REACT
REACT (Run EAC Tasks) can be used in conjunction with Exact Audio Copy (EAC), as an external compressor.
It is, however, not an encoder, but an interim application that provides a scripting facility to call muliple encoders or pre-/post-encoding applications to process the WAVE files created by EAC, or the files created by the script itself. In short, REACT allows you to run multiple tasks on the audio extracted, instead of only one.
REACT integrates with Exact Audio Copy, adding some hotkeys combinations to access often used functions more quickly. It will also alter the default name for image files according to your INI settings, and close the extraction dialogue in order for the logfile to be created and used from within your script. It can auto-configure EAC, updating the external compression options so that EAC is ready to run REACT immediately. This feature is extremely useful for novice users.
REACT is configured using an INI file and config files. The commands used within the config files are command line/DOS commands, with the addition of numerous variables which REACT makes available. For example, any instance of @artist@ in the script will be replaced by the freedb artist name, while $artist$ will be replaced with a filename-friendly version of the artist name (with illegal characters replaced according to your requirements).
Hotkeys
REACT adds a few useful hotkeys to EAC:
| Key | Function |
|---|---|
| F1 | Wiki page for EAC. |
| Alt-F1 | Wiki page for REACT (this page). |
| Ctrl-F2 | Configure EAC to be used with REACT. |
| Alt-F2 | Open REACT.ini in notepad. |
| Alt-F3 | Browse Config files directory. |
| F4 | Copy selected tracks. This activates the function Shift-F5 in EAC by default. You may edit REACT.ini and set TracksHotVal=+{F6} if you want to do Test & Copy instead of Copy only. If the INI key SaveTracksCuesheets=1, all four cuesheet types are saved as different files as well. |
| F10 | Shortcut to menu "Action - Copy Image and Save CUE Sheet - Compressed...". REACT will fill in the image name, as defined in the ImageNaming INI key (template). REACT will also close the Save Wavform dialog automatically if you have configured EAC to extract to a fixed directory. |
Available Variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| PATHS | |
| @reactdir@ | The path to the directory in which REACT resides |
| @encdir@ | The path to the directory in which the encoders reside. Set within the INI file |
| @mydocumentsdir@ | The path to your My Documents folder |
| @musicdir@ | The path to your music folder. Set within the INI file. Used as a root for other paths |
| @sourcedir@ | The path to the folder in which the source files are located (WAV/LOG/CUE) |
| @basename@ | The name of the file being created, excluding extension |
| @removabledriveN@ | The path to your removable drive number N. Set within the INI file |
| @destdirN@ | Directory path N used within your script. Set within the INI file |
| @destN@ | File path N, used within your script. Set within a config file |
| @Various-destN@ | The file path to use if it is a Various Artists CD. Set within a config file |
| @source@ | The path to the temporary source WAVE file |
| @image@ | The path to the final image file, when used in Copy Image mode |
| @sourcecuesheet@ | The path to the (temporary) source cuesheet, when used in Copy Image mode |
| @cuesheet@ | The path to the final cuesheet, when used in Copy Image mode |
| @eaclog@ | The path to the log file created by EAC |
| @trackscuesheet@ | (from v0.999) The path to the cuesheet files without extension, created by EAC when hitting F4 and SaveTracksCuesheets=1 in the INI file. E.g, "@trackscuesheet@.[mg].cue" is the multiple wav files cuesheet with gaps. |
| METADATA | |
| @cdartist@ | The name of the CD artist. Use $cdartist$ in paths |
| @artist@ | The name of the track artist. Use $artist$ in paths |
| @album@ | The name of the album. Use $album$ in paths |
| @title@ | The song title. Use $title$ in paths |
| @track@ | The track number. Use $track$ to zero-pad the track number, i.e.: turn 9 into 09 |
| @numtracks@ | The total number of tracks. Use $numtracks$ to zero-pad the number |
| @islast@ | Whether the current track is the last, for track mode |
| @genre@ | The album genre. Use $genre$ in paths |
| @year@ | The album year |
| @comment@ | The comment. Use $comment$ in paths |
| @freedbid@ | The freedb ID |
| OTHER | |
| @crc@ | The CRC of the file |
| @bitrate@ | The value of the Bitrate dropdown on EAC's External Compressor dialogue |
| @curdate@ | The current date |
Global INI Keys
The first section of the REACT INI sets some global keys, which can be used in any or all encoder configs. These variables refer to high level settings, like the path to EAC, rather than encoder-specific settings.
Here is an example:
[Settings]
Config=FLAC
Version=1.0
EAC=C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\EAC.exe
musicdir=C:\My Music
encdir=C:\Program Files\REACT\Encoders
LogFile=
CodePage=1252
MinimizeCompressionWindow=1
ProcessPriority=1
TracksHotKey={F4}
TracksHotVal=+{F5}
SaveTracksCuesheets=0
ImageHotKey={F10}
ImageNaming=$artist$ - ($year$) $album$
Sla_Bks_Col_Qst_Bar_Quo_Ast_Lt_Gt=-|-|-||!|'|#|[|]
Debug=0
A Few Of The Important INI Keys
Some of the keys are obvious, and some you really don't need to bother with unless you are a REACT Ninja, but here's a few to watch out for:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| Config | The encoder config file that REACT should process in the Config folder. |
| musicdir | The root directory for all your music. If you are encoding to "C:\My Music\WavPack" and "C:\My Music\MP3" then you can set musicdir to "C:\My Music" and use this variable when setting your @destdirN@ variables. this helps maintain clarity within your INI file. |
| encdir | REACT installs many encoders in a folder called "Encoders". Again, this variable can be used when referencing these applications, to maintain clarity. |
| LogFile | If you set a value to this variable a REACT log will be created with that name, e.g.: react.txt. If left blank no log will be written. This does not affect EAC's log file. |
| SaveTracksCuesheets | If set to 1, all four availabe types of cuesheets will be saved to the extraction directory, which must be preconfigured in EAC. This only happens when pressing F4, or whatever the key TracksHotkey is set to. The cuesheet base name can be accessed using the @trackscuesheet@ variable. |
| ImageNaming | This variable detirmines how image files, and their cuesheets, will be named when REACT is used in image mode. You can use meta data variables here, e.g.: "$artist$ - $album$" to name the image using the artist and album name (filename-friendly values). Please note: Your scheme must begin "$artist$ -" in order for Various Artists discs to be recognised properly. |
| Sla_Bks_Col_Qst_Bar_Quo_Ast_Lt_Gt | Some characters cannot be used in file or folder names. This variable allows you to specify what these characters should be replaced with. Slash; Backslash; Colon; Question Mark; Bar (Pipe); Quotes; Asterisk; Less Than; Greater Than. It is also possible to convert Space to e.g. _ by appending a Bar and a _ (after the Gt convert character). |
| Debug | If you are having problems with your config file setup, set this value to 1. REACT will then pause before exiting, so you can examine the console output to attempt to determine where your process fell down. |
The Encoder Config Files
The initial REACT INI contains a global settings section. This contains a key named Config=<ENCODER> which refers to configuration files in the Config folder. There are two config files for each encoding; one for ripping to track files, and one for ripping to an image with cuesheet.
The config files are stored in <REACT dir>\Config folder, and are named:
<ENCODER>-tracks.txt
<ENCODER>-image.txt
The first part, ENCODER, is simply a unique name which indentifies the encoder tasks; however it makes sense to use the name of the encoder being used, like "FLAC" or "WAVPACK". This part of the section header is referred to by the global variable, Config.
The second part (tracks or image) describes whether to perform when ripping to tracks, or to an image.
The encoder section consists of two parts:
Variable Initialisation
In the beginning of each config file you can set some variables.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| !Description | A description of the processes within the section. |
| !ImageExt | The file extension of the image file, e.g.: "wv". Image sections only. |
| !CuesheetExt | The extension given to the cuesheet by EAC, e.g.: ".wv.cue". Image sections only. |
| !WaveGainAnalysis | Set to 1 to enable a pre-run WaveGain analysis. Makes variables @gain@, @peak@ and @scale@ available for config scripts. |
It is likely that you will also need to set file and folder path variables, like @destN@ and @destdirN@. E.g.:
destdir1=@musicdir@\FLAC\$cdartist$\($year$) $album$ dest1=@destdir1@\$track$ - $title$
The above will set the folder path @destdir1@ using the global variable @musicdir@, and artist, year and album meta data. It then sets the file path @dest1@ using @destdir1@ and the track and title meta data. So, considering the following values for those variables:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| musicdir | C:\My Music |
| albumartist | Ben Folds Five |
| album | Whatever and Ever Amen |
| year | 2000 |
| track | 03 |
| title | Brick |
... we end up with:
destdir1=C:\My Music\FLAC\Ben Folds Five\(2000) Whatever and Ever Amen dest1=C:\My Music\FLAC\Ben Folds Five\(2000) Whatever and Ever Amen\03 - Brick
Obviously the values of $track$ and $title$ will change per track. Remember, $track$ will zero-pad the track number.
Config Tasks
Each line not starting with a "!" will be part of the config task script.
The task script is simply a list of command line statements, utilising the variables that REACT exposes within the code.
As an example, here is the default MP3-tracks.txt file. Notice that all REACT variables are surrounded by two ampersands (@), or two dollar signs ($); all other code is standard DOS command line syntax. With this in mind you will find working with REACT a lot easier if you are happy executing applications from the command line, more so if you have an understanding of batch files or command line scripting (what I think of as 'DOS scripts').
MP3-tracks.txt:
!Description=LAME -V2 mp3 track files, RG album gain, APE2 and id3v1 tags !destdir1=@musicdir@\MP3\$cdartist$\($year$) $album$ !dest1=@destdir1@\$track$ - $title$ !Various-dest1=@destdir1@\$track$ - $title$ ($artist$) echo.> "@dest1@.mp3.tmp" @encdir@\Tag.exe --nocheck --ape2 -t "ARTIST=@artist@" -t "ALBUM=@album@" -t "TRACK=@track@" -t "TITLE=@title@" -t "YEAR=@year@" -t "GENRE=@genre@" -t "TOTALTRACKS=@numtracks@" -t "FREEDB=@freedbid@" -t "CRC=@crc@" "@dest1@.mp3.tmp" move "@source@" "@dest1@.wav" if @islast@==1 ( move "@eaclog@" "@destdir1@\eaclog.txt" move "@trackscuesheet@.[*].cue" "@destdir1@" start @encdir@\albumart.exe "@artist@" "@album@" "@destdir1@\cover.jpg" cd /d "@destdir1@" @encdir@\WaveGain.exe -a *.wav --exec @encdir@\lame.exe -V2 --vbr-new --scale %%ALBUM_SCALE%% --tc "AG appl:%%ALBUM_GAIN%%,TG:%%TRACK_GAIN%% dB" "%%INPUT_NAME%%.wav" "%%INPUT_NAME%%.mp3" for %%i in (*.mp3) do @encdir@\Tag.exe --force id3v1 --force ape2 --fromfile "%%i.tmp" "%%i" del "*.mp3.tmp" "*.wav" )
Links
Ask REACT questions in this thread : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=35158
Download REACT from this thread : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36261