CUETools

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CUETools 2.2.4 (click image to enlarge, click back button in browser to return)
CUETools

CUETools is a tool for lossless audio/CUE sheet format conversion. The goal is to make sure the album image is preserved accurately. A lossless disc image must be lossless not only in preserving contents of the audio tracks, but also in preserving gaps and CUE sheet contents. Many applications lose vital information upon conversion, and don't support all possible CUE sheet styles. For example, foobar2000 loses disc pre-gap information when converting an album image, and doesn't support gaps appended (noncompliant) CUE sheets.

Download

Download links for CUETools binaries, source code and prerequisites can be found on the CUETools Download page.

The distribution comes with CUERipper, an easy-to-use tool for ripping CDs to audio files plus cue sheets, with optional native or EAC-style logging. Like CUETools, it checks the rip against the AccurateRip and CUETools databases. It also contributes to the CUETools database.

Supported formats

Supports WAV, FLAC, APE, lossyWAV, ALAC, TTA, and WavPack audio input/output. Audio must be 16-bit, 44.1kHz samples stereo (i.e. CD PCM). Supports every CUE sheet style (embedded, single file, gaps appended/prepended/left out). It is also possible to process a set of audio files in a directory without a CUE sheet, or use a RAR archive as an input without unpacking it.

Use cases

  • Convert a single-file album image with CUE sheet to a file-per-track album image
  • Convert a single-file album image with CUE-sheet-per-album to a single-file album image with CUE-sheet-per-track album image (feature request)
  • Convert a file-per-track album image with CUE sheet to a single file album image
  • Convert a file-per-track album image without a CUE sheet to a single file album image with simple CUE sheet
  • Convert an album image from one lossless codec to another, preserving CUE sheet structure
  • Verify a (possibly non offset-corrected) album image against AccurateRip database
  • Apply offset correction to a rip made without offset correction
  • Prepare an album image for burning with software, which does not handle drive write offsets, by applying offset
  • Extract an album image directly from a RAR archive without unpacking it, and save it in a different format
  • Fix filenames in a CUE sheet, if the files were renamed or converted to a different format.
  • Compress to lossyWav, creating a lossy output + correction file.
  • Convert a HDCD image to 24-bit / 20-bit / lossyWav 16-bit audio files (irreversible).
  • Convert an album image with minor audio errors to one without errors, using correction files in the CUETools Database.

AccurateRip support

Since version 1.9.2, CUETools can verify album images using the AccurateRip database. ARCue and TripleFLAC were an inspiration. The unique feature of CUETools AccurateRip verification is offset detection. A rip that was made without offset correction can still be verified against the database; the offset can be found and corrected.

Sample log: 

 [AccurateRip ID: 000a800a-00305be0-3e0c9905] found.
 Track   [  CRC   |   V2   ] Status
  01     [6cc4879f|f78bc58b] (00+00/11) No match
  02     [fa12db35|5667d128] (00+00/11) No match
  03     [602a5adc|4e7f35bf] (00+00/11) No match
  04     [ea072e18|65b2f081] (00+00/11) No match
  05     [d152bb74|908e8e26] (00+00/11) No match
 Offsetted by -6:
  01     [c9dde5d4] (02/11) Accurately ripped
  02     [5e163745] (02/11) Accurately ripped
  03     [ab6e75ee] (02/11) Accurately ripped
  04     [6a44c49e] (02/11) Accurately ripped
  05     [35705594] (02/11) Accurately ripped
 Offsetted by 42:
  01     [d8ff4b37] (07/11) Accurately ripped
  02     [08ef0a3a] (07/11) Accurately ripped
  03     [f3d2920f] (07/11) Accurately ripped
  04     [eabd6e74] (07/11) Accurately ripped
  05     [b617c805] (07/11) Accurately ripped

More information about the log can be found in the CUETools log documentation.

Why AccurateRip database lookups sometimes fail

Sometimes, CUETools can't find your ripped CD in the AccurateRip database, even though an entry for it does exist. Usually this is because the rip contains incomplete information about the layout of the original CD. CDs are identified in AccurateRip by the length of all tracks in the disc's entire program area. Therefore, the rip must contain not just all audio tracks, but also:

  • Info in a .cue sheet and/or .log file about the presence and duration of any data tracks.
  • Info in a .cue sheet and/or .log file about the presence and duration of any Hidden Track One Audio (HTOA, a.k.a. track 01's "pregap" or "index 00" portion)—or just the actual HTOA in an audio file.

So make sure you have the rip's original .cue sheet and .log (EAC or CUERipper format) available. Keeping the original .cue ensures that you don't lose the track 01 pregap length. If you rip to separate tracks without a .cue sheet, and without saving HTOA to a separate file, then this information is lost. If the CD had HTOA and/or a data track, you won't find it in the database without a .cue sheet (or if using a foobar2000-generated or dummy .cue sheet). Sometimes you will find a wrong set, e.g. when the disc was released in two versions, one with a data track and one without—if you rip the version with the data track, and verify it without a .cue sheet, then your files look like the version without a data track. Similarly, if you rip a CD which has HTOA, but don't save the HTOA to a file, and then you try verify it without a .cue sheet, your files look like they were ripped from a CD-R copy of your HTOA-less rip.

CUETools can learn of a data track's existence on the original CD by info in the .cue sheet or .log file. The .cue sheet probably won't have the needed length info because the data track is the last track and probably isn't in the rip (audio CD rippers generally don't rip data tracks at all). However, if you have an EAC log made by a recent version of EAC, CUETools can get the data track length from it. For this to work, the .log file should have the same name as the .cue file, but ending in .log instead of .cue, of course. Or, if you don't have a .log file, but your .cue sheet contains the disc's original freedb DISCID (like all .cue sheets made by recent EAC versions), CUETools can determine a possible range for the data track length. You can try to enter 75 different values in that range manually to find an exact length.

Command line options

For further information, see Command-line Tools
Examples:
CUETools.exe /<profile> <cuefilename> /verify - verify an image using AccurateRip database from "verify" profile.
/convert - convert an image using settings from "convert" profile.
CUETools.exe <cuefilename> open CUETools dialog, with input file set to <cuefilename>.
CUETools.ARCUE.exe <cuefilename>
(formerly ArCueDotNet.exe)		 console version of AccurateRip verification.
CUETools.LossyWAV.exe <cuefilename>
(formerly LossyWAVSharp.exe)		 console lossyWAV compression utility

Builtin encoders

description libraries
flac FLAC libFLAC, cuetools, or FLACCL (see CUETools FLAC encoders comparison)
wv WavPack libwavpack
ape Monkey's Audio MAC_SDK
tta True Audio ttalib
m4a ALAC libALAC

Path formatting

CUETools uses output path templates similar to foobar2000 title formatting syntax.

Supported platforms

CUETools is a .NET application, written in C#. Processor dependent plugins are included for 32 bit (x86) and 64 bit (x64) Windows versions. Installation of .NET Framework and Visual C++ runtimes is required, for details see CUETools Download page.

Users report they have been able to use it under linux, using

  • Mono, but in this scenario only WAV audio is supported, as other codecs are not yet ported to C#.
  • Wine, using Winetricks or PlayOnLinux to install the .NET Framework and Visual C++ 2008 runtime files in a wineprefix.

Guides

CUETools Setting Guides
Main Screen (GUI) Settings
Cog 240px.png Advanced Settings
CUETools | Tagging | AccurateRip | Formats | Encoders | Decoders | HDCD | Advanced
Other Guides
CUETools (.accurip) log | CUETools Templates

Known issues

  • On discs with multiple entries, Repair function needs to display a window asking confirmation and presenting you with a choice of available repair targets. This window is currently only visible when Input: is set to Folder browser mode with a single file (or file grouping) selected. Batch modes (Multiselect Browser mode, Drag'n'drop mode or selecting an entire folder in Folder Browser mode) are not supported.
  • In Multiselect Browser mode, Local DB won't expand using mouse after F5 refresh. Temporary solution: Select then use right arrow key → on keyboard to expand.
  • Wide (2-byte) characters may be parsed as two single-byte characters (from the default Windows code page) in UTF-8 encoded CUE sheets. Converting the CUE sheet to UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark) will help CUETools identify the encoding.

More bugs might be mentioned in the development thread and bug tracker, both of which are linked below

External links

Retrieved from "http://cue.tools/w/index.php?title=CUETools&oldid=4494"