Read Tracks Tab
Use this tab to copy several tracks to separate files. The Get Titles button downloads information (album, titles, etc.) about the CD from an Internet database. An active connection to the Internet is required. You can select a single track from the list and use the Rename button (or Alt+R) to manually rename it. Use the Save Tracks button (the one with the diskette icon) to save all titles and disc information to the hard drive.
Use the Select All button to select all tracks or check the box for each track you want to save. You can preview tracks by selecting the Read Time Range tab, described below.
The Save button saves all selected tracks to separate files using the track title as the filename. You can select the file format and other options on the Save CD Tracks window that appears.
Use the Options tab to configure settings before saving.
Read Time Range Tab
Use this tab to copy any time range from the CD or to preview parts of the CD. A fast CD-ROM or DVD drive is required for previewing. You may have to increase the "Read speed" or the "Number of sectors per read" setting under the Options tab to get smooth playback. See the Options tab settings below.
The Save button saves the given time range to a single file. You can select the file format and provide a filename in the standard Save As window that appears.
Options Tab
Use the Options tab to changes settings for reading audio from the CD and the Internet database server.
| CD Reader Options | |
|---|---|
| Reading Options | |
| Option | Purpose |
| Number of sectors per read | Sets the number of sectors to read from the CD at one time. This value should be as large as possible, provided your CD-ROM drive supports it. Reading may fail if the value is too large for a given drive. Higher values increase overall reading speed. |
| Number of sectors to overlap | Sets the number of sectors to overlap. A value of 3 is recommended. Using a higher value more forcefully corrects jitter (positioning defects), but slows down reading because more sectors have to be re-read. Use a value of 0 if your CD-ROM drive automatically corrects jitter to speed up reading. |
| Read speed | Many CD-ROM drives allow the spindle speed to be controlled. For fast reading, this value should be set as high as possible. A single speed CD reads data at 150kBps. To read at 10x, for example, set the speed to 1500kBps. |
| Swap bytes | Changes the order of the bytes read from the CD. Some drives incorrectly return audio data in the reverse byte order. This gives loud, badly distorted audio. Check this option to correct it. |
| Database Options | |
| Server | Sets the server address of the database to use for downloading CD information. By default, it is freedb.freedb.org, but you can use a mirror site that is closer to your physical location for faster access. The server must contain the "/~cddb/cddb.cgi" path.
Examples:
|
| Proxy | Sets the HTTP proxy server for your network, if required. Leave this blank if no proxy server is used. Otherwise set the server and port in the servername:port format. Contact your system administrator or ISP for more information if you are unable to connect to the database.
Example:
|
| Automatically download titles | Automatically downloads titles when the CD Reader tool is started or when a CD device is selected. This eliminates the need to use the Get Title buttons. |
| Prefix text and track number in title | Prefixes titles with the given text and track number when displaying titles. Enter text in the edit box with at least two # symbols for the track numbers, such as "## ", "Disc 1 ## " or "01-##-". The text must contain characters that are safe for filenames, so "Disc:1/##/ " is invalid. |
| Specify CD ID manually | Allows a different CD ID to be given for the database search. When the titles are about to be downloaded, a window appears where the calculated ID can be changed. A category must be specified since it is required by the database query. This option is for advanced users and should rarely be checked. |
| Editing Options | |
| Open track files for editing | Automatically opens each track file in GoldWave immediately after it is successfully read from the CD. This makes it easier to edit the files later. If you do not need to open or edit the files, keep this option off to save processing time. |
Troubleshooting
- If you get synchronization errors at the beginning, try continuing several times before giving up. Some drives are very inaccurate when spinning up and may require many continues before synchronization can be reliably established. If that does not help, set the "Number of sectors to overlap" value to zero on the Options tab and try again.
- If you see an error message indicating a read problem, make sure that the CD is free of dust and finger prints. If the CD contains a data track, try using the Read Time Range tab instead with a slightly increased From time and a slightly decreased To time to avoid accessing the data track.
- If preview playback is intermittent, increase the "Read speed" and the "Number of sectors per read" or reduce the "Number of sectors to overlap" under the Options tab.