A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

[lump1]

I'm trying to set up the CLI encoder to encode with Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor, which is IMO the best lossless format available. I suspect that there will eventually be a TAK plugin at Codec Central (crossing my fingers).

In the meanwhile, check out these numbers: TAK compresses as fast as Monkey's Audio, gets about the same compression levels as Monkey's on Normal, but amazingly, playback requires only one fourth of the processing power of Monkey's Audio on Normal. That's about the same as FLAC, but TAK compresses much better, and has many other modern features, like streaming, error tolerance, etc.

My own tests have shown comparable results. TAK on -p5m is sometimes slightly smaller than APE on normal, sometimes slightly larger, but decoding APEs uses four times as much processing power. That's a lot of needlessly wasted energy!

Anyway, I can't seem to find the right command line for takc.exe to get the CLI Encoder to encode TAK files. The sort of lines that work with Lame and Oggenc seem to only generate errors with takc.exe. So I need help!

Can someone who understands the CLI plugin better please post a working command line?

[Spoon]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Post the command line options tak supports please.

[lump1]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Apparently, the new TAK (1.04) supports pipe-in, but I'm not sure how to use it. It's something to do with the minus sign, but the CLI encoder always complains when I don't have both [infile] and [outfile] in the line.

When I'm using the actual command line in Windows, this sort of a thing works:

takc.exe -e -p5 test.wav test.tak

Parameters

TAKC -mode [-p# -fsl# -wm# -ihs -sts# -v -overwrite -fim# -l# -silent -w]
     infile [outfile]

-mode      -e encode, -d decode, -t test decode, -te test encode,
           -fi file information
-p#        select encoder preset #: 0-5 (fastest to strongest, default is 2).
           Append E/M (-p2m) to increase the evaluation level to Extra/Max.
           pMax is a synonym for the strongest setting.		   
-fsl#      Set the frame size limit to # samples per channel. Valid values:
             512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384
-wm#       Control saving(encode)/restoring(decode) of wave file meta data:
             0 = disable
             1 = enable and use default values for maximum size (default)
             46 to 1048576 = enable and set maximum size (encoding only)
-ihs       ignore (wave) header size entry (pipe encoding only)
-sts#      set the seek table size to # minutes (3 to 1440, p. encod. only)
-v         verify encoded frames (when encoding)
-overwrite overwrite existing output files (without confirmation!)
-fim#      select file information mode #
             0 = any information (default)
             1 = encoder
             2 = wave meta data
-l#        select log file level #
             0 = no log file (default)
             1 = log results
             Append A (-l1a) to append new results to an existing file.
-silent    silent operation: Write nothing to StdOut/the screen.
-w         wait for enter key when finished
infile     Specify file or directory (Dir\*) to be processed.
           - selects StdIn (encoding only, requires outfile specification).
outfile    Specify output file or directory (Dir\*).
           - selects StdOut (decoding only, requires infile specification).

[lump1]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

One relevant thing I forgot to paste in:

-mode

What should the program do:

    * -e: Encode (compress) files.
    * -d: Decode (decompress) files.
    * -t: Test files. Files are decoded to check their integrity, but no output file is created.
    * -te: Test-encode files. Check the potential compression ratio, but do not create an output file.
    * -fi: Show file information.

In other words, "-mode" is not something that's ever actually written into an argument. Instead, you write "-e" if you're trying to encode, etc.

[Spoon]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Try:

takc.exe -e -p5 -overwrite "[infile]" "[outfile]"

[lump1]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Yes, the argument -e -p5 -overwrite "[infile]" "[outfile]" works! Apparently, the -overwrite command is essential - and I would have never figured that out, so thank you!

But there is a price: The following argument almost works, in that it encodes the TAK file (say from a FLAC) without needing an intermediary WAV:

-e -p5 -overwrite - "[outfile]"

This would be the ideal encoding method. Unfortunately, probably because of the -overwrite command, the TAK file that is created immediately disappears! Do you have any ideas on how I might get it to stay?

[Spoon]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Make sure the option to pass wave header is used and:


-e -p5 -overwrite -ihs - "[outfile]"

[lump1]

Re: A command line for the TAK losless encoder?

Wow, I'm really impressed! It works! Thank you so much!

Really, this is what I needed to start my transition from APE to TAK. Hopefully with time, dMC will have a decoder plugin for TAK that can parse and pass the tags. Failing that, one can hope that Tom writes a directshow decoder for TAK.