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Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: What is the copyright status of cdda2wav?
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A: Cdda2wav is software copyrighted by Heiko Eissfeldt and released under the
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General Public License from the Free Software Foundation (see file GPL).
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Q: What are the requirements to run cdda2wav?
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A: All operating systems that are supported by cdrecord should also be able to
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run cdda2wav. Currently DOS and Windows are not covered.
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Requirements of previous versions of cdda2wav have been cut down for the
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sake of portability. Features like fork(), realtime scheduling, or shared
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memory are all optional now. You need a shell, which runs autoconf, a c
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compiler (even a K&R compiler should work) and a c library to build cdda2wav
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on a supported operating system. To run cdda2wav, a SCSI transport
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implementation for the os, a cdrom or cd burner device to read from, and
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at least say 65K of memory for buffers are needed.
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Q: Why does it not compile under Linux, although I am using the newest kernel?
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A: There have been changes in the generic driver by Douglas Gilbert, that are
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in its first release not compatible with the scsi library from Joerg
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Schilling. We are working on this problem...
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In the meantime better do not use this variant, use the older one instead.
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Q: Why does it not compile using standard make?
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A: Like cdrecord, cdda2wav needs a sophisticated make program like Joerg
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Schilling's smake or GNU gmake. Pure posix make functionality is not enough.
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Setting Up (for now Linux only)
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===============================
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Q: Should I use scsi emulation or the eide driver for my ATAPI cdrom drive?
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A: Scsi emulation is preferred, since it enables cdda2wav to use more commands
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and is often the only way to get special information like track titles with
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cd-text. The emulation module is called ide-scsi, the eide module is called
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Q: How can I use my parallel-port-connected cdrom with cdda2wav?
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A: Under Linux there is a driver, that makes this device under SCSI
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emulation available. For more information see the cdrecord documentation.
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Q: How do I check, if the current Linux kernel does support generic SCSI?
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A: run 'cat /proc/devices | grep "21 sg"' and see, if a line with 'sg' appears.
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If it does not appear, the current kernel is not able to use the generic_scsi
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interface. If you have generic SCSI support compiled as a module, see next
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question, otherwise you need to recompile the kernel and enable generic SCSI.
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You might try to use the 'cooked_ioctl' interface as a last resort, but then
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you need to supply a cdrom device with -D (like -D/dev/cdrom). In this case
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cdda2wav completely relies on the cdda reading methods from the kernel
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driver, so it might not work (due to unsupported).
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Q: How do I load the generic SCSI module by hand?
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A: run 'insmod sg' and check the result (see above).
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Q: How do I find the device setting for my drive?
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A: Under Linux use the script scan_scsi.Linux. It prints the available devices
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and their respective device option to be used.
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Be aware of the fact that the generic device naming may change whenever the
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devices on the SCSI bus change (present or not present).
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General usage (sampling)
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========================
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Q: How do I record the whole cd, each track in a seperate file?
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A: Use the '-B' option. This will automagically create a file for each track.
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Q: How do I record the whole cd into one file?
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A: Just extend the default recording time from one track to a big enough
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time in seconds to cover the whole cd (like -d99999).
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Q: How do I record successive tracks (a track range) into seperate files?
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A: Use the '-B' option and -t<first tracknumber>+<last track number>.
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Q: How do I record successive tracks (a track range) into one file?
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A: Use -t<first tracknumber>+<last track number>.
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Q: How do I record different tracks into seperate files with individual file
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A: Use the supplied script 'readmult'. For usage see the comments at the
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beginning of the script.
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Q: How can I get the highest speed out of cdda2wav?
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A: See the file README. There is a section about performance and what is
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Q: How can I burn audio cds with cdda2wav and cdrecord on-the-fly?
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A: This has not been tested very well, so caveat emptor. It is possible to
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use cdda2wav and cdrecord with pipes, _but_ there are several issues.
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1.: The cd drive may become too slow to keep cdrecords buffer happy, when
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a scratch on the audio cd is encountered, and several retries take place.
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2.: Currently there is no way to carry individual track information from
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cdda2wav to cdrecord. Several information bits are available very late
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but are needed in advance from cdrecord.
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3.: Some operating systems have limitations in multiple SCSI accesses and
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other ressources (shared memory). cdda2wav and cdrecord may block each
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other, or might fight over limited ressources.
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For these reasons it is not recommended to burn on-the-fly with cdda2wav.
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Q: Which frontends for cdda2wav are available?
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A: See the file 'Frontends'. There are command line and graphical frontends.
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Album and track titles
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======================
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Q: Does cdda2wav support titles from cd extra (aka cd plus aka enhanced cd)?
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A: In general, yes. In order to get this information, cdda2wav needs to read
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a data sector from the second session of the cd. This requires multisession
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support and the capability to read XA sectors. The titles are printed on the
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screen and written into the inf files, then.
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Q: Does cdda2wav support titles from cd-text?
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A: Newer versions support the most important features of cd-text like titles
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and creators. Non-supported are currently 16-bit characters, so asian
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titles etc. are currently not available.
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Q: Does cdda2wav support CDDB ids?
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A: Yes, while it does not make CDDB lookups itself, it supplies an cddb file
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with the table of contents and the cddb id. For cddb lookups see the
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perl script tracknames.pl and tracknames.txt. If the titles are known to
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cdda2wav, it fills the titles itself in the cddb file.
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A: The media catalog number is an unique id for the audio cd release. It is
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similar to the ISBN for books, but unfortunately it is included only on
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A: The International Standard Record Code is an unique id for a track. Like the
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MCN (see above) it is an optional item.
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Q: Does cdda2wav support on-the-fly mp3-coding?
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A: Not yet :-). But I added two scripts to use an external encoder. The trick
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is to avoid big temporary files. So I made two versions (cdda2mp3 and
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cdda2mp3.new), one using pipes, and one using a named pipe. The examples
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use the Fraunhofer encoder 'l3enc', which is a commercial product and has
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to be purchased seperately. Other encoders should be usable in a similar way.
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Q: How do I create a file suitable for cd burning?
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A: If you are using cdrecord, you can produce cdr or wav files. To select
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cdr files, use -Ocdr, to select wav files use -Owav (the default).
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Audio files that have been recorded with a length not a multiple of the
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audio sector size 2352 bytes, should be used with cdrecords -pad option.
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Q: How do I convert a wav file into a cdr file (my other cd burning program
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does not accept wav format)?
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A: Use 'dd if=wavfile of=cdrfile conv=swab ibs=44 skip=1 obs=2352'
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Q: How to convert cdr to wav?
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A: Use sox, the sound utility. It supports other formats as well.
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Q: Does cdda2wav support the pre-emphasis bit?
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A: If the table of contents marks a track as pre-emphasized, the corresponding
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inf file will have this information, too. That enables a cd burning program
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to retain the state of the track.
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Q: Can cdda2wav undo the pre-emphasis effect in the samples?
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A: Yes, if the -T option is given (and cd quality is selected),
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cdda2wav filters the samples with the reverse emphasis on-the-fly. This has
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been checked with a sine sweep from a pre-emphasized test cd.
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Q: My cdrom delivers the stereo channels swapped. How can I undo this?
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A: Use the -cs option.
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Q: Does cdda2wav support indices?
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A: Yes, but since there are positioning problems with a lot of drives,
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information might be inaccurate. A start index can be specified with the
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-i option. To get all indices, use the -v7 option.
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Q: Can cdda2wav avoid including the pre-gap region at the end of the track?
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A: Currently not. This might be added later, but is not easily done.
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Q: How can I get all information about the cd without writing files?
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A: Use the -J option, which switches analysis to the max, and aborts after
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Q: Can cdda2wav display/save the graphics on my CD+graphics disc?
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A: No, this is not planned. A seperate X11 program could do that probably
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Q: Can cdda2wav read the audio portion from my CD-I/Video-CD/DVD mpeg streams?
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A: No, these are special formats, which require much more effort.
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User support/feedback
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=====================
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Q: Cdda2wav is great. How can I support you to encourage further development?
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A: Look into the file NEEDED. Also constructive criticism and feedback is
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Q: I want to port cdrtools (cdrecord/mkisofs/cdda2wav) to a new platform (like
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DJGPP,cygwin,os/2). How should I proceed?
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A: It would be convenient to have a unix like environment (like cygwin provides) A shell, and a make program would be needed to first create smake (in order
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to make the makefile system working). Another critical component is autoconf.
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Once that is running, os dependent interfaces and the SCSI library should be
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adjusted. For the makefile system and the scsi library please contact Joerg
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Q: Cdda2wav sucks. Are there other alternatives available?
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A: Yes, for Linux you might try 'cdparanoia' from Monty (see README file).
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cdda2wav/FAQ
