Using AudioGrabber with the NVDA screen reader

What is AudioGrabber?

AudioGrabber is a software program that backs up audio from your CD's. AudioGrabber can automatically encode them to a variety of formats including MP3. AudioGrabber can download and upload disc info from freedb, an internet based database.

Where can I obtain a copy of AudioGrabber from?

The following link will point you in the right direction http://www.audiograbber.org/
When you arrive there, just go to the download link and follow the directions to download a copy of this program.
Make sure when you save it to your computer, the file is easy to find (for example save it to your Desktop). Then it is a matter of clicking on the file and installing the program to your computer.

The basics of AudioGrabber

AudioGrabber has the good old style menus that go from left to right and the dropdown menus. They can simply be navigated with the left, right, up and down arrow keys.

One of the first things you will want to do with AudioGrabber is back up a music CD to your computer. It is wise usually to look at some basic settings first (for example, where do you want to back up your music CDs to? Or what music format do you wish to save them in? (such as WMA or MP3 etcetera).

When AudioGrabber has been opened, you will need to check out the following areas and make some tweaks. Press the Alt key until the file menu comes up, then right arrow to the settings menu, then down to the general menu and press the Enter key. The next screen that comes up will give you a whole heap of different options. These can be tabbed through easily.
NVDA will land on the browse button. Press the Enter key on this and choose a location of where you want to save your backed up files to (for example C:\full albums). Otherwise, if one is not chosen, it will save it to its default folder.

Next, after this has been done you will need to tab a couple of times. You will hear Naming tab, Advanced, then Edit. When you hear this put in the following
%1 %2\%4

After this has been done, and you go to grab your first music CD, it backs up the album to your computer and will put it into a folder under your chosen location. It could look like this: (for example) Split Enz Corroboree (Expanded Edition), and the mp3 files will be inside of this folder already named. The path might look like this C:\FullAlbums\Split Enz Corroboree.
Under the Misc tab, you might want to change some of the settings (for example eject the CD after your Rip).
From now on, when you go to back up other CD's, it will default to the main folder that you chose in the first place (for example FullAlbums).

Mp3 settings for AudioGrabber

When you go into the Mp3 settings screen, you will need to tab down until you hear Internal Encoder tab. Under this section you will need to check the following. LameEnc DLL Version 1.32, (29/7/2004) Engine 3.96
This means you have the mp3 encoder installed. If you don't have this spoken out by NVDA, then the mp3 encoder is not installed. It is also a combo box and dropping it down will give you some other options to change the songs into another format.

Backing up your music CD to your computer with AudioGrabber

After you have gone through the above directions, you are ready to backup your music CD's.

After you have inserted your music CD, Windows will try to play the music CD in your favourite media player if you have one set. If it tries to load, or does load, close the screen with the Alt key + the F4 key. Next, bring up the AudioGrabber program.
To back up your music CD, press the Alt key until the file menu comes up. Next, right arrow until you hear CD submenu. This means there is a submenu that drops down. Next, arrow down until you hear "Get from freedb", then press the Enter key. AudioGrabber will do a search on the database to see if someone else has submitted the CD before. If this is the case, after the search, if the CD has been submitted, it will come back with the results (for example Artist, album name and so on). It may come up with more than one result. If this is the case you can arrow up and down the results. You can also tab across the results to find out more info on the CD.
After you have chosen your result, simply press the Enter key. That will load the results for the CD.
The next step after this has been done is to backup the CD to your computer. (When this is done, it will give you the name of the artist, album, the names of the songs and so on).

Backing up your CD

Now you are ready to backup your CD, the next step will grab it (also known as ripping the CD). Press the Alt key until you hear File. Next, right arrow until you hear CD, then down arrow until you hear the word grab being spoken out. Press the Enter key and the backup of your CD will begin.

If there are no results for your music CD

If a music CD has not been submitted to the database, when you go to do the "Get from freedb" query, it will show no results. This means that the CD's information (such as artist, genre, tracks etcetera) has not been submitted to the database.

To submit a CD to the database

Place your CD in the CD tray and close the drawer. If it attempts to auto play the disk, simply use Alt + F4 to close this screen. Open the AudioGrabber program.

To see if it is already in the database... Press the Alt key until the file menu comes up... right arrow to the CD menu... down arrow until you hear Get from freedb and press the Enter key. If there is a result for your search, then it should show the artist and song titles in a list. Sometimes if there are more than one exact match, you may have to Tab until you hear "list" then use the down arrow to hear the artist, album and song titles. In the case of there being no matching CD in the database, you will see a list of track 1, track 2 and so on without the artist's details. You will have to type up and submit the information to the Freedb database. Usually when this happens, it is better to abort the search for the artist, album.

To submit your CD to the database successfully, you will need to do the following. (You may need to borrow a sighted peer to help with this as not all of the fields are labelled correctly). Press the Alt key until the file menu comes up, then right arrow until you hear CD. Next, arrow down the sub menu until you hear NVDA say Submit to freedb, then press the Enter key. The next couple of screens will require the following information. You will need to enter information into the following areas (Year) an edit box, Genre (a combo box), Artist (an edit box) and Album(an edit box). You will also hear fade tracks (which is a check box) and Compilation disc (which is also a check box). Leave the compilation box unchecked. It is up to you as to whether or not you would like the tracks to fade. Tab through these fields to hear each option. Once you have added all of the above information, the next Tab should bring you to List Track 1. You will need to rename each of the tracks. Press the F2 key so that you can rename the track. Backspace the words track 1 and replace them with the song title. Once you have typed the track name, press Enter. You will need to arrow down to the next title to be renamed. Press F2 again so that you can rename the next track. Repeat this process for each one until they have all been renamed. Once you have renamed all of the song titles, you will need to press the Alt key (to bring up the file menu), right arrow to the CD menu, then down arrow until you hear Submit to freedb. A screen called Freedb Submit Wizard will appear. It will automatically select an Artist and Album name for you. You will need to select a category from the drop down list. It will automatically fill in Genre and Year for you (which you have entered previously). It has a field for additional information (should you wish to add any). Tab to next and press Enter. It will ask you to check the spelling for each track. If you are happy that you have named them correctly, tab until you hear Next. Press Enter to go to the next page. Enter your email address and press the Enter key again. Your disk information will now be submitted. Pressing Enter a third time will return you to your track listing. Submitting a disk listing will allow others to identify the correct disk when inserting their CD. (For example if someone else from around the world has submitted this information already, then when you put your CD in, you can "Grab from Freedb" rather than having to type it all up from scratch. If however it is not on the database, then once you type it up and submit it, then someone else can "Grab from Freedb" without having to retype the same information each time). If you wish to back your disc up, then simply press Alt (to go to the FIle menu), right arrow to CD, then arrow down to Grab! and press the Enter key).
PLEASE NOTE: Check out the different menus for a variety of settings that you may wish to use to tailor your settings to your individual needs.

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