Digital Audio Copy for Win32 FAQ

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions:

Technical Questions
Advanced Technical Questions
Registration Questions

Technical Questions:

• Q: Is there a version of WinDAC32 available, which is working with ATAPI drives?
  A: Yes, the current versions should work with all ATAPI drives supporting Digital Audio Extraction according to th ATAPI specification (but the required is not mandatory for all drives).
• Q: How can I convert wave files to MP3 with WinDAC32?
  Q: Can WinDAC32 copy playstation CD's?
  Q: Can I use WinDAC32 to convert my MP3 files back to CDDA?
  Q: Can I use WinDAC32 to write directly to CDR's?
  A: You can't. No. No. No.!!!
• Q: Each time I start copying a track with WinDAC32, it aborts and tells me something about "Aborted Command. Loss of Streaming". What should I do?
  A: Try to select a lower copy speed, or use the normal or sectorsynch copy mode of WinDAC32.
• Q: I have drive 'XYZ' (ATAPI/IDE) and I always get the message that the drive cannot extract audio data (and something for SCSI CDROM drives)?
  A: If your drive is configured in WinDAC32 as an ATAPI drive this message is true. Because an ATAPI CDROM drive has a defined command to extract audio data, but not all CDROM drive have to support this feature.
• Q: Is it possible to copy direct to the MP3 Format?
  A: Yes, but you need external programs for this. You can either use the BladeEnc PlugIn (see the PlugIn section for details) or the Fraunhofer Audio Codec, but to get satisfying results you should buy the professional version auf the Fraunhofer MP3 Audio Codec, included in the MPEG Audio Producer Professional available from http://www.opticom.de.
• Q: Each other MP3 question?
  A: Ask someone else!
• Q: How can I uninstall WinDAC32?
  A: If you installed it with the provided INF files (Inst95.inf/InstNT.inf), you can simply uninstall it like any other Windows program with the "Add/Remove Programs" Applet of the control panel. Otherwise simply delete all files in the directory and remove the HKCU\Software\CASH key from the registry.
• Q: I have a drive which should work with WinDAC32, but i still couldn't copy any audio tracks (sometimes it starts but it never goes further than 0 percent)?
  Q: WinDAC32 works with my drive with Windows 95, but i couldn't get it to work with Windows NT?
  A: I think this is a problem of some drivers for some special hostadapters (like the old Adaptec 1542). These drivers doesn't return the correct amount of supported memory per transfer. You can see this in WinDAC32 if the sectors per read entry in the drive configuration (on the copy tab) is 0, but sometimes it is correctly set to 27. So try to change this value to 27 and below (in the case that the correct value of 27 is detected and the drive couldn't copy, a value of 26 should work).
• Q: Is there a special commandline interface to run WinDAC in a batch file?
  A: No, currently there is only the possibility to run other commands controlled by WinDAC32. Commercial users could license the library for use in their own products.
• Q: I want to use WinDAC32 with my ATAPI CDROM drive under Windows NT, but it shows an empty drive window and says "no CD inserted". After refreshing the display i see all the tracks but i'am not allowed to play or copy a track?
  A: If this happens with the version 1.4 or above install an ASPI Manager.
• Q: I'm using an ATAPI CDROM and WinDAC32 doesn't detect the drive?
  Q: WinDAC32 has worked with my ATAPI CDROM before, but now it isn't detected any more?
  Q: Each time i start WinDAC32, i get a message complaining something about WNASPI32.DLL?
  Q: Everything similar to the above...
  A: See the ASPI setup instructions for details and make sure that your CDROM drives are not working in the DOS compability mode (maybe there is a DOS CDROM driver installed in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT)
• Q: I get background noise whatever i use for the copy mode. What can i do?
  A: Buy a new CDROM drive.
• Q: What are the best settings for CDROM drive 'XYZ'?
  A: You have to try yourself, this differs on each system.
• Q: Is my CDROM drive 'XYZ' supported?
  A: Try it and you'll see it.
• Q: I use Windows NT and each time i start WinDAC32 i get a message about the ASPI configuration.
  A: Maybe you have installed an ASPI manager before and removed it later. In this case it is possible that the registry entries for the ASPI manager are still there. Start the registry editor and remove the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ASPI32\Parameters.
• Q: I have the problem XYZ but i'm using a hacked version of WinDAC32. Can you guarentee me that this error is not in the registered version?
  A: Try the original release and you'll see!!!
• Q: What does it mean if the value in the copyprotection column of the track list is set to "yes"?
  A: This flag doesn't have any effect on the functionality of WinDAC32. It would only be used if you try copy this CD from an audio CD-Player to another digital recorder (like DAT, MD, Audio CD-Recorder) over a digital connection (SPDIF interface).
• Q: I get thousands of errors about an "Interrupted Read Process at sector xxx" ("Unterbrechung des Lesevorgangs bei Sektor xxx"). How can I fix this?
  A: This is no error, this is only a warning!!! If your drive is not able to position exactly to the point to continue after an interruption (you'll hear clicks and pops - normaly you have to use the sectorsynchronisation mode in this case), you can see that there is something wrong if you get this warning in the burst copy mode. If you don't have such problems you can deactivate this warning again ("Report buffer underruns in Burst Mode").
• Q: Does WinDAC32 support "Jitter Correction"?
  A: No, because I don't know what "Jitter" should be. The only thing that can be corrected is the sectorshift caused by inaccuarte CDROM drives. This is better called "sectorsynchronisation" and this is exactly the thing what other programs will do, but only WinDAC32 calls it by it's real name. For details about the copy mode refer to the documentation.

Advanced Technical Questions:

• Q: On Windows NT I can see that during WinDAC32 runs a lot of Kernel memory is allocated and never freed, even if I exit WinDAC32. Sometimes the whole system crashes. Is this a bug of WinDAC32?
  A: No, this is surly a bug of CDROM.SYS in Windows NT 4. You can help by disabling all drives with a drive letter in WinDAC32 and use only the drives shown over the ASPI manager. This bug is fixed with the SP4 for Windows NT 4.
• Q: Sometimes the program seems to hang and I cannot work any longer - even the system seems to hang?
  A: You should wait some minutes. There might be a reading problem and it could last a few minutes until all timeouts have been processed.
• Q: In Windows NT the disc cache is growing and growing if i copy a track to disk, what can i do?
  A: Not so much for the moment, i will add a new setting to fix this in one of the next versions.
• Q: What value is the best for the number of memory blocks for the ring buffer?
  A: There is no general answer for this question:
  Choosing a lower value can cause that the reading process is running out of buffers very often, but if you are using a slow audio CoDec the Display is following the real process more accurately.
  A high value could enable the read process to read a whole track to the memory first, but this can result in a program "hang" afterwards while the writing thread is still working on the data.
• Q: After copying a track the program seems to hang. Is this a Bug?
  A: No, if you are using a slow Audio CoDec or Hard Drive, it can last up to hours (for a very slow CoDec and a big ring buffer) to write all the data in the Ringbuffer. If you want to bring the write process more in time with the read process, reduce the size of the Ringbuffer riscing more interruptions of the read process. See also the last question.
• Q: What use has the high thread priority option?
  A: Only that the display thread gets mor CPU time to follow the reading process, if you are using a CPU intensive Audio CoDec. The overall time is nearly the same.

Registration Questions:

• Q: I want to register, can Ipay with credit cards?
  A: Yes, but only using the online registration system, see next question for details.
• Q: Is there any way to purchase WinDAC32 online?
  A: Yes, see here for english users and here for german users.
• Q: To which account should i transfer the registration fee?
  Q: Auf welches Konto soll ich das Geld überweisen?
  A: Only german customers should pay by bank transfer, the necessary information for this is in the file Liesmich.rtf. But don't transfer the money to this account if you want to register online.
• Q: Why does it last so long before Iget my registered version?
  A: Normally it takes up to two weeks before the registered version will reach the customer, but this differs on the amount of registered version each week. Note this is not my main job. If it last longer think that I maybe could be in holiday.
• Q: I'm registered and i noticed that a new version is available, how can I get and updated version?
  A: The updates for versions 1.X are for free if I can send them by email. If you don't have an email account send a disk with an addressed envelope with the correct postage to me.