Console Audio Tools - a package of utilities for checking and converting audio files

Hello, dear Habr!

Many of us performed various kinds of audio file manipulations. Often you want a lot more than the standard Windows tool called Sound Recording. Here come to the aid of specialized tools, paid and free, which is not a problem to find. But what if you need to perform very specific operations? So specific that the tools for their implementation is still worth looking for? What could it be for operations? What tools are used for this? This will be discussed in this article, it is also a review of my new product.

Intro

I would like to begin my narration with a preamble, which will explain well the background that led me to the development of this software. In the process, it turned out that it has no analogues. But more about that later ...
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I work as a programmer and despite this I listen to heavy music (yes, there are programmers who listen to heavy music), and due to these circumstances I have for quite a long time a rather expensive hobby - collecting it into physical. carriers. And since some things are too rare for any impact on them, except for storage in the box, I create copies of disks and tapes for listening to them on the computer from the hard disk, which eliminates such an unpleasant moment when the last album left all over the world heard to the holes and just worn out with a laser drive.



This is not a very easy process carried out by ripper programs, which, as a matter of fact, simply remove sound from a disk in WAV format from a disk, and, as a rule, to save space, compress it without loss (FLAC, ALAC, APE), or with losses ( mp3, ogg, wma and other less common). This process can be compared with the production of well-known disk images. In fact, the process of taking images from audio disks is similar to taking images from data disks, but in the case of audio, the ripper also monitors errors and data integrity and creates a CUE map that allows you to cut one large image into separate tracks on fly right when playing, so the advantage of taking images with rippers (which requires some knowledge and experience) doesn’t even involve any discussion over the simple way of the disc and is the de facto standard in the world of music. The resulting files are called rips, hence the name of this group of programs. Needless to say, in order to preserve your collection from being destroyed by merciless time, you need 100% copies of materials. Especially with optimal tuning of the codec used for this, it is possible to achieve almost 50% compression of the audio material with subsequent unpacking without any loss in quality (according to the principle of zip archives).

Hmm ... This is probably very important ... And how can this be accomplished?

There are not so many such programs, because few are concerned about the preservation of audio materials (obviously, there is nothing to save). In any case, the Exact Audio Copy program is the undisputed and unchallenged leader for several years, thanks to its paranoid subtlety of settings. Indeed, this product is extremely difficult to configure for beginners, its optimal parameters for removing the most accurate rips take up several pages, and when you first start you need to carefully check them as with a pre-flight magazine. But it's worth it, because here you are sure that nothing is left behind, and the process will go as you decided.

Well, fine, the program is set up, rip done. But in order not to be a brown mass, it is sometimes worth sharing your things with others (we leave behind the scenes the exclamations of the right holders and say that we are talking about most of the rarest things that no longer have right holders, and this is the only way to keep them from destruction by time or from a banal non-existence. But more or less modern and well-known things to copy and upload to the Internet is not only illegal, but it is also a demonstration of disrespect for the work of these groups). As a rule (except for sending it to your girlfriend in Vkontakte) this is done by putting it on some known file exchange networks and torrent trackers, where they really care about the quality of the rips made.

Duck about what the whole article?

Yes, yes, I feel that you can’t wait to start working with disk images from your collection, but we are gradually revealing the main functions of this software. It often happens that, under a file in the WAV format, they upload mp3s that have been downloaded from the free Internet by the father. This was especially practiced several years ago, when RuTracker still had a rating that doubled with the author, if his distribution was popular and well distributed. Therefore, under the guise of good and high-quality rips, such a slag was laid out, which even my mother will not listen to! Such cases sometimes happen now, but due to a more thorough check of the quality of the rips, this phenomenon as a whole has come to naught.

There is another kind of problem. It is quite logical that the quality of the ripper setting affects the quality of the rips being shot. If the setting is incorrect, the rip can be removed incorrectly, which will be fraught with rather unpleasant hearing sounds in the form of clicks (due to skipping or layering of samples), repetitions of sound sections after a certain time (if the disc marking toc is damaged) and other moments which can greatly interfere with the enjoyment of the most cruel tin, which can only be imagined, so often pouring out of my powerful speakers during work! : /

And we came to the most important thing: how, after removing the rip from the disc, be sure that it was shot correctly? And as the admin (or users) of some popular resource, understand that% username% pours slag in the form of completely unheard of things, and immediately push the administration about it, saying that, say,% username% indulges in old dictaphone records! Not a problem, you say, because the admin can download the records posted by the user% username% and listen to them in the evening, relaxing after work, on which he, too, didn’t strain too much ... But bad luck, the admin listens exclusively to music for real men, therefore flatly refuses to listen to rips of Philip Kirkorov's disks!



Pichal. Maybe then try to check the quality of these rips, without listening to them? Of course! For this, there are utilities called checkers. Their main purpose is clear from their name - to try as best as possible to determine the quality of the rip. There is no one technique for this, since several factors are checked by various methods: these are reading and comparing checksums of files, creating audio spectra and analyzing the frequency of the received audio stream. If the rip has already been created incorrectly, no program can accurately identify the problem (this can only be done by the human ear), but definitely, if you have the relevant knowledge and experience, the ability to read the received frequency spectra and analyze the output data, you can determine that there is a problem. Sometimes for this purpose it is enough even to simply view the log that is created by the ripper program for each rip it has made. He can show that the program is not configured correctly, which already clearly indicates that the rip does not have a high degree of fidelity.

There is also a phenomenon called “upconvert”, in which ordinary mp3 files are simply converted to WAV and can even be compressed with corresponding codecs. It looks quite decent in appearance, but the characteristics of the output file remain unchanged. In this case, checkers with almost 100% probability will help us determine that the WAV file is actually not something that it is trying to expose itself.



Fine! We have a goal. Now let's deal with the tools to achieve it. But that's bad luck: they are often all console, and also very fragmented. It can be said that there is no normal tool for such purposes. Of course, they are there, but as a rule, many sometimes unnecessary actions are required, because operations of this kind are usually monotonous and do not require constant changes in conditions. But we can’t wait to listen to music, because we have no time to mess around with utilities for tough computer scientists, right? Therefore, I will be brief: once I decided that why not combine the console utilities necessary for this into one convenient and simple shell? To be honest, I myself am a supporter of maximum convenience at work and the minimum number of actions. Therefore, in addition to heavy music, I really love console utilities! Judge for yourself: we throw the utility where it is necessary, we write a simple batch file for it, pull the necessary file onto it, the console opens and the necessary actions are performed. Beauty! Well, the maximum you can press y / n or numbers to select the desired action ... In general, the result of this research and manipulation was the software for working with audio files Console Audio Tools.

Something else?

Yes, somehow it turned out that the article was only about unknown to most things, such as checking the quality of audio rips, so in order to eliminate this annoying shortcoming, it’s worth telling that she can:

Convert audio files (convert SoX package tool). Although I am an ardent supporter of the original quality without loss, but sometimes I have to resort to converting it, albeit with inevitable losses. For example, your girlfriend is just crazy about the team of romantic young boys from the team Cannibal Corpse, singing about Luboff. But it’s annoying that she can’t master quite specific methods of working with images of audio CDs, preferring to listen to good old mp3s, refusing to even listen to what terrible evil it is! But we do not want to spoil relations with her because of such little things, right? Not a problem, transfer them to mp3 with a couple of clicks. In the literal sense of the pair: /

Check the quality of audio files . For rips, the operation is performed in several stages, which differ somewhat depending on the file format opened in the program:

1) The decoding of the compressed file to WAV (if necessary) using flac or ape utilities, depending on the format of the rip.
2) Acquire and write to the sha1 hash file of the audio file. This process is carried out by the shell itself.
3) The resulting file is cut into tracks on the CUE map, if any.
4) The auCDtect utility checks each track for compliance with the WAV format. Record the result for audio rips is written to the file. If you check a regular audio file - the data it receives is displayed on the screen.
5) The spectrum of the audio file is created using the spectrum tool of the SoX utility in png format.
6) The analysis of the rip removal log is carried out for compliance with the required settings of the ripper. This process is carried out by the shell itself. To do this, simply open the log file in the program.

Creating spectra of audio files . If you are a fan of analyzing something, this function will suit you just in time. By the way, this opportunity is where it all began .

Create profiles for external ripper encoders . It is possible to perform all the above actions automatically right when removing a disk rip.

Cutting audio files by CUE (shntool package split tool). Perhaps I will tell about it later ...

And in order to somehow dilute the review, its screenshots are offered to your attention. Do you like screenshots? I also love the screenshots. Screenshots of the printing of my any discs! But I digress ...



The main window of the program. This is the first thing you see when you open an audio file in the program.
That minimalism that I like so much!



Check the log made rip audio file. How many mistakes! Probably, this rip was downloaded from the same poor-quality file exchanger! Thank! I'd rather order a disc on Amazon and rip it off myself ...



Check the quality of a separate audio file. Here is an outrage! Under the guise of WAV we slipped nasty mp3! And the program does not even doubt it (95%)!



Let's try again? Fine! Here we are just incredibly lucky! Before us was pure WAV!



For those who like to perceive sound not only with ears: SoX builds excellent spectra! The image is clickable.

Well, what kind of program review can do without a link to a project in SourceForge ?

Autro

This was a review, it’s my memoirs, and it’s a small excursion into an interesting and informative musical world.

Listen and love music and programming!

See you later.