What's New in 2.0?

New Look

AudioCatalyst now sports a new updated look! New features have been added and the menus have been updated and rearranged to make AudioCatalyst even easier to use than before.

Integrated Help Files

You can access the online HTML-based Help for AudioCatalyst by selecting Help from the AudioCatalyst menu bar. Note: The HTML-based Help files are best viewed using NetscapeÆ version 4.0 or above.

Advanced Options

The XingMP3 Encoder Settings dialog now includes Advanced Options. From the Advanced Options dialog, you can enable or disable High Frequency encoding, alter the Original or Copyright Bit status, and choose the MPEG Algorithm.
For more information on each of these Advanced settings, see Advanced Options.

Normalization

Different CDs, just like LPs from the old days, are usually recorded at different volumes. All tracks on the same CD are recorded at about the same level. As long as you listen to only one CD at a time, there is usually no problem with the volume of the CD. When you mix tracks from different CDs they sometimes have output levels that differ from one CD to another. One CD can play quite loud and another noticeably lower. To set the same level for all your CDs, use the new Normalize feature.

Setting the Track Start and Stop Times

You can set the start and stop times for ripping and encoding a track to a fraction of a second in the new CD Track Properties dialog.

Rip Offset

Some CD-ROM drives exhibit problems finding the exact start/stop reading points on a CD (such as ripping error messages or artifacts in the beginning or end of the MP3 file). When this occurs, use the new Rip Offset options in the General Preferences dialog.

Naming Options

The new Naming Options feature allows you to choose the Album and/or Artist for use as your directory name or create custom strings for naming your MP3 files.

ID3 Tags

ID3 Tags have been expanded to support the latest ID3 specifications available - now you can add customized comments to your ID3 tags.

Expanded Drag and Drop File Support

To automatically add files to the Encoding Queue, you can now drag and drop WAV or AIFF files onto the AudioCatalyst
icon or interface.

Expanded Support For Compact Disk Data Base (CDDB) Information

AudioCatalyst retrieves information for your CD-ROM from CDDB. The CDDB information can now be stored in the
Macintosh CD Remote Programs database.