Provided by: wav2cdr_2.3.4-2_amd64 
NAME
wav2cdr - converts input in (or similar to) wav format to cdr format suitable for writing onto audio CDs.
SYNOPSIS
wav2cdr [options ...] [infile [outfile]] [--cut cutnumber ...]
VERSION
This man page describes wav2cdr version 2.3.4.
DESCRIPTION
wav2cdr is a conversion program for audio data which adopts automatically 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 possible 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 sections 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 sectors 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 sector 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 --endsilence.
Fading out can only be performed if the input size can be determined (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 misleading: 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
--silencedelay). 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 manually).
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 signal 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 feeding
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 numerical computation of the silence
value is bypassed, and the sector 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 filenames, 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,
remaining 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 determined (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 determined 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 consecutive 16 bit values with each
other. Also see 'CDR Format' below.
Scaling / Volume change:
Scaling can be performed with either integer or floating point arithmetic. Integer arithmetic is faster
but possibly not as precise. Values 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 boundaries), 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
sector 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 written 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 redirection.
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 produces 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 possible 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 sampling rate can be written. If the
input data is different, the resulting 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 interleaved. 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 sectors 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, Jan 2006 by
Volker Kuhlmann <VolkerKuhlmann@gmx.de>
formerly 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