Introduction, playback and production of ape

Basic ape knowledge:
1. Why Ape? (in short, ape is a music file that provides the highest quality)
(1) CD file acquisition:
Several years ago, people had a recorder who listened to the music on the tape. Now there are a lot of CDs and DVDs, and the sound effect is better than the tape. However, the music on CD cannot be recognized directly in windows and copied directly to hard disks (other formats can be recognized in windows, such as data files, VCD, such as DVDs, but CD cannot be recognized directly ). Audio) This software keeps the music captured in WAV format on the hard disk.
(2) compression:
After copying the songs on CD to the hard disk (that is, capturing tracks), this original file (WAV) is usually very large, such as the music on a CD, it is about mb. If we separate it into every song, the size of each song file is 20-60 MB. Such a large file occupies hard disk space and is not suitable for online transmission. Therefore, we usually need to compress the original large file. There are multiple compression methods, which can be divided into two main types. One is the unrecoverable compression, which can be achieved by using the monkey (monkey.exe) software. It can compress the original music file (WAV file) to the original size of 50--60%, and the file format is ape.
Another compression method is called loss compression. The advantage is that the file can be compressed smaller, for example, it is more than twice smaller than the ape file, and the common form of music lossy compression is MP3. However, the disadvantage is that the sound quality is reduced. Generally, the smaller the file is compressed, the worse the sound quality.
(3) online transmission:
Obviously, because online download is limited by the speed of the network, the smaller the file, the easier it is to communicate online. In addition, FTP space is limited. For websites with insufficient funds, they can only provide MP3 files. If we can provide the ape form, the sound quality is the closest to that of the original CD. Some people burn the ape files downloaded from the Internet to CD. However, it is recommended that you do not burn MP3 or other music files with a loss of compression, because the resulting music is ineffective.
(4) playback of ape files:
If you play the video on your computer's hard disk, you only need to install software such as Winamp or foobar2000, and then you can play the video directly.
In particular, foobar2000 works very well. You can download this very small software from http: // foobar2000.hydrogenaudio.org/(select installer to download windows of various versions and sound cards, including the ac97 soft sound card), installed in your hard disk, you do not need to do any settings, you can directly play APE format music. You only need to double-click the song you want to listen to, and then you can release the music of the highest quality (closest to CD.
Ape FAQs

1. How do I play audio files in APE format?

A. Monkey's audio installation package comes with ape plugin for Winamp. After installation, you can use Winamp to put ape.
B. Foorbar2000 is used. This popular player supports the APE format.

2. Can apeimage be used for any selection during playback?

Yes, but a proper cue file is required. Generally, the whole disc is compressed into an ape file with the corresponding cue file, which records the starting time and other information of each audio track of the disc.
You can use the text editing software to open the cue file. The content is similar to the following:
============================
Timer mer "Matthew Lien"
Title "bleeding Wolves"
File "cdimage. Ape" Wave
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is the corresponding ape file name, which is the same directory by default,
You can add a path, such as "C:/music/cdimage. Ape"
You cannot make a mistake. Otherwise, the video cannot be played normally.
Track 01 audio
Title "Flying Squirrel Creek"
Timer mer "Matthew Lien"
Index 01 00:00:00
......
============================

A. Foobar can directly import the cue file. If the information in cue is correct, you can choose to play it.
B. For Winamp, I use 2.x, it seems that we cannot directly import cue, but there are also solutions, the monkey's audio software used to create ape has a tool makeapl (the installer creates a shortcut in the Start Menu ),
You can convert the cue file into several corresponding APL files. Each APL file corresponds to one audio track, and Winamp supports APL, so everything is okay.
C. Install a Winamp plug-in named mp3cue to enable Winamp to support cue files.
Note: In my own experiment, to use this plug-in properly, you should add an image file to the Winamp playlist, instead of adding a cue file in foobar, as long as there is a cue file with the same name in the directory, the plug-in can recognize and the third line of cue
File "xxxxxx" Wave
As long as the primary file name and image file are the same, mp3cue ignores the extension.

3. How to convert ape into MP3?

In fact, monkey's audio supports external codec and can directly convert ape-> MP3
Of course, make appropriate settings
1. Download the lame and copy it to the external directory under the monkey installation directory (the following links include the lame version recommended by the international authoritative forum)
2. Run monkey'audio and select convert from the mode menu.
3. Select external-> lame-> Configure from the second button in the toolbar. Here, enter the parameters required for compressing MP3 files. We recommend that you use
-- Alt-preset extreme
(Bitrates 220-270 kbit/s -- usually averages around 256 kbps)
Or
-- Alt-preset Standard
(Bitrates 180-220 kbit/s -- usually averages around 192 Kbps)
Note: The compression speed of the first parameter is much slower, and the machine is quite time-consuming.
4. Select external-> lame from the second button in the toolbar. In this case, you can select the ape file to be converted and click convert, you can implement ape-> MP3.

4. Can I fix an incorrect ape file in the middle? Or ignore?

If the entire CD is compressed into an ape, there is a corresponding cue File
1. Use makeapl (monkey's Audio Tool) to convert cue into several APL files
2. By adding these APL in monkey, you can decompress each audio track into a separate WAV. Of course, audio tracks with errors cannot be decompressed normally.
Theoretically, no matter What ape, you only need to edit the appropriate APL and set the error part as a separate audio track, so that you can retain the other parts to the maximum extent.

5. How to burn an ape to a CD?

A. Ape-> wav-> Cd
This is the most common method, applicable to apeimage and multi-file ape, but it is also the most tedious
B. Use EAC CD
The burning function of EAC directly supports the APE format, which is currently the most convenient method for ape-> Cd
In the EAC menu, choose tools> write CD-R to enable the EAC burning function.
1. If there is a ready-made cue file, it is relatively simple to directly import the cue file.
Note that the path and name of the audio track file in Cue must be correct. For details about cue, refer to question 2.
2. If there is no cue file, and the downloaded file is an ape corresponding to each audio track, it is similar to converting WAV or mp3 files into CD files in Nero, and importing files one by one, the import command is under the layout menu ("APPEND files as new track (Index 1)" is generally recommended). You can drag and drop the command directly.
C. Use ape plugin for Nero
After ape plugin for Nero is installed, you can directly drag and drop files in Nero, just like using WAV and mp3 to engrave CD.
Plug-in mausau's audio plugins for Nero burning Rom
There are other audio plugins for Nero and common audio formats.
Plugin installation method: Decompress the plugin DLL to the ".../ahead/shared/audioplugins" Directory
Nero version 5.5.9.0 or above

Note: This early version of ape plugin for Nero has a major bug.
If you use Nero to import cue to burn apeimage-> Cd, it seems that the recording can be completed normally, and the number and time of audio tracks are displayed normally. However, play the CD. The content of all audio tracks is the same as that of the first one!
If there are multiple ape-engraved CDs, it's okay.
The latest version (1.0.0.7) has been fixed in my tests. Please download the latest version.
If your machine is fast enough, installing this plug-in using Nero to directly Burn ape-> Cd is also a good choice.

1. Exact audio copy v0.9 beta 4 Chinese Version
Http://gd-down.skycn.net/down/HA_Eac09beta4_yp.zip

2. Monkey's audio 3.97 http://jshttp.skycn.net/down/MAC_397F.exe
Chinese patch Co., http://gd-down.skycn.net/down/HB_MonkeyAudio397_yp.zip.

3. Winamp v2.81 Chinese edition (classic nostalgia deluxe edition)
Http://jshttp.skycn.net/down/Winamp281_Classic_hh_SS.exe

4. Nero 5.5.10.15 http://tj-down.skycn.net/down/Nero551015.exe
Chinese patch Co., http://on165-down.skycn.net/down/n551015chs.exe.