ATL.net and AAX Audio Converter

[audiamus]

A few days ago I released AAX Audio Converter 1.16. An important aspect of the program is the transfer, adjustment and customization of meta data, including chapters. In this new version, most the meta data is now handled by ATL.net, completely replacing TagLib-sharp which I had used originally. (Some meta data is still processed by FFmpeg which also does the audio conversion.)

I came across ATL.net when I looked for a library that was able to manage chapter data. TagLib-sharp did not support them. But ATL.net does, both for MP4 with the “Nero” and “Quicktime” variants and for MP3 with ID3v2.

I ran into a few issues when I started with ATL.net chapters, mainly related to the much bigger files you have for audiobooks in comparison to music. But I immediately felt at home with ATL.net because its author responded to my problems quickly and thoroughly. We have excellent support here! 👍

Consequently, I let ATL.net now also handle the other meta data. It’s all quite simple and very smooth.

Let me highlight a few features I liked, incomplete and in no particular order:

• The API is straightforward, very easy to use. There are several similarities to TagLib-sharp, of course, but all in all, at least in my humble opinion, I find ATL.net to be one step ahead.
• AAX and AA file type support: That is quite convenient to have. While these file types are basically MP4 and MP3 files, respectively, they come with a number or proprietary tags and ATLnet already maps most of them to its generic tags. With TagLib-sharp, this was more complicated.
• Custom tags: Can’t get any simpler. Just a dictionary of tagged values, easy to read and write. You can also leave your own footprint this way 😎 . With TagLib-sharp, I needed reflection as some of the necessary classes or methods were internal.
• Chapters: Just a linear list of chapter info containers. You’ll probably maintain your own independent chapter class in your application and you’ll need to copy between the two implementations but it’s all straightforward again. I have learned that chapters also come with some consistency check.
• Cover art: A nice little subtlety is the handling of binary image data. ATL.net will derive the image type from the binary data header, so no need to provide it separately.

Thanks a lot for making and maintaining ATL.net. 🥇