In this tutorial you will learn how to use command-line encoders with Spider Player PRO to convert your music files and Audio CD tracks to formats other than those supported natively or to use your custom encoding presets with existing encoders. More specifically, we'll be using the Nero Digital Audio encoder to convert our music to AAC (MP4) format - the most widely used format next to MP3 and probably MP3's successor, it is the main format for iPod and many mobile phones, so this example should be quite useful.

1. First, check the Use custom encoder/preset checkbox to show the Custom encoder settings page. You can notice, that once you've done this, the Convert to settings become irrelevant, as target format, quality and other parameters are now specified by the selected command-line encoder and it's preset.
   
   
   
   
2. Type the full path to the encoder (neroAacEnc.exe file) into the Encoder edit box. You can also use paths relative to the folder where the Spider.exe file is located. As I've placed the neroAacEnc.exe file into the program's root folder, I'll just type in: neroAacEnc.exe.
   
   Note: instead of typing in the full path to the encoder, you can browse for it by pressing the ”…” button.
   
   
   
   
3. Now we have to specify the extension our encoded files will have. MP4 or AAC will do here.
   
   
   
   
4. The last thing left is to specify the parameters neroAacEnc.exe should use for encoding. neroAacEnc.exe's parameters and their meaning are out of the scope of this tutorial. Lets just say here that these parameters allow to control many different aspects of encoding, such as bitrate/quality, sample rate, output file size, etc. and differ from encoder to encoder.
   
   Note: to show a detailed list of available command-line parameters for a selected encoder, press the ? button.
   
   

The main parameter here is -q, which means that we want to use quality settings. Possible values lie in the range from 0 to 1. So a value of 0.50 means medium quality.

Setup is now complete. The good news is that you don't have to go through all the described steps manually. There is an alternative quick way to do the same thing by using the encoding preset manager.

To show the encoding preset manager, hit the Encoding presets… button.

Now just select the Nero Digital Audio Encoder preset from the list and press the Load button. That's it!

The reason why the manual setup process has been described previously is that when you get more familiar with an encoder, you might want to customize its default preset or even create your own, and this is something you have to do manually. But only once, as you can then save your customized (or newly created preset) for future use, using the encoding preset manager.
To do so, type in the desired name for your new preset into the edit box under the list of presets and press the Save button.

As you can see, there are also Import… and Export… buttons. These can come in handy when you want to backup your presets or share them with friends.