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A
simple solution for re-encoding .APE + .CUE to .MP3
Things
that you need:
1. Modified Lame.exe (You must use Nyaochi modified compile v.0.5.1 or above) to include CUE sheet support and Monkeys Audio (APE) input.
Nyaochi's website.
2. MACDll.dll from Monkey's Audio website.
It is included in Monkey’s Audio package, but is also included in CDex distribution.
3. Batch.bat file, available here. (right-click, choose “save as”)
These 3 files should be placed somewhere in your search path, if you don’t know what does it mean, just copy Lame.exe, MACDll.dll
and Batch.bat into your windows folder, usually c:\windows or c:\winnt.
Simple
Solution #1 (Elegant) – for advanced beginners: 
Works
flawlessly for Windows’95 & Windows’98 users.
For
Windows 2000 and above, see the note below.
Step 1:
Let’s presume that we have e:\new\album.ape and e:\new\album.cue. First, open the .CUE file (it’s plain text file, so you can use Notepad for viewing). See what a .CUE file looks like:
PERFORMER “Omar Faruk Tekbilek”
TITLE “Crescent Moon”
FILE “Album.ape” WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE “Crescent Moon”
PERFORMER “Omar Faruk Tekbilek”
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE “Yalel”
PERFORMER “Omar Faruk Tekbilek”
INDEX 00 08:01:29
INDEX 01 08:03:28
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE “Salute To The
Sun”
PERFORMER “Omar Faruk Tekbilek”
INDEX 00 15:05:69
INDEX 01 15:07:68
Your .CUE file should look similar. Make sure, that FILE field points to your file (in our case “album.ape”), and not something else. If it says something different, edit it, to point to your file. For example, it could point to “album.wav”, just rename it to album.ape. It’s important that FILE field points exactly to the file that you want to re-encode to .MP3
Step 2:
Create a folder, where you want your MP3 files to be placed. I would create an “Artist” folder, then inside create an “Album” folder, but it doesn’t matter, it’s up to your choice.
Step 3:
Run a DOS prompt into THAT folder (I hope you know what does it means).
Step 4:
Type “Batch e:\new\album.cue” – you will be asked to choose encoding options, you can choose between --alt-preset standard, --alt-preset extreme, --alt-preset insane, ABR 256 Stereo and ABR 192 Joint Stereo.
If your path contains spaces, just use quotation marks – for example Batch “e:\Paul Hardcastle\First Light\Album.cue”
That’s all. At the end, you’ll have your precious files, encoded to your preferences, named “Artist – Album – Number – Name”, and also tagged with ID3v1.
The additional options are –w (/w) – which assumes that the input file is a wave file, not monkeys’ audio, –q (/q) – that skips asking for encoding options, and goes directly to –alt-preset standard mode encoding and –? (/?) which provides some basic info for the available options.
Note for Windows 2000
and XP users:
Due to some limitations of
the batch file execution in Windows 2000 and above, you must specify an
encoding mode at the command line.
The available options are:
-1
- uses --alt-preset standard –Z encoding mode
-2 - uses --alt-preset
extreme –Z encoding mode
-3 - uses --alt-preset
insane encoding mode
-4 - uses custom ABR 256
Stereo encoding mode
-5 - uses custom ABR 192
Joint Stereo encoding mode
for example: Batch “e:\Paul Hardcastle\First Light\Album.cue” –1
Comment:
The sweetest thing is, that
actually you don’t need to have .APE and .CUE into the same directory. It’s
just needed that .CUE file points to the actual .APE (or .WAV) file. So, if you
have .APE + .CUE on a CD-R, you can copy the .CUE to your HDD, edit it (track
names, durations etc.) and use it. I’ve tested it with .CUE in c:\temp named
simply Cuesheet.cue, .APE on e:\Paul Hardcastle\First Light\Album.ape and
Batch.bat ran from d:\Paul Hardcastle\First Light.
Simple
Solution #2 (Simple) – for dummies: 
Step 1:
Copy your .APE and .CUE into a folder on your HDD.
Step 2:
Copy Batch.bat into the same folder.
Step 3:
Rename
your .CUE file to “album.cue”
Step 4:
Double click Batch.bat
Here
you go!
You
get nicely encoded (alt preset standard) files, properly named (for example
Paul Harcastle – First Light – 01 – Inner Changes.mp3) and tagged with ID3v1.
That’s it!
Please, comments use milpop@iname.com
v1.1