text below the RG boxes to indicate that selecting one of the options will automatically invoke oggvorbis/FLAC tag copying.

I have decided to move this to beta 1 with a view to releasing this version over the weekend, assuming all is OK. I will complete the changes to the Tagging setup after I return from vacation and will make a separate release then.

I would appreciate an early notification of any bugs/problems, thanks.

Sweet....I'll take a look at this latest beta over the next couple of days and report back.

Edit #1: In the Output Directory Options, selecting "Set Other Output Directory THIS SESSION ONLY" does not function correctly. Select this option, then choose directory, then accept, then go back into the setting and it goes back to THE STANDARD DEFAULT setting.

Thank you, kindly.

Indeed, but the directory chosen for "this session only" is still valid ; mp3s will be created in the right directory.

Anyway, I didn't found any bug until now

The assumption is that if you return to this dialogue, then you want to change something. I accept that it may be a little confusing, but this is how it works in oggdropXPd and users of that seem to find it acceptable. Perhaps not ideal, but as 'le_canz' indicates, it does retain the setting, providing you Cancel at that point, even if it doesn't seem like it! If I think of a better way of dealing with it, then I'll implement it in both but for the moment, I'll leave it as is.

John33 - Everything in Beta 1 seems to be working great, including the output directory testing, scaling, and copying of tags. I really appreciate you adding "Equals VBR Quality of Vx" on the quality scaling slider. That will make it a lot easier to select the common Vx settings. I also appreciate you taking out the Standard and Fast VBR setting since --vbr-new is now standard in 3.98. This looks ready to mass release to me, but I'm only one tester. Hopefully others can test and provide any additional feedback.

Once again, thank you so much for enhancing this encoder tool. It's awesome.

Just trying to meet a long outstanding commitment, although not fully done yet!

Thanks to you for your testing. Always better to have a third party testing things, rather like with proof reading.

If there are no problems reported, I'll release this later tomorrow.

Thanks to all for your interest.

Thanks are for you !

Great job done John33

I did a fair amount of testing and everything works as expected here.

Some features I could appreciate in a future version could be:

• dropping directories (albums ) and retain this structure in the output
• numerical input for the -V value

Excellent, thanks, and I'll bear your suggestions in mind.

Just to let you know that I've decided that I'll formally release this after I return from a short vac, at the end of the month. This serves two purposes. First, it will allow another ten days for anything to 'crawl out of the woodwork', and second, if any issues do arise from a wider distribution, I'll be around to respond. Hope this doesn't upset anyone but I would hate to release this and then not be around if there were any issues!

Just enjoy your vacation! We are grateful for what you do, so plan your holidays the way you want and not how the lamedropXPd release cycle is :-)
Thanks for your efforts!

Will you be building a 64bit version?

Current build seems quite stable, so I think it's not gonna be a big deal to wait a bit

Enjoy your vacation John !
Perhaps we could buy you a few drinks to express our appreciation for your commitment to continue to improve your great software. All we need is a PayPal link

Thanks. guys.

I'll build 64 bit as and when I put up a 64 bit system to test on. Might look at that too when I get back.

See you at the end of the month.

First and foremost, john33, thank you so much for you fabulous utility. I am certain that there are untold thousands of people out there like me, who happily utilize things like your rarewares site and this forum, but who never post, because we don't feel knowledgeable enough or qualified to do so. So on behalf of everyone like me, a big fat thank you to people like you, and the regular contributors to this website.

That being said, I have a feature request which would make lamedropXPd a dream come true: dropping in a high level directory, and recreating the mp3s in that structure in another directory.

To be specific, I have been using EAC to back up my CD collection into FLAC files. I have a high level directory with everything in it. Underneath are subdirectories of genre, i.e. opera, musical, jazz, rock, etc. Under those are directories of collections, artists, etc., ending finally in individual directories for each CD. In all, about 600GB of FLACs within thousands of subdirectories.

I want to make 2 sets of mp3s, one at –V 0 for a big DAP, and one at about 96kbps for a small one. If I could set an output directory of, say, "mp3 96kbps", and then take the "flac" directory and drop it on to lamedropXPd, and come back in a day (or three) to find it all converted (now with tags and all!), it would be a real fantasy come true.

I have looked around the web, and searched this and other sites, but I have not been able to find any (freeware or open source) software that can do this.

I don't pretend to know if this is a simple addition for you or not. If so, then I (and I'm sure countless other people) would be unbelievably grateful. If not, then thank you any way for the incredible work you have done (and continue to do). It is more appreciated than you probably know.

Great work on this! I've always converted FLAC to WAV and then used RazorLAME to convert to MP3. LamedropXPd's drag-and-drop method is much easier! Imagine that!

I've noticed one little bug when transcoding FLAC to MP3. If you select Copy oggvorbis/FLAC comments and Add id3V1 tag ONLY in Tagging Setup, it will still create an ID3v2 tag for the MP3 file if there are long comments. So even though you've selected Add id3V1 tag ONLY, it acts like you've selected Add id3V1 tag and id3V2 tag if necessary (over 30 chars).

The only reason I discovered this is because I like to use MP3ext to edit my tags, but it only has support for the Encoded by tag field and not Encoding setting, which lamedropXPd supports. I'm not sure if one is considered more standard than the other, but it would be cool if I could choose which field lamedropXPd used, or at least had the ability to turn the Encoding setting tag field off completely.

Thanks for putting the time and hard work into this easy to use tool!

John33 - see this thread regarding -q switch. With --vbr-new now standard in 3.98, would the "Encoding Engine Quality" setting be needed in lamedropXPd?

OK, back in circulation, and I haven't forgotten about this!!

I've just uploaded beta2, link is on the first post.

There are a few changes to this that I think need some testing.

1. I've changed the box on the encoding dialogue to allow the direct input of the -V value, in addition to the slider.

2. I've made some changes to the tagging set up dialogue which may make things a little clearer.

3. By default, if LAME discovers a non-standard Genre, it automatically adds an id3v2 tag, even if you specify id3v1 only! This does not seem quite correct to me as one would normally only specify 'id3v1 only' for a reason. Therefore, and this only applies to copying oggvorbis/FLAC tags, if id3v1 only is specified and a non-standard genre is encountered, the genre is changed to 'Other' so that 'id3v1 only' is preserved.

I will release this version, subject to any required bugfixes, before looking at any further enhancements.

Where do you add "--id3v1-only", before or after the other tag switches?

Currently, I'm applying id3tag_v1_only(gfp); before setting the tags, but I did try it after without it seeming to make any difference. The id3tag_set_genre function in id3tag.c adds the id3v2 tag in the event of a non-standard genre, unless I am completely misreading it.

If you call id3tag_v1_only at the end, it should zero out the ADD_V2_FLAG. At least it is working this way using lame.exe.

Thanks, Robert, I'll give it another try. It could be that I had another problem that was masking it when I tried it before.

Interesting results!

In the uploaded version, not only am I checking for non-standard genres, I'm also ensuring that tags don't exceed 30 chars, by truncating them, if id3tag_v1_only is set.

To test properly, I disabled all of the above and simply moved the call to a point after where the tags have been set. This generated both id3v1 and id3v2 tags. Next, I re-enabled the genre checking, leaving the 'call' where it had been moved to. Both tag type were generated. Then I re-enabled the tag length checking/truncating and at this point, only id3v1 were generated. Moving the call, of itself, seems to have made no difference.

This behaviour may be due to the fact that, of necessity, some things are done somewhat differently than in the lame frontend. I am not in the least bit concerned about this as the way it is done in lamedropXPdv3 seems to work correctly and consistently.

If you have any other thoughts on this, I'd obviously be interested to hear them, but it works OK, as is.

Ok, found the bug: LAME will always return an id3v2 tag when id3v1 fields are too short to hold the text, even though you say you want id3v1 only.

Thanks, Robert. I don't claim to know much about id3, but it's nice to know it wasn't me!!

So, if you genuinely want id3v1 only, it would seem that lamedropdXPdv3 is the place to get it!!

Open to offers of bugs that anyone may have found?

Oh, by the way. Do you make use of LAME's new feature to write unicode tags?

Not at the moment, no. I've been more concerned with getting everything sorted before I look at anything else. I'll certainly bear it in mind, though, when I look at the next bunch of enhancements.

Beta 3 now available via link on first post. The only difference with Beta 2 is that the 'Encoding Engine Quality' option is disabled for VBR as it is set automatically.

Subject to any bug reports, I propose releasing this over the weekend.