Winamp AAC commandline encoder

[Dirkvl]

I've written a plugin for dpowerAMP, using a commandline aac+v2 encoder for the winamp dll's, which was posted some while ago on the hydrogenaudio forum.
It's blazing fast, but sadly doesn't have an option to use stdin, which would speed up the process even more.
Has anyone been able to get or produce a version of this commandline encoder with stdin option (correctly) enabled ?
I'd gladly upload my plugin somewhere, but I don't know where I can place it.

[Spoon]

If you or someone else can host them I can post links (perhaps from codec central), I am not sure though we are able to host these files (do they contain winamps files?)

[Dirkvl]

There are a few dll's from winamp needed in the compression plugin folder :
enc_aacplus.dll, in_wave.dll
These files can be found in the winamp plugin folder.
You mean this is a patent issue ?
It's also possible to extract the conversion exe to the plugin folder and then copy the needed files from an existing "c:\program files\winamp" folder to accomplish a fully functional plugin.
But then you'd have to have a recent winamp on your machine.

I thought I saw a link to the source code on HA of this conversion exe somewhere too. But I wouldn't have a clue how to compile it. I'm not programming anymore and I've no time to dig myself into recent programming tools.

Not sure, but I think I've got a few free homepages somewhere...(probably not activated)
But now you've got me thinking. I don't even know it's legal to place this stuff online. Please advise.

[Spoon]

Copyright issue (not Patents), I cannot package Winamps dlls without their permission.

[LtData]

Mabye require Winamp to be installed and copy the needed DLLs over to the encoder's directory?

[Dirkvl]

I've uploaded the following exe :
EDIT(Dirk)--- link is obsolete - more recent download is available further in the thread ---
(courtesy to dimzon and the "winamp transcoder")
which does not contain winamp dll's, but will copy them to the right folder after compressing, if winamp is present on your machine (!).
After that, you can always remove winamp again.
If anyone has a (working) version of the encoder with stdin support, please respond. It can cut total encoding time considerably.
Could anyone determine the legality of this stuff ? I'd appreciate it.

[Dirkvl]

Yes !!!
I've recently received the last version of the conversion exe from "witt" at HA.
(Thanks a lot)
I've posted a new extractable dbpoweramp plugin at
EDIT(Dirk)--- link is obsolete - more recent download is available further in the thread ---
A recent version of winamp is required for this plugin.
It copies aacplus_enc.dll, which is needed for the plugin to function.
Conversion to mono doesn't seem to work, although the commandline encoder indicates that it should function.
-Dirk-

[Dirkvl]

I found something strange : when I use the stdin encoder through regular commandline, it gives correct results, but when I use the plugin it adds a small piece of audio (about 0.07 secs) in the beginning and the end of the audio file. Did I forget something in the options file ?

[Spoon]

Nothing in the options that adds extra length.

[Dirkvl]

Any idea what causes it ?
Codec ?
DLLs ?

[Spoon]

You can switch to debug mode (try searching the forum for CLI debug), that gives you the raw wave file and commandline.

[Dirkvl]

Aha : I've found the problem (in the options file).
I was using [WriteWaveRIFF] instead of [RawWave].
It also required an additional parameter in the commandline.
Anyway, conversion looks very good now. I've adjusted the plugin and posted it on the same place :
EDIT(Dirk)--- link is obsolete - more recent download is available further in the thread ---

Thanks for the advice, Spoon.

[gameplaya15143]

great job

but
------------------------------
[CLIString]
--rawpcm 44100 2 16
------------------------------
^ has to go

I'll be making my own options.txt file for this baby (probably later tonight, and im willing to share), I'm just glad it supports piping

i havent had much time to test it.. but does this version of the frontend support the new enc_aacplus.dll thats in the new winamp5.2 beta? (ya know, the one with more options)

[gameplaya15143]

ok... played around with it a bit...
i was trying to do the same exact thing, but with the newer version of the cli for enc_aacplus.dll, but it was the rewritten version so piping didnt work, this version is better (you wouldnt happen to have the source code would ya?)

i answered one of my questions, it will work with the new dll version v1.2, but the extra modes cant be accessed, i hope a new one gets made that can

AFAIK [RawWave] doesnt do anything at all, it isnt needed at all

[Codec]
.m4a
aacenc.exe

[CLIString]
 - "

[OutFile]

[CLIString]
" 

[Label]
14
4
Bitrate:

[Combo]
49
0
120
128 kbps
 --cbr 128000 
112 kbps
 --cbr 112000 
96 kbps
 --cbr 96000 
80 kbps
 --cbr 80000 
64 kbps
 --cbr 64000 
56 kbps
 --cbr 56000 
48 kbps
 --cbr 48000 
40 kbps
 --cbr 40000 
32 kbps
 --cbr 32000 
28 kbps
 --cbr 28000 
24 kbps
 --cbr 24000 
20 kbps
 --cbr 20000 
16 kbps
 --cbr 16000 
12 kbps
 --cbr 12000 
10 kbps
 --cbr 10000 
8 kbps
 --cbr 8000 

[Label]
0
29
Channels:

[Combo]
49
25
120
Mono
 --chmode 1
Stereo
 --chmode 2
Stereo Independent
 --chmode 3
Parametric Stereo
 --chmode 4
Dual Channel
 --chmode 5

[Label]
206
4
MPEG Version:

[Combo]
280
0
32
2

4
 --mpeg4aac 

[Label]
199
29
aacPlus Version:

[Combo]
280
25
32
2

1
 --no-v2 

[CLIString]
 --rawpcm 

[SamplesPerSec]

[CLIString]
 

[Channels]

[CLIString]
 

[BitsPerSample]

[CLIString]
 --mp4box

^ this is for m4a, but works for aac if ya change the extention back to aac and remove the last part after '[bitspersample]'.. it has all the options available, of course some combinations dont work (like you cant use parametric stereo without aacplus v2 enabled).. its my understanding that it will accept 32khz, 44.1khz, and 48khz input (i couldnt get it to work with lower sample rates)... its too bad that this frontend doesnt let you choose the encoding samplerate... the really old frontend does, but that one doesnt support piping

[Dirkvl]

gameplaya,
I tested the options file but the --mp4box parameter gives no result.
I agree that extra parameters would be nice for the interface.
However, allowing combinations to be made that result in an error doesn't appeal to me at all. It's not neat enough to hand out to everyone.
Maybe it's better to list all possible combinations ? Would be a long list though.
The mono option shouldn't be there at all, cause it doesn't work in this conversion exe.
Parametric stereo can't be selected for higher bitrates (56+), so the channel combo can also result into errors sometimes.

For the source code of the coder, you can try asking dimzon at HA.