% LameXP Audio-Encoder Front-End – Manual
+% Created by LoRd_MuldeR <<mulder2@gmx>> – check <http://muldersoft.com/> for news and updates!
# Introduction #
**Tier #1:** LameXP is currently being developed on the following platforms:
-* Microsoft Windows 8.1, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
+* Microsoft Windows 10, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
* Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
* Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 3 **(see remarks)**
-
**Tier #2:** The following platforms should work too, but aren't tested extensively:
-* Microsoft Windows 10, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
+* Microsoft Windows 8.1, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
* Microsoft Windows 8.0, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
* Microsoft Windows Vista with Service Pack 2, 32-Bit and 64-Bit editions
* Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition with Service Pack 2
* Microsoft Windows 98
* Microsoft Windows 95
-
*Remarks:* Windows XP has reached "end of life" on April 8th, 2014. This means that Microsoft has stopped all support for Windows XP. Thus **no** updates or bugfixes are made available to regular Windows XP users since that date, **not** even security fixes! Thus, all the security vulnerabilities that have been discovered *after* the deadline – and all the security vulnerabilities that are going to be discovered in the future – will *persists* forever! Consequently, using Windows XP has become a severe security risk, and the situation is only going to get worse. While LameXP will continue to support Windows XP (note that Service Pack 3 is required!) for the foreseeable future, we *highly* recommend everybody to update to a less antiquated system now. Windows XP support will be discontinued in a future version, when most users have migrated to a contemporary system.
LameXP is [*free software*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement), released under the terms of the [*GNU General Public License* (GPL), version 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html). The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. In contrast, the GPL is designed to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of the software. In other words, the GPL ensures that free software will remain free for all of its users. LameXP adds some additional terms in order to keep your computer safe from unwanted software. See the *GNU General Public License* for more details!
LameXP - Audio Encoder Front-End
- Copyright (C) 2004-2015 LoRd_MuldeR <MuldeR2@GMX.de>
+ Copyright (C) 2004-2016 LoRd_MuldeR <MuldeR2@GMX.de>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
-
**Addendum:** When distributing binaries of the LameXP software, it is *strictly forbidden* to bundle the LameXP program files and/or the LameXP installation program with any kind of *Adware*, *Spyware* or *PUP (potentially unwanted program)*, including, but not limited to, any downloaders, dialers, browser toolbars/extensions or restricted shareware/demo programs. It is, however, perfectly legitimate to bundle LameXP with other *OpenSource* programs, according to the OSI (Open Source Initiative). Finally, it is also legitimate to bundle LameXP with *commercial software*, as long as that software does *not* meet the criteria of *Adware*, *Spyware* or *PUP*. If you bundle the LameXP software with another software, you are *required* to make sure that the user is provided with an easy way to install and start the LameXP software separately from that other software.
During the *startup procedure*, the LameXP software has to perform a number of *file-system* operations. This can take a few moments. However, the startup procedure should **never** take longer than *approximately* 5 seconds. Even on our test system – Windows 7 running on an *ancient* Intel Core2 processor with 4 GB of RAM – the startup procedure takes only about 1.5 seconds. And that is with the "real-time protection" of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) enabled! If we disable the MSE "real-time protection" feature, the startup procedure takes less than 0.5 seconds. *Unfortunately*, it has been brought to our attention, that some other anti-virus products may *slow down* the startup procedure significantly! Startup delays of up to 20 seconds have been reported by users, which corresponds to a slow down factor of **40×** – caused by the anti-virus software!
-Consequently, if you think that LameXP is starting up "slow" on your machine, we recommend to *temporarily* **disable** or **uninstall** your current anti-virus software. If your anti-virus software has a so-called "real-time protection" or "guard" feature, please be sure to *deactivate* that feature too! As soon as the anti-virus software has been *neutralized* and **no** longer affects legitimate applications, please try launching the LameXP software again. If it turns out that the startup procedure of LameXP has become significantly *faster* when the anti-virus software is **not** interfering, then you know one thing for sure: It is the *anti-virus software* that was causing the slow down! Please recognize that *we* can **not** fix this kind of problems. Instead, since the problem is actually a *defect* of the anti-virus software, please report the problem to the developer of the *anti-virus software*!
+Consequently, if you think that LameXP is starting up "slow" on your machine, we recommend to **temporarily** *disable* or *uninstall* your current anti-virus software. If your anti-virus software has a so-called "real-time protection" or "guard" feature, please be sure to *deactivate* that feature too! As soon as the anti-virus software has been *neutralized* and **no** longer affects legitimate applications, please try launching the LameXP software again. If it turns out that the startup procedure of LameXP has become significantly *faster* when the anti-virus software is **not** interfering, then you know one thing for sure: It is the *anti-virus software* that was causing the slow down! Please recognize that *we* can **not** fix this kind of problems. Instead, since the problem is actually a *defect* of the anti-virus software, please report the problem to the developer of the *anti-virus software*!
+
+Another way of detecting performance issues caused by sloppy anti-virus software is monitoring the CPU usage in Task Manager (or [*Process Explorer*](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx)) while LameXP is starting up. Please make sure that you are **not** looking at the "overall" CPU usage, but at the CPU usage caused by the *individual* processes, and that "show processes from all users" is *enabled*. Then you will probably notice that `LameXP.exe` is sitting "idle", more or less, while some *service process* belonging to the anti-virus software is "hogging" the CPU. A typical example looks like this:
+
+
For reporting *performance issues*, please refer to anti-virus developer's web-site. Also, when reporting *performance issues*, please be self-confident: As a paying customer, you can demand that *performance issues* get fixed in a timely manner. Otherwise, get your money back!
-
Now simply follow the instructions of the setup wizard, which will guide you through the installation process…
*Note:* Please do **not** change the "Destionation Folder", unless you know exactly what you are doing. The "Destionation Folder" cannot be changed, when *upgrading* an existing LameXP installation.
-
Congratulation, LameXP has been installed successfully on your computer!
*Note:* If you keep the "Run LameXP …" option enabled and click on the "Finish" button, the LameXP software will be launched immediately.
-
This step may be slightly different, depending on what file archive software (e.g. 7-Zip or WinRAR) you are using. Select **all** files in the LameXP ZIP archive and *extract* them to a new/empty directory of your choice.
*Note:* It is very important that you have write-access to the chosen destination directory. So make sure that you choose a directory where the required access rights are granted!
-
Congratulation, LameXP has been installed successfully on your computer! Now double-click on the ``LameXP.exe`` program file in order to launch the application!
First of all, you need to download the Nero AAC encoder from the official Nero Digital web-site. The download is free of charge:
* <http://www.nero.com/eng/company/about-nero/nero-aac-codec.php>
+* <http://www.videohelp.com/software/Nero-AAC-Codec>
* <http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Nero_AAC_Codec.htm>
-
Simply scroll down, click the "I agree" button, and enter ``user@example.com`` when asked for an e-mail address. Finally, click the "Download" button, which initates the download of the required ``NeroAACCodec-1.5.1.zip`` file.
*Note:* Although the ZIP file is called ``NeroAACCodec-1.5.1.zip``, it actually contains version **1.5.4.0** of the Nero AAC encoder software. Please check the included ``changelog.txt`` to verify this!
-
Now open the downloaded ZIP file with your favourite file archive software (we recommend using [7-Zip](http://www.7-zip.org/) or [WinRAR](http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm)) and navigate to the "win32" sub-directory.
-
Finally, *extract* all the three files ``neroAacDec.exe``, ``neroAacEnc.exe`` and ``neroAacTag.exe`` into the LameXP installation directory. That is the directory where your LameXP executable file, i.e. the ``LameXP.exe``, is located.
*Note:* By default, the LameXP installation directory is either ``C:\Program Files (x86)\MuldeR\LameXP`` or ``C:\Program Files\MuldeR\LameXP``. However, this can be changed by the user during the setup process.
-
Once the required Nero AAC files have been put into the proper place, simply *restart* LameXP in order to enable the AAC encoding support!
* <http://sourceforge.net/projects/lamexp/files/Miscellaneous/Add-ins/qaac/>
* <http://muldersoft.com/misc/lamexp/add-ins/qaac/>
-
Now open the downloaded ZIP file, e.g. ``LameXP.qaac-addin.yyyy-mm-dd.zip``, with your favourite file archive software (we recommend using [7-Zip](http://www.7-zip.org/) or [WinRAR](http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm)) to find the required QAAC program files.
*Note:* The LameXP software generally expects the **latest** version of the QAAC add-in; and the QAAC add-in is designed to work with the **latest** version of the LameXP software. Make sure your files are up-to-date!
-
Please *extract* all the three files, the program ``qaac.exe`` plus its companion DLLs ``libsoxr.dll`` and ``libsoxconvolver.dll``, into the LameXP installation directory. That is the directory where your LameXP executable file, i.e. the ``LameXP.exe``, is located.
*Note:* By default, the LameXP installation directory is either ``C:\Program Files (x86)\MuldeR\LameXP`` or ``C:\Program Files\MuldeR\LameXP``. However, this can be changed by the user during the setup process.
* <https://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/>
* <https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/>
-
Since you usually do **not** want to *install* the complete QuickTime (or iTunes) software on your computer, please only *download* the QuickTime (or iTunes) setup package, but do **not** actually *run* the installer!
Instead, open the QuickTimer setup program, i.e. ``QuickTimeInstaller.exe``, with your favourite file archive software (we recommend using [7-Zip](http://www.7-zip.org/) or [WinRAR](http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm)) and *extract* the required ``AppleApplicationSupport.msi`` package.
-
-After the "Apple Application Support" setup package has been extracted, you can launch it by double-clicking on the ``AppleApplicationSupport.msi`` file. Then simply follow the installer's instructions.
+After the "Apple Application Support" setup package has been extracted, you can launch it by double-clicking on the ``AppleApplicationSupport.msi`` file. Then simply follow the installer's instructions!
+
+*Note:* If you do **not** want to install the "Apple Application Support" software at all, there is an *alternative* method, that will extract only the required DLL files from the MSI package. See [*here*](https://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1718529&postcount=1221) for details…
-
Once the QAAC encoder as well as the Apple AAC encoder libraries ("Apple Application Support") have been installed properly, simply *restart* LameXP in order to enable the AAC encoding support!
*Note:* You may run ``qaac.exe --check`` from the [command prompt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cmd.exe) to ensure that QAAC has been set up correctly. Expected output is ``qaac 2.xx, CoreAudioToolbox x.x.x.x``.
-
This will bring up a standard file selection dialogue. Now simply select the files that you want to add and click the "Open" button. You can repeat this step multiple times, e.g. to add files from different directories.
-
-All files you have added, so far, will show up in the list. You can click the "Remove" button to remove a single file from the list or "Clear" to remove them all. Click the "Show details" button to show details about a file.
+All files you have added, so far, will show up in the list. You can click the "Remove" button to remove a single file from the list or "Clear" to remove them all. You can also click the "Show details" button to show details about the selected file.
-
+If you want to add an *entire* directory, you can select "Open Folder" from the "File" menu, which will bring up a directory selection dialogue. "Open Folder Recursively" works in a similar way, but also includes *all* sub-directories.
+
+
+
*Did you know?* Files can also be added via [Drag & Drop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_and_drop). Just grab the files that you want to add in your Explorer window and drop them onto the LameXP main window (or onto the LameXP "dropbox" widget).
-
Sometimes you may wish to store the converted files in a *new* (sub-)folder. In this case, simply click the "Make New Folder" button, enter the desired folder name and hit the "OK" button.
-
The new folder is going to be created inside the current directory and will be selected automatically. You can repeat this step multiple times in order to created nested sub-folders.
-
*Did you know?* If you enable the "Save output files in the same directory where the input file is located" option, each output file will be saved to the same location where the corresponding source file resides.
-
Once you have decided for an audio format, you need to choose a *rate-control* mode next. The available rate-control modes include VBR (quality-base variable bitrate), ABR (average bitrate) and CBR (constant bitrate). Not all modes are available for all audio formats.
*Note:* If you are uncertain which rate-control mode to chose, the guideline is that VBR mode should be preferred over ABR mode whenever possible. And CBR mode generally should be avoided. See also Wikipedia's article on [variable bitrate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_bitrate) encoding.
-
Last but not least, you need to choose the desired target *bitrate* or *quality-level*. Put simply, this controls the "quality vs. file size" trade-off. You choose a target quality-level in case of VBR mode, and you choose a target (average) bitrate in case of ABR or CBR mode.
*Note:* If you are uncertain which bitrate or quality-level to choose, bare in mind that a higher bitrate (or a better quality level) results in better audio quality, but also produces larger files – and vice versa. "Level 2" or "192 kbps" is a typical choice for MP3.
-
*Did you know?* You can click on the "Reset" link at any time in order to reset all available settings for all available encoders to their factory defaults.
-
This will bring up the "Processing" dialogue. LameXP will now convert all your audio files on the list. Depending on the number of audio files and depending on the performance of your system, this may take several minutes, so please be patient 😉
*Note:* In order to leverage the power "multi-core" processors and thus massively speed-up the encoding process, LameXP will run multiple encoding jobs in parallel – provided that your system has multiple processor cores and that there are enough encoding jobs left in the queue.
-
The "Processing" dialogue is going to turn *green*, as soon as all encoding jobs have finished successfully. If anything went wrong, e.g. if one of the encoding jobs failed for some reason, it will turn *red* instead.
-
*Did you know?* You can double-click on a completed (or failed) job in the list, in order to bring up a dialogue with all details about the specific job. This is especially useful, if something went wrong.
* <http://www.free-codecs.com/lamexp_download.htm>
* <http://www.videohelp.com/tools/LameXP>
-
It is *highly recommended* to download LameXP *only* from one of the official mirrors listed above. We are **not** responsible for the integrity and trustworthiness of LameXP downloads you may have received from other locations!
* In any case, the [environment variable](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable) ``MUTILS_LOGFILE`` may be used to specify a *log file* that will be created by LameXP. The information saved to the log file are the same as those available from the debug console.
-
*Note:* We highly recommend using a web-service like [Gist](https://gist.github.com/), [Pastie](http://pastie.org/) or [Pastebin](http://pastebin.com/) in order to share your diagnostic information. Please avoid posting long log files directly on the forums!
* <https://github.com/lordmulder/LameXP/issues>
-
*Note:* In order to use the issue tracking system, you need to log in with your GitHub account. Creating a GitHub account is easy and completely free of charge, simply click [here](https://github.com/join)!
* <http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=157726> – English
* <http://forum.gleitz.info/showthread.php?t=37956> – German
-
*Note:* Due to the massive amount of spam attacks, Doom9 has established strict anti-spam measures. Therefore, it takes a few days until your account will be approved.
* ``git clone git://git.assembla.com/lamexp.git LameXP`` ([Browse](https://www.assembla.com/code/lamexp/git/nodes))
-* ``git clone git://gitorious.org/lamexp/lamexp.git LameXP`` ([Browse](http://gitorious.org/lamexp/lamexp/trees/master))
+* ``git clone https://gitlab.com/lamexp/lamexp.git LameXP`` ([Browse](https://gitlab.com/lamexp/lamexp/tree/master))
* ``git clone git://repo.or.cz/LameXP.git LameXP`` ([Browse](http://repo.or.cz/w/LameXP.git))
-
The source code of the **MUtilities** library is managed using the [*Git*](http://git-scm.com/) version control system. The Git repository can be *cloned* from one of the official Git mirrors:
* ``git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/mutilities/code MUtilities`` ([Browse](http://sourceforge.net/p/mutilities/code/))
* ``git clone git://git.assembla.com/mutilities.git MUtilities`` ([Browse](https://www.assembla.com/code/mutilities/git/nodes))
-* ``git clone git://gitorious.org/mutilities/mutilities.git MUtilities`` ([Browse](http://gitorious.org/mutilities/mutilities/trees/master))
+* ``git clone https://gitlab.com/mutilities/mutilities.git MUtilities`` ([Browse](https://gitlab.com/mutilities/mutilities/tree/master))
* ``git clone git://repo.or.cz/MUtilities.git MUtilities`` ([Browse](http://repo.or.cz/w/MUtilities.git))
-
*Remarks:* In case you are new to Git or want to extend your knowledge, have a look at the [*Pro Git*](http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2) book by Scott Chacon! For Windows users, we highly recommend using [*MSYS Git*](http://msysgit.github.com/) in conjunction with the superb [*Tortoise Git*](http://tortoisegit.googlecode.com/) front-end.
LameXP is currently being developed and built using the following development tools and libraries:
-* [Visual Studio 2013 Update-4](http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs.aspx), running on Windows 7 with Service Pack 1
+* [Visual Studio 2015 Update-1](https://www.visualstudio.com/), running on Windows 7 with Service Pack 1
-* [Qt libraries 4.8.6](http://download.qt.io/archive/qt/4.8/) for Windows (pre-compiled Qt libraries for Visual Studio 2013 can be found [**here**](http://sourceforge.net/projects/lamexp/files/Miscellaneous/Qt%20Libraries/))
+* [Qt libraries 4.8.7](http://download.qt.io/archive/qt/4.8/) for Windows (our *pre-compiled* Qt libraries for Visual Studio 2015 can be found [**here**](http://sourceforge.net/projects/lamexp/files/Miscellaneous/Qt%20Libraries/))
-* Windows Platform SDK v7.1A, included with Visual Studio 2013 or Visual Studio 2012
+* Windows Platform SDK v7.1A, included with Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2013
* The minimum supported *build* platform is Windows 7 (x86 and x64)
-
In order to create LameXP release packages, using the included deployment scripts, you need the following additional tools:
* [7-Zip](http://www.7-zip.org/) – file archiver with a high compression ratio
In order to create a "fully static" build of LameXP, i.e. a build that does *not* depend on any "external" DLL files (except for the obligatory operating system DLL's that you cannot get around), you'll need to compile Qt as "static" libraries. The official Qt web-site *does* provide pre-compiled Qt libraries. However, they only provide DLL versions, they do *not* provide "static" libraries. Consequently, you need to build the required "static" Qt libraries yourself. The following simple instructions should make it easy to build Qt from the sources and as "static" libraries:
- 1. Make sure *Visual Studio 2013* with Update-4 (or later) is installed
+ 1. Make sure *Visual Studio 2015* with Update-1 (or later) is installed
2. Make sure *Strawberry Perl *for Windows and *Python 2.7* are installed
4. Edit the file ``mkspecs\win32-msvc2010\qmake.conf`` from your Qt Sources directory as follows:
- + ``Old: QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE = -O2 -MD``
- + ``New: QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE = -O2 -MT <more optimization flags here>``
- + ``Old: QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE_WITH_DEBUGINFO += -O2 -MD -Zi``
- + ``New: QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE_WITH_DEBUGINFO += -O2 -MT -Zi <more optimization flags here>``
+ * Edit #1:
+ + ⇐ ``QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE = -O2 -MD``
+ + ⇒ ``QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE = -O2 -MT <more optimization flags here>``
+ * Edit #2:
+ + ⇐ ``QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE_WITH_DEBUGINFO += -O2 -MD -Zi``
+ + ⇒ ``QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE_WITH_DEBUGINFO += -O2 -MT -Zi <more optimization flags here>``
5. Open a new command window (``cmd.exe``) – use this very same console for all upcoming steps!
10. Run ``configure.exe -release -static -ltcg -qt-zlib -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -qt-libtiff -qt-libmng``
- + Hint: For Visual Studio 2013 you currently need to add ``-platform win32-msvc2012`` too
-
11. Now the makefiles should have been generated, so simply enter ``nmake /B`` and be patient - voilà!
12. The build process is going to take good amount of time. Once it is done, make sure you got all needed libs:
15. Congratulations, you should now be prepared to build the ``Release_Static`` configuration of LameXP 😊
-
*Note:* Static libraries only work with the exactly same compiler (version) they were built with!
*Note:* Before LameXP actually tries to download information from our update servers, it will check your internet connection first. Only checking whether the update server is reachable does **not** suffice here. In case that the update server does **not** respond, this could mean that our servers are currently experiencing problems, but it could also mean that your Internet connection is failing. In order to distinguish these cases, LameXP will validate the Internet connection prior to connecting to the update server. For this purpose, LameXP contains a rather long list of "known" hosts, taken mostly from [Alexa's Top 500](http://www.alexa.com/topsites) list. In order to validate the Internet connection, LameXP will pick a *random* host from the list and check whether that host can be reached. This process will be repeated, until a certain minimum number of "known" hosts have been reached successfully.
-
**EOF**
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