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xACT Changelog

What's new in xACT 2.55

Mar 5, 2024
  • Fixed tagging bug with .m4a files
  • Fixed tagging inconsistency relating to "Use Previous Tags" button

New in xACT 2.54 (Oct 9, 2023)

  • Updated flac to 1.4.3

New in xACT 2.53 (Aug 25, 2023)

  • Changed how xACT is writing Gapless and Compilation tags for m4a files
  • Added option to show some logging info for De-emphasis task
  • xACT can now properly join 24 bit files (shntool tab)

New in xACT 2.52 (Mar 1, 2023)

  • Fixed issue when tagging flac files with dates that could cause issues on file playback or decode
  • Fixed issue with converting ape > flac (does ape > wav > flac for now until I figure out the cause)
  • Added ability to encode dsd files (.dsf, .dff) to Wavpack
  • Wavpack dsd files will show the proper file extension when decoded (was showing .aiff or .wav in previous versions)

New in xACT 2.51 (Oct 23, 2022)

  • Most (not all) functions now native on Apple Silicon
  • Fixed some inconsistencies in the GUI
  • Fixed 'Auto-name' bug
  • Updated LAME to 3.100 for apple silicon. still 3.99.5 for Intel
  • Updated flac to 1.4.0.
  • Added wave formatextensible to shntool 3.10
  • Modified Monkey's Audio to allow waveformatextensible. 24 bit files may need to be waveformatextensible to compress to ape
  • Fixed issue where xACT would crash on bad FFP or ST5 file
  • Fixed issue where replacing cover art for a flac file didn't actually replace it
  • Fixed Dark Mode issue with Track Names window
  • Upgraded WavPack to 5.5.0
  • Fixed issue when tagging MP3 files with cover art might crash

New in xACT 2.50 Build 8446 (Jun 8, 2020)

  • Converting AIFF > Wav and WAV > AIFF will now copy tags
  • Batch Rename can rename based off tags in the file. Hover over Prefix textbox to see how

New in xACT 2.49 Build 8399 (Apr 16, 2020)

  • Fixed issue converting APE files to FLAC
  • Added Touch Bar buttons for the tabs
  • Refactored multiselect code on tags tab
  • Refactored WAV tagging
  • Added “Part of Compilation” tag

New in xACT 2.48 Build 8173 (Oct 8, 2019)

  • Made fully 64 bit (and notarized) for macOS Catalina support
  • Fixed multiselect bugs on the Tags tab
  • Added preference to open last used tab on launch
  • Fixed Year and Total Tracks bug for mp3 files
  • Fixed mp3 “Album Artist” bug
  • Album artwork on the tags tab is limited to 16MB in size. If an image is larger, xACT will shrink it down.
  • DVD-AUDIO support is on hold until I can get it fully 64 bit. If you still need dvd-audio, use a previous version or use Fabrice Nicol’s new front end: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dvd-audio/files/dvda-author-package/

New in xACT 2.47 Build 7974 (Sep 17, 2018)

  • Fixed washed out image issue in macOS High Sierra for AAC/ALAC

New in xACT 2.46 Build 7959 (Aug 1, 2018)

  • Fixed washed out image issue in macOS High Sierra
  • Reverted back to previous build of Monkey's Audio

New in xACT 2.45 Build 7919 (Jun 15, 2018)

  • Stopped xACT from forcing itself to the front when a new task starts
  • Upgraded AtomicParsley to v0.9.6

New in xACT 2.44 Build 7893 (Jan 9, 2018)

  • Fixed bugs caused by typo fixes in 2.42 (Tags tab).

New in xACT 2.43 Build 7886 (Dec 28, 2017)

  • Fixed bugs caused by typo fixes in 2.42 (FLAC Replay Gain, De-Emphasis)

New in xACT 2.42 Build 7879 (Dec 28, 2017)

  • Fixed progress bars on Mac OS X 10.13
  • Fixed “track number” and “disc number” tagging bug
  • Fixed Typos
  • Fixed bug when tagging date on flac files

New in xACT 2.41 Build 7749 (Sep 16, 2017)

  • Fixed bug when tagging the year on flac files.

New in xACT 2.40 Build 7743 (Aug 25, 2017)

  • Fixed bug where wav tags didn’t get copied to flac files
  • Tooltip on queue

New in xACT 2.39 Build 7705 (Feb 9, 2017)

  • Added preference for AAC Audio Codec Quality
  • Added basic HE-AAC v2 encoding
  • Added tagging of WAV files
  • "Fix" tab can now output to source directory
  • Updated flac to v1.3.2
  • Fixed bug with month/day handling in tags tab

New in xACT 2.38 Build 7606 (May 20, 2016)

  • AIFF ags are retained when applying de-emphasis
  • Fixed bug that didn’t allow conversion of 24 bit AIFF to MP3
  • Option in preferences to aid in CD Extraction if xACT can’t recognize the cd drive
  • Option to set output name when using shntool “join”
  • FLAC 5.1 > Apple Lossless will set correct channel mapping
  • Added sample rate conversion (using SoX) for WAV and AIFF files.
  • Fixed Apple Lossless and AAC Artwork bug

New in xACT 2.37 Build 7448 (Dec 18, 2015)

  • Downgraded SoX to 14.3.2 for Mac OS X 10.7 compatibility
  • Upgraded Opus to opus tools 0.1.9 (libopus 1.1)
  • Added decoding of Opus files to WAV or AIFF
  • Added encoding to HE-AAC
  • Changed how xACT finds cd drives for extraction

New in xACT 2.36 Build 7202 (Jun 22, 2015)

  • Bug fix for tagging files - added check to see if file is read-only
  • xACT will now convert WAV > AIFF and AIFF > WAV using the “Decode” tab
  • recompiled wavpack 4.70.0 from source to make compatible with Max OS X 10.7
  • Upgraded SoX to 14.4.2

New in xACT 2.35 Build 7131 (Dec 10, 2014)

  • Fixed cd extraction bug introduced in OS X 10.10
  • Upgraded flac to v1.3.1

New in xACT 2.34 Build 7093 (Nov 4, 2014)

  • Fixed Conversion of Apple Lossless to AAC

New in xACT 2.33 Build 7047 (Aug 18, 2014)

  • LAME CBR/ABR/VBR setting correctly remembered again.

New in xACT 2.32 Build 7042 (Aug 12, 2014)

  • Fixed bug where Genre tag might not be copied from AAC or Apple Lossless files.
  • Added Advanced tab in Preferences for advanced LAME MP3 options. xACT can now set “-q†values and specify “Stereo†or “Joint Stereo†files.
  • Added ABR LAME MP3 encoding.

New in xACT 2.31 Build 6975 (Aug 2, 2014)

  • Updated flac to version 1.3.0.
  • Faster LAME MP3 compression.
  • Fixed scrollbar on Util tab when DVD-AUDIO is selected.
  • Cleaned up interface on Checksum and Lossy tabs.
  • Changes for accessibility.

New in xACT 2.30 Build 6907 (Jul 24, 2014)

  • Apple Lossless to AAC conversion keeps tags.
  • Minor fixes for Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10).

New in xACT 2.29 Build 6871 (Jun 3, 2014)

  • Date tag is now split into separate Year/Month/Day fields.
  • Modified MP3 date tag handling for better iTunes compatibility.
  • Added ability to tag TTA files.
  • Upgraded Wavpack to v4.70.0.
  • Upgraded Taglib to v1.9.1.
  • Upgraded MP4v2 to v2.0.0.

New in xACT 2.28 Build 6714 (May 21, 2014)

  • Fixed bug that caused crash when creating MD5 file.
  • Fixed bug that could cause crash when running many tasks at once.
  • Added progress indicator when tagging files.
  • Disabled option in preferences to remove padding when writing flac tags until I track down the cause of a bug that could cause the flac files to become corrupt (possible bug in TagLib or metaflac).
  • xACT is now 64 bit only. Apple's Xcode 5.1 removed support for applications using Garbage Collection, so upgrading the application to use Automatic Reference Counting forced xACT to be 64 bit only. v2.25 is the last 32 bit app that will work on 32 bit Macs.

New in xACT 2.27 Build 6480 (May 6, 2014)

  • Fixed bug where st5 files weren't being written.

New in xACT 2.26 Build 6465 (Apr 28, 2014)

  • Replay Gain now set by directory. If you feed xACT files in different directories and tell it to add replay gain, it’ll treat the files in each directory as a separate file set.
  • Added option (in preferences) to remove padding when writing flac tags.
  • Downgraded to flac 1.2.1 because of speed issues.
  • xACT now requires extensions on files so it knows how to process. Added extra check on extension before deleting original files.
  • refactored parts of source code to use Automatic Reference Counting
  • fixed bug when converting flac files to aiff and copying tags. If conversion failed, xACT would crash when trying to write tags.
  • added Album Artist tag to tags tab and rearranged the placement of tags on the screen
  • Added option in preferences to remove padding when adding flac tags. Flac pads tags by default, so if you remove album art, the file size does not decrease. xACT can remove this padding.

New in xACT 2.25 Build 6406 (Feb 11, 2014)

  • Tags tab now shows common tags if multiple files selected.
  • Apple Lossless > AIFF copies tags
  • When tagging files, if the selected files contain no album art tag and are all in the same directory, xACT will look for a single image file in that directory and prompt the user to use it. If there are multiple images in the directory, xACT will not try use any image.
  • Speed improvement when encoding to AAC, Apple Lossless and MP3
  • Fix for channel layout when converting multichannel (> 2) files to AAC
  • Fixed bug where track total didnÕt clear out on flac files when Òwrite empty tagsÓ selected

New in xACT 2.24 Build 6248 (Oct 23, 2013)

  • updates/fixes for 10.9 Mavericks compatibility
  • updated flac to v1.3.0
  • updated LAME to 3.99.5
  • fixed bug when converting wav file to mp3 with extra RIFF chunks
  • fixed bug relating to creating an md5 of files in different directories/subdirectories

New in xACT 2.23 Build 5911 (Apr 29, 2013)

  • File lists now sort files exactly like the Finder

New in xACT 2.22 Build 5906 (Apr 8, 2013)

  • Fix to Core Audio encoder bug when encoding from Apple Lossless to AAC (wouldn't work before)
  • Added ability to delete a single file from the file list, or all files with a certain extension. Right click on the file list to see these options.
  • Added Wavpack to FLAC and Wavpack to Apple Lossless encoding
  • Fixed bug in auto creation of ffp files when converting files to flac. If saving to source directory, it will correctly create an ffp for each output directory now.
  • File list will now expand wide enough to see very long filenames
  • When encoding to FLAC, last options for "Verify" "Keep Foreign Metadata" and "Generate FFP" are now saved in preferences
  • Save to source options are now saved in preferences
  • Added option in Preferences screens for "Warn when deleting original files" and "Notify when files are skipped"
  • Fixed bug in Tags tab when loading tags for MP3 file. When a file had no Total Tracks tag, the Track Number tag was being displayed in the Track Total field

New in xACT 2.21 Build 5689 (Dec 27, 2012)

  • added option to auto-create ffp file when fixing sector boundary errors and outputting to FLAC format
  • fixed bug when fixing sector boundary errors and outputting to SHN format with md5.
  • xACT now reads album art from AIFF files.
  • fixing AIFF or FLAC files now retains all of the metadata tags.
  • custom tags now saved on each keystroke
  • very primitive support for encoding to Opus format (lossy tab)
  • xACT will prevent the computer from going to sleep while there are tasks running

New in xACT 2.20 Build 5427 (Aug 8, 2012)

  • fixed bug with "delete original files" option on shntool tab where if gave a false "Are you sure" confirmation box
  • fixed bug in shntool len command when naming by disc
  • added Notifications for finished task sets (requires OS X 10.8)

New in xACT 2.19 Build 5427 (Jul 25, 2012)

  • code signed for Mac OS X 10.8 Gatekeeper
  • set FLAC album art to the "FrontCover" picture type
  • FLAC tags can now save full dates (2012-01-01) in the YEAR tag instead of just the year
  • added a checkbox to automatically create an ffp file when encoding files to flac
  • added the "Delete original files" and "Encode to source directory" options to the shntool tab
  • default FLAC fingerprint file (ffp) extension is now a user preference. xACT used to default to ".ffp.txt" but the user can specify "ffp" instead
  • if multiple files are added to the Tags tab file list, all new files are selected by default
  • on the Tags tab, added a button to use the previously saved tags. This button will only become visible after you've set some tags since the application launched.

New in xACT 2.18 Build 5207 (May 21, 2012)

  • Should work in Mac OS X 10.5 again. (the latest version of Xcode doesn't seem to make a 10.5 compatible version even though it says it does)
  • Changed how the shntool "split" function works when renaming files from a cue sheet. It should handle accented characters better.

New in xACT 2.17 Build 5156 (Apr 30, 2012)

  • fixed bug in auto-naming files when user gave 2 tracks the same name
  • fixed bug in performing shntool operations when a directory had square brackets in the path

New in xACT 2.15 (Dec 10, 2011)

  • Fixed bugs introduced by 2.14 relating to mp3 compression level and saved settings.

New in xACT 2.14 (Dec 6, 2011)

  • Fixed bug where flac files with .FLAC (uppercase) extension could cause xACT to crash when converting to mp3
  • "Lossy" tab now remembers your compression level settings

New in xACT 2.13 (Jun 28, 2011)

  • Added ability to tag MP3, Monkey's Audio, and WavPack files. Changed FLAC tagging to make unicode-friendly. Added ability to add album art to FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless and MP3 files.
  • fixed bug when "Delete original files" option checked and task canceled that resulted in original files still being deleted. Check now in place to prevent this.
  • added user preference to delete files or move to trash when "Delete original files" checked. Default is to delete.
  • added ability to convert Apple Lossless files to LAME mp3. Tags and album art will be copied to the mp3.
  • Added ability to parse a CUE file for tags (album, performer, track names). From the "FLAC/M4A Tags" tab, select "Load Tags From CUE sheet…" from the File menu and choose a cue sheet. xACT will attempt to parse the metadata from the file. Note: previous "Load track Names from file" was moved from the Edit menu to the File Menu.
  • added ability to make DVD-Audio disc image from flac or wav files. note: the tool that authors the dvd-a data may picky about wav files having standard headers. If wavs don't work, try flac files.
  • fixed bug when using "shntool fix" to fix sector boundary errors on files with no file extension.
  • fixed bug when converting files with no extension to SHN
  • fixed bug in custom shntool len format when time was not last
  • fixed bug that caused a crash when verifying md5 checksum file with invalid checksum format

New in xACT 2.12 (May 17, 2011)

  • Fixed bug when decoding Apple Lossless files to wav/aiff.

New in xACT 2.11 (Apr 28, 2011)

  • Fixed bug where splitting a file with a cue sheet could hang or crash the application (introduced in 2.10)

New in xACT 2.10 (Apr 27, 2011)

  • fixed bug where splitting a file with a cue sheet could hang or crash the application
  • fixed bug that caused a crash when converting multichannel (> 2 channel) flac files to aac and apple lossless

New in xACT 2.09 (Mar 29, 2011)

  • Better Mac OS 10.5 compatibility

New in xACT 2.08 (Mar 29, 2011)

  • should work (but not guaranteed to) in Mac OS X 10.5
  • added "File types not supported by this tab" message
  • added ability to convert from ape directly to flac (encode tab)
  • added support for cd extraction from blu-ray drives on most machines
  • fixed bug that could cause a crash when parsing "shntool len" output

New in xACT 2.07 (Feb 13, 2011)

  • added aiff tags handling. aiff > flac will copy aiff tags. flac > aiff will copy flac tags
  • handles comment lines starting with ";" now. previous versions assumed comments started with a "#" in md5 files.
  • added warning when running a command with "delete original files" option
  • added ability to remove pre-emphasis from wav or aiff files. note: xACT uses SoX for de-emphasis and SoX will only remove pre-emphasis from 44.1khz files.

New in xACT 2.06 (Jan 3, 2011)

  • fixed issue where converting .aif files to another format would output files with the .aif extension still in the name (.aif.mp3 for example).
  • 96khz files can now be converted to AAC. They will be saved as 48khz aac files
  • fixed bug where you couldn't md5 a non-audio file type. You can now make an md5 of any file
  • fixed bug where text file could be in shntool tab's file list and cause crashes

New in xACT 2.05 (Oct 11, 2010)

  • mp3 tags now written via TagLib instead of id3tool
  • m4a tags now written via mp4v2 instead of AtomicParsley
  • fixed bug when copying flac tags to mp3 and saving in different directory (non source directory)
  • fixed bug when creating md5 while fixing files and outputting to SHN

New in xACT 2.04 (Oct 9, 2010)

  • Added ability to parse an info text file for track names. From the "Track Name Input" window, select "Load Names From File…" from the edit menu and choose a text file. xACT will attempt to parse track names in the file. It looks for lines that start with some variation of a track number: 01 or [01] or (01) or [01.] etc. Note: this function is incomplete, very basic, and won't work for all cases. It will be improved in future versions.
  • Should work with 32 bit processors.

New in xACT 2.03 (Oct 8, 2010)

  • Fixed bug when md5 files had comments.

New in xACT 2.02 (Oct 4, 2010)

  • fixed bug that could cause a crash when converting a very large number of files from shn to flac
  • changed the way that md5 checksums are computed. This should lower memory consumption considerably.
  • auto creation of md5 when converting to SHN should work correctly
  • deleting source file when decoding .tta file should work correctly
  • deleting source files when fixing sector boundary errors should work correctly

New in xACT 2.01 (Oct 2, 2010)

  • Fixed bug that didn't properly set the level when converting to VBR LAME mp3

New in xACT 2.0 (Sep 30, 2010)

  • rewritten entirely from scratch in Objective C
  • many bug fixes
  • updated UI, new icons
  • added auto-update via Sparkle
  • multithreaded - can execute multiple tasks at once (see application preferences to set the number of threads). Dock icon will show number of tasks in queue.
  • can cancel tasks already in progress
  • progress bars for most tasks
  • option to specify the format of custom "by disc" and "fileset" shntool len output text (see application preferences)
  • tags tab can now tag FLAC and M4A (aac, Apple Lossless) files
  • converting flac > Apple Lossless will now copy Flac tags to the Apple Lossless files
  • splitting tracks from a CUE sheet will now rename tracks based on TITLE info in the cue sheet
  • updated shntool to 3.0.10
  • updated wavpack to 4.60.1
  • updated ttaenc to 3.4.1
  • updated cdda2wav to 3.0
  • "fix" option will now process files even if they need no fixing
  • user can drop a directory on a file list or dock icon to process all of the known file types in the directory and subdirectories
  • added shntool "pad" and "strip" functions
  • added ability to add or remove Flac Replay Gain (Util tab)
  • added ability to trim characters from beginning or end of lines when entering track names
  • Checksum files can be saved in source directory.
  • Requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher and Intel processor

New in xACT 1.71 (Dec 30, 2009)

  • "Checksum" tab opens automatically when .st5 files dropped on the dock/app icon.