REACT 2 Released

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-23 19:15:04
CoverDownloaderLocalPath=F:\GRAB

This setting is wrong. Please check the manual (again?): [Settings] CoverDownloaderLocalPath. Please point it to a file (or to set of files (wildcard char)), not to a folder.

Ok. That was it! Thanks for pointing that out.
I actually only rushed through the manual this time while setting up EAC 0.99 Prebeta5 and REACT2 mod b.04, since I thought I'd still know it all from my last configuration session, when I was setting up EAC 0.99 Prebeta4 and REACT2 mod b.03. And since the variable is named "CoverDownloaderLocalPATH" I automatically assumed, that a regular Windows PATH to the AlbumArt JPEGs would be sufficient.

If you're curious as to why it behaves like it does; the reason why it doesn't start is because AutoIt (the language used to code REACT) function (FileExists) used to detect if the file exists or not before starting AAD also can check if the target is a folder. And since it exists (there's no way of knowing which is it with this function.. and there's no dedicated function for just folders or files) REACT thinks that there's an image ready and tries to copy it to the "working dir" (but fails of course). Neat, isn't it.

Yep. That also explains, why REACT had included the wrong AlbumArt.jpg the last time. I had two cover files lying around in that folder and it obviously chose the (alphabetically) first one.

The weird thing though is, that ALT-F10 doesn't start AlbumArt.exe manually, if a matching Album.jpg has been found.
For example: I have the CD "Controversy" from Prince in the CD-Drive and a file named Controversy.jpg lying in the folder F:\Grab\
I can hit ALT-F10 ten times and nothing happens. Personally I think this is a slightly unexpected behaviour, since I might want to replace the existing Controversy.jpg by a new one and use AlbumArt to look for a better (bigger) alternative. Hence I press ALT-F10 in REACT/EAC to start looking for the alternative. I can of course start AlbumArt manually, but why do I need the Option ALT-F10 then in REACT? Obviously only, if I would want to manually look for AlbumArt, when I don't already have any. But in that case, AlbumArt.exe would be started automatically by REACT anyways. So I also don't really need the manual ALT-F10 option...
I hope you understand what I mean and didn't write that too complicated.
It's not a big issue anyways, but IMHO slightly suboptimal program behaviour.

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-23 19:15:04
When I start an Extraction with F10 after detecting the Gaps, the message "Detecting UPC/ISRC" appears 3 times...

This can't be controlled by REACT. Every cuesheet generation when "UPC/ISRC" setting in EAC is turned on, makes EAC detect those again for some reason (ask Andre, I don't know why.. gaps are detected only once so why isn't UPC/ISRC, dunno). Aaaand, since you're creating all cuesheets (CreateCuesheet=mg|s|m|mc) for some reason (remember that you only need one, probably the MG one, [Settings] CreateCuesheet, check the two guide links in that link) AND you're ripping in image mode (creates additional cuesheet), in fact the "UPC/ISRC" detection is ran 5 times! If you use track mode and only 1 cuesheet, there will be only one "UPC/ISRC" detection.

I am creating all cuesheets simply for the fact, that I want to rip my CD Collection only ONCE and for good. Indeed "MG" is obviously currently the most attractive choice (especially if I would use EAC to rebuild a ripped CD using my FLAC-Files), but since I don't know what tools might be used several years in the future, I don't want to put all my money on an "noncompliant" cuesheet standard. And I want to avoid the necessity to manually touch my CD Collection for Re-Ripping at all cost, especially if it is just a certain type of cuesheet that is missing. So I rather accept the additional wait time for extracting all 4 types of cuesheets and be on the safe side.

But it is good to know, that this is not some weird behaviour on my machine (or even the result of a misconfiguration or bug of REACT/EAC). So thanks for providing me with that information.

P.S. Any reason why are you ripping in image mode (F10) if you don't save any images (ImageExt=wav)? I advice you to use the track mode (F4), it's a bit faster IMHO because with "multithreading" on in EAC (EAC options -> Tools -> On extraction, start external compressors...), track encoding starts right after the track has been ripped (in image mode you have to rip whole CD first) while next track is being extracted at the same time. In addition the "illegal" chars in filenames in track mode are correctly changed respecting the "Sla_Bks_Col_Qst_Bar_Quo_Ast_Lt_Gt=" INI setting.

Hmmm. Actually the main reason is, that after reading all the threads and wikis and other documentation spread out here at hydrogenaudio (and possible other sources), I was under the impression, that the IMAGE MODE would be the more robust of the two alternatives (I think somewhere in this forum there even is a quote from a serious forum member saying exactly that). I also thought, receiving the necessary cuesheets and the opportunity to recreate an EXACT copy of the original CD out of the cuesheet and the FLAC-Files would require to rip in image mode and not track mode. With EXACT I mean including all the little pauses (or NON-pauses!) between the tracks etc. Interesting, that I was wrong with that assumption.

But to be honest, the full picture (I mean the total of Wikis, helpfiles, special forum-threads like this one etc.) is not really easy to find and the bits & pieces are often outdated and even contradicting. This thread alone with its over 60 pages takes quite some time just to read it (not to mention to understand it, if you are new to the matter). And if you don't know the thread, you don't know that it might be totally sufficient to only read the last two pages of it.

Actually by your great work of updating REACT2 mod b.04 and including the latest releases for example of metamp 0.92 beta 5 you probably made this whole thread obsolete (of course except for the first and the last two pages). But newbies don't know that.
Please don't get me wrong. I don't EXPECT a perfect documentation for something, that is the result of the voluntary work of many great people. And the result is still outstanding. To be able to fully rip your CD collection and put it into FLACs and MP3s (or other personally preferred formats), have the AlbumArt included in the files and the directories, have everything perfectly tagged and even the ReplayGain perfectly applied, and all this in only one pass, is really awesome. But if you are a long time Audiograbber user (who was for example just dissatisfied with the missing SecureMode ) and switch to the EAC universe for the first time, you are really overwhelmed by all the new stuff like SecureRipping Modes, AccurateRip, Cuesheet formats, ReplayGain application styles, losless codecs, perfect settings for all of them etc. etc.).

REACT2 mod b.04 definitely makes all this a lot easier for newbies (or at least would have for me), since it is already including to the latest codec versions, has the settings set to MP3 and FLAC as the two default codecs and has been cleared of some minor, but annoying bugs.

BTW: Why aren't the "illegal" chars in filenames corrected in IMAGE MODE also?

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-23 19:15:04
But as usual with Computers, nothing runs without an additional run of debugging.

Yeah, tell me about it. Or should it be "Additional" is too mild word to use.. infinite is better.

Well, tell me a single software project, that
a) has been released according to the planned (and announced) schedule
b) has been totally finished

Even Microsoft, who should have the ressources, failes to do so after over 25 years of experience in that field.

Again thanks for your help and effort with setting up mod b.04.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1536 – 2009-06-24 18:37:21

Quote from: greynol on 2009-06-24 18:37:21

I am creating all cuesheets simply for the fact, that I want to rip my CD Collection only ONCE and for good.

I try to stay out of this thread, but the idea that more than one cue sheet might be useful to you is completely ill-conceived.

There are 5 different types of cue sheets to go with 5 ways of creating images. For each way there is only one appropriate cue sheet.

See this link for details:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=555384

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1537 – 2009-06-24 18:56:23

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-24 18:26:04
I am creating all cuesheets simply for the fact, that I want to rip my CD Collection only ONCE and for good.

I try to stay out of this thread, but the idea that more than one cue sheet might be useful to you is completely ill-conceived.

There are 5 different types of cue sheets to go with 5 ways of creating images. For each way there is only one appropriate cue sheet.

See this link for details:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=555384

I read that thread, thanks. I can also see, what you are aiming at.
But still I don't know today, what kind of application I might use 5 or 10 years ahead to play/burn/do whatever with my ripped CD-Collection. And if I would go for the now most appropiate option MG, I'd bet on a non-compliant cuesheet. Of course you are right, having the wrong cuesheet messing up your re-written CD by inserting pauses at the wrong places (or the opposite), doesn't make any sense at all.

But some of my CDs have strange pauses (Prince is a good (or rather bad?) example for producing such CDs), and many are plain vanilla "2 second pauses" between each track. So according to your statement I would need to use MG in the one case and another cuesheet type for the standard cases. That would require me all the time to re-configure REACT/EAC before each rip. Which is
a) cumbersome (because I have to check which type applies for each CD before the rip)
b) dangerous, because I might forget to do that and then end up only with the wrong type

On the other hand, if I should ever consider re-burning a CD from my FLACs, I can THEN check the MG cuesheet, if it shows any other gaps between the tracks than the usual 2 seconds and if so try to make sure to use only an application being able to deal with this non-compliant cuesheet.
This way I save NOW a lot of time and hassle and still have THEN the full choice between all the alternatives and definitely avoid having to RE-RIP my CDs.

P.S.: is it possible that Andre changed the task behaviour of EAC from prebeta4 to prebeta5? If I shrink REACT2/EAC to the taskbar while it is ripping and then reopen it, the window does not refresh itself anymore until the rip is complete and REACT is starting the FLAC compression in the DOS window in the background.
Task priority is set to "normal" in EAC and to "1" in the REACT.INI.
At first I thought REACT had crashed (since the typical windows message appeared when I clicked into the unrefreshed window), but after some patience it always comes back to life eventually. Weird.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1538 – 2009-06-24 19:11:15

I'm not suggesting you use any particular type of gap handling and I'm certainly not suggesting that you mix different types; I'm merely saying that with each type of gap handling there is only one appropriate type of cue sheet, even when all the gaps are two seconds. The only exception is when there are no gaps in which case telling EAC to produce all different types of multiple wave file cues will produce exactly the same thing.

Perhaps you might want to have a look at CUE Tools if you're concerned about a future-proof (IMO fear-based) solution. It can re-write your files and provide the proper CUE sheet in order to accommodate different gap placement methods.

Again, it makes no sense to create more than one type of cue sheet when only one type is correct and this is solely determined by how EAC was configured to handle gaps at the time of ripping. I am not entertaining the idea that a cue sheet may be treated like a playlist.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1539 – 2009-06-24 22:29:45

Hi,
i'm having the problem that my mg cue sheet is created but not moved to the flac directory. I've used the debug options and i can see that the chesheet is generated, glean cue sheet is also generated. But i can't see a copy or a moved cue sheet?

Any help, hints appreciated.

difool

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1540 – 2009-06-25 13:18:03

The weird thing though is, that ALT-F10 doesn't start AlbumArt.exe manually, if a matching Album.jpg has been found.

The shorcut was previously "hidden", was it used in debugging and left there in the code by accident, dunno, but I "revealed" that shortcut in my manual without thinking about it further. I made a note about this in my ToDo, with low priority. Thanks.

But to be honest, the full picture (I mean the total of Wikis, helpfiles, special forum-threads like this one etc.) is not really easy to find and the bits & pieces are often outdated and even contradicting.

Like everywhere else, not just in HA. Not an excuse but that's how it is, there's always misinformation for everything.

...switch to the EAC universe for the first time, you are really overwhelmed by all the new stuff like SecureRipping Modes, AccurateRip, Cuesheet formats, ReplayGain application styles, losless codecs, perfect settings for all of them etc. etc..

Yes indeed, it's very hard to understand all aspects of DAE.. there are many things that I don't understand very well.

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-24 18:56:23

BTW: Why aren't the "illegal" chars in filenames corrected in IMAGE MODE also?

Because the tracks are picked from the ripped wav image with ACDIR program which has its own char substitution system.

is it possible that Andre changed the task behaviour of EAC from prebeta4 to prebeta5? If I shrink REACT2/EAC to the taskbar while it is ripping and then reopen it, the window does not refresh itself anymore until the rip is complete and REACT is starting the FLAC compression in the DOS window in the background.

There's definitely a change because EAC doesn't try to "steal" the focus anymore when switching to other windows (and back), maybe that is responsible of what you're seeing. Does it affect REACT? Is there a problem? I've never minimized the window, I just don't see a reason to do so (I don't use desktop shortcuts at all, IMHO that's a very stupid idea in the first place, to have to minimize all other windows just to start a new program/whatever is just silly.. I use my custom made auto-hide "launchbar" instead). Do not minimize if that's a problem, and/or write to EAC forum about this problem.

@greynol: I was thinking about linking to that same post about cuesheets.. I haven't forgotten how you swept the floor with me with that answer. Thanks for stepping in.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1541 – 2009-06-25 13:42:02

Quote from: difool on 2009-06-24 22:29:45

i'm having the problem that my mg cue sheet is created but not moved to the flac directory. I've used the debug options and i can see that the chesheet is generated, glean cue sheet is also generated. But i can't see a copy or a moved cue sheet?

Unfortunately REACT is not "perfect" and still lacks certain features and/or the .cfg files are a bit messy IMO, e.g. there's no copy commands for copying the cuesheet(s) to destination folders in track config. I suggest that you follow these instructions: REACT:Amending Cuesheet File References. Use the GSAR "method" and in the end you've "file ref corrected" cuesheet in your destination folder.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1542 – 2009-06-25 13:53:28

me again,

i forgot that i have to do this myself with gsar...

bye

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1543 – 2009-06-25 18:24:58

Quote from: Akkurat on 2009-06-25 13:42:02

Quote from: difool on 2009-06-24 22:29:45
i'm having the problem that my mg cue sheet is created but not moved to the flac directory. I've used the debug options and i can see that the chesheet is generated, glean cue sheet is also generated. But i can't see a copy or a moved cue sheet?

Unfortunately REACT is not "perfect" and still lacks certain features and/or the .cfg files are a bit messy IMO, e.g. there's no copy commands for copying the cuesheet(s) to destination folders in track config. I suggest that you follow these instructions: REACT:Amending Cuesheet File References. Use the GSAR "method" and in the end you've "file ref corrected" cuesheet in your destination folder.

Which is a good reason to use the image mode of REACT by pressing F10 instead. Because in that case all (4 if you wish) cuesheets are in the destination folder of your FLAC files after the REACT extraction process is totally finished. I consider this quite handy, because my result looks like this:
F:\GRAB\FLAC\Prince - 1981 - Controversy
Controversy.[mg].cue
Controversy.[mc].cue
Controversy.[m].cue
Controversy..cue
EAClog.txt
folder.jpg
Prince - 01 - Controversy.flac
etc.etc.
Prince - 08 - Jack U Off.flac

and then
F:\GRAB\MP3\Prince - 1981 - Controversy
folder.jpg
Prince - 01 - Controversy.mp3
etc. etc.
Prince - 08 - Jack U Off.mp3

So everything is in place and named how it should be. Albumart is included in the FLAC and MP3 files and additionally saved as folder.jpg. The FLAC Files in combination with a cuesheet can be used to reproduce the CD or re-compress with a lossy codec and the Logfile can be checked any time.

I know other people like it differently, but that is the beauty of REACT/EAC. Everybody can configure it how he likes it and then shove the CD collection through that system once and enjoy the convenient result.

REACT 2 Released

Reply #1544 – 2009-06-25 18:47:00

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-24 18:26:04
The weird thing though is, that ALT-F10 doesn't start AlbumArt.exe manually, if a matching Album.jpg has been found.

The shorcut was previously "hidden", was it used in debugging and left there in the code by accident, dunno, but I "revealed" that shortcut in my manual without thinking about it further. I made a note about this in my ToDo, with low priority. Thanks.

Yeah, nothing really bad, just a bit unexpected. Thanks for correcting that in b.05.

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-24 18:26:04
But to be honest, the full picture (I mean the total of Wikis, helpfiles, special forum-threads like this one etc.) is not really easy to find and the bits & pieces are often outdated and even contradicting.

Like everywhere else, not just in HA. Not an excuse but that's how it is, there's always misinformation for everything.

That is unfortunately so true. Although EAC/REACT is definitely one of the harder cases.

Quote from: Tronar on 2009-06-24 18:26:04
BTW: Why aren't the "illegal" chars in filenames corrected in IMAGE MODE also?

Because the tracks are picked from the ripped wav image with ACDIR program which has its own char substitution system.

I didn't run into any troubles with name-handling so far. And I am now quite used to the IMAGE MODE. Any real important reason, why a change to the TRACK MODE might make sense? Time is not an issue for me and obviously the cuesheet-handling would make some manual involvement necessary again, which is actually a big "NO" for me.