Audex

Audex is a free and open source graphical software project that has been designed from the ground up to help you extract CDDA/CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio) under any GNU/Linux operating systems.

In other words, Audex is an audio grabber utility with a FTP upload function for the KDE desktop environment. Defining custom profiles will allow you to use Audex with various command-line audio file encoders.

Features at a glance

Key features include support for extracting audio tracks from Audio-CDs with CDDA Paranoia, support for extracting and encoding multiple audio tracks in parallel (batch mode), support for transferring converted tracks with KDE KIO-Slaves, support for multi-profile ripping, filename editing support, as well as protracted filename schemes.

Additionally, the software supports all the important audio files formats, such as FLAC, MP4, AAC, MP3, M4A, RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) WAV, and OGG, generates playlists, creates album art, fetches covers from the Internet, creates encoding and ripping protocols, and includes various metadata correction tools.

Uses eyeD3 for tagging MP3 files

Another interesting feature is that it uses the eyeD3 program for tagging MP3 files, because the LAME software, which is used for encoding the MP3 files, cannot handle Unicode characters. Therefore, if you use Audex to convert Audio-CDs to MP3s, please install the eyeD3 software first.

Bottom line

We’ve tested numerous Audio-CD rippers here at Softoware, but Audex proves to be one of the best, so far. The only issue is that it uses Qt for its graphical user interface, which might be uncomfortable for users of a GTK+-based desktop environment, such as GNOME or Cinnamon.

Other than that, the program is fast and does the job very well. It can be easily installed on any distribution of GNU/Linux, as it supports both 32-bit and 64-bit computer platforms.

What is new in this release:

• Only bugfix release.

What is new in version 0.77 Beta 1:

• Removed store discid file feature as this is useless considering info file feature
• Integrated new playlist module (relative filenames in playlists and playlist merging)
• Minor bugfixes, code modifications and typo fixes...

What is new in version 0.76 Beta 1:

• Fix google cover fetcher
• Fix compile issues with GCC 4.7
• Small bugfixes...

What is new in version 0.74 Beta 1:

• New feature: Simple cue sheet support (but does not detect pregaps yet)
• New feature: Single file rip
• New feature: Adds MD5 to hashlist options
• Fixes some issues with cover browser
• Uses external image viewer to show cover
• Bugfix in Ogg Vorbis settings widget
• Ogg Vorbis setting widget now allows to set fractional quality values
• Bugfix in commandline for FAAC
• 2 digits track number option for filenames
• New parameters for file name scheme variables: left (see kde.maniatek.com/audex for full documentation)
• New helptext for scheme wizard dialogs
• Pattern of playlists, hashlists and cover files now need a $suffix variable
• Some more small bugfixes...

What is new in version 0.73 Beta 1:

• New feature: Use eyeD3 for MP3 tagging if available
• Bugfix: Crash on cancel
• Fixes some compile issues with GCC 4.5
• Some cosmetic fixes
• English language fix: Uses the word "folder" instead of "directory"
• Uses KDiskFreeSpaceInfo for calculating free space on a device
• New feature: Uses mimetype icons for profiles and allows user to change these
• Settings in profile editing dialog now grouped with tabs
• Fixes a crash when adding a new profile via the UI
• New feature: New simple view of the ripping progress dialog
• Adds more detail to CDDB errors
• Some small bugfixes... (thx to all reporters!)

What is new in version 0.72 Beta 1:

• Cover fetch from google.
• Minor bugfixes.

What is new in version 0.71 Beta 4:

• Updated header information (all GPLv3+ now)

What is new in version 0.71 Beta 3:

• Dutch translation (Kenny Verstraete)
• Portuguese (Marcio Moraes)
• Bugfix: Slider update
• Bugfix: Update profiles after loaded from external file

What is new in version 0.71 Beta 2:

• Some minor bugfixes...

Requirements:

• KDE Plasma