What's New in LP Ripper Version 6
© 1999-2003 CFB Software
Last Updated 24 Sep 2003
- Windows XP Themes
- Trim Tracks
- Split and Merge Tracks
- Analyse Tracks
- Preview Tracks
- Other Enhancements
LP Ripper now has the new look and feel of Windows XP and makes full use
of Windows XP themes, menu appearance and enhanced common controls. The
screenshots on the CFB Software website and in the Help file are taken from a system running
on Windows XP. An option allows you to select the traditional menu and
toolbar look and feel, if you prefer.
This version of LP Ripper is also compatible
with the older operating systems Windows 98,
Windows ME and Windows 2000, and it is still fully supported on those systems.
LP Ripper automatically determines which system it is running on and uses the
appropriate controls.
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The Trim Tracks feature has a number of useful enhancements and additional
features that allow virtually all editing tasks to be done from the Trim Tracks
display.
- Single-click on the mouse left-button in the upper tracks display to
select a track. The track start / end marker nearest to the mouse cursor
becomes the active marker.
- Single-click on the mouse left-button in the lower tracks display to make the
track marker jump to the position of the mouse cursor. This can be used as a
quick way to drag the track marker.
- The track start and end times can be entered directly as well as by using the
spin buttons or dragging the track markers. The correct time format mm:ss.s,
must be used as displayed. For example, 3:05, 4:19.2 etc.
- The name of the track can be changed.
- A new tool bar includes the new Merge Previous, Merge Next and existing
Split Tracks functions so you don't have to go back to the main menu to use
them. You can see the result of the merge or split instantly on the graphical
display.
- The tool bar also includes a new function Join Tracks. Use this if you have
adjusted the end marker of one track and want the start marker of the next track
to be moved to the same position - or vice versa. The current track marker is
the one that is adjusted.
- The tool bar functions are also available on a popup menu on this screen
with shortcut keys for quick keyboard use.
- The OK button is no longer the default button, to minimise the chance of
exiting the screen unintentionally.
- The player control keyboard shortcuts have been changed to avoid clashes
with data entry and are now more compatible with Windows Media Player.
| Ctrl+P |
Play / Pause |
| Ctrl+S |
Stop |
| Ctrl+B |
Previous track (Back) |
| Ctrl+F |
Next track (Forward) |
- The Previous and Next controls are disabled for the start of the first
track and the end of the last track respectively.
- Fade can also be previewed when the preview is unlimited (zero seconds).
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- Merge tracks has been replaced with two commands, Merge Previous and Merge
Next to make it clearer which tracks are being merged.
- Split Tracks has been enhanced to split the track at the position which is
most likely to be a gap. If there are no gaps identified, the track is split in
the middle as before.
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If you have trimmed the start of the first track and the end of the last
track they are no longer reset back to the start and end of the recording when
Analyse Tracks is run a second or subsequent times. Any sounds before the
start of the first track or the end of the last track are simply ignored.
This is most useful when there is a long period of silence (more than 20
seconds, say) at the beginning or end of a recording. This spurious silence can
swamp the true track gaps and make it difficult for LP Ripper to identify them
properly.
With Version 6, when analysing a recording with long leading or trailing
silences, you should get better results if you:
1. Run Analyse Tracks.
2. Use Trim Tracks to move the start of the first track and end of the
last track to their correct positions.
3. Run Analyse Tracks again.
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- The Preview Tracks function can be used to preview a track from any starting
point using the track bar slider control. The total time of the track and the
time remaining to play are displayed and continuously updated.
- If you have more than one audio device installed you can select which one
to use from Preferences → Options
→ Settings → Playback Device. This setting is
independent of your default Windows playback device.
- The player control keyboard shortcuts have been changed to be more compatible
with Trim Tracks preview and Windows Media Player.
| Ctrl+P |
Play / Pause |
| Ctrl+S |
Stop |
| Ctrl+B |
Previous track (Back) |
| Ctrl+F |
Next track (Forward) |
- The Previous and Next controls are disabled for the first track and the
last track respectively.
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- The tracks file, if present, is automatically located and used whenever
the related WAV file is opened.
- When the cursor is positioned on a menu item, button or other control, a
short help message, describing its use, appears in the status bar of the main
screen. An option allows you to suppress these messages if you prefer.
- The Preferences function is a single choice on the new Options menu.
- The Connect All button in the Edit Tracks function has been renamed to Join All
and its functionality changed to be more consistent with the Trim Tracks Join
function. The start of each track is repositioned to coincide with the end of
the previous track and the length of each track is adjusted accordingly.
- The list of four most recently opened files on the File menu has been moved
to a separate File → Reopen submenu.
- A separate online step by step Quick Start Guide is included to help
newcomers with their first recording.
- The screen positions of the Trim Tracks and Preferences windows are
remembered and reused from session to session.
- Troubleshooting section in the Help file
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