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| Music and computers... stuff even Bert can't tell |
| Posted on 06/05/05 at 06:43 by dead ball descendant |
Music and computers... stuff even Bert can't tell you. Though he will.
The following article has been copied en masse from Dr Mutex's Laboratory on www.mixtaper.com
More specifically, here :http://stage.mixtaper.com/forums/1304/ShowPost.aspx
It's an excellent place and is worth both visiting and contributing to. Here we go:
Got Tools?
From time to time the question comes up, "What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on?" The answers vary from AMP to Zinf, but there are a number of programs that get a lot of recommendations. I'll also cover more exotic tools like MPEG frame editors, bitrate conversion, etc. This is not going to be a thousand item laundry list of software. I'll only be including things that Mixtapers have found have enduring utility.
The categories I'm starting with, roughly in the order I think they are sought after.
Players
WinAMP --a classic. For better or worse, the model for many other players. Works off a playlist that you can queue tracks to. An open plug-in interface has led to a the development of a wide variety of input plugins that enable WinAMP to play many formats including some lossless codecs. Despite my preference for other players for most tasks, WinAMP not surprisingly does the best job at playing ShoutCast streams.
qwynwyn: My player of choice for so long and even has some of the functions that iTunes has (most recently played, most frequently played, etc.) because of the media library stuff. freeware.
Zinf - Preferred stream player of Dr. Mutex because it saves streamed files. Another thing I like is that clicking multiple playlists adds the new tracks to the current queue (assuming you have it set to queue), whereas in WinAMP, it stops playing the current playlist and opens the new one. I don't care for Zinf's collection features.
MusicMatch
1by1 - A favorite of Dr. Mutex. 1by1 is a directory player. If you aim it at the root of your drive it will play every MP3 it finds anywhere on the drive. It will use and create playlists (they are treated like folders or ignored according to your settings) but does not need them.
iTunes --qwynwyn: I tried it off and on for a while during the past year. seemed a bit bulky for me. usually I pick an album folder to play, which I prefer to do with Winamp.
XMMS --qwynwyn: The few times i use linux, i use this player with the kde interface/panel. has an interface similar to Winamp.
Encoders: MP3
Encoders turn WAV audio files into MP3. Most Rippers and Collection managers have an encoding function. Some Rippers give you comprehensive access to their encoder settings (Digital Audio Copy) which may be lacking in integrated products like collection managers. If you're ripping from Vinyl (see separate section), you will generally have to do some work on the WAV files before you encode them so a standalone encoder may be useful.
LAME This is clearly the best free encoder, and ranks among the best encoders at any price. This is the encoder eMusic uses if you need an endorsement. Directly supported by Digital Audio Copy and many other programs. Because LAME is an encoder library, there is a bewildering array of software available. You will also find many helpful MP3-related links at the LAME site.
Library Catalogers
MediaLibrary is a multi-platform free software that lets you catalog your media files ( CD-Rs, DVDs...)
Its main purpose is to reference your media files in a category tree with any comment. You can then easily find any file you are looking for.
MediaLibrary is Free Software available under the terms of the GNU/GPL running on Java.
Collection Managers
Generally Collection Managers combine several functions such as playing, tagging, and encoding. A collection manager brings some order to your gigabytes of files. Some will also keep track of your CDs, albums, and 8-track tapes.
Orange CD -- qwynwyn: found out about this lovely thang through the eMu boards. works nicely for me. before, i was using iTunes, which didn't jive with me for long. free to try, but costs something reasonable.
Music Match
iTunes -- See the writeup under "Players" above.
Download Managers
So you want to download a Mixtape, or the free tracks at KRS? You could do a save-as on every link, or you could just drop the whole lot on your DLM. By the way, work is afoot to simplify the process of downloading a Mixtape from Mixtaper and getting the files named and sequenced. How simple? Stay tuned to Mixtaper and find out.
NetVampire - preferred DLM of Dr. Mutex. However, the developer seems to not be doing any further work on it, and it doesn't know how to import cookies from Firefox. I expect I will have to find another DLM soon.
Download Them All for Firefox
Right-click the page to get a list of links and a customizable filter. Check or uncheck links as desired and hit the button. The most recent version seems smoother. Lacks the job control features of a full blown DLM.
CD Rippers
Most CD burning software now will also rip the audio for you. A dedicated ripper will give you a lot more options to twiddle with for you problem disks. Generally speaking, you'll have the least trouble ripping with your CD burner. Years ago when burners were very expensive, folks were advised not to rip with their burners to avoid the wear and tear. There's really no reason not to use your burner now. By the way, if you can't get a good rip on a given drive/burner, try another. I've got an ancient Lion Optical 4X reader that I keep around because it will read out-of-spec disks. You should only rip and encode at the same time if your computer has enough CPU power to keep up with the CD ripping process. If the ripper has to stop and restart, you may get glitches.
Digital Audio Copy - A Dr. Mutex favorite.This is the primary tool I rip CDs with if they're going to MP3. If I'm copying or compiling to an Audio CD, I just drag tracks in Nero and let it rip them. Shareware worth paying for.
CDex -- qwynwyn: The tool of choice for so long, so easy to use. If EAC doesn't work, then i'll turn to CDex, freeware
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) -- qwynwyn: A bit tricky setting up it up the first time around, does a nice job of getting VBR's. freeware
Utilities: Taggers and Renamers
Most players and collection managers will let you edit individual tags. These are the heavy duty tools that can rename entire directories of files, create tags en masse from filenames, and pull data for tags off the internet.
Tag and Rename - Preferred by Dr. Mutex. When I found this some years ago, it was the only tool I could find that would do what I wanted. Shareware worth paying for. Tag and Rename can look up albums in freedb or on Amazon to get track information.
The Godfather -- qwynwyn: easy to use once you get the hang of it, the interface seems pretty user friendly, freeware
TagScanner -- see the replies. I'm still evaluating this. It's not as powerful as Tag and Rename but it is free.
Utilities: Bitrate converters.
Ever downwards. Your 192K CD Rips sound great, yes they do. Perhaps on your portable player with 64M of memory, you want to be able to load more than 10 songs.
Lame Use a command line version of LAME . To downconvert to 64 kbps, use
lame --preset 64 input.mp3 output.mp3
For some other bitrate, replace 64 with the kbps you want. This preset will give you ABR (average bit rate). If you need CBR (e.g. your player requires it) use
lame --preset cbr 64 input.mp3 output.mp3
Editors: Wave Editors
Editors: MP3 Editors
These tools allow you to make changes to an MP3 file without decoding and reencoding it. According to the LAME site, cutting and joining in this manner should introduce distortion because the data for a given moment in the stream can be spread out over several frames. VBR should fare better because it mimimizes the use of the bit reservoir. On the few files I've edited, I didn't notice any bad effects.
MP3DirectCut - Preferred by Dr. Mutex. Slice, dice, insert or remove silence, tweek level, edit out glitches, fade in or out, join tracks. It can also automatically section a file into tracks with configurable settings for level and duration to identify the gaps.
Editors: Level Normalizers
I personally would prefer a player that remembered level adjustments for specific files. However, for things like Mixtapes where the tracks come from different sources they may be useful. The problem for me is, how can the normalizer know whether the track is supposed to be soft, or is just encoded at a low level.
Specialty: Identify Files
I can't figure out why an artist or label would give out free sample tracks without properly tagging them--Especially the URL in the ID3v2 tag! Isn't the whole idea to promote the artist? More often than not though, the samples lack accurate tags.
MusicBrainz uses acoustic fingerprints to identify songs. A Windows client is currently available. If you're satisfied with the identification, the MusicBrainz tagger will update the tags and rename the file for you (rename can be turned off). At one time, everything eMusic ripped went into MusicBrainz. I don't know if this is still the case.
Specialty: Rip from Vinyl
There's more to getting sound from your Glorious Vinyl into your computer than plugging your turntable into your sound card. Even if you're a fanatic about caring for your Vinyl, you're bound to have disks that need a few clicks cleaned up. I've got stacks of 45's I bought used. These need first to be cleaned with harsh chemicals, then with software. While wave editors usually have some kind of click and pop filter, there are specialized tools that are equipped with an armada of filters. These can sometimes pull out sound that is literally burried in noise (i.e. when you play the unfiltered audio, all you hear is noise).
I have some out of print vinyl I'm planning to rip soon. I'll post the details after I do a few. There is a bit of discussion now in the replies.
Specialty: Autorun Players
These let you make MP3 CDs that play automatically when you put them in a computer (Windows). These are standalone players that don't need to be installed, although most rely on Windows having the MP3 Codec.
MP3 Autorun -- This computer needs to have the MP3 codec. Freeware. (from website) No .ini or playlist files are needed. On startup Mp3 Autorun scans all subfolders for *.mp3, and assigns these folders to Albums. If the file,(*front*.jpg/bmp) or (*frt*.jpg/bmp) exists anywhere in the path, it loads and displays this as the Album Cover. It can also link the Album cover bmp to the desktop wallpaper.
Specialty: Stream Rippers
'Streaming' is nothing but smoke and mirrors. All it means is, the player throws the data away after it plays it. Naturally the server has to supply the data fast enough but that is true of local files too. The only thing that stops the player from saving the stream is a propriatary audio (or A/V) format that requires a special player with no save function provided. But the proprietary formats don't stay secret very long. This is one reason Real Player is up around version 9. The new formats aren't necessarly better, but they do break the rippers--for a while.
Zinf will save the MP3s it streams. This is handy for previews.
winAMP has a plug-in.
GetASFStream - Microsoft thoughtlessly does not allow you to save ASF streams. This program will retrieve them for you.
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