Using KonaKoder

KonaKoder is designed to be simple to use. Once it is all set up, encoding a CD can be as easy as clicking on two buttons.

Running KonaKoder for the first time

The first time you run KonaKoder, it will display a series of alert boxes to let you know what it's doing. In most cases, you will only see these the first time you run KonaKoder. There are two main things it checks when it runs. First, it double checks your saved preferences, and let's you know if it can't find any of them. Second, it checks for some attribute information. I'll give a quick rundown of what it's doing. More detail can be found in Under The Hood You should now see the KonaKoder main window. The first thing you should do is click on the "Preferences..." button, and check your settings. You can specify the directory to save songs in either by typing in the name or using the "Browse..." button. The Template directory is set the same way. If you wish to use a CDDB server, you should set it in here also.

The genre list can also be edited in this window. To add a new genre, type the name into the "Genre To Add:" box, and click "Add It!". To remove a genre, select it in the list and click "Remove Selected Genre".

The bottom three buttons allow you to save your changes. Click "Revert" to undo any changes you just made in the window. Click "Cancel" to close the Preferences window without saving your changes. Click "OK" to close the window and save your changes.

Using KonaKoder

Now that your preferences are all set, you are ready to encode a CD. First, place your CD into the CD player if you haven't already done so. Next, click on the "Scan CD" button. If you are using a CDDB server, you should see the "Artist", "Title", and "Track" controls filled in with the appropriate information. You will also want to set the "Year", "Genre", and "Bitrate" controls.

Once everything is set to your liking, you are ready to encode your CD. Just click on the "Start Encoding" button to get started. KonaKoder will take over from there, The progress bar at the bottom of the window will let you know how it's doing. Depending on your computer, encoding a CD may take quite a while. On my BeBox 133Mhz, it takes six or seven hours. KonaKoder runs at a low priority, so it shouldn't interfere with any other work you are doing while it's encoding.

After it gets done, you can check out the results. In your "Save" directory, you will have a directory with the name of the artist. Inside of that, you will have a directory with name of the album. If you open that up, you should see all of your MP3 songs for that album. If your template directory is set up properly, all of the tracks should be listed in order.

To encode another CD, just place it in the CD player, hit "Scan CD", and start the process over again. What could be simpler?

Copyright 1999 David Mitchell