wav2cdr(1)wav2cdr(1)NAMEwav2cdr - converts input in (or similar to) wav format to cdr format
suitable for writing onto audio CDs.
SYNOPSISwav2cdr [options ...] [infile [outfile]] [--cut cutnumber ...]
VERSION
This man page describes wav2cdr version 2.3.3.
DESCRIPTIONwav2cdr is a conversion program for audio data which adopts automati‐
cally to big and little endian machines. Its primary use was to convert
wav to cdr, but it is a little more flexible now and can handle some
file formats and perform some operations on the data. These formats are
possible (reading and writing):
wav MS Windows sound
cdr audio CD
raw fixed sampling rate, channels, and bytes per sample
(= that of cdr); byte order must be specified
These operations can be performed on the data (combinations are possi‐
ble as long as they are meaningful):
Scaling (volume change), integer arithmetic
Scaling (volume change), floating point arithmetic
Cutting of the input into pieces / tracks
Conversion to mono and back to stereo
Swapping of the 2 channels
Adding silence to (or removing from, see cutting) the
start and/or end
Generation of cut numbers along silent intervals, e.g.
to break up a record into tracks
Information about non-silent intervals
Fading in and out
OPTIONS--cut NUM NUM [NUM...]
Cut the input into pieces, cutting at positions NUM. See sec‐
tions about argument scanning and splitting below.
--endsilence, --es DUR
Adds the given amount of silence to the end of each output file.
--fadein LEN
Fade in at the start over a duration of LEN. The syntax for LEN
is the same as for a cut number, see section about argument
scanning below. If cutting is active, fade-in is applied to the
beginning of each cut.
Fading in is performed by increasing the amplitude for CD sec‐
tors by an amount derived from LEN over a duration of LEN.
--fadein 3 would result in the amplitude of the first sector
lowered to 1/4, of the second sector to 2/4, and the third sec‐
tor to 3/4. The fourth sector is unchanged and has then reached
full amplitude.
--fadeout LEN
Fade out at the end over a duration of LEN. The syntax for LEN
is the same as for a cut number, see section about argument
scanning below. If cutting is active, fad-out is applied to the
end of each cut.
The computation is similar to --fadein. --fadein 3 would result
in the last 3 CD sectors having their amplitudes lowered to 3/4,
2/4, and 1/4. The (non-existant) following sector is assumed to
be silent.
To add silent sector(s) to the end of the audio file, use --end‐
silence.
Fading out can only be performed if the input size can be deter‐
mined (i.e. the input must be seekable and cannot be a pipe). If
cutting is active, the end of the cut is always known and the
fade-out can be applied.
If the fade-out starts before the fade-in is finished, both will
overlap, producing sensible results.
--fscale FLOAT
Scale data by FLOAT, i.e. multiply by FLOAT (1.0 does nothing).
-h, -u, --usage
Display usage.
--help Display extensive help. (The information is derived from and
equivalent to this manual page.)
--inbig, -I
Input data is big endian (MSB, LSB) (Motorola).
--incdr
Read cdr format (default is wav). Sets the correct byte order.
--infile, -r NAME
Input filename. Defaults to stdin. '-' = stdin.
--inlittle, -i
Input data is little endian (LSB, MSB) (Intel).
--inraw
Read raw format. Byte order should be specified with -i/-I
(default big).
--inwav
Read wav format (default). Sets the correct byte order.
--iscale NUM
Scale data to NUM percent (100 does nothing).
--monostereo
Convert input to mono and immediately back to stereo. The result
is 2 channels with the same data. This can be useful in some
cases.
--noswapchannels
Don't swap channels. (default)
--outfile, -w NAME
Write output to file NAME. The track number is appended as a
2-digit number. The default is to write output to stdout. A
NAME of '-' means stdout. When cutting is active and more than
one cut is made, output can not be written to stdout and the use
of this option is mandatory.
--outbig, -O
Output data in big endian (MSB, LSB) (Motorola) byte order.
--outlittle, -o
Output data in little endian (LSB, MSB) (Intel) byte order.
--quiet
Suppress progress output. The name of this option might be mis‐
leading: it does not prevent copious output in other places
which might be turned on by --verbose.
--silencecuts
Generate cut numbers for cutting out silent intervals. This is
useful when digitising a whole record and then cutting it into
tracks. The cut numbers are output on stdout and can be fed back
into --cut. After cutting, every second track (those with even
numbers) contains a silent interval and can be deleted.
Together with --verbose, the silence value of each sector is
printed as well (can't be fed back into --cut then). This most
likely produces some VERY long lines.
Silence is detected by applying a threshold (--silencethresh) to
a value computed for each CD sector; the value must be below the
threshold for a minimum number of sectors (delay --silencede‐
lay). Currently, the average is computed first (this is the DC
component); then the average of the absolute of the difference
between each sample and the DC component. The difference between
these 2 averages is compared with the threshold. Check whether
the cuts really fall into the silent intervals, and adjust
threshold and duration if not (or edit the cut numbers manu‐
ally).
The silence delay period is part of the signal interval, not the
silence interval. This means that each non-silent period has
--silencedelay silence at the start and at the end. If the
silent interval between two signal intervals is less than (2 *
silence delay), the silent part at the start of the second sig‐
nal period will be shortened.
--silencedelay DELAY
The duration for which the "input" must be below the threshold
in order to be detected as a silent interval. In other words,
the number of sectors which must be silent before a silent
interval is detected. Ignored without --silencecuts. The delay
can be specified with units in the same way as for --cut, and is
truncated to full CD sectors. Default is 30C (=0.4s).
--silenceinfo
Similar to --silencecuts, but it generates more information.
Silent and non-silent intervals are listed in a tabular format.
The output format is useful for documentation, but not for feed‐
ing back into --cut. With --verbose, the silence values of each
CD sector are shown as well. This produces lots of output, but
it is useful for finding a suitable --silencethresh.
--silencethresh THRESHOLD
Threshold for silence detection. Ignored without --silencecuts.
Default is 10. Always select a threshold as low as possible.
When cutting a record into tracks, the threshold must be high
enough to recognise the crackling between pieces as silence.
When the threshold is too high, a little at the beginning and
end of each piece might be chopped off.
As a special case, if the threshold is set to 0 the usual numer‐
ical computation of the silence value is bypassed, and the sec‐
tor is deemed to be silent if all samples are 0.
--startsilence, --ss DUR
Adds the given amount of silence to the start of each output
file.
--swapchannels
Swap the left with the right channel.
--tocdr
Write data in cdr format (default). Sets the correct byte order.
--toraw
Write data in raw format. Byte order should be specified with
-o/-O (default big).
--towav
Write data in wav format. Sets the correct byte order.
--verbose
Produce more output. Currently only used by --silencecuts and
--silenceinfo.
--version, -V
Display version information.
-- Stop argument processing. Remaining arguments can only be file‐
names, or cut numbers if cutting is used.
Command line option scanning:
From left to right. Later settings may override previous ones. Beware
to switch file formats before byte ordering, or a byte order might be
rejected for the (then active) format. When not using cutting, remain‐
ing arguments are used to fill up input and output filenames. When
using cutting, remaining arguments are assumed to be cut numbers. When
using negative cut numbers, use -- to terminate option processing or
the negative numbers can be mistaken as options (this is a must with
GNU getopt()).
All options which take an argument denoting a time accept the following
number format. The number may be in decimal, octal (leading 0), or
hexadecimal (leading 0x or 0X). A one-letter unit may be following. If
there is space between the number and the unit, both must be quoted, as
in "55 C". These units are recognised: b (bytes), C (audio CD sectors),
s (seconds). When no unit is given, C is assumed. The progress display
might only show numbers in some of these units. Fractions for seconds
are allowed.
Negative cut numbers are only allowed if the input size can be deter‐
mined (which will not be possible if the input comes from a pipe), and
are shown as the equivalent positive ones. If the last cut number is 0
it means the end of the file. If the input file size can not be deter‐
mined the longest possible input (about 405 minutes) is substituted.
A filename of '-' is taken as stdin/stdout.
If wav2cdr was compiled to use GNU getopt(), argument scanning is more
powerful and long options can be shortened to significance. Options are
also re-ordered; this is nice but can be a trap. Use -- if in doubt,
and don't mix options with filename or cut number arguments.
Data formats:
All data handling currently assumes signed 16-bit integers, interleaved
for 2 channels, at a sampling rate of that of a CD. Only wav files with
these parameters can be read correctly. cdr files are in that format,
and only raw formats with these parameters can be processed. The only
flexibility allowed for raw is the byte order, which can be specified
for both reading and writing. The byte ordering for wav and cdr is
fixed.
Channel swapping:
Left and right channel are swapped, which is the same as swapping con‐
secutive 16 bit values with each other. Also see 'CDR Format' below.
Scaling / Volume change:
Scaling can be performed with either integer or floating point arith‐
metic. Integer arithmatic is faster but possibly not as precise. Val‐
ues will saturate (i.e. be clipped), rather than be truncated. The
speed of this operation depends on the endianness of the input data,
output data, and host. It is slowest when bytes have to be swapped
before scaling and swapped back after. Negative scale factors are
allowed but might be of dubious value.
Mono / stereo:
Input data can be converted to mono and then back to stereo. The result
is 2 channels with the same data. This can be useful in some cases.
Output file naming:
Unless output is to stdout, the resulting filename is the name given
with --outfile. A period and a 2-digit track number are appended.
Input data splitting:
Input data can be split into pieces resp. tracks. Currently cuts can
only be placed at multiples of audio CD sectors (at the sector bound‐
aries), whether the input format is cdr or not.
The cuts are placed at the given positions, which must be in ascending
order (or equal). Negative numbers are counted from the end of the
input data. This only works if the input is seekable (Unix pipes are
not). Sectors of the input are numbered from 0. Bytes of a header,
which the input format might have, are not counted.
Any number of cuts can be made, but only 99 tracks can be put on a CD.
All sectors before the first but not including the first sector number
are discarded, as well as all sectors after and including the last sec‐
tor number. At least 2 sector numbers (cut numbers) must be given, in
which case one piece is cut out.
If there are only 2 cut numbers (1 track to cut out) data can be writ‐
ten to stdout or file. More than one track can only be written to file,
the track number will be added as an extension to the filename. To
avoid the track number to be appended to the filename when only one cut
is made, don't use --outfile but write to stdout and use output redi‐
rection.
Example (assuming 50000 sectors in the input):
wav2cdr < INPUT --outfile NAME --cut 500 20000 40000
sectors 0- 499: discarded
500-19999: saved to NAME.01
20000-39999: saved to NAME.02
40000-49999: discarded
Cutting out silent intervals:
Assuming a digitised record is stored in record.wav, and is to be cut
into tracks.
wav2cdr < record.wav > cuts --silencecuts --silencedelay 2s
wav2cdr < record.wav --of tracks --cut `cat cuts`
Will store the tracks of the record in track.01, track.02, ..., with
the delay for cutting at a silent part set to 2 seconds. The threshold
used is the default. Note the `` syntax works under Unix and in this
case puts the contents of file "cuts" on the command line.
Information about silences and actual sound parts:--silenceinfo can be used in the same way as --silencecuts. It pro‐
duces output like
(stdin):
silnc 0 b, 0 C, 0 s, 00:00.00 min
DIFF 811440 b, 345 C, 4 s, 00:04.22 min
--> 811440 b, 345 C, 4 s, 00:04.22 min
AUDIO 811440 b, 345 C, 4 s, 00:04.22 min
DIFF 20603520 b, 8760 C, 116 s, 01:56.05 min
--> 21414960 b, 9105 C, 121 s, 02:01.02 min
showing the beginning, length ("DIFF"), and end ("-->") of both silent
("silnc") and and non-silent ("AUDIO") intervals. This is useful for
examining existing tracks, but it can not be used with --cut.
Messages:
Progress messages and statistics are written to stderr when writing to
stdout, and to stdout when writing to file. It is currently not possi‐
ble to suppress this, other than by redirection to the bit bucket.
Writing wav format:
Only wav files with 2 channels, 16 bits per sample, and audio CD sam‐
pling rate can be written. If the input data is different, the result‐
ing wav file is incorrect. Scaling can be performed when writing wav.
Cutting can only be performed in multiples of an audio CD sector size.
When writing wav the output must be seekable (e.g. no pipes).
CDR Format:
Raw sample data at a sampling rate of 44100 Hz. The channels are inter‐
leaved. The numbers are 16 bit signed integers with this byte order:
MSByte Left, LSByte Left, MSByte Right, LSByte Right. The track size
must be a multiple of the sector size of 2352 bytes. There are 75 sec‐
tors per second.
BUGS / LIMITATIONS
All operations can only be performed on a minimum of 1 CD block or a
multiple thereof.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C)
Nov, Dec 1997, Jan, Mar, Apr, May 1998, Feb, May, Jun, Jul,
Aug 1999, Oct 2000 by
Volker Kuhlmann <VolkerKuhlmann@gmx.de>
c/o EEE Dept, University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand
Permission granted to use and distribute this software free of charge,
provided any improvements are sent back to the author. Comments and bug
reports welcome. All rights reserved. Standard disclaimer applies.
AUTHOR
Volker Kuhlmann
wav2cdr 27 Oct 2000 wav2cdr(1)
