CD Backup

Extracting the Cuesheet

Using Foobar

The easiest way to extract the cuesheet from the APEv2 tag is to use Foobar.

A Brief Overview of Foobar

Foobar is "an advanced audio player for the Windows platform" by its own description, but in practice it is much more. If you have an interest in using and maintaining various audio files Foobar is invaluable. Foobar utilises a modular architecture, which means that you can download and include optional components to add additional functionality. This covers components that will allow you to play numerous audio formats (e.g.: Monkeys Audio decoder), to components to let you transcode to other formats (Diskwriter); burn to audio CD (Audio CD writer); and tag files en masse (Masstagger).

Foobar can split CD images using their cuesheet - both external and internal (as long as the cuesheet has been stored in the appropriate tag, as we have done). This means that you can load your compressed APE file, and the playlist will display each track separately. If the cuesheet includes PERFORMER and TITLE information Foobar will display the correct track, artist and album information. This facility is invaluable when it comes to transcoding to individual track files.

If you do not already have Foobar installed I would seriously recommend that you do. To extract the cuesheet you will only require the lite version and the Monkeys Audio decoder, but if you intend to use it for other purposes I would suggest that you download the normal or special version. Case, the author of Tag, maintains a special installer on his website, which is updated frequently with the latest versions of various useful components. I keep Foobar updated using Case's installer.

To add additional components to Foobar you simply need to drag the component DLL into Foobar's "components" folder. On a normal install this will be "C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components". If you choose to just download the lite version, download the Monkeys Audio decoder, open the ZIP, and drag the DLL into the "components" folder before you undertake the steps below. Without the Monkeys Audio decoder component Foobar will not be able to play the APE file, or read the tags.

NB: You can find many 3rd party components for Foobar on the official Foobar 3rd party component website.

Foobar is freeware.

The Cuesheet Extraction

To extract the cuesheet using Foobar follow this process:

1. Drag the APE file into the playlist. As discussed, Foobar will list all tracks
2. Right-click on one of the tracks and choose "Properties..." from the context menu
3. Double-click on the "CUESHEET" tag in the "Metadata" list to open the "File Info / details" dialogue (or select the "CUESHEET" tag and click the "Edit" button)
4. In the "File Info / details" dialogue, highlight the cuesheet text (Ctrl+A won't work, so you'll need to click and drag)
5. Right-click and choose "Copy" from the context menu, or press Ctrl+C, to copy the text to the clipboard
6. Open Notepad, or your text editor of choice, and paste the text into a new document
7. Save the file as "CDImage.ape.cue". You must ensure the file saves as a ".cue", and not ".txt"
8. Close Foobar's "File Info / details" dialogue by clicking "Cancel", and the "File Info" dialogue by clicking "Close" (as we do not wish to make any changes)

You now have an external cuesheet, which can be used to burn to CD.

Using Tag

If you do not wish to install yet another piece of software on your already bloated system, you can use Tag to extract the cuesheet. The process is a little course, but it works. The basic steps are as follows:

1. Open a CMD prompt
2. Use Tag to list all the tags in the compressed file, and write the results to a text file⁺
3. Open the CUE file that Tag has created in Notepad, or your text editor of choice, and remove the unnecessary text - otherwise it is not a valid cuesheet. The first line of your file should begin with "PERFORMER", if it is still a standard Exact Audio Copy cuesheet
4. Save the edited file

⁺ To use Tag to list a file's tags use the command:

TAG.EXE --tofilen "E:\CDBackup\CDImage.ape.cue" "E:\CDBackup\CDImage.ape"

If you are not confident using the command line, or perhaps you just prefer it, I have created a batch file that can ease the process. Download the batch file, open it in Notepad (or text editor of your choice), and amend the path in the following line to point to TAG.EXE on your PC (as you did for eac-enc.bat)

SET pathToTag="C:\DOS\TAG.EXE"

To create the CUE file, drag and drop the APE file onto the batch file icon. The CUE file will be saved in the same folder as the APE file, and will be named the same, but with ".cue" added. So, if your APE file has the path "E:\CDBackup\Green Day\American Idiot\CDImage.ape", the file created will be "E:\CDBackup\Green Day\American Idiot\CDImage.ape.cue".

You will still need to follow steps 3 to 4 above (i.e.: edit and save the CUE file to create a valid cuesheet)

NB: You can store the batch file in a sensible location, create a shortcut to the batch file on your desktop, and drag APE files on to the shortcut instead.

View an example of the file that Tag will create.

You now have an external cuesheet, which can be used to burn to CD.

Alternative Methods

I am certain that there are alternative methods. Please feel free to let me know if you believe you have an easier method. I would suspect that there are some tagging applications that will let you easily view and copy the CUESHEET tag contents (as you can with Foobar). If you let me know I'll create a list here.

What Now?

Read my accompanying guides:

• Using EAC, MAC, TAG and PAR2 To Back-Up a CD. This guide explains how to back-up your CDs using batch files to automate the process as much as possible
• Verifying and Repairing your compressed files. This guide explains how to verify the APE files using Monkey's Audio, and, if necessary, how to repair files using your PAR2 parity data
• Restoring to CD from the cuesheet and APE file. This guide explains a few ways to restore to CD, using your compressed file and external cuesheet
• Transcoding from a compressed image file to individual track files, or another image file. Having all your CDs in compressed image format makes transcoding to other formats, e.g.: MP3, a walk in the park... if you like Foobar ;o)

The History

Thanks to Kevin Rebarchek for his questions via email, which prompted me to write this accompanying guide. It's pleasing to hear that someone has found my CD backup guide useful, and that they are actually thinking about the process as a whole. Please email me if you have found anything on this site useful.

Document Version History