Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/john32b/cbae

Cue Bin CD Audio Encoder
https://github.com/john32b/cbae

audio-encoding cdda dosbox tool

Last synced: 15 days ago
JSON representation

Cue Bin CD Audio Encoder

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
## What is it

**CBAE** (**C**ue **B**in **A**udio **E**ncoder) is a CLI tool that can encode the audio tracks of a CD image with the **cue/bin** format into OPUS, FLAC, VORBIS or MP3. The new CD Image can then be used in software that supports loading `.cue` files with encoded audio tracks (mostly emulators like DosBox).



⭐ **Updated 2023-09** -- Check the [CHANGELOG](#changelog-dna)



**Features**

- Supports merged `.bin` files, it can extract the audio from those

- Generates new `.cue` files with correct parameters

- Fast encoding, tracks are encoded in parallel

- Display the SHA-1 hash of tracks *(useful for single file .bin files)*

	

### Example

![CBAE running](media/s1.png)



Take the original release of **"Quake (1996)"**, a single CD Image, including ten (**10**) CD-DA Tracks. Here is a size comparison between the raw image and encoded audio .cue/.bin images.



| Audio       | Audio Tracks | Data Tracks | Total Size |

| ----------- | ------------ | ----------- | ---------- |

| CD-DA       | 595MB        | 28MB        | **623MB**  |

| FLAC        | 255MB        | 28MB        | **283MB**  |

| OPUS 64Kbps | 26MB         | 28MB        | **55MB**   |



The OPUS codec produces very nice audio quality even at low bitrates. The encoded Quake CD got a reduction down to **9%** of the original raw CD size.



## Installing :truck:

CBAE is a nodejs script. It is a single file and has no external dependencies other than FFmpeg. You can download the script from here or from npm.



- From [NPM](https://www.npmjs.com/package/cbae)

```bash

# Download and install globally

npm i cbae --location=global

# Run

cbae

```

- From github _(if you don't want to use npm)_

```bash

# Clone the git to a dir of your choice

git clone https://github.com/john32b/cbae --depth 1

# Run

node cbae/bin

```

- **OR** For Windows, download the Executable that does not require NodeJS

	- ❗ It is outdated. sorry.

	- You can find this in the [Releases Tab in Github](https://github.com/john32b/cbae/releases)  



**In Short, you need:**

- [NodeJS](https://nodejs.org), version 18+

- [FFmpeg](http://ffmpeg.org/), set on your PATH *(So it can run from anywhere by calling ffmpeg)* 

- Some basic command line knowledge is a plus



> :pencil2: **TIP**: For Windows the easiest way to get FFmpeg on path, is to copy `ffmpeg.exe` in your Windows dir (usually `C:\Windows`)



## Running :computer:



**Quick Examples**

```bash

# Encode all .cue cd images from H:\DOS\cdimages into b:\encoded\

# and convert audio tracks to FLAC

cbae H:/DOS/cdimages/*.cue -o b:/encoded -enc FLAC



# Encode TombRaider2.cue into the current working directory

# convert audio to Vorbis 128KBPS, using 12 parallel tasks

cbae TombRaider2.cue -o . -enc VORBIS:128 -p 12



# Print information for all cue files in current dir

cbae i *.cue



# Encode ONLY the audio tracks, output in the same dir as the

# input file, name the generated tracks as "game-01, game-02..."

cbae ~/game.cue -o =src -enc MP3:128 -only audio -tname "game-{no}"

```



**For HELP and USAGE** call `cbae -help`



---



### INPUT 



A valid .cue file, full path or relative path. Supports multiple inputs. 

- In Linux you can do file globbing,  `/home/janko/iso/**/*.cue`

- In Windows basic file globbing is supported,  `c:\games\cd\*.cue`

- For multiple inputs separate with space,  `game1.cue game2.cue ...`



### OUTPUT



A directory where the new folders will be created. Full or relative path. 

- Set with `-o` . e.g. `cbae quake.cue -o /tmp/ ...` -- Will create `/tmp/quake [e]/`

- Newly created folders come with the postfix `[e]`, for `Encoded` 

- If you give `=src` then the output folder will be created on the base directory of the input .cue file.



---



### ACTION `e` : encode *(default)*



The main thing, takes .cue files and encodes the audio tracks to a codec of your choice\* (*more later*). Generates a new .cue file and puts all the new files in a new folder under the declared *output*

- This is the *default action* meaning, you can skip declaring it. e.g. `cbae e input.cue ...` is the same as `cbae input.cue ...`

- Example : `cbae ~/iso/TR3.cue -o =src -enc VORBIS:96` --> Will encode `TR3.cue` using Vorbis 96kbps and will put everything in `~/iso/TR3 [e]`



### ACTION `i` : info



With this you can view some information on a .cue/.bin cd image.   

Filesizes and SHA-1 checksum.



---



### OPTION `-p ` 



Sets the maximum number of concurrent encodes that can run. It gets a default value of 3/4 the threads of your system.



### OPTION  `-enc ` 



Sets encoder and bitrate, given in a single parameter in the format `codec:kbps`. Check the [list of supported tags](#list-of-supported-codecs).  

- e.g. `cbae .... -enc OPUS:80` --> will use OPUS codec at 80KBPS

- e.g. `cbae .... -enc FLAC` --> will use FLAC. Notice that it doesn't require the `:KBPS` part



### OPTION `-only (audio|data)` 



You can choose to work on either the `audio` or `data` tracks of the CD. This is useful when you want to extract the data track of a merged CD, where you would use *`-only data`*



### OPTION `-sh` 



Makes the generated track filenames in the form of `trackXX.ext`. This is useful in some cases, like the winmm CD Audio Emulator _(DxWnd)_, which needs the tracks to be named like that.  

_e.g. (track01.bin, track02.ogg, track03.ogg ..... )_

> NOTE: Soon to be deprecated in favor of `-tname`



### OPTION `-tname ` **new** :star:



Customize the filename of the generated tracks with the use of a template string. Supported tags are:



|tag|whatis|

|-|-|

|`{no}` | Track Number |

|`{cdt}`| CD Title     |

|`{cda}`| CD Artist    |

|`{tt}` | Track Title  | 

|`{ta}` | Track Artist |



**Examples** :

- string : `"game {cdt} - Track {no}"` --> filename : `"game Quake 2 - Track 01"`

- string : `"{no}-{ta}-{tt}"` --> Filename : `"01-Sasha-Magnetic North"`



**Notes:**

 - If a `.cue` file has TITLE tags for each and every track, then the default naming will use them.

 - The Track Artist and CD Artist tags are actually the `PERFORMER` fields in the cue file



---



### List of supported codecs



| Codec ID         | Min Kbps | Max Kbps |

| ---------------- | -------- | -------- |

| MP3              | 32       | 320      |

| MP3V* | 44       | 256      |

| OPUS             | 28       | 500      |

| VORBIS           | 64       | 500      |

| FLAC             | -        | -        |

| RAW              | -        | -        |



*: MP3 is constant bitrate, while MP3V is variable bitrate. 



> **Notes**: 

> - The `RAW` encoder can be used to split a merged .bin file to individual raw tracks.

> - Press `CTRL+C` to exit the program at any time.

> - On multiple file input, if a file fails, cbae will continue to the next file in queue.

> - If a CD Image does not include any audio tracks then it will NOT be processed at all.



**Realtime speed of converting two CDs with a bunch of audio tracks to FLAC**



![Flac Demo](media/demo_flac.apng) 



## Um, what does CBAE do exactly?

CBAE takes a `.cue/.bin` file combo, copies the data tracks as they are, and uses FFmpeg to encode the audio tracks into separate files. Finally it produces a new `.cue` file and puts everything into a new folder.



![Visual Example](media/s2.png)

a picture is worth a thousand words



A new `.cue` file is generated and it makes the tracks point to the new encoded audio files.



```text

FILE "QUAKE 1 (1996) - Track 01.bin" BINARY

	TRACK 01 MODE1/2352

	INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "QUAKE 1 (1996) - Track 02.opus" OPUS

	TRACK 02 AUDIO

	INDEX 01 00:00:00

	...

	...

FILE "QUAKE 1 (1996) - Track 11.opus" OPUS

	TRACK 11 AUDIO

	INDEX 01 00:00:00

```



## Software/Emulators that support .cue files with encoded audio files



- **[DosBox-staging](https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging#for-users)** supports {Flac, Opus, Vorbis, Mp3, Wav}

- **[DosBox-X](https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/DOSBox%E2%80%90X%E2%80%99s-Feature-Highlights)** supports {Flac, Opus, Vorbis, Mp3, Wav}

- **[Mednafen](https://mednafen.github.io/documentation)** supports : {Vorbis, Flac, Wav} 

- **[PCSX-Redux](https://pcsx-redux.consoledev.net/)** supports anything its linked ffmpeg dependency supports.

- **[DxWnd](https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd)** uses an audio emulator for CDDA games, supports {Ogg}

- I'm sure there are more, *(help me expand this list?)*



## CHANGELOG :dna:



### V1.2

- Added option `-tname`, allows you to customize the Track Filenames using a simple templating system.

- Cue Parser will read metadata Track Title and Track Artist from the cue file. Default track naming will use those fields if they exist. 

- Aborting an operation with `ctrl+c` will append an `"aborted"` string to the output dirname.



### V1.1

- Added option `-sh`, gives short names to created tracks `(track01.bin, track02.opus, ... etc)`. 

- Creating partial encodes with the `-only` option, will now generate a `.cue` file.

- Internal code refactor, JS code now uses ECMAscript modules.



### v1.0

- The `information` action `(i)` will also display the SHA-1 checksum of all the tracks

- Can selectively work with audio/data tracks, using the `-only` option

- `RAW` encoder, meaning the audio tracks will not be encoded, they will be copied



### v0.9

- First version



## MORE :information_source:



### What about CHD ?

CHD is an entirely different thing and from what I understand CHD can only include lossless audio plus not all programs/emulators support it.



### Wait, what about CDCRUSH ?

This older project of mine [CDCRUSH](https://github.com/john32b/cdcrush) has the functionality to encode audio tracks of a CD. But cdcrush is kinda dead now. It tried to do many things at once, and its main feature to highly compress a cd image into cold storage is *(I think)* deprecated by other archivers that allow the archives to be mounted. Perhaps not in the same compression ratios as cdcrush offered, but nonetheless ready to be accessed. Things like **squashFS** and **dwarFS** among others, they provide very good compression ratios, so for me, it makes sense to keep CD images in a compressed format that are ready to be mounted and played.



Then why not update the cdcrush code? I don't like the code, some parts are messy and others bloated, so I thought it would be better to do fresh start using pure JS *(cdcrush was written in Haxe)* while only implementing the useful stuff, which is audio encode a CD. In other words cdcrush is deprecated.



---

Made by me, **John32B** under the ISC license *(See license.txt)*