Please note that this program is supplied as two archives. The main archive
called the 'Installer'-archive and another archive called 'Encoder'-
archive. Make sure you obtain the both archives!
You can however use this program without the second archive, but then mp3
encoding modes will be disabled!
The main documentary has all the instructions you'll need to get yourself
the Encoder archive, if you cannot find it.
Due to the fact that I would need to pay 15.000$ minimun annually to licence
mp3 encoding technology, I cannot spread compiled Encoder exes. You must
create them yourself with the good instructions inside, or you'll just have
to find them somewhere else. I'm sorry.
INTRODUCTION:
This is just a program I originally created in hurry as I needed it
badly. I decided to make it a bit better so others could use it
too. It just wasn't nice to use makecd, mpega, numerous shell applications
plus lots of other stuff just to encode a freaking audiocd to mp3s or
to transfer them to a cd. So SecondSpin was born.
That's why I created this full featured audio mpeg processor :).
See @{" Features " link "Features"} for more info...
REQUIREMENTS:
- AmigaOS 3.0 or greater.
- a supported(?) CDDA audio extraction capable cd-rom drive
& drivers for it if you mean to encode directly from a cd.
- 68020 and FPU, preferably a 68060 or PPC
- Minimum of 640x480 with 2 colors. (*)
- lots of patience, hdspace and free cpu cycles.
- executive is recommended but not required as mpegencoding is really
cpu intensive stuff it might help keeping the system more useable
when encoding.
- optionally, fully installed ppc os extensions (WarpOS / PowerUP)
- optionally amitcp or miami (online), if you want to fetch cddb
information from freedb.org.
- optionally XPK or PowerPacker libraries for unpacking support
- optionally Timidity++ installed for MIDI support
- PIPE: device mounted.
- ARexx system up and running.
(*) SecondSpin defaults to Workbench screen, but you can create a new screen
for SecondSpin with Triton-GUI preferences program. 640x256 or similiar
resolution just isn't enough for SecondSpins GUI - and no plans to make any
smaller has been made.
FEATURES:
- will easily convert audiocds (CDDA) to mpeg audio files or additio-
nally only leech the tracks as aiff files.
- supports AsimCDFS if specified.
- has full mpeg tag editing possibilities for audio cd:s.
- will easily convert your existing AIFF or WAV files to mpeg audio
- will convert Protracker, XM, S3M, FastTracker modules to AIFF or
mpeg audio files.
* Also MED1-3 (MMD1/MMD2/MMD3) modules are supported, but through MED
to XM conversion.
- will convert PlaySID formatted SID tunes to WAV or mpeg audio files.
- will convert MIDI songs to AIFF or mpeg audio files
* requires installed and configured Timidity++
- also converts mpeg files back to AIFF for general use.
- is able to directly convert existing mpeg layer 1-3 files to mpeg layer
3 format (eg. conversion of 128kbps jstereo file to 32kbps mono.
- outputs mpeg audio layers 1, 2 and 3 with mono, stereo and j-stereo
with bitrates of:
layer 3: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 112, 96, 64, 32, 24, 16 or 8 kbps
layer 2: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 112, 96, 64, 32
layer 1: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 96, 64, 32
- a full fontsensitive, functional and easy GUI
- supports all amigas (with or without fpu) as well as amigas
equipped with a ppc.
- supports CDDB, so it's able to fetch track information from
freedb.org site.
- also has full CDID support including loading, saving, cddb to cdid
converting and editing.
- fully localized
- has fully featured configuration editor
- support for amiga crunching standards, XPK and PowerPacker
- it's almost absolutely free :P
HISTORY:
v1.0 - a quick version for my own needs
(30/Jan/1999)
v1.1x - a better version :)
(03/Feb/1999)
v1.2x - first real release version candidate (yeah, sure ;))
(05/Feb/1999)
v1.3x - added www.cddb.com support and mpeg audio tag system. All output-
ted mpeg audiofiles will have a proper tag files and renamed
accordingly to the cddb data. Also added a configuration file..
(28/Feb/1999 -> )
v1.4x - brushed up version with numerous internal additions. Also added
many features, but no need to list them here as these still
aren't release versions.
(15/Mar/1999 -> )
v1.5x - jstereo mp3, encoder now always based on the latest LAME version.
(15/May/1999 -> )
v1.6x - numerous little & bigger additions, like decoding of mpeg files,
selection based track selection instead of the old range based,
the ever-so-much-needed offline mode etc.
(18/Jul/1999 -> )
v1.7x - too many things added and too many bugs fixed to be mentioned here.
(21/Sep/1999 -> )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v1.76 - the first public release version (released as public beta)
(07/Nov/1999)
v1.77 - some minor bugfixes, added 8/16/24 kbps modes. MPTAGs don't have
underscores anymore if convert spaces to underscore is enabled.
updated suomi/finnish catalog. keep those catalog files rolling!
(06/Dec/1999)
v1.78 - minor unvisible tweaks, added Save system information to the BETA
VERSION MENU. If you're going to send bug/nag reports, send the
file generated with this option with the mail!
(09/Dec/1999)
v1.79 - fixed some small bugs, including the typo in Install script which
caused installed mpega.library to be overwritten by the Install
process. Also fixed the bug which caused an unidentified error
requester, if SecondSpin GUI couldn't be opened, instead of the more
sophisticated one. (Thanks to Vadim Vlasenko for reporting them.)
(13/Dec/1999)
v1.80 - I was experimenting with some new stuff and found out some bugs if
multiple cds were encoded in a row and some had cddb files downloaded
and some didn't. Also tweaked some things which may have caused trouble.
I'm studying a more sophisticated way to handle the cddb files. A
central database and a to-be-downloaded queue maybe? (Thanks to all of
you who gave suggestions, especially to ExiE and Gerd Schmidt.)
(14/Dec/1999)
v1.85 - Added full support for converting Protracker, XM, S3M and FastTracker
modules to AIFF or MP3. Thanks to K-P Koljonen for PS3MREC. Usage is
similiar to the usage of existing AIFF/WAV files, eg. Input File
Selection. Also made good file identifying routines, no more extensions
needed in input files. Many general bugfixes + changed the english and
finnish locales a bit. MED support coming soon, but only with Jouko
Pynnönens med2xm unless you help me and do a med2aiff converter! I also
added some stuff to the guide. Maybe I should take a vacation for a few
days. :P
(17/Dec/1999)
v1.86 - Added OS check. SecondSpin now requires AmigaOS 3.0 as it's way much
easier for me not to even think about OS 2.x. Sorry :(. Also made some
little bugfixes, but you wouldn't find them anyway :P.
(27/Dec/1999)
v1.87 - Took the first steps to TAG EDITING engine. Now all entries have proper
author & name variables and SecondSpin tries to seek them in all ways.
You can't yet edit them by hand, but this is a good start. This also
caused the listview to change a bit. Added preliminary support for TAG
stuff for mpegs created from modules, modulename is now properly added.
Very good routines for module name seeking added. Hopefully I've fixed
the mpega.library installation for good. Let me know if it still does
something unwanted!!
(02/Jan/2000)
v1.88 - Due to some internal restrictions, the v1.87 release didn't work as it
was intended. However, it's fixed now :). I had to move the internal
english strings to an external file, but this should be of no problem.
(08/Jan/2000)
consider following as pre 2.00 releases, eg. v2.00 betas:
v1.96 - I adopted some module author scanning routines from my old CNet utility
called ZoolDIZ. Now all supported input modules are scanned for possible
match on author name. The routines are very sophisticated but in no way
perfect. I hope they'll get even better some day.. The authorscanning is
quite fast, but you'll certainly notice some delays when selecting files
or starting the converting, especially when you've selected many files.
That's too bad, but hey: nothing's free you know.. I practically rewrote
them + made them better in many ways when compared to the old version in
ZoolDIZ. Now the module support is much more better. Thanks Halil Ýbrahim
Taþova <CaptainHIT@Gmx.net> for motivating me.
Implemented mp3 tag scanning. Author and name tags will be preserved
if converted to another bitrate etc.
I also added a PIPE: check as more and more people don't seen to
understand that SecondSpin really needs PIPE mounted and working before
it will work properly.
Tweaked up some existing routines.
And.. hmm, yes I also implemented MPEGA Library FPU check so if you're
going to decode mpeg files SecondSpin will tell you that the MPEGA
version isn't FPU. FPU versions deliver much better audio quality!
Also added a few more progress bars to some routines.
... ooops :P The Decode Mode Only - menuselection didn't work at all.
I implemented the routines, now it should be ok.
PLUS! Layer 1 and 2 modes enabled and using the high speed Pegase by
Didier Levet! The implementation is a bit kludgy, but that is because
the Pegase isn't really intended to be used with SecondSpin or similiar
packages.. Hope it works, ok. You need to have the latest Pegase (v1.6x)
currently installed in C: for it to work. Thanks Didier! Currently mp3
files as input will be skipped if selected and layer 1/2 is output format.
The speed display works correctly only with 44100 kHz 16bit stereo files.
Now I hope that you stop comparing SecondSpin with Pegase as they have
very different functions. SecondSpin is a full featured package for all
mpeg and aiff conversions and Pegase is layer 1/2 encoder. You want speed,
you use Pegase with SecondSpin :)
The SecondSpin encoder is no longer required, you can use this in layer 2
mode only if Pegase is installed and the Lame base isn't.
As usual, also fixed many bugs. Very many.
Gee, I've been busy! Hope you enjoy!
(14/Jan/2000)
v1.97 - Added check for installed cdrom drive. If the selected drive isn't
located, it won't be seeked until restarting SecondSpin. Now people
without working cdrom drives can access SecondSpin easier.
Added another simple check for succeeded trackleeching. Now SecondSpin
shouldn't hang as ofter when trackleeching fails.
Found a very stupid bug which caused the process to fail if cddb wasn't
used. How silly of me. This was introduced in v1.96Beta.
(15/Jan/2000)
v1.98 - SecondSpin is now giftware. It's still 'free', but you should send me a
small gift if you like this :) Read the docs for more info..
Fixed some stupid bugs, and made the interface a bit more accessible.
Now you really can convert all fileformats to aiff files, and not only
encode them. Also added preliminary, rude and ugly playsid module support
which is 200% beta atm. It utilizes the fabulous SID4AMIGA player by Paul
Heams, and is included. The songs default to length of 3:20 for looping
songs and SID4AMIGA now has a end of non-looping song detection so nonloopin
tunes will just be faded out when the song ends.. Use the discussion board
to discuss how it should be made better.
Also, I removed the filecomment thing. It actually wasn't meant to be used,
I just forgot it there.
Added progress display to module conversion.
Found a bug that caused SecondSpin not to create proper directory from
cddb data in all circumstances.. This was introduced a few versions earlier.
Also added CDID support! Now you can use your existing CDID files with
SecondSpin. You can specify your CDID directory with SecondSpin installer,
or use the default 'SecondSpin:disks/'
I've only tested CDID support a bit with OptyCDPlayer. I have no idea if
it's 'standard' or does it work at all. Let me know! The TAG EDITING
feature will use ENV variable cdid_path and should be 100% OptyCDPlayer
compatible..
I finally decided to do that TAG EDITOR! It only works with audio cd:s,
but is fully CDID compatible with save features and internal cd album year
support (CDID doesn't support year data :(). Enjoy!
I had introduced a new bug in v1.97Beta. This was caused because of some
modifications I needed to do when I implemented Pegase support. MONO/STEREO/
JSTEREO/FORCE switch had no function with Layer 3 encodings! Only JSTEREO
was used! OOOOOPS! :).. big thanks to Sébastien STASZAK for letting me know!
Also added env variable for cdda track leech directory. This will be in
config file in the future, but no proper config ed has been made so use
this to select a different directory for cdda / moduleconversion / sid
conversion output aiff/wav files. ENV 'cdda_path'.
Added some variables to cfg saving. Now delete samples and programmode
will be saved too. Also added config load menu selection.
And.. SecondSpin is now as fast as the real LAME port on amiga! Thanks to
Piru's little stderr->stdout hack. This means about 15-50% speedup with
060! Maybe even more with PPC! Thanks to CISC for his LAME port!
(08/Feb/2000)
v1.98a - Oh crap! One stupid shell script had stripped a part which caused
multiple encodings to fail! Fixed.
(09/Feb/2000)
v1.98b - This can't be happening! I'm terribly sorry, but I had missed a part the
same script had manipulated! So there was another bug which caused the
cddb support to fail to get proper cd title data! I try to be more
careful next time. Sorry again! But after all, there are all beta
versions! Special sorrys to DrDick for not noticing it earlier..
(10/Feb/2000)
v1.99 - Added CDID autosave option. This will automatically save CDID file from
CDDB data! CDDB files aren't saved anymore unless specified, only CDID
files.
Special Pegase compiles are now included. Thanks to Didier Levet for
releasing Pegase sources!
Hmm.. the temporary samples delete cycle gadget defaulted to "do not
delete".. it's now changed to "delete". Thanks again to Sébastien
STASZAK!
Also tweaked up the GetCDDB a bit. No more debug information outputted
to the CDDB files and optimized it a bit..
I tracked down a bug which might have caused SecondSpin to save corrupted
config files in some machines. Fixed.
Tweaked up the output path handling a bit. There should be no more nested
directories and if you save prefs, the cd title shouldn't be saved to the
outputpath. Thanks to Tony B. for letting me know..
Please send me a mail about all bugs you might encounter! Next release
will be v2.00 AMINET if this works ok. So it's very important that I
am told about all bugs so that I won't upload a beta to aminet!!
(14/Feb/2000)
v1.99a Fixed the about requester error. Hmm.. The compiler stripped some tabs
and I never thought those were important.. well, they were. :)
Thanks to D.F. Duck for telling me!
(15/Feb/2000)
v2.00 1st Aminet release. (non beta)
Fixed Install script bug. It failed to copy a pegase encoding script!
Now, why did it took this long to report it?) Anyways, thanks to Klaus
Wurzinger for telling me.
Also disabled the TAG EDITOR menu entry when cd isn't inserted.
Selecting would have caused an error. Thanks to SPlayer author :P
Added an option for automatic cd tray ejection if selected program
reset. Thanks to TonyB. for the request and Jakub Bednarski for the
proggy.
Changed Triton app tags a bit.
Fixed a bug which caused some nonintended data to appear as track
information if no CDDB / CDID data was available, like CD_TITLE1,
CD_AUTHOR etc. Also, bogus track information isn't now automatically
been saved. If you've got these corrupted CDID files with nonwanted
disc information, delete or overwrite them.
Adjusted exit code a bit. Should be cleaner & more secure now.
It's now possible to use several copies of SecondSpin at same time.
CDID v2 has now been finished. It's however not in use at the moment
as new features of this scale would mean many new bugs and they're
not wanted in this version :P. Contact me for developer information
if needed.
(24/Feb/2000)
v2.09 Fixed a catalog problem if env:language had been set but no locale
was actually in use.
Fixed a problem in sample path. If no specific sample env variable
(ENV:cdda_path) was not set, sample path wasn't always been taken
from the current output path. Lot's of thanks to Ramlin for letting
me know!
I added a simple support for raw audio files. They're identified by
extension, which must be .raw or .cdda for identification. I don't
know if it works very well, but it must be better than nothing. The
only raw type supported is 44.1kHz Stereo 16 bit, so don't even think
of loading 8231Hz 8bit mono files as raw :P. I'm not sure how this
works on different endians, it works with both of my drives (Intel
endians), so if this doesn't work on your input files, let me know.
I should implement a byteswapping option, but currently I'm too lazy :P.
You can now use specific LameSpin program in Amiga LAME v3.56 or
better by CISC to convert his LAME port to SecondSpin compatible one.
Then copy the "SecondSpin_Encoder" file to "SecondSpin:external_commands/"
and mp3 modes will be enabled! Thanks again CISC!
Added output of WAV files as option for decoding instead of AIFF only.
Tweaked the string gadget handling a bit. No enter/tab stuff should be
needed anymore to feed new values. (Thanks to EkSOTiK for pointing
that out)
Added errorlist window for LAME, Pegase and some SecondSpin errors. Now
it's much easier to figure out what went wrong. Error handling has been
improved in general, filesystem read/write etc. errors won't cause
SecondSpin to fail anymore.
Hmm.. the limit to 31 was not so clever. It should have been limit to 30.
So, now the limit is 30, but it's still called limit to 31 :) Thanks to
Eike Biel <Eike.Biel@t-online.de> for pointing that out.
SecondSpin now has a special AsimCDFS support. Enable AsimCDFS
support from the prefs and you can use AsimCDFS for the track leeching.
Both direct encoding from a cd + standard leech are supported. No more
wasted time to track leeching and more compatibility with different
drives! Again, thanks to Eike Biel for requesting.
Module 50% surround panning is now optional.
I also made that full featured preferences editor. It's not yet 100%
complete, but its certainly an improvement! :).
Leeched tracks are now called with their real names, instead of cryptic
01-023df4234.aiff etc. they're now like 01-Unknown.aiff or
01-Song Name.aiff.
Added iconify option. You can use either appicon or small window iconify
modes. You cannot yet drop new files to the appicon, but this is in the
works.
cdda_path env variable can now be set within SecondSpin.
I changed the CDDA program TOC listing stuff to ShowTOC. I hope this
helps to support cdroms (in Asim mode) which do not work with CDDA
program! Lots of thanks to Ralph Reuchlein for ShowTOC!
PLEASE NOTE: As the TOC stuff has been changed, it may do slight changes
to some problematic CDID names! So it may be that all previous CDID datas
cannot be found! This is very unfortunate, but cdda program doesn't give
100% accurate information.. If this happens, you can always rename the
nonworking CDID file..
Fixed a stupid bug which caused encoding of AudioCD:s fail if Modules
or SIDs had been converted first.
The 2ndspin.library is obsolete. The needed stuff is now included in
the executable..
Also some small bugfixes I've already forgotten about..
(27/Apr/2000)
v2.12 - Several small bug removals. Several small non-classified bugs removed. Some
error handling stuff added.
Prefs window still crashes on some machines. Please help me to track down
which might cause it. My personal suspect is tritonrexx.library. Further
development will lag behind a great deal until the bug is gone! AND I MEAN
IT!
Updated the Pegase executables to 1.86.
As some of you still think that NCodeR encoder is better than LAME engine,
which I disagree strongly, I decided to make SecondSpin NCode compatible.
Now it's possible to use NCode executables with SecondSpin! Just select
Layer 3 (NCodeR) from the gui and set NCode executable path from the Prefs
window and you can use NCodeR as the encoding engine! I still strongly advice
you to use LAME engine. It's far superior in almost all means!
I've decided to drop support of older LAME versions and help me quickly
utilize and implement advanced features of LAME v3.87 and above. I hope
this will not be a problem. SecondSpin engine uses the v3.87 cli output
with very minor changes. I'll update the developer information in the
package. I hope that the LAME team won't be doing much changes to the
output soon. It's really dull to re-implement cli output parsing with new
LAME versions. Ofcoz SecondSpin mp3 functions gained huge speedboost and
produces better quality!
It's now possible to re-encode all supported layers, 1-3 to mp3. This
is not suggested though as re-encoding with lossy formats produces
crappy results.
MED module support has finally been finished. It's very beta and utilizes
med2xm by Jouko Pynnönen. Thanks for his support. Now you can convert
MMD1/MMD2/MMD3 (all major Octamed formats) to all SecondSpin output
formats. The conversion isn't perfect, read the med2xm.readme in bonus
docs for more info. Please do not re-distribute songs made by other people
converted from MED to XM unless you're 100% sure that the song was properly
converted!
I finally added XPK and PowerPacker support. Input files can now be packed
with either one. This is handy for module->mp3 conversions as they're
usually XPK'd. Ofcource, you'll have to have XPK or PowerPacker libraries
installed for this feature to work.
(01/Dec/2000)
v2.15 - Experimental MIDI files support - MIDI files almost fully supported!
Needs appropriate timidity++ installed with full instrument set. Tested
only with eawpatch. This was requested by Craig Munro (Betatester-team member)
Added an option to do cd-rom tray eject/load before leeching a track.
This might be needed with some braindead cd-roms if you can only leech one
track and rest fails. Requested by Jagge (Betatester-team member)
Also tried to make wos and powerup to work again. Let me know! Tweaked the
installer script, now it should be ok :)
Cleaned the exit code a bit. Now multiple copies of SecondSpin shouldn't
cause any problems.
Prefs window still crashes on some machines.
(22/Feb/2001)
v2.16 - Changed OS recognition code. It may have failed under some VERY, VERY rare
circumstances. If it fails now, I'd be very surprised.
Changed the www.cddb.com support to freedb.freedb.org! This should fix the
CDDB problems!
(12/Mar/2001)
v2.17 - sndfile.library now included in the distribution. SecondSpin is now able to
output thorough debug information if errors occur. If you get errors, please
save the Debug information and send it to me when you nag.
Fixed a small bug with CDID paths. Thanks to Janne Peräaho for letting me know.
Updated LAME support to 3.89Beta.
(05/May/2001)
v2.18 - Tweaked the startup code once again. Better error requesters should now pop up
if errors occur during startup. Some small internal changes.
The SecondSpin.info file was missing somehow in last release archive. it's fixed
now. Thanks to Letti for reporting it.
Several bugfixes.
(20/Nov/2001)
"xx/xxx/xxxx ->" means that the version was developed from xx/xxx/xxx to
the next version date.
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