fre:ac [CD ripper & audio encoder; formerly BonkEnc]

[Midas]

Topic update: fre:ac v1.1 released (changelog and downloads at https://github.com/enzo1982/freac/releases).

This is a major release for fre:ac, which has been stuck at v1.0.x for years, and it shows...

- fre:ac is now fully multi-platform -- available in 32 and 64-bit versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux.
- it now supports multi-threading and, better yet, simultaneous output to multiple formats.
- the range of encoders, processors and output formats has been greatly expanded -- now, it even supports legacy Winamp plugins.

These are just my highlights, the list goes on and is quite extensive.

A couple of caveats I ran into in my brief testing:

- Checking for updates is enabled by default and the corresponding option isn't in "Options | General settings" menu -- it's in "Help | Check for updates at startup".
- While a number of encoders are included in fre:ac download package -- e.g., WavPack v5.2.0 executable is present in '[Program Folder]\codecs\cmdline' and is expressely mentioned in the online help -- nowhere in the program's UI (and pending further research) could I find an option to use it .
- Online help directs you to www.nue.tu-berlin.de to download the reference MPEG4 Lossless Encoder, where the landing page is in German only and 'mp4alsxxx.zip' is nowhere to be found.*

*) The only mildly reputable source I could find for it (via Doom9 and untested!) is at:
www.mb-1.jpn.org/paaf/release/mp4alsRM23_20100305.zip

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various popular formats and encoders. [...] With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to MP3 or WMA files for use with your hardware player or convert files that do not play with other audio software. You can even convert whole music libraries retaining the folder and filename structure. The integrated CD ripper supports the CDDB/freedb online CD database.

@ https://freac.org/

[webfork]

Topic update: fre:ac v1.1 released

With open projects, there's a release-early-and-release-often mentality to try and encourage involvement, but I always like it when a major project pops with some huge new update and this is one of the biggest I've seen. Great news.

I remain a big LameXP fan, but fre:ac was my go-to for years.

[enzo]

fre:ac 1.1.2 is available now. Among other improvements, this version increases the default font size to make the UI more readable, updates codecs and fixes several bugs:

• scale UI to adjust to system font size by default
• removed non-working option to not lock CD trays while ripping
• stop ripping before trying to eject a disc
• write audio data CRC to log files when ripping
• write MD5 checksums to log files when verifying files
• write log entries when replacing existing files
• fixed length of last chapter of some audio books being detected as 0:00
• prevent interpreting numerical IDs or dates at the beginning of file names as track numbers
• fixed a possible source of random crashes when adding files to the joblist
• fixed possible crash when importing MP4/M4A files
• fixed possible crash when encoding in SuperFast mode
• updated codecs to latest versions (Monkey's Audio, FAAD2 and mpg123)

fre:ac 1.1.2 on freac.org

[enzo]

And another update. fre:ac 1.1.2a fixes an issue with high DPI scaling in the original 1.1.2 release.

fre:ac 1.1.2a on freac.org

[enzo]

fre:ac 1.1.4 is available now. It adds support for HDCD decoding and comes with the usual enhancements, bug fixes and codec updates:

• added an HDCD decoder DSP filter
• improved support for reading CD-Text
• improved usability of the tag editor and added catalog number and barcode fields
• added quality (VBR) setting to FDK-AAC configuration dialog
• improved MP3, AAC and Opus encoding performance by up to 30%
• added support for Replay Gain values in MP4 and WMA metadata
• do not override settings with default values when using freaccmd's --config option
• fixed invalid length written to very long Opus and Speex files (longer than 12 ½ hours at 48 kHz)
• fixed decoding of some very short Opus, Vorbis and Speex files
• fixed written MP4 chapters being invisible to some applications when using Nero AAC
• fixed hang/crash when opening WavPack, Musepack, TAK and OptimFROG files with chapters
• fixed issues submitting CDDB information for new CDs (without existing entries)
• fixed issues handling long path/file names
• fixed output sample rate being limited to 192 kHz
• fixed freaccmd randomly failing to process files in rare cases
• switched from FAAC to FDK-AAC for AAC encoding
• updated codecs to latest versions (Monkey's Audio, FAAD, mpg123 and WavPack)
• updated Romanian and Portuguese (Brazilian) translations

fre:ac 1.1.4 on freac.org

[Midas]

Thanks, enzo. fre:ac database entry updated.