Thanks to GitHub Actions, continuous builds of fre:ac are now available for the Windows platform. These automated builds give you a chance to try the latest changes without having to wait for the next release, for example to benefit from bug fixes or take a peek at the latest feature additions.

The continuous builds are provided as .zip packages for the x86 (32 bit) and x86-64 (64 bit) architectures.

You can grab the latest continuous build from the downloads page or from GitHub.

fre:ac version 1.1.4 has been released on 14th February 2021.

This is a service focussing on minor improvements and bug fixes. fre:ac 1.1.3 adds support for HDCD decoding, improves tagging support and usability of the tag editor, updates codecs to the latest versions and fixes several issues found in earlier releases:

• 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

• Codec support
  • Switched from FAAC to FDK-AAC for AAC encoding

Upgrading to fre:ac v1.1.4 is strongly recommended for users of earlier releases.

The new release is available in the downloads section. Please report issues on the GitHub issue tracker or by email to support@freac.org.

Just in time for the first Apple Silicon Macs being delivered to end users, fre:ac is now available for this new generation of Macs.

To support the different types of Macs, the macOS version of fre:ac is now available in two flavors:

• For Intel and PowerPC Macs running macOS 10.x, download freac-1.1.x-macos10.dmg
• For Intel and Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 11.0, download freac-1.1.x-macos11.dmg

Head over to the downloads section to get the Apple Silicon version or any other variant of fre:ac.

fre:ac version 1.1.3 has been released on 11th October 2020.

This is a service with only minor feature updates and improvements. Instead, the focus is on compatibility and bug fixes. fre:ac 1.1.3 adds support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur, updates codecs to the latest versions and fixes several issues found in earlier releases:

• 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

Upgrading to fre:ac v1.1.3 is strongly recommended for users of any earlier releases.

The new release is available in the downloads section. Please report issues on the GitHub issue tracker or by email to support@freac.org.