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Topic: APE+CUE (Read 14497 times) previous topic - next topic
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APE+CUE

I have an album that was encoded to APE in a single file and has a CUE sheet.  I cannot figure out how to convert this album to other a different format such as FLAC.  I want to create multiple files, not this one file per album stuff.

I looked through a thread that was about two years old and could not find any answer.  I opened the CUE file with foobar2000 and tried to encode the multiple files to FLAC but I received an error
Unable to open source file: Unsupported file format
Conversion failed: Unsupported file format

I copied over the monkey's dll into the proper foobar2000 directory and I still cannot get things to work.  I also have dBpowerAMP but I don't know how to get it to work with CUE files.  Is there a step by step procedure for using foobar2000 to convert this lossless file into multiple FLAC files using the CUE sheet?

APE+CUE

Reply #1
Have you downloaded the APE decoder plugin from foobar2000.org directly?

Can you play the APE file?

Make sure that your APE decoder is installed in your foobar2000 by looking into "file types" in the configuration, where you should find the APE ending.
FB2K,APE&LAME


APE+CUE

Reply #3
Have you downloaded the APE decoder plugin from foobar2000.org directly?

Can you play the APE file?

Make sure that your APE decoder is installed in your foobar2000 by looking into "file types" in the configuration, where you should find the APE ending.


Yes, I downloaded the APE dll file directly from foobar2000's website.  I copied the dll over into foobar2000's components folder.  I can see APE listed in the file types under foobar2000's preferences but foobar2000 is unable to play the files or encode them to a different format.  I have tried restarting foobar2000 and my computer multiple times.

I am beginning to think that the CUE file might be corrupt, either that or it was a bad rip.  I also tried getting a different album rip with a CUE sheet and FLAC files.  foobar2000 was able to play the files but not encode them.  Each file experienced an error at about the same time frame (about 45 seconds into each song).

I guess I should explain what I am doing.  I am trying to help out a friend who has ripped their audio CDs over the years.  They used to go with FLAC and CUE sheets but recently decided to go with APE and CUE sheets.  The problem is that their house was broken into over the Holidays.  They were off spending their Christmas vacation with relatives in another state and someone broke into their house taking a lot of stuff.  They took their notebook, their CD collection, TVs, consoles, etc.  The crooks did not take their external hard drive.  It was tucked away behind a little nook in their desk.  So now I have their 2TB external hard drive.  My friend received an iPod for Christmas and now I am trying to get the files onto his iPod.

It appears that none of his rips are working with foobar2000 though.  Either he did something wrong while ripping, I am doing something wrong while encoding, or we both at fault.

All explanations are here


Thank you for leading me to the download page without any explanations whatsoever.  I already downloaded the APE/Monkey's dll and copied it over into foobar2000's proper directory.

APE+CUE

Reply #4
Ok, even though I understand the error message "Unable to open source file: Unsupported file format", it's still might be worth to check if the cue file links to the .ape file, or to a (not existing) wav file.

Do this by opening the cue file in notepad or something like that, and look at the top. It should be pretty self explanatory.

If it points to the ape file, ignore this post, if it points to a wav file: try to convert the big ape file to a big wav file, and then convert the wav to flac using the cue file.

APE+CUE

Reply #5
Check the paths in the cue file.
Also, if the target file in the cue is listed as WAV, change it to APE

Then just load the cue into foobar.

I make APL files out of cue sheets when I want to create individual tracks, just works better for me. That can also be done with foobar.

APE+CUE

Reply #6
I am assuming that this is an issue with the APE files themselves, rather than (at this point at least) an issue with the cue sheets.  I am assuming you have tried the APE files directly in foobar, not via a cue sheet.

I have two thoughts:

1. Although this sounds unlikely, I wonder whether the APE files are an older version of APE.  I know the header changed at some point, as I made some changes to Case's Tag regarding it - maybe between 3.97 and 3.98.  Perhaps foobar does not like earlier versions?  If you have Tag you could try just doing:

Code: [Select]
TAG file.ape

... and checking the APE version.  That said, foobar probably does this.

2. Use MAC.EXE on the command line, or the Monkey's Audio GUI, to verify the files.  If you don't want to install Monkey's Audio then you can get the adapted MAC.EXE from Rarewares (IIRC) or the shntool site (and just delete it after testing if you don't want it).
I'm on a horse.

 

APE+CUE

Reply #7
I've just tested: foobar is fine with 3.97 files, as you would expect.

Certainly worth seeing if MAC.EXE reports anything useful though.
I'm on a horse.

APE+CUE

Reply #8
The CUE sheet was pointing to some non-existent WAV files.  I should of thought of this earlier but I have had little to no experience with CUE sheets.  I never would have thought to open up the CUE file in Notepad to check things out.  I just had to change some things around and the CUE sheets work.

All of my friend's CUE files point to non-existent WAV files.  He is definitely doing something wrong while ripping his CDs.  Thanks for the help everyone.

APE+CUE

Reply #9
It's not that he's doing something wrong, the cue's just look for the decoded wav file.  That's fine for archive purposes but not so great for regular playing.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'