fre:ac Changelog

What's new in fre:ac 1.1.7

Mar 5, 2023
  • New features:
  • Added a tool for splitting output by various parameters (e.g. duration or number of files)
  • Added support for dithering when reducing sample resolution
  • Added a matrix surround decoder DSP component
  • Added a volume adjustment DSP component
  • Improvements:
  • Added support for WavPack Hybrid Lossless compression with correction files
  • Added support for decoding MPEG-4 DASH files
  • Added support for opening WebM audio files with the .weba extension
  • Added support for downmixing 6.1 channel audio
  • Added support for MusicBrainz metadata in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
  • Added support for sort order fields in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
  • Added support for rating field in Vorbis Comment, APEv2, MP4 and LIST INFO tags
  • Added rating field to the tag editor
  • Added optional release year column to the joblist
  • Changed filename placeholder to resolve to 1 if disc number is not set
  • Improved compatibility with applications writing non-compliant LIST INFO tags (e.g. Traktor)
  • Added an option to use source file names as output file names if no metadata is present
  • Added an option to control extraction of missing metadata from file names
  • Added an option to restrict file names for reading cover art
  • Added an option to disable intensity stereo phase inversion to Opus settings
  • Added AccurateRip notification options for successful verification and missing database entries
  • Sample rate conversion no longer converts to 32 bit float when the source rate matches the target
  • Added negative exit codes to indicate errors when running freaccmd
  • Added support for KDE color schemes (including dark mode)
  • Improved HiDPI scale factor detection in KDE desktop environments
  • Respect text scaling factor in addition to font size setting on X11 based systems
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed crashes when decoding ALAC files (especially with the Windows Store version)
  • Fixed failure (hang and abort after several seconds) to decode chapters from ALAC files
  • Fixed interoperability issues of HE- and HEv2-AAC files created with FDK-AAC with foobar2000
  • Fixed incorrect gapless information when creating HE- and HEv2-AAC files with FDK-AAC
  • Fixed incorrect index times in cuesheets for very long multi-track files
  • Fixed incorrect inclusion of data tracks in the audio track count of CD offset strings
  • Fixed old data remaining in place after updating WMA file tags
  • Fixed selected format resetting to first entry when opening WMA config dialog
  • Fixed excessive bitrate when encoding Vorbis on non-x86 LP64 systems
  • Fixed decoding of MP4 files with a single chunk taking excessively long
  • Fixed HDCD detection for tracks starting with more than about one second of silence
  • Fixed floating point samples being converted to integer when creating WavPack files
  • Fixed inability to close cover art popup window on Linux
  • Fixed long paths being converted to 8.3 format on recent versions of Windows
  • Fixed inability to handle long network paths on some versions of Windows
  • Fixed disc insert and removal detection working unreliably on Windows
  • Updated codecs:
  • Updated ALAC decoder for security fixes and improved performance
  • Updated FFmpeg to version 6.0
  • Updated Monkey's Audio to version 9.20
  • Updated WavPack to version 5.6.0
  • Updated Tom's Audiokompressor to version 2.3.3
  • Updated FLAC to version 1.4.2
  • Updated Speex to version 1.2.1
  • Updated MP4v2 to version 2.1.2
  • Updated mpg123 to version 1.31.2
  • Updated libsndfile to version 1.2.0
  • Updated translations:
  • Updated Greek translation

New in fre:ac 1.1.6 (Jan 22, 2022)

  • Added native support for Windows on the ARM64 architecture
  • New features:
  • Added support for editing lyrics in the tag editor
  • Added support for creating cue sheets and playlists with freaccmd
  • Improvements:
  • Improved performance of adding video and proprietary audio files (DTS, DSD etc.) to the joblist
  • Playlists can now be added to the joblist by drag & drop
  • Added and placeholders for use in filename patterns
  • Added optional composer, conductor, tempo, musical key and ISRC columns to the joblist
  • Added initial key field to tag editor
  • Added support for lyrics in ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and WMA tags
  • Added support for parsing OverDrive MediaMarkers in ID3v2 tags
  • Added support for the pre-emphasis flag in cue sheets
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed possible crash upon querying the CDDB database
  • Fixed possible crash in FAAD2 decoder when trying to open unsupported files
  • Fixed faulty decoding of certain AAC files caused by a bug in the FDK-AAC decoder
  • Fixed possible faulty output when decoding from non-zero positions using external decoders
  • Fixed issue ripping CD tracks when output filename pattern is
  • Fixed AccurateRip reporting verification errors for hidden track one audio
  • Fixed setting to replace spaces not being respected when writing cover art and log files
  • Fixed setting to suppress Unicode characters not being respected when writing cover art and log files
  • Fixed tag editor fields for media type, catalog number and barcode being limited to 12 characters
  • Fixed freeze when decoding certain WMA files on Windows
  • Fixed drag & drop not working after online update on Windows
  • New and updated codecs:
  • Added native Apple Lossless decoder
  • Updated FFmpeg to version 5.0
  • Updated Monkey's Audio to version 7.23
  • Updated mpg123 to version 1.29.3
  • Updated libsamplerate to version 0.2.2
  • New translations:
  • Added Swedish and Portuguese (Brazilian) manuals

New in fre:ac 1.1.5 (Jun 27, 2021)

  • New features:
  • Added support for AccurateRip verification
  • Improvements:
  • Improved DSP processing performance by up to 70%
  • Added frequency bandwidth setting to FDK-AAC encoder configuration dialog
  • Added an option to toggle logging of complete paths in log files
  • Added options for specifying cover art files to freaccmd
  • Added support for reading Shift_JIS encoded CD-Text
  • Added support for writing album and track comments to cue sheets
  • Added support for ID3v2 tags in RF64 files
  • Added support for updating Vorbis Comment tags
  • Added support for updating ID3v2 tags in RIFF and AIFF files
  • Added support for updating LIST INFO tags in RIFF, RF64 and Wave64 files
  • Added support for ensemble field in Vorbis Comment and APEv2 tags
  • Added support for movement field in ID3v2, Vorbis Comment, APEv2 and MP4 tags
  • Added support for additional URL fields in APEv2 tags
  • Added a tag editor option to keep album artist even if identical to track artist
  • Added media type field to tag editor
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed hotspot for genre edit field utility menu not covering the whole width of the field
  • Fixed occasional crashes when selecting codec subformat using the "Start encoding with" menu
  • Fixed chapter marks being offset by a few seconds when using DSP processing
  • Fixed playback not working when using certain combinations of DSP processors
  • Fixed incompatibility of FDK-AAC encoded HE and HEv2 AAC files with iTunes
  • Fixed issue decoding FLAC files with unknown length
  • Fixed glitches decoding transients in some Vorbis files
  • Fixed possible crashes when decoding Opus files
  • Fixed possible crashes when failing to configure WMA encoder
  • Fixed rare crashes in LAME encoder component
  • Fixed strings read from ID3v2 tags being limited to 1024 characters
  • Fixed crash when reading malformed CD-Text genre IDs
  • Fixed failure ripping with negative read offset
  • Fixed disc eject not working on macOS
  • Fixed crash when closing fre:ac via dock command on macOS
  • Fixed UI glitches and crashes on exit when running in a Wayland session
  • Fixed popup menu and dropdown list closing behavior on non-Windows platforms
  • Fixed issues with custom DPI settings on Xfce desktops
  • Fixed drag & drop working unreliably on X11 based systems
  • Fixed Windows online updater not working with the 64 bit version
  • Updated codecs:
  • Updated FFmpeg to version 4.4
  • Updated Monkey's Audio to version 6.29
  • Updated Tom's Audiokompressor to version 2.3.1
  • Updated mpg123 to version 1.28.0
  • Updated libfdk-aac to version 2.0.2
  • Updated libogg to version 1.3.5
  • Updated libsndfile to version 1.0.31
  • Updated libsamplerate to version 0.2.1
  • Updated translations:
  • Updated Norwegian translation
  • Updated Russian manual

New in fre:ac 1.1.4 (Feb 15, 2021)

  • Improvements:
  • improved support for reading CD-Text
  • added an HDCD decoder DSP filter
  • added catalog number and barcode fields to tag editor
  • added file type associations to macOS app, so fre:ac is offered for opening audio files
  • added quality (VBR) setting to FDK-AAC configuration dialog
  • improved MP3, AAC and Opus encoding performance by up to 30%
  • improved multi-monitor support on X11 based systems
  • discs of multi-disc albums are now shown separately in tag editor album mode
  • update only changed fields when making edits in tag editor album mode
  • added support for Replay Gain values in MP4 and WMA metadata
  • do not override settings with default values when using freaccmd's --config option
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed invalid length written to very long Opus and Speex files (longer than 12 ½ hours at 48 kHz)
  • fixed decoding of some very short Opus, Vorbis and Speex files
  • fixed written MP4 chapters being invisible to some applications when using Nero AAC
  • fixed hang/crash when opening WavPack, Musepack, TAK and OptimFROG files with chapters
  • fixed issues submitting CDDB information for new CDs (without existing entries)
  • fixed issues handling long path/file names on Windows
  • fixed output sample rate being limited to 192 kHz
  • fixed freaccmd randomly failing to process files in rare cases
  • fixed bad user interface colors on some Linux distributions
  • Updated codecs:
  • switched from FAAC to FDK-AAC for AAC encoding
  • updated Monkey's Audio to version 6.11
  • updated WavPack to version 5.4.0
  • updated mpg123 to version 1.26.4
  • updated FAAD2 to version 2.10.0
  • Updated translations:
  • updated Romanian translation
  • updated Portuguese (Brazilian) translation

New in fre:ac 1.1.3 (Oct 11, 2020)

  • General changes:
  • Added support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur
  • Switched to using GNUdb as the default CDDB database service
  • Improvements:
  • Command line codec configuration now allows specifying additional arguments
  • Improved cue sheet encoding detection to support system codepage and UTF-8 without BOM
  • freaccmd now splits cue sheets to individual tracks unless an output file is specified
  • freaccmd now supports a --split-chapters option to split files into individual chapters
  • Added <profile> placeholder for output folder configuration setting, resolving to user profile
  • Added file type and audio CD associations to Linux/FreeBSD and Windows Store app
  • Added an option to suppress "No entry found" messages for automatic CDDB queries
  • Improved detection of sampler CDs when querying CDDB information
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed possible conversion thread hangs when using external encoders
  • Fixed possible crash related to drag & drop handling on Windows
  • Fixed crash when writing fields containing only whitespace to certain tag formats
  • Fixed glitches in WAV/AIFF output when processing samples outside the -1.0/+1.0 range
  • Fixed possible hangs when opening WAV/AIFF files > 2 GB or with a broken chunk structure
  • Fixed inability to open WAV/AIFF files with long paths on Windows
  • Fixed writing wrong offsets to single file cue sheets when the resampling DSP filter is enabled
  • Fixed writing invalid chapter offsets to Opus files with source sample rates other than 48 kHz
  • Fixed writing invalid MP3 bitstreams in rare cases in SuperFast mode
  • Fixed wrong length detection for MP3 files with invalid chapter data
  • Fixed parsing of cue sheets with minute/second values missing leading zeros or longer 99min
  • Fixed parsing of embedded cue sheets without FILE designations
  • Fixed ripping progress for other drives stalling while one drive is ejecting
  • Fixed inability to pause or stop single output file verification
  • Fixed log files being archived despite disabling the corresponding option
  • Fixed various issues with multi-monitor support on macOS
  • Fixed user interface glitches after closing dialogs in tabbed mode on macOS
  • Fixed Shift+Pos1/End shortcuts being interpreted by the joblist and edit fields simultaneously
  • Codec support:
  • Switched from libav 12.3 to FFmpeg 4.3.1 for auxiliary format support
  • Added support for using the Core Audio codec of iTunes 12.10.9 and later

New in fre:ac 1.1.2a (Jun 22, 2020)

  • hotfix for the Windows version to fix a font scaling problem with high DPI settings

New in fre:ac 1.1.2 (Jun 21, 2020)

  • Imprvements:
  • scale UI t adjust t system fnt size by default
  • added supprt fr theme clrs and dark mde n Linux/FreeBSD
  • imprved handling f maximized windw state n Linux/FreeBSD and macS
  • try t keep the selected encder the same when upgrading frm fre:ac 1.0.x
  • remved nn-wrking ptin t nt lck CD trays while ripping
  • stp ripping befre trying t eject a disc
  • write audi data CRC t lg files when ripping
  • write MD5 checksums t lg files when verifying files
  • write lg entries when replacing existing files
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed length f last chapter f sme audi bks being detected as 0:00
  • prevent interpreting numerical IDs r dates at the beginning f file names as track numbers
  • fixed a pssible surce f randm crashes when adding files t the jblist
  • fixed pssible crash when imprting MP4/M4A files
  • fixed pssible crash when encding in SuperFast mde
  • fixed sme graphics glitches n macS
  • Updated cdecs:
  • updated Mnkey's Audi t versin 5.44
  • updated mpg123 t versin 1.26.1
  • updated FAAD2 t versin 2.9.2
  • updated CDRip t versin 2.4

New in fre:ac 1.1.1 (Apr 19, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • improved file size and bitrate calculation for chapters and cue sheet tracks
  • added placeholder for use in filename patterns
  • added an optional disc ID column to the joblist
  • added an option to eject the disc after ripping to freaccmd
  • allow specifying device path instead of drive number in freaccmd
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed crash of freaccmd when querying CDDB while DISPLAY variable is not set
  • fixed ripping of first CD track in paranoia mode on Windows
  • fixed several issues creating CBR MP3 files in SuperFast mode
  • fixed calculation of track conversion speed factor in log files
  • Updated codecs:
  • updated Monkey's Audio to version 5.33
  • updated WavPack to version 5.3.0
  • Updated translations:
  • updated Portuguese (Brazilian) translation

New in fre:ac 1.1 (Mar 29, 2020)

  • Availability for macOS and Linux, in addition to Windows
  • Availability of 64 bit versions for Windows and other operating systems
  • Support for dark mode on Windows and macOS
  • A reworked conversion engine with support for multi-threading and parallel processing
  • An integrated tag editor with support for cover images
  • An extension for simultaneous output to multiple formats
  • Support for new codecs including Opus, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack and others
  • Support for DSP filters and lossless file verification
  • Support for multi-channel audio
  • Support for managing multiple configurations
  • Support for writing log files

New in fre:ac 1.1 RC 2 (Mar 22, 2020)

  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed inability to read raw AAC files with the FAAD2 decoder
  • Fixed inability to create WMA files with long path names
  • Fixed cursor positioning and text selection in right-to-left mode
  • Fixed cursor position calculation not respecting kerning on Windows 10
  • Updated codecs:
  • updated Monkey's Audio to version 5.24
  • Updated translations:
  • updated Serbian translations

New in fre:ac 1.1 RC 1 (Mar 8, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • now passing float samples to LAME encoder directly if sample format is float
  • made automatic ripping work when using the single output file option
  • added options to control chapter information and cover art to freaccmd
  • handle Ctrl+C in freaccmd to clean up temporary files when aborted
  • respect colorization tint color on Windows Vista, 7 and 8/8.1
  • improved HiDPI detection on Linux/FreeBSD systems
  • log CDDB information when ripping
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed drag & drop not accepting long file paths on Windows
  • fixed file modification time stamp getting lost when output verification is active
  • fixed file creation time stamp not being preserved despite option being enabled
  • fixed freaccmd not correctly handling relative output folders
  • fixed black title bar color on Windows Vista, 7 and 8/8.1
  • fixed online updater not working

New in fre:ac 1.0.33 (Mar 8, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • The fre:ac installer is now digitally signed
  • Prepared for freedb.org shutdown on 31st March 2020
  • Rip only tracks from the newly inserted disc when auto-ripping
  • Do not start ripping automatically if no freedb entry is found
  • Improved compatibility with ADTS AAC files
  • Using high resolution icons from fre:ac 1.1 branch
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed compatibility issues with Windows 10 UTF-8 codepage setting
  • Fixed hangs when trying to open some Windows Wave files
  • Fixed setup not running with elevated rights on non-administrator accounts
  • Fixed freaccmd issues with files without metadata

New in fre:ac 1.1 Beta 2 (Jan 13, 2020)

  • Fixed an IO subsystem issue causing corrupted output files in some cases
  • Fixed SuperFast LAME repacker causing glitches in output files in some cases
  • Fixed gapless decoding of MP3 files created with FFmpeg
  • Fixed inability to update ID3v2 and APEv2 tags in tag editor
  • Fixed inability to exit application after ejecting a disc while ripping
  • Fixed hangup when ejecting a disc while adding its tracks to joblist
  • Fixed minimum and maximum bitrate values being mixed up in Vorbis configuration dialog

New in fre:ac 1.1 Beta 1 (Dec 17, 2019)

  • This release adds an extension for writing log files and introduces support for dark mode on macOS.
  • Other important improvements and fixes in this release are:
  • Greatly improved performance when output is going to a HDD drive
  • Adding files to the joblist can now use multiple threads
  • Support for using the AAC encoder of the iTunes store app on Windows
  • Greatly improved tagging support (new fields and compatibility fixes)
  • Fixed invalid file time for CD rips when using "Keep time stamps" option
  • Fixed MP4 AAC files not always being gapless
  • Fixed several keyboard input issues
  • Fixed several stability issues and hangs

New in fre:ac 1.1 Alpha 20190423 (Apr 25, 2019)

  • Added support for drag & drop in the tag editor
  • Improved interoperability of playlist files with VLC
  • Improved handling of cue sheets referencing multiple files
  • Fixed crash when showing freedb multi-match dialog
  • Fixed float samples processing with Core Audio encoder
  • Fixed MP4 output issues when input and output files are the same
  • Fixed decoding of 24 bit WMA Lossless files on Windows 10
  • Fixed several issues handling Opus files
  • Fixed several stability issues and hangs

New in fre:ac 1.0.32 (Mar 13, 2018)

  • This release includes some changes to improve usability and fixes several minor issues:
  • changed default output pattern to <artist> - <album> - <track> - <title>
  • improved behaviour of bitrate selection controls
  • show joblist duration in hours if longer than 1 hour
  • fixed issues with encoding to single file when suggested file name becomes too long
  • fixed handling of empty track metadata field
  • fixed handling of invalid Xing/LAME tags
  • fixed FAAC quality setting
  • fixed missing album art mimetype in MP4 metadata
  • fixed TwinVQ and WMA encoders being mixed up in config dialog

New in fre:ac 1.0.31a (Nov 29, 2017)

  • This release updates the FAAC encoder to fix a bug with Joint Stereo MP4/AAC encoding.

New in fre:ac 1.0.31 (Nov 25, 2017)

  • This release fixes issues detecting USB CD drives after a recent Windows update, improves audio format compatibility and updates the included codecs to the latest versions.

New in fre:ac 1.0.30 (Sep 17, 2017)

  • The new release updates the FAAC encoder to fix an issue with high bitrates, slightly improves the CDDB submit dialog and improves compatibility with virtual drive software.

New in fre:ac 1.1 Alpha 20170902 (Sep 4, 2017)

  • ported to macOS, Linux and BSD operating systems
  • implemented an extension component framework to modularize fre:ac
  • completely reworked configuration dialog
  • added support for multiple configurations
  • added multi encoder hub component
  • conversions are now done in parallel if possible
  • redesigned progress display area
  • new dialog to confirm overwriting of existing files before conversion
  • allowed format selection from the encode menu for encoders supporting multiple formats
  • added support for editing configurations during conversions
  • added support for verifying lossless input and output files
  • added a simple tag editor
  • added Monkey's Audio encoder/decoder
  • added Speex speech encoder/decoder
  • added Opus audio encoder/decoder
  • added Core Audio AAC/ALAC encoder
  • added support for command line encoders/decoders
  • added TwinVQ VQF decoder support
  • added support for the VisualOn AAC encoder
  • added support for the Fraunhofer FDK AAC encoder/decoder
  • added support for reading simple audio files using libsndfile
  • added support for ID3v2, MP4, WMA and Vorbis Comment chapters
  • added support for MCDI frame in ID3v2 tags
  • added support for ID3v1 tags in AAC files
  • added support for RF64 and Wave64 files
  • added RIFF tagging support (using LIST INFO and Cart chunks)
  • added support for Ogg FLAC files
  • the FLAC encoder now writes seektable metadata blocks
  • completely reworked arguments of freacmd
  • added support for selecting configuration in freaccmd
  • added support for encoding to single file with freaccmd
  • added an option to append sequential numbers to otherwise identical filenames
  • added <composer>, <conductor> and <disc> patterns
  • allow CDDB queries even when no CD drive is present
  • added preview to CDDB match selection dialog
  • added an option to automatically select the first CDDB match
  • added support for CDDB queries using HTTP GET
  • added context menu for text edit fields
  • added support for reading ISRC codes from CDs
  • added support for ripping hidden tracks (HTOA)
  • added CD read offset configuration option
  • added configuration option to keep converted tracks in joblist
  • added configuration option to add encoded files to joblist
  • added support for loading cue sheets
  • added support for reading and writing Vorbis files with .oga extension
  • added support for XSPF, Windows Media and PLS playlists
  • added a slider for seeking during playback
  • added a warning when converting from lossy to lossless formats
  • added the ability to sort the joblist by clicking headers
  • added basic multi-channel audio support
  • added support for setting process priority on Windows
  • added a button to open the output folder
  • added support for creating one playlist or cue sheet per album in a single conversion
  • the time left indicator now shows hours if necessary
  • the five last used output folders are now saved for later use
  • the five last used file name patterns are now saved for later use
  • greatly improved case conversion functions
  • conversion progress is now shown in the taskbar on Windows 7 and later
  • skipping tracks is no longer possible when converting to a single file
  • fixed creation of cue sheets for multiple tracks in a single file
  • improved title info editing user friendliness
  • improved metadata extraction from paths
  • added native x64 platform support
  • upgraded CDRip to version 2.2 (with cdparanoia III version 10.2)
  • upgrade to MP4v2 v2.0.0

New in fre:ac 1.0.29 (Sep 1, 2017)

  • The new release now uses the mpg123 library for more reliable MP3 decoding, updates the FAAC/FAAD2 codec to the latest version and fixes several minor issues.

New in fre:ac 20170729 Snapshot (Jul 29, 2017)

  • The new release includes a simple protocol viewer and improves handling of several audio formats. It changes the way virtual .aiff files generated for audio CD tracks on macOS are handled to prevent the CD drive from constantly repositioning the laser, allows decoding some .m4a files with defective headers that previous versions rejected and adds support for decoding ATRAC-1 files
  • The new version also introduces some performance optimizations that can speed up parallel conversions by up to 5% and updates all codecs to the latest versions, most notably the Opus codec to the new 1.2 release
  • In addition, fre:ac 20170729 includes lots of minor improvements and fixes for issues found in earlier versions of fre:ac

New in fre:ac 20170317 Snapshot (Mar 20, 2017)

  • This release adds support for album artist tag fields and improves cuesheet and playlist handling by allowing to write separate cuesheets/playlists per output folder and by adding support for reading cuesheets stored in tags.
  • It also adds a heuristic to infer title information from file and folder names in the absence of tags and makes all supported codecs available in the freaccmd command line interface.
  • In addition, the new release includes numerous minor improvements, some codec updates and several fixes for issues found in earlier versions of fre:ac.

New in fre:ac 1.0.28 (Feb 20, 2017)

  • The new release updates the FLAC codec to version 1.3.2, updates the traditional Chinese translation and fixes a bug related to cover art handling.

New in fre:ac 1.0.27 (Dec 5, 2016)

  • This release updates translations and fixes several bugs found in earlier versions.
  • The new release fixes several issues related to freedb/CDDB queries and submissions and improves internal handling of cover-art.

New in fre:ac 20161129 Snapshot (Dec 1, 2016)

  • This release adds support for multi-channel Opus files and updates codec libraries to the latest versions. In addition, the new release fixes several issues found in earlier versions.

New in fre:ac 20151122 Snapshot (Nov 23, 2015)

  • This release adds the meh! - multi encoder hub component that allows ripping/converting to multiple different output formats at once. For example, you can now rip to FLAC files for archival and MP3s for mobile listening in one go.
  • The Windows version now allows setting the process priority in the configuration dialog.
  • The new release also adds support for multi-channel AAC and ALAC as well as VCLT playlists and fixes several stability and freezing issues.

New in fre:ac 1.0.26 (Oct 27, 2015)

  • The new release improves detection of concatenated MP3 files and fixes several issues handling Ogg Vorbis files with cover art. It also fixes a graphics issue where text did not appear in edit fields on some systems.

New in fre:ac 20151004 Snapshot (Oct 4, 2015)

  • This release improves handling of cue sheets by adding several configuration options for the cue sheet reader component. For example, it can now look for compressed tracks in place of .wav files and considers information contained in referenced files' tags. In addition, the new release speeds up sorting of the joblist and adds progress indicators for individual tracks to the conversion progress display on the Jobs tab.
  • The new release also fixes several issues with handling MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and WMA files. Upgrading to the 20151004 release is strongly recommended if you are using an earlier snapshot

New in fre:ac 1.0.25 (Sep 12, 2015)

  • The new release adds support for MP4/AAC and Ogg Vorbis cover art and fixes an issue where cover images had not been written to WMA files in certain situations.
  • Playlist and cuesheet files are now put in the same place as the output file in single file mode.
  • Also, fre:ac 1.0.25 fixes a problem where not all out of multiple CD drives were detected.
  • In addition, it fixes several stability issues and other bugs.

New in fre:ac 1.0.24 (Aug 3, 2015)

  • This release updates codecs fixes several minor issues found in earlier versions.
  • The new release updates the Ogg Vorbis codec to version 1.3.5 with added aoTuV 6.03 patches and introduces a flat titlebar style for Windows 8.x and 10. In addition, fre:ac 1.0.24 now retains the disc number metadata field when converting, fixes CDs being ejected automatically even if a conversion was cancelled and adds mouse jitter tolerance to tooltips to make them display more reliably.

New in fre:ac 20150725 Snapshot (Jul 27, 2015)

  • This release adds support for verification of FLAC, TAK and WavPack input files and improves support for multi-channel audio. The latter includes support for decoding AC-3, DTS and MLP files as well as support for multi-channel WAV, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and WMA. Besides that, the configuration management code has been rewritten to allow changing the configuration while a conversion job is in progress.
  • The new release also fixes an issue with the Ogg Vorbis encoder producing garbled output on non-Windows x64 platforms.

New in fre:ac 20150705 Snapshot (Jul 27, 2015)

  • This release enables the parallel conversion mode introduced in 20140921 by default. The parallel mode runs multiple file conversions at the same time on multi-core processors, thus speeding up conversion times. It will make use of all physical CPU cores by default and can be configured to also use virtual/HT cores.
  • fre:ac 20150705 also introduces support for verifying lossless output files such as FLAC or ALAC. This can be enabled in the configuration dialog and will add a verification step for each conversion to a lossless format where the output file is decoded again and compared to the original input.
  • The new release also fixes some issues, especially with the OS X version:
  • Crashes when trying to add audio CD contents on OS X
  • Distorted audio playback on OS X
  • Ejecting CDs did not work on OS X and Linux
  • Several minor issues are fixed in addition to this and codecs are updated to their latest versions.

New in fre:ac 1.0.23 (Dec 1, 2014)

  • This service release updates codecs and translations and fixes several bugs that have been found in earlier versions.
  • In particular, fre:ac 1.0.23 updates the FLAC codec to version 1.3.1 which includes some important fixes for security issues. The new release also fixes instabilities in the MP3 decoder and WMA tag writer and adds support for opening Windows Wave files with floating point data. The user interface is now available in Basque and Serbian (Cyrillic) language; several other translations have been updated.

New in fre:ac 1.0.22 (Jul 28, 2014)

  • This service release updates codecs and translations and fixes several bugs that have been found in earlier versions.
  • In particular, the new release updates the Ogg Vorbis codec to the 2014 version of aoTuV 6.03 and adds Afrikaans language support. It fixes two possible crash issues, blurry text on Windows 8 computers with high DPI displays, the last track of CD-Extra discs being reported two seconds too long as well as several minor problems.

New in fre:ac 1.0.21a (Jul 20, 2013)

  • This release fixes several bugs that have been found in fre:ac v1.0.21, the most important being one to make the WMA encoder work again.

New in fre:ac 1.0.21 (Jul 15, 2013)

  • The new release provides translation updates for Romanian and Swedish languages and fixes the default settings for the FLAC encoder to match those of the command line FLAC utility.

New in fre:ac 1.0.21 Beta 1 (Jun 17, 2013)

  • Version 1.0.21 beta 1 features an updated runtime library that lets it benefit from several improvements previously limited to fre:ac development snapshots.
  • Notable improvements are support for large fonts in the user interface, context menus for text edit fields as well as general performance and stability improvements.
  • The new release also introduces Bulgarian language support, updates the FLAC codec to version 1.3.0 and fixes some minor bugs.

New in fre:ac 20130430 Snapshot (May 1, 2013)

  • In snapshot 20130430 the playlist subsystem has been modularized and support for XSPF and PLS playlists added.
  • It also features a new confirmation dialog for files to be overwritten in a conversion job. The new dialog is shown before the actual conversion starts and so eliminates blocking popups during mass conversion jobs.
  • Lots of bugs have been fixed since the previous snapshot and the new version should be quite stable already. However, please still remember that it is an alpha snapshot and probably not generally suitable for daily work!

New in fre:ac 1.0.20a (May 1, 2013)

  • The new release fixes an unintended dependency on Intel's svml_disp.dll runtime library as well as bogus error messages when running on AMD processors. The former was introduces through an incautiousness when compiling the updated LAME and Ogg codec libraries. The latter was caused by a known bug in the latest Intel compiler release and had to be worked around explicitly in fre:ac 1.0.20a.
  • Upgrading to fre:ac v1.0.20a is strongly recommended to users of v1.0.20 and recommended to all users of previous versions.

New in fre:ac 1.0.20 (Mar 26, 2012)

  • This release features updated LAME and Ogg codecs, translation updates and some minor bug fixes

New in fre:ac 20110524 Snapshot (May 25, 2011)

  • Adds support for multiple configurations, i.e. you can define additional configurations sets in the config dialog and switch the active configuration from the main window. That way you can have different configuration sets for archival, mobile listening and other use cases.
  • Other notable additions include an improved preview in the CDDB match selection dialog, support for Ogg FLAC files and support for the .oga extension on Ogg Vorbis files. A lot of effort has also been put towards improving general user interface handling and stability.

New in fre:ac 1.0.19 (May 10, 2011)

  • This release fixes a crash when decoding MP3 files as well as some other bugs. Besides that it also includes an update Ogg Vorbis encoder and translation updates.

New in fre:ac 1.0.18 (Apr 4, 2011)

  • Notable changes in this release are support for gapless MP3 decoding, improved CD-Text support for sampler CDs, an updated Ogg Vorbis encoder and improved support for uncompressed audio formats like Wave and AIFF. The new release also includes the usual translation updates and bug fixes.

New in fre:ac 1.0.17a (Nov 22, 2010)

  • Hotfix for MP3 decoder issue

New in fre:ac 1.0.17 (Nov 15, 2010)

  • The new release reflects the project name change from BonkEnc to fre:ac. It includes translation updates and fixes some bugs found in previous versions.

New in fre:ac 1.0.15 (Jul 4, 2010)

  • Added WMA support, codec updates, bug fixes.

New in fre:ac 1.0.14 (Oct 22, 2009)

  • Translation and encoder updates, bug fixes.

New in fre:ac 1.0.13 (Jul 9, 2009)

  • added Vietnamese and Galician language support
  • added Czech user guide
  • updated Chinese (traditional), Czech and Serbian translations
  • making better use of multi-core CPUs when encoding/decoding
  • miscellaneous other speed optimizations
  • removed outdated presets for LAME encoder
  • fixed a possible crash at the end of encoding using LAME
  • fixed a possible crash opening Bonk files
  • fixed BEcmd argument handling
  • fixed problems with easyUpdate
  • upgraded Ogg library to version 1.1.4

New in fre:ac 1.0.12 (May 18, 2009)

  • It includes translation updates, an updated Ogg Vorbis aoTuV encoder and many compatibility fixes.
  • The installer has been fixed and should no longer cause false positive alarms from anti-virus software.
  • This release also fixes a problem with the easyUpdate online updater on Windows Vista.

New in fre:ac 1.0.11 (Feb 22, 2009)

  • updated Italian, Serbian and Swedish translations
  • added pattern to allow preserving existing directory structures
  • fixed handling of non-ASCII characters when opening MP3 files with multiple tags
  • fixed ID3lib to read and write correct ID3v2.4 tags
  • fixed error resulting in not decoding FLAC files to the end in some situations
  • fixed error opening large MP4 files
  • upgraded FAAC to version 1.28
  • upgraded FAAD2 to version 2.7
  • upgrade to MP4v2 v2.0 alpha

New in fre:ac 1.0.8 (Jul 27, 2008)

  • Translation and encoder updates, CDDB fixes.

New in fre:ac Development 20080427 (May 22, 2008)

  • MP3 decoding is now done using the MAD decoder
  • Added Monkey's Audio Decoder/Encoder
  • Added support for command line encoders
  • New configuration dialog layout

New in fre:ac 1.0.6 (Jan 21, 2008)

  • The new release includes support for Portuguese and Valencian language and adds a Greek language tutorial
  • Upgrading is strongly recommended as several bugs have been fixed

New in fre:ac 1.0.4 (Jul 8, 2007)

  • fixes some minor bugs and includes updates of the Slovak and Swedish translations

New in fre:ac 1.0.3 (Jun 4, 2007)

  • added Catalan language support
  • updated French and Greek translations
  • fixed Vorbis (and FLAC) comment tag reading
  • fixed not writing Xing header when using LAME presets
  • fixed LAME writing invalid Xing headers when ID3 tags exist
  • fixed crash when trying to open unsupported Sun Audio (.au) files
  • improved support for network files and directories
  • show more detailed error messages when unable to open a file
  • some smaller improvements and bug fixes

New in fre:ac 1.0.2 (Apr 18, 2007)

  • includes translation updates, installer improvements and some minor bug fixes

New in fre:ac 1.0 (Mar 1, 2007)

  • - added Romanian language support
  • - added a user manual
  • Fixed crash when clicking "Edit language file" in the config dialog
  • Fixed reading of low bitrate MP3 Added CD ripping support to Fixed some command line fixed bugs in the graphical upgraded FLAC to version 1.1.4
  • upgraded FAAD2 to version 2.5
  • upgraded FAAC to version 1.25
  • upgraded Ogg Vorbis to aoTuV some minor bug fixes

New in fre:ac 1.0 Beta 4 (Jun 19, 2006)

  • FLAC format support
  • updated encoders: LAME, Ogg Vorbis, Bonk
  • new translations: Czech, Korean, Danish, Swedish, Slovak and Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • improved user interface
  • support for playlists and cue sheets