#252757 - 27/03/2005 12:57
ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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I always used Audiocatalyst to rip my mp3s (I'd paid for it so wanted the use of it). When I moved to XP I got a problem in that the ASPI box is grayed out and I only have the option to rip in analog  I know this is a known issue with the ASPI drivers and I'm SURE I installed them and corrected this problem a while back but the ASPI option is still not available. I downloaded and installed the ASPI drivers again from adaptec's website and reinstalled audiocatalyst but its still grayed-out. Any thoughts? I know many of you don't like or use this software but I know it and trust it to give me perfect results so I'd prefer to stick to it. Cheers
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#252758 - 27/03/2005 13:09
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: CrackersMcCheese]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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Just as a test, install Exact Audio Copy (link in my signature) to see if the "installed external ASPI device" option is available in the menu (EAC > Drive Options > Interface tab). This should let us know if AC just isn't seeing that ASPI is installed or if it in fact is not being installed.
With EAC, I used all sorts of ASPI programs like the one from Adaptec (that was not available online for some time) and ForceASPI. But someone came out with the process in my guide and it works quite well. All you have to do is save a .dll file to the EAC folder.
I know what you mean about wanting to get your money's worth. I paid for MusicMatch, some version of Real and another ripper program whos name is escaping me now before I settled on EAC (for free!). But I wasn't getting good results like you were.
_________________________
Brad B.
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#252759 - 27/03/2005 13:12
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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Thanks Brad I'l give that a try. I was just reading the other post about EAC and your guide - quality bit of work!
Thanks again - I'll let you know how I get on.
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#252760 - 28/03/2005 17:53
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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I downloaded the Nero ASPI Layer DLL (as mentioned in your guide) and just put it in the Audiocatalyst folder and it worked next time I started the program. Strange how the Adaptec one wasn't working. Thanks Brad!
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#252761 - 28/03/2005 22:04
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: CrackersMcCheese]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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I'm glad it worked out! 
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Brad B.
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#252762 - 29/03/2005 07:53
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
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Why are you still using Audio Catalyst? AudioGrabber (by the same programmer) is much better, totally free, and gives you many more encoding options.
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#252763 - 29/03/2005 08:09
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: tahir]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3995
Loc: Manchester UK
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Wasn't catalyst just a commercial tie-in with Xing to use their mp3 encoder? Otherwise it was just audiograbber.
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#252764 - 29/03/2005 09:19
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: andym]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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Yeah its Audiograbber plus their mp3 player (which I don't use). Has all the features I could ever want. Theres probably better, but for my needs its perfect.
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#252765 - 29/03/2005 09:47
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: CrackersMcCheese]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Quote:
Yeah its Audiograbber plus their mp3 player (which I don't use). Has all the features I could ever want. Theres probably better, but for my needs its perfect.
You really should look at Audiograbber instead of AudioCatalyst. Audiocatalyst has had no new development over the last 4 years, whereas AudioGrabber has continued to be developed (and it now free, as in it doesn't cost anything).
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#252766 - 29/03/2005 10:05
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: andy]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
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Quote:
and it now free, as in it doesn't cost anything
And as I said a choice of encoders, the Xing one isn't the best in the world...
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#252767 - 29/03/2005 10:47
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: tahir]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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AudioGrabber is free? Damn, that's the one I paid like 20 bucks for years back. At least it does LAME.
_________________________
Brad B.
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#252768 - 29/03/2005 11:04
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
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I paid for it too, but you've got to admire Jackie, he just decided one day that he'd made enough money out of it and decided it would go completely free. A real top geezer in my books.
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#252769 - 29/03/2005 11:33
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: tahir]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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...and from the sounds of it he would have given it away free long ago if it hadn't been for his agreement with Xing.
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#252770 - 29/03/2005 12:07
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: tahir]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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I think it has more to do with the fact he hadn't updated it in a very long time and likely wasn't making any new money from it. I'm not sorry I paid for it, but I do wish he had added a few missing features (and especially bug fixes for issues well documented) long ago.
Has anything been done (development-wise) since it's been made free?
Bruno
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#252771 - 29/03/2005 13:08
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: hybrid8]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
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Quote:
Has anything been done (development-wise) since it's been made free?
No but according to the forum work hasn't ceased. Personally I have nothing but positive experiences of AG and Jackie, every time I ever had a problem he emailed me straight back (usually with an extract from the help file  ) and to be honest since I realised how it all worked the only problems I've had have been ASPI related.
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#252772 - 29/03/2005 17:26
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: hybrid8]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 13/09/1999
Posts: 2401
Loc: Croatia
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I too paid for AudioCatalyst, and used it, Xing and all, in old days of slow machines. I remember that my first rips (using thoroughly misconfigured tools) had clicks like a well worn vinyl and those characteristic 'underwater sound' Xing artifacts.  It got a bit better with time and I am not sorry for buying it, either. Now I use AudioGrabber when in hurry (and disks look OK), and EAC for suspicious CDs (both with Lame, of course). I like the AudioGrabber's feature of attaching ID3 data to wav files, which makes unattended bulk encoding easy. (Err, perhaps EAC also has a similar feature; I did not look for it, since with it extraction step is slower than compression.) When I had Linux at home I used cdparanoia - any recent experience with it - the homepage looks ancient?
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Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Q#5196
MkII #080000376, 18GB green
MkIIa #040103247, 60GB blue
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#252773 - 29/03/2005 17:42
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: bonzi]
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veteran
Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
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EAC has a similar but different feature. It will let you queue up the WAV to be encoded while it continues to rip, ie track 1 will rip, start encoding, track 2 will rip, track 3 will rip, track 1 finishes encoding, track 2 starts encoding and so on.
So if you can rip faster that your CPU encodes you build up quite a queue of WAVs to encode.
However given that your ripping is slower then your encoding this is pretty mute.
Works fine for me, I used the AG batch encoding many times because of it's ability to attach the ID3 data to the WAV.
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#252774 - 29/03/2005 17:46
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: Phoenix42]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 13/09/1999
Posts: 2401
Loc: Croatia
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Ah, I know for that feature, but I somehow fear (probably without reason) that robbing the extracting process of CPU cycles will lead to read problems...
_________________________
Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Q#5196
MkII #080000376, 18GB green
MkIIa #040103247, 60GB blue
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#252775 - 29/03/2005 18:19
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: bonzi]
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veteran
Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
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Understandable concern and definitly would have been very real a few OSes back, but with proper CPU scheduling by the OS it works fine on 2K & XP - try it and see.
Maybe some one can correct me on my interpitation, but as I basiclly understand it ripping is not a heavy CPU user, but when it wants it it needs it now. Encoding is CPU intensive, it will take everything it can, but does not mind if it has to wait.
The way I think of it is that ripping is giving a higher priority then encoding.
I know on my P4 2.8 with a Plextor it encodes faster then it rips, but not much faster. On a previous PC the queue would grow quite long, at the end of a ripping session I would just leave it there to catch up and I haven't noticed and glitches or pops.
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#252776 - 29/03/2005 20:54
Re: ASPI + XP + Audiocatalyst
[Re: Phoenix42]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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Quote:
EAC has a similar but different feature. It will let you queue up the WAV to be encoded while it continues to rip, ie track 1 will rip, start encoding, track 2 will rip, track 3 will rip, track 1 finishes encoding, track 2 starts encoding and so on.
So if you can rip faster that your CPU encodes you build up quite a queue of WAVs to encode.
However given that your ripping is slower then your encoding this is pretty mute.
Works fine for me, I used the AG batch encoding many times because of it's ability to attach the ID3 data to the WAV.
Better yet, you can keep feeding EAC CDs until you run out of disk space  . I used to have like 90 wav's queued up. CD after CD. And even better than that is that you can close EAC at any time, with all those tracks queued up, let it finish the current compression (a LAME window will be open, but the program will be closed) and shut off your PC. When you start your computer again, and launch EAC, it will resume it's compressions. I used to rip CDs all day at work, then go home (with my notebook) and let the compressions work while I slept.
You'll probably need to run de-frag once in a while.
_________________________
Brad B.
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