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fre:ac Changelog

What's new in fre:ac 1.1.6

Jan 23, 2022
  • New features:
  • Added support for editing lyrics in the tag editor
  • Added support for creating cue sheets and playlists with freaccmd
  • Improvements:
  • Improved performance of adding video and proprietary audio files (DTS, DSD etc.) to the joblist
  • Playlists can now be added to the joblist by drag & drop
  • Added and placeholders for use in filename patterns
  • Added optional composer, conductor, tempo, musical key and ISRC columns to the joblist
  • Added initial key field to tag editor
  • Added support for lyrics in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
  • Added support for parsing OverDrive MediaMarkers in ID3v2 tags
  • Added support for the pre-emphasis flag in cue sheets
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed possible crash upon querying the CDDB database
  • Fixed possible crash in FAAD2 decoder when trying to open unsupported files
  • Fixed faulty decoding of certain AAC files caused by a bug in the FDK-AAC decoder
  • Fixed possible faulty output when decoding from non-zero positions using external decoders
  • Fixed issue ripping CD tracks when output filename pattern is
  • Fixed AccurateRip reporting verification errors for hidden track one audio
  • Fixed setting to replace spaces not being respected when writing cover art and log files
  • Fixed setting to suppress Unicode characters not being respected when writing cover art and log files
  • Fixed tag editor fields for media type, catalog number and barcode being limited to 12 characters
  • Fixed freeze when decoding certain WMA files on Windows
  • Fixed drag & drop not working after online update on Windows

New in fre:ac 1.1.5 (Jun 28, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Improved DSP processing performance by up to 70% (mainly on Windows)
  • Added frequency bandwidth setting to FDK-AAC encoder configuration dialog
  • Added an option to toggle logging of complete paths in log files
  • Added options for specifying cover art files to freaccmd
  • Added support for reading Shift_JIS encoded CD-Text
  • Added support for writing album and track comments to cue sheets
  • Added support for ID3v2 tags in RF64 files
  • Added support for updating Vorbis Comment tags
  • Added support for updating ID3v2 tags in RIFF and AIFF files
  • Added support for updating LIST INFO tags in RIFF, RF64 and Wave64 files
  • Added support for ensemble field in Vorbis Comment and APEv2 tags
  • Added support for movement field in ID3v2, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and MP4 tags
  • Added support for additional URL fields in APEv2 tags
  • Added a tag editor option to keep album artist even if identical to track artist
  • Added media type field to tag editor
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed hotspot for genre edit field utility menu not covering the whole width of the field
  • Fixed occasional crashes when selecting codec subformat using the "Start encoding with" menu
  • Fixed chapter marks being offset by a few seconds when using DSP processing
  • Fixed playback not working when using certain combinations of DSP processors
  • Fixed incompatibility of FDK-AAC encoded HE and HEv2 AAC files with iTunes
  • Fixed issue decoding FLAC files with unknown length
  • Fixed glitches decoding transients in some Vorbis files
  • Fixed possible crashes when decoding Opus files
  • Fixed rare crashes in LAME encoder component
  • Fixed strings read from ID3v2 tags being limited to 1024 characters
  • Fixed crash when reading malformed CD-Text genre IDs
  • Fixed failure ripping with negative read offset
  • Fixed disc eject not working on macOS
  • Fixed crash when closing fre:ac via dock command on macOS
  • Fixed UI glitches and crashes on exit when running in a Wayland session
  • Fixed popup menu and dropdown list closing behavior on non-Windows platforms
  • Fixed issues with custom DPI settings on Xfce desktops
  • Fixed drag & drop working unreliably on X11 based systems

New in fre:ac 1.1.4 (Feb 15, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • Improved support for reading CD-Text
  • Added an HDCD decoder DSP filter
  • Added catalog number and barcode fields to tag editor
  • Added file type associations to macOS app, so fre:ac is offered for opening audio files
  • Added quality (VBR) setting to FDK-AAC configuration dialog
  • Improved MP3, AAC and Opus encoding performance by up to 30%
  • Improved multi-monitor support on X11 based systems
  • Discs of multi-disc albums are now shown separately in tag editor album mode
  • Update only changed fields when making edits in tag editor album mode
  • Added support for Replay Gain values in MP4 and WMA metadata
  • Do not override settings with default values when using freaccmd's --config option
  • Bug fixes:
  • 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 on Windows
  • Fixed output sample rate being limited to 192 kHz
  • Fixed freaccmd randomly failing to process files in rare cases
  • Fixed bad user interface colors on some Linux distributions
  • Codec support:
  • Switched from FAAC to FDK-AAC for AAC encoding

New in fre:ac 1.1.3 (Oct 12, 2020)

  • General changes:
  • Added support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur
  • Switched to using GNUdb as the default CDDB database service
  • Improvements:
  • Command line codec configuration now allows specifying additional arguments
  • Improved cue sheet encoding detection to support system codepage and UTF-8 without BOM
  • freaccmd now splits cue sheets to individual tracks unless an output file is specified
  • freaccmd now supports a --split-chapters option to split files into individual chapters
  • Added placeholder for output folder configuration setting, resolving to user profile
  • Added file type and audio CD associations to Linux/FreeBSD and Windows Store app
  • Added an option to suppress "No entry found" messages for automatic CDDB queries
  • Improved detection of sampler CDs when querying CDDB information
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed possible conversion thread hangs when using external encoders
  • Fixed possible crash related to drag & drop handling on Windows
  • Fixed crash when writing fields containing only whitespace to certain tag formats
  • Fixed glitches in WAV/AIFF output when processing samples outside the -1.0/+1.0 range
  • Fixed possible hangs when opening WAV/AIFF files > 2 GB or with a broken chunk structure
  • Fixed inability to open WAV/AIFF files with long paths on Windows
  • Fixed writing wrong offsets to single file cue sheets when the resampling DSP filter is enabled
  • Fixed writing invalid chapter offsets to Opus files with source sample rates other than 48 kHz
  • Fixed writing invalid MP3 bitstreams in rare cases in SuperFast mode
  • Fixed wrong length detection for MP3 files with invalid chapter data
  • Fixed parsing of cue sheets with minute/second values missing leading zeros or longer 99min
  • Fixed parsing of embedded cue sheets without FILE designations
  • Fixed ripping progress for other drives stalling while one drive is ejecting
  • Fixed inability to pause or stop single output file verification
  • Fixed log files being archived despite disabling the corresponding option
  • Fixed various issues with multi-monitor support on macOS
  • Fixed user interface glitches after closing dialogs in tabbed mode on macOS
  • Fixed Shift+Pos1/End shortcuts being interpreted by the joblist and edit fields simultaneously
  • Codec support:
  • Switched from libav 12.3 to FFmpeg 4.3.1 for auxiliary format support
  • Added support for using the Core Audio codec of iTunes 12.10.9 and later

New in fre:ac 1.1.2 (Jun 22, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • Scale UI to adjust to system font size by default
  • Added support for theme colors and dark mode on Linux/FreeBSD
  • Improved handling of maximized window state on Linux/FreeBSD and macOS
  • 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
  • Bug fixes:
  • 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
  • Fixed some graphics glitches on macOS

New in fre:ac 1.1.1 (Apr 20, 2020)

  • This release comes with minor improvements as well as codec and translation updates and fixes several issues found in earlier releases:
  • Improvements:
  • Improved file size and bitrate calculation for chapters and cue sheet tracks
  • Added placeholder for use in filename patterns
  • Added an optional disc ID column to the joblist
  • Added an option to eject the disc after ripping to freaccmd
  • Allow specifying device path instead of drive number in freaccmd
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed crash of freaccmd when querying CDDB while DISPLAY variable is not set
  • Fixed ripping of first CD track in paranoia mode on Windows
  • Fixed several issues creating CBR MP3 files in SuperFast mode
  • Fixed calculation of track conversion speed factor in log files

New in fre:ac 1.1 (Mar 31, 2020)

  • Availability for macOS and Linux, in addition to Windows
  • Availability of 64 bit versions for Windows and other operating systems
  • Support for dark mode on Windows and macOS
  • A reworked conversion engine with support for multi-threading and parallel processing
  • An integrated tag editor with support for cover images
  • An extension for simultaneous output to multiple formats
  • Support for new codecs including Opus, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack and others
  • Support for DSP filters and lossless file verification
  • Support for multi-channel audio
  • Support for managing multiple configurations
  • Support for writing log files

New in fre:ac 1.1 RC 2 (Mar 24, 2020)

  • Fixed inability to read raw AAC files with the FAAD2 decoder
  • Fixed inability to create WMA files with long path names
  • Fixed cursor positioning and text selection in right-to-left mode
  • Fixed cursor position calculation not respecting kerning on Windows 10

New in fre:ac 1.1 RC 1 (Mar 16, 2020)

  • Fixed drag & drop not accepting long file paths on Windows
  • Fixed file modification time stamp getting lost when output verification is active
  • Fixed file creation time stamp not being preserved despite option being enabled
  • Fixed freaccmd not correctly handling relative output folders
  • Fixed black title bar color on Windows Vista, 7 and 8/8.1
  • Fixed online updater not working

New in fre:ac 1.1 Beta 3 (Feb 11, 2020)

  • Fixed compatibility issue with Windows 10 UTF-8 codepage setting
  • Fixed FLAC decoding on macOS
  • Fixed issues opening Opus files with a .ogg extension
  • Fixed Monkey's Audio encoder not showing up in 64 bit builds
  • Fixed some issues with freaccmd command line interface

New in fre:ac 1.1 Beta 2 (Jan 23, 2020)

  • Fixed an IO subsystem issue causing corrupted output files in some cases
  • Fixed SuperFast LAME repacker causing glitches in output files in some cases
  • Fixed gapless decoding of MP3 files created with FFmpeg
  • Fixed inability to update ID3v2 and APEv2 tags in tag editor
  • Fixed inability to exit application after ejecting a disc while ripping
  • Fixed hangup when ejecting a disc while adding its tracks to joblist
  • Fixed minimum and maximum bitrate values being mixed up in Vorbis configuration dialog

New in fre:ac 1.1 Build 20180716 Alpha (Jul 17, 2018)

  • fixed a crash when opening files with embedded PNG images
  • fixed FLAC and Ogg Vorbis codecs being unavailable on macOS
  • improved handling of compilations with freedb metadata
  • improved album artist handling in the tag editor

New in fre:ac 1.1 Build 20171119 Alpha (Nov 20, 2017)

  • This release introduces the long awaited DSP framework which paves the way for future support of things like volume normalization or noise reduction. For now, there is a resampling DSP that can be used to change the sample rate of the converted audio.
  • The new version also adds support for the Monkey's Audio lossless format on macOS, Linux and FreeBSD. Previously, only decoding of Monkey's audio files was supported on these platforms through avconv/ffmpeg.
  • In addition, the new release updates the FAAC/FAAD2 and LAME codecs to their latest versions, fixes some instabilities and corrects various minor bugs.

New in fre:ac 20170902 Snapshot (Sep 4, 2017)

  • Updates the FAAC/FAAD2 and Opus codecs to their latest versions and fixes instabilities on macOS and Linux.

New in fre:ac 20170729 Snapshot (Jul 31, 2017)

  • The new release includes a simple protocol viewer and improves handling of several audio formats. It changes the way virtual .aiff files generated for audio CD tracks on macOS are handled to prevent the CD drive from constantly repositioning the laser, allows decoding some .m4a files with defective headers that previous versions rejected and adds support for decoding ATRAC-1 files.
  • The new version also introduces some performance optimizations that can speed up parallel conversions by up to 5% and updates all codecs to the latest versions, most notably the Opus codec to the new 1.2 release.
  • In addition, fre:ac 20170729 includes lots of minor improvements and fixes for issues found in earlier versions of fre:ac.

New in fre:ac 20170317 Snapshot (Mar 19, 2017)

  • This release adds support for album artist tag fields and improves cuesheet and playlist handling by allowing to write separate cuesheets/playlists per output folder and by adding support for reading cuesheets stored in tags.
  • It also adds a heuristic to infer title information from file and folder names in the absence of tags and makes all supported codecs available in the freaccmd command line interface.
  • In addition, the new release includes numerous minor improvements, some codec updates and several fixes for issues found in earlier versions of fre:ac.

New in fre:ac 20161129 Snapshot (Dec 1, 2016)

  • Adds support for multi-channel Opus files and updates codec libraries to the latest versions.
  • Fixes several issues found in earlier versions. Most notably, an issue where fre:ac hung on OS X 10.11 El Capitan when querying the freedb database.

New in fre:ac 20151122 Snapshot (Nov 23, 2015)

  • This release adds the meh! - multi encoder hub component that allows ripping/converting to multiple different output formats at once. For example, you can now rip to FLAC files for archival and MP3s for mobile listening in one go.
  • The new release also adds support for multi-channel AAC and ALAC as well as VCLT playlists and fixes several stability and freezing issues.

New in fre:ac 20150725 Snapshot (Aug 4, 2015)

  • Adds support for verification of FLAC, TAK and WavPack input files and improves support for multi-channel audio. The latter includes support for decoding AC-3, DTS and MLP files as well as support for multi-channel WAV, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and WMA. Besides that, the configuration management code has been rewritten to allow changing the configuration while a conversion job is in progress.
  • The new release also fixes an issue with the Ogg Vorbis encoder producing garbled output on non-Windows x64 platforms.

New in fre:ac 20141005 Snapshot (Oct 6, 2014)

  • Messed up sound when decoding Ogg Vorbis files in parallel mode
  • Problems related to writing chapter marks to FLAC and Ogg files (including Opus and Speex)
  • Incompatibility of the 32 bit Windows version with certain CPUs (at least Athlon 64 X2, but possibly others as well)
  • Failure to detect number of CPU cores on PowerMacs and FreeBSD

New in fre:ac 20140921 Snapshot (Sep 22, 2014)

  • Performance, stability and usability improvements for OS X
  • Usability improvements
  • Added an experimental parallel conversion mode that allows to make better use of multiple CPU cores.
  • Fixed various bugs and other issues.

New in fre:ac 20140609 Snapshot (Jun 10, 2014)

  • Adding support for chapters in ID3v2, Vorbis Comment and Windows Media tags, this release greatly improves chapter support in fre:ac. Chapters are now available with all output formats that support them, including MP3, MP4/AAC, Opus, Vorbis, FLAC and WMA.
  • Other new features include support for spinning up CDs before ripping, up to date cdparanoia support on all systems as well as the ability to read ISRCs on non-Windows systems.
  • The OS X package is now digitally signed and runs on Mountain Lion and Mavericks without having to change the default Gatekeeper settings. It also improves memory management, so fre:ac will no longer use up all your system memory on larger jobs on OS X.
  • Besides those improvements, the new snapshot also fixes various bugs, glitches and stability issues. Please remember that it is still an alpha snapshot, though, and not meant to be used for daily work!

New in fre:ac 20130430 Snapshot (May 2, 2013)

  • The playlist subsystem has been modularized and support for XSPF and PLS playlists added.It also features a new confirmation dialog for files to be overwritten in a conversion job. The new dialog is shown before the actual conversion starts and so eliminates blocking popups during mass conversion jobs.
  • Lots of bugs have been fixed since the previous snapshot and the new version should be quite stable already.