***Change log*** v0.

983 beta - fixed a bug with the ini-file that only occured when used with German language Windows - enlarged the buffer of the file open dialog - the command-line for ttaenc changed in the 3.x series (-f for output file was changed to -o) - removed mpg123 and added mpadec v0.98 beta - changed FAAC command line syntax so it works with FAAC 1.24 (but not with olde r versions) - can encode .cda, .cdda, .raw and .bin files (if encoder supports this) - frontend doesn't crash when output directory cannot be created - some small internal improvement (code clean-up) v0.973 beta - bugfix: Multi frontend froze when encoding was going on. Now fixed I hope. - Codec name in DOS-window title bar (Win2k/XP only). v0.972 beta - Changed the way go.bat is started. - Process prioriy class can now only be normal or idle (high and realtime priori ty can be dangerous for system stability). v0.97 beta - Added option to close the DOS-window automatically when processing is finished . v0.96 beta - Selection of process priority class. This feature works only in Win2k/XP (and newer). - New tab control in the Locations window (the file tabctl32.ocx is no longer us ed). - Some minor grafical changes when resizing the main window. v0.952 beta - Added QuickTime/Qutibacoas. v0.951 beta - Added NEncode. v0.95 beta - Two transcoding methods: "on-the-fly" and "intermediate wav files". - Option to delete the source files. - Option to sort the codec list in alphabetical order. - Adding tags to LPAC files made possible, because foobar2000 can read them and the LPAC decoder skips them. v0.94 beta - It's now possible to choose whitch codecs you want to see in the codec list. - Added FAAC, OptimFrog DualStream and TTA. Removed aacenc_mpeg4. - Transcoding from OptimFrog to anything is now possible. - Transcoding FLAC and Ogg-FLAC to Ogg Vorbis is now done directly by oggenc (re quires oggenc 1.01 or higher). - win2dos.exe is no longer needed for Windows 2000 and XP. - Some other minor changes. ***Installation***

- Unzip into a directory of your choice (win2dos.exe is not needed for Windows 2 000 and XP). - The encoders / decoders should be in the same directory as Multi frontend or i n the Windows search path. If they are somewhere else you can enter their paths in the Locations dialog. Unselect the codecs you don't use. - If you want to add tags to the output files you need tag.exe (and tag.cfg). Do wnload Tag here: http://members.home.nl/w.speek/download/Tag.zip . Just unzip th is file into your Multi frontend directory. Additional files you might need: If you get an error when you try to run Multi frontend you probably need one of the following files, depending on the error message: - Visual Basic 6 Runtime files. Get it here: http://download.microsoft.com/downl oad/5/a/d/5ad868a0-8ecd-4bb0-a882-fe53eb7ef348/VB6.0-KB290887-X86.exe - mscomctl.ocx. Get it here: http://members.home.nl/w.speek/download/MSCOMCTL.ZIP ***What can you do with Multi frontend?*** Encoding, decoding and transcoding with all the programs in the Codec list. Tags can automatically be added to the files you encode. You can tag and rename comp ressed files. Tag.exe (and Tag.cfg)(http://members.home.nl/w.speek/download/Tag. zip) is required if you want to use tagging functionality. And finally you can a pply replaygain to wav, mp3, mpc and ogg vorbis files (with wavegain, mp3gain, r eplaygain and vorbisgain respectively). ***Transcoding*** Transcoding is converting compressed audio files from one format to another. You should keep in mind that transcoding lossy encoded files to another format (for example: aac -> mp3) will degrade the sound quality! How to transcode? It's exactly like encoding wav files. You can even put files f iles from different formats on the list. A nice extra feature is that, if the so urce files have tags, you can copy the tags to the transcoded files. Select "Cop y tags from source files" in the Options window and select "Add tags" in the mai n window. There are two ways of transcoding: 1. On-the-fly (through a pipe) 2. Using intermediate, temporary wav files ad 1. This might be the preferred method from a technical point of view, but it requires a decoder with standard output (stdout) and an encoder with standard in put (stdin). Most codecs have this features, but not all. Also in some cases the transcoded (output) file will have a click at the end. This happens mostly when the source file is mp3 or mp4/aac. On-the-fly transcoding to aac/mp4 is possible with FAAC, but not with the Psytel encoders (they don't have stdin). For on-the-fly transcoding from or to Monkey's Audio you need the patched mac.ex e available from the Multi frontend website. ad 2. This method works always. Downside is that there must be harddisk space fo r the decoded files, but only for one file at a time. The intermediate wav file will be put in the output directory and deleted as soon as the transcoded file i s ready.

***General options*** Default behaviour is to let the DOS-window remain when encoding is finished, so that you can read the stuff the codec had to say. When this doesn't have your in terest you can select the option to "close the DOS-window when processing is fin ished". If you want to keep working on other things while encoding in the background, th en set the process priority to "idle". Default is normal priority. This feature is disabled in Win9x. ***Tag.exe options*** Tags are derived from the filename of the encoded file. Auto detection of filena me schemes will work fine in most cases. If it doesn't work for you, you can ent er your own (custom) filename scheme. Note that it should be the filename scheme of the encoded files! The scheme is constructed using the following parameters (these parameters can also be found in the tooltip of the textbox where they mus t be entered): T = title A = artist L = album Y = year C = comment N = track number G = genre X = disregard Example: The encoded files are named like this: C:\Music\U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind\01 - Beautiful Day.mp3 The scheme is: A - L\N - T If some tag items cannot be found in the filename then enter it in the applicabl e field. Note that Tag.exe options in the Options window only apply to the situation when you are encoding files. If you put compressed files on the list and want to tag them you should select Tag in the Codec list and enter the options you want to use in the Options field. Note that Tag.exe (v2.0.39b) cannot tag mp4 files! ***Per codec info*** BladeEnc (bladeenc.exe) Don't use -nogap or -concat because only one file at a time is passed to BladeEn c, so it won't work properly. I recommend to use the -q option, because without it you have to hit <enter> after every file. FAAC (faac.exe) When using the -w switch for mp4 files Tag.exe won't recognize the files. Tag.ex e can be forced to write tags to mp4 files with --nocheck, but that's probably n ot a good idea. FAAD (faad.exe) If you can't find a FAAD version with stdout use intermediate wav files when tra

nscoding. Fraunhofer Fastenc (fastencc.exe) No stdin, so it can't be used for transcoding on-the-fly. Fraunhofer MP3Enc 3.1 (mp3enc31.exe) Doesn't work in Win2k/XP. So it's untested because I run Win2k. Gogo-no-coda (gogo.exe) Okay. LAME (lame.exe) The --nogap option is not supported (use the all2lame frontend if you want the -nogap option). When transcoding MP3 files to some other compressed format lame' s decoder is used. mp3 -> ogg = OK (raw options are used by the frontend). mp3 > mpc doesn't work because mppenc can't handle lame's stdoutput. mp3 -> aac can be done with FAAC but not with the Psytel encoders (because they don't have stdi n). Also see the FAQ at the end of this file. MAD (madplay.exe) Only decoding to wav files is supported. You can't use the --output option, beca use the frontend uses it already to specify the output filename. No stdout. MPG123 (mpg123.exe) No stdout. The mpg123.exe from Dmitry Rahalov works OK (get it at the Multi fron tend website), but Takuro Horikawa's version produces nothing but noise. Only de coding to wav files is supported. The frontend always uses the -w option, so don 't use that. MusePack encoder (mppenc.exe) All fine (I think :-) Note that Tag.exe uses APEv1 tags by default on MPC files. Put --ape2 in the "Other tag.exe options" field for APEv2 tags. MusePack decoder (mppdec.exe) Transcoding to LAME and Ogg Vorbis is done without the wav header (raw) to preve nt a click at the end of the file. Transcoding to another format might cause a c lick at the end of the file. NEncode (nencode.exe) For info about this program see: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopi c=13056&st=0&hl=neroencode . No stdin, so it can't be used for transcoding on-th e-fly. Ogg Vorbis encoder (oggenc.exe) All fine. Transcoding FLAC and Ogg-FLAC to Ogg Vorbis is done directly by oggenc (requires oggenc 1.01 or higher). If the (Ogg-)FLAC files are tagged the tags w ill be copied into the Vorbis files by oggenc (not by tag.exe). Ogg Vorbis decoder (oggdec.exe) All fine... OptimFrog DualStream (ofs.exe) The current version (4.509) doesn't have stdin/out and can therefore not be used for transcoding on-the-fly. However, I'm pretty sure the next version will have this feature, so Multi frontend is already prepared for it. By default Tag.exe uses ID3v1 tags. If you want APEv2 tags use: "--force ape2". Psytel aacenc (aacenc.exe) No stdin, so it can't be used for transcoding on-the-fly. All Psytel encoders ne ed also the file ia32math.dll.

Psytel fastenc (fastenc.exe) No stdin, so it can't be used for transcoding on-the-fly. QuickTime/Qutibacoas For info see: http://efenstor.stratopoint.com/qutibacoas.htm To use the QuickTime MPEG-4 encoder you need both QuickTime Player Pro and Qutib acoas. Options are set in QuickTime Player. Read the instructions on the Qutibac oas website and in the Qutibacoas readme carfully! Some temporary freezing occur s when using Qutibacoas/QuickTime. After a few seconds everything should be back to normal. Stdin is not available, so it can't be used for transcoding on-the-fly. Speex encoder (speexenc.exe) Untested. Speex decoder (speexdec.exe) Untested. TooLAME (toolame.exe) No stdin. FLAC (flac.exe) If you want to test (-t) or analyze (-a) files, make sure that the Output folder box is empty. LA - Lossless-Audio (la.exe) It's possible to tag LA files, but be warned, the decoder doesn't skip them. So remove the tags before decoding LA files, otherwise you'll end up with WAV files with tags in them (and you probably don't want that). Although the docs say that LA 0.4 does have stdin (-cin) I cannot get it to work . So it's not possible to transcode from another format to LA. But it is possibl e to transcode LA files to another format. LPAC (lpac.exe) Stdout = OK, stdin doesn't seem to work although the LPAC website states otherwi se (or am I doing something wrong?). Use the -v (verbose) option if you want to see what it's doing in the DOS-box. Note that LPAC requires lpac.exe and lpaccod ec.dll. Foobar2000 can read LPAC files with tags. Tag.exe defaults to writing ID3v1 tags . If you want to use APEv2 tags instead, use "--force ape2" in "Other tag.exe op tions". Monkey's Audio (mac.exe) The official mac.exe doesn't have stdin/out. From the Multi frontend website a v ersion modified by Jason Jordan (author of shntool: http://shnutils.freeshell.or g/shntool/) is available, that does have stdin/out. OptimFrog (ofr.exe) By default Tag.exe uses ID3v1 tags. If you want APEv2 tags use: "--force ape2". Shorten (shorten.exe) I don't know what all the options do. I've only tested shorten without options t o compress and -x to decompress. TTA (ttaenc.exe) The current version (3.2) doesn't have stdin/out, so it can't be used for transc oding on-the-fly. The old TTA 2.0 had a different command line syntax (-f instea d of -o for output file) so it doesn't work with the frontend.

WavPack encoder (wavpack.exe) If you want to create a self-extracting file (-e) make sure you leave the Output folder box empty. Otherwise a .wv output file is specified on the command line. WavPack decoder (wvunpack.exe) All fine... MP3Gain (mp3gain.exe) All specified files are put on one command-line. If you specify a lot of files t hat have a long file and/or directory name it doesn't work. Command line length is limited to 8191 characters on Windows XP and 2047 on older Windows versions ( see: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830473 ). If an inp ut directory is specified this problem doesn't occur because Multi frontend can write *.mp3 instead of writing every filename on the command-line. ReplayGain (replaygain.exe) I recommend that you use input directory instead of files. Otherwise the problem that I described under mp3gain might occur. VorbisGain (vorbisgain.exe) I recommend that you use input directory instead of files. Otherwise the problem that I described under mp3gain might occur. WaveGain (wavegain.exe) I recommend that you use input directory instead of files. Otherwise the problem that I described under mp3gain might occur. Tag (tag.exe) Tag has a lot of options. I don't know if everyting works. The frontend creates the command line as folows: tag.exe <options you specify> <@filelist>. Note that Tag uses not only tag.exe, but also tag.cfg. ***FAQ*** Q: Is transcoding bad for sound quality? A: lossy -> lossy : degraded quality (encoded twice) lossy -> lossless : makes no sence (quality will be the quality of the lossy file) lossless -> lossy : OK (just as good as encoding from wav -> lossy) lossless -> lossless : OK, no qualty loss Q: Transcoding on-the-fly from MP3 and to anything results in files with a click at the end!? A: LAME is used for decoding to stdout, but it seems that something is wrong wit h it (mppenc doesn't even recognize it as a wav file). I don't know of any other (console) MP3 decoder that can write to stdout. BTW. for transcoding from mp3 t o ogg the frontend uses the raw option (lame --decode -t / oggenc -r), so in thi s case there's no click. Q: Transcoding on-the-fly from MP4/AAC and to anything results in files with a c lick at the end!? A: Yep, I know. Better use "intermediate wav files" (in the Options window). Q: Why isn't it possible to automatically apply replaygain (or mp3gain / vorbisg ain) when encoding files? A: Because then all filenames including the directory must be on one command lin e. Example: replaygain --auto "d:\music files\musepack\sexy singer - cool record with heavy licks\01 - I'm so cool.mpc" "d:\music files\musepack\sexy singer - c ool record with heavy licks\02 - I'm so sexy.mpc" "d:\music files\musepack\sexy

singer - cool record with heavy licks\03 - short skirts.mpc" etc. Say there are 17 songs on this great album. You can imagine that it would be a pretty long com mand line. Now, it seems that there's a limit to how long a command line can be. This limit is somewhere around 2000 characters. If it's longer the DOS-box just closes. So then you think your files are replaygained, but in fact they're not. That's why I think it's better to make replaygaining a separate job. I also rec ommend that you select an input directory instead of files (for the same reason) . Q: I only see a flash when using mp3gain. A: See previous Q and A. The command line is too long. With lect an input directory (like with replay/vorbis/wavegain), n't support that (no wildcards). Solution: use the official if you would like to use Multi frontend, move the MP3 files a short name and try again. mp3gain you can't se because mp3gain does mp3gain frontend or to a directory with

Q: I would like to read what the encoder puts in the DOS-box, but it scrolls awa y and the text is lost. A: In Windows2k/XP you can do the following. Open a DOS-box -> right-click on th e title bar -> Defaults -> tab Layout -> Screen Buffer Size -> Height -> enlarge the number. I have set it to 800, but if that's not enough you can probably mak e it (much) more. I don't know about Win9x. ----Multi frontend is made by Wim Speekenbrink (aka Speek). Send comments and questi ons to w.speek@wanadoo.nl