Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: APE Image embedded cue and RAR (Read 2536 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

APE Image embedded cue and RAR

I tried looking for help with this by searching but I didnt find what I was looking for.

I've ripped a CD to a .APE image as one file to retain the gap-less nature of the source.

I created a cue file and then cut an paste it into the .ape as an embedded cue sheet.

UP to this point Foobar works without fault All the separate tracks within the ape show up and can be selected and played as if they were separate files.

However, I then RAR my songs. This allows me to:

1) Not lose a track moving an album around
2) A simple CRC check to warn me of possible corruptions
3) Better storage efficiency on external storage (I used a 1TB USB drive)
4) Smaller Directory structures, less chance of corruptions.
5) Additional Geek factor that all Foobar users cherish.

The final RAR contains the art work as front.jpg, the original .cue file and the .ape file.

The album art showed fine before I RARed the files.

Once it's RARed, the artwork disappears. All of the embedded cue file tracks still display in Foobar.

If you try and play any of the embedded cue sheet tracks from an .APE in a .RAR, Foobar gets upset:

unable to open item for playback (bad allocation) <APE location> Index 1
unable to open item for playback (bad allocation) <APE location> Index 2
unable to open item for playback (bad allocation) <APE location> Index 3

I thought this might be an .APE issue, so I converted them to .FLAC. Again, once placed in a .RAR file the songs become unplayable.

I dont think the FLAC or APE input DLLs are at fault since they work as expected on unarchived files.

I dont think the RAR plugin is at fault since it works fine with non-embedded cue sheet MP3 and FLAC files.

I found NO documentation on the new cue sheet layout that foobar now accepts. However, the format I found works fine before archiving.

Is there a specific sequence to using a cue sheet and then id tags to make this work? It appears foobar uses a mixture of cuesheet and tags to display the details for a file of this type. (for example I added disk numbers as tags after embedding the cue sheet).

I'm sure I'll hear the "just unpack it before playing". If I hop through my collection to find some choice tracks to queue, the last thing I need is to remember which tracks need extra massaging to be able to play.



APE Image embedded cue and RAR

Reply #1 –
Quote from: whiteking on
3) Better storage efficiency on external storage (I used a 1TB USB drive)
I can only assume that you're referring to some negligible reduction in fragmentation (or something) due to the reduction in file quantity created by the archiving process, because it should be obvious that any generalised data compression algorithm is unlikely to be able to squeeze more than a few extra bits out of data that has already been compressed with one specifically designed for audio.

Anyway, I imagine the archive input plugins are intended for collections of tracks only, rather than to act as 'virtual folders', complete with artwork, cue sheets, etc.

And I wonder: Why do you embed the cue sheet, and retain the original copy? Just to avoid the extra step of extracting / copy-and-pasting?

APE Image embedded cue and RAR

Reply #2 –
I'm a bit embarrassed.  The problem was caused by foobar still collecting the information to add to the library. I'd guess the index pointers hadn't been updated. (The archive actually has 2 images in it, bringing the size that foobar has to scan to  650mb approx)

After waiting some minutes it works fine.. if a little slow... I can live with that.. . This is about archival, not instant playback thanks for the reply.

It might just be a mis-perception on my behalf, but defragging a drive containing 1,000 100mb files seem to get sorted a lot faster than the corresponding number of unarchived smaller files. there is far less directory shuffling and file pointer updating needed. Of course the number of blocks of data remains the same...

This observation is from administering some NT file-servers with business information, not music stored on them. I've just sort of adopted the practices I've used professionally for my own private operations.

RAR typically gains only about 2% storage space reduction on MP3s. not a factor in defragging at all INMO

Why did I keep the cue sheet and embed it? Many time if you put faulty info into an embedded cue sheet in foobar. you lose all the cue sheet.... The .CUE file remains as a back up should I lose the embedded CUE. I found for me, if the file also had Tags in it, the cue sheet embedding would fail and foobar deletes any info past track 1.

Ok. I cant change my topic heading, so my embarrassment will endure for eternity... Hopefully it will slide into the pile of old posts rapidly.

And in hindsight, the time taken to re-read the .APE image to find the correct frame to start playback is probably a lot larger than any gap produced by splitting into separate files. I would not recommend this procedure for a piece of music you listen to regularly. The gap is about 6 seconds on a Pentium IV 3Ghz. For some reason this amuses me enormously.

Should these CDs in my collection become something I play often, spitting into separate tracks would become important!

I use an portable MP3 player most of the time, so I'd be converting it to MP3 to allow my zune to play them.

The archive plugs work perfectly to create a "Virtual folder" complete with sub-folders, and art-work.

Bottom line. Foobar STILL is the best tool for archival and administration of my CD collection.