Part 3 - Reconnecting with the collection
To re-cap, the process was
o Identify a file storage location
o Determine media storage type
o Determine filename format
o Transfer CD’s using EAC
o Download albums and tapes using PirateBay and LimeWire
Now the good part after all the effort. MediaMonkey is a great tool for organizing and listening to the music. It can be downloaded, free, from http://www.mediamonkey.com. I’ve been using the tool for a month and barely grasp all the features and functions.
MediaMonkey was recommended by a friend for two important functions: the ability to generate random playlists and the ability to download the playlist to my Blackberry. In order to use my Blackberry I needed to upgrade to MediaMonkey Gold (about $50). The advantage is that it also provides an audio leveling feature to ensure all music in the collection plays at the same volume. This prevents the transition from a really loud song to a really quiet song.
To start, go to the File Menu and select “Add\Rescan Tracks to the Library”. You need to specify the directory where the files are stored. Scanning takes a while.
Album artwork can be added with MediaMonkey to the songs and albums. Here again most album-covers are available online. I used Google image search to find the cover art for my collection. I then copied the artwork to the filename of the album. In MediaMonkey, select a song from each album. Using the right-mouse button, select Properties. In the properties tab there is an album art tab. Add the album art as a tag to the song and apply to all songs on the album. Now when a song is playing, the album cover is displayed.
MediaMonkey provides a function that converts songs from FLAC to mp3 on-the-fly as it transfers music to a Blackberry or other portable player. The music stored on the server maximizes fidelity while the music on the player maximizes convenience, allowing more songs in the same memory space. My Blackberry will store and play about 60 FLAC songs (who knew?) or 160 mp3 songs.
To setup transfers in mp3 format, go to the tools menu and select SYNC DEVICE, then Configure Device. Click on your portable player and select CONFIGURE. In the Auto-Conversion options tab, Select any format above 160kbps to format on device as MP3.
In the ideal, MediaMonkey would generate a random songlist every morning then convert (on the fly) the FLAC songs to mp3 and transfer them to a portable player, like the Blackberry. That’s the last-step in this project. As of this writing, I haven’t discovered how to generate random song lists. It’s easy to play, for example, all the songs which are number 5 on all the albums. Not random, but a different playlist. If you know how to generate random playlists, please share it. Let me know if you’ve had success and what tips work best for you.
As it turns out, technology doesn’t kill the radio-star. It immortalizes them. Thanks to new technology it is now possible to create hours of music that you can take with you everywhere you go. In my case, technology kills the radio. A computer is the DJ that creates the playlist. All I need to do is enjoy it. It’s also providing great exposure to all those b-sides and obscure songs I’d almost forgotten.
Through this project I was able to re-connect with all the music that was important. Now with a strong foundation including dedicated file-server, a music organizer and the ability to transfer portions of the collection to a portable player, I can work on expanding my music collection again. Adding new artists or filling in songs that are missing. Whether I choose to purchase a CD or simply purchase the FLAC files on-line is a decision to be considered.
Please let us know what you’ve done with your music collection and what tools and tips you recommend.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Technology kills the radio star - Part 2 of 3
Part 2 - Recording Music – the time consuming portion
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a shareware tool that transfers music CD’s to FLAC files on your computer. It can be obtained at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de. Refer also to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=30959 for operating instructions. First time through is a bit tricky but it’s easy enough to grasp the basics. Don’t forget to set the filename properties to get the right format.
Albums and tapes aren’t as easy to store digitally since they are analog media, not digital-ready for the computer. Behringer make several products that interface a tape-deck or phonograph to the computer. I explored this briefly but found the audio-capture software awkward (they don’t interface to EAC) and the process very time consuming.
Instead I substituted my albums with albums other people have converted and posted to the internet as bit-torrents for easy download. I found http://thePirateBay.org and LimeWire to be useful tools for this process. The search engine in PirateBay allowed me to search existing FLAC collections for the albums I own. The nice thing about PirateBay is that it doesn’t require registration in order to use and download music. While it’s possible to download thousands of albums, in fairness, limit downloads to the albums you actually own.
Downloading the torrent (FLAC bit-file) through LimeWire allows access to other people’s computers to transfer music. I worry that if I can see their files, they can probably see mine too and so exercise care and caution. Every dozen albums or so I scanned my computer for viruses just to be on the safe side. After the scan I would change the filenames (usually necessary) and move the music to my file server instead of the LimeWire default directory. This prevented my computer from being an alternative source or super server which is something I don’t understand but assume it can’t be good.
As of this writing, 75% of my music has been transferred. Some obscure music, like Eric Clapton’s Backless album and John Mayall without the Blues Breakers are difficult to find. I have an album crate of the albums I couldn’t find on PirateBay. This will probably require the Behringer unit in order to manually convert them.
Got some tips on using the Behringer USB Audio Interface, please leave them in the comment section.
Next step – playing music
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a shareware tool that transfers music CD’s to FLAC files on your computer. It can be obtained at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de. Refer also to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=30959 for operating instructions. First time through is a bit tricky but it’s easy enough to grasp the basics. Don’t forget to set the filename properties to get the right format.
Albums and tapes aren’t as easy to store digitally since they are analog media, not digital-ready for the computer. Behringer make several products that interface a tape-deck or phonograph to the computer. I explored this briefly but found the audio-capture software awkward (they don’t interface to EAC) and the process very time consuming.
Instead I substituted my albums with albums other people have converted and posted to the internet as bit-torrents for easy download. I found http://thePirateBay.org and LimeWire to be useful tools for this process. The search engine in PirateBay allowed me to search existing FLAC collections for the albums I own. The nice thing about PirateBay is that it doesn’t require registration in order to use and download music. While it’s possible to download thousands of albums, in fairness, limit downloads to the albums you actually own.
Downloading the torrent (FLAC bit-file) through LimeWire allows access to other people’s computers to transfer music. I worry that if I can see their files, they can probably see mine too and so exercise care and caution. Every dozen albums or so I scanned my computer for viruses just to be on the safe side. After the scan I would change the filenames (usually necessary) and move the music to my file server instead of the LimeWire default directory. This prevented my computer from being an alternative source or super server which is something I don’t understand but assume it can’t be good.
As of this writing, 75% of my music has been transferred. Some obscure music, like Eric Clapton’s Backless album and John Mayall without the Blues Breakers are difficult to find. I have an album crate of the albums I couldn’t find on PirateBay. This will probably require the Behringer unit in order to manually convert them.
Got some tips on using the Behringer USB Audio Interface, please leave them in the comment section.
Next step – playing music
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Technology kills the radio star - Part 1 of 3
Part 1 of a 3 part series describing how to create a portable digital music library from CD's, records and cassette tapes
In 1979, The Buggles proclaimed that “video killed the radio star”. It turns out video left them mortally wounded. Technology, as described in this three-part series, kills the radio star.
Music is a luxury many people enjoy. Music lifts spirits, accentuates sorrow, and makes us laugh and cry. It gives us pace when we walk, solitude when we wish. With primitive roots, music, for those who appreciate it, is as integral to life as beer.
But what do you do if you can’t access the music that has influenced your life. After a lifetime purchasing and enjoying 45’s in youth, albums starting in teens and then evolving through cassette tapes to CD’s, there is a lot of influential music that doesn’t fit into today’s portable players. The project presented here takes all this music, stores it on a dedicated fileserver and makes it possible to load portions of the collection onto a portable music player.
The solution is possible thanks to a merger of technologies. The three software elements described are Exact Audio Copy (EAC), LimeWire and MediaMonkey. Required hardware includes a computer with a CDROM reader, a large back-up memory and a portable player, like the Blackberry. The biggest decisions are storage format, how to name files as they are stored and where to put the (digital) collection.
There are a lot of music standards available, the most popular being mp3 and iTunes. Speaking with people who have been down this path, FLAC format was recommended. Free-lossless-Audio-Coding (FLAC) is a method for compressing music files. Compression is important because it reduces the total disk-space required to store a song. Lossless is also important because it maintains the audio spectrum required to maximize fidelity. By contrast, mp3 significantly reduces both file size and fidelity. It’s alright for low quality portable players but given the level of effort required to convert a music collection, it’s not a job that wants to be done twice. Do it right the first time and keep the highest quality.
Naming files is a personal decision. I first started downloading music after listening to KFOG’s top 500 songs from A to Z nearly a decade ago. I decided I wanted to be able listen to songs alphabetically. To do this, I start the filename with the song title, then the artist; for example Let it Be – The Beatles. This is a major departure from many people who start with artist, as in The Beatles – Let it Be. In this format, playing songs alphabetically gives all the songs by the same artist. Either format is fine.
Leaving Spaces in filenames isn’t recommended. Some computer operating systems won’t tolerate the space. To avoid this insert an underscore. This changes the filename to Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles. The final consideration involves naming songs on albums. Some albums, like Dark Side of the Moon are structured and flow better in order. How many times have you listened to a song fade and remember what the next song is on the album? To allow albums to be played in order add the track number at the start of the file. The final format I choose looks like this:
06-Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles.flac
Where Let it be is the sixth track on the CD
I organized my collection using file directories. At the top level are the artists: Animals, Barenaked_Ladies, Beach_Boys . . . Within each directory are the files for each album, for example:
o Pink Floyd ->
- Animals
- Dark_Side_of_the_moon
- Ummagumma
- Wish_you_were_here
Within each directory are the filenames for the music, which can be ordered by track number.
Finally a decision needs to be made about storing the music. My modest collection has over 3000 songs so far and occupies over 50GB. I have a Linux server with 300GB available. All files are first downloaded to a laptop and moved to their own segment on the server where it’s easy to perform backups. The other advantage of a server is that I can access the entire collection anywhere on the network.
Another option is an external hard-drive that connects to your computer through the USB port, they are relatively inexpensive and easy to configure.
Next step – Recording music
In 1979, The Buggles proclaimed that “video killed the radio star”. It turns out video left them mortally wounded. Technology, as described in this three-part series, kills the radio star.
Music is a luxury many people enjoy. Music lifts spirits, accentuates sorrow, and makes us laugh and cry. It gives us pace when we walk, solitude when we wish. With primitive roots, music, for those who appreciate it, is as integral to life as beer.
But what do you do if you can’t access the music that has influenced your life. After a lifetime purchasing and enjoying 45’s in youth, albums starting in teens and then evolving through cassette tapes to CD’s, there is a lot of influential music that doesn’t fit into today’s portable players. The project presented here takes all this music, stores it on a dedicated fileserver and makes it possible to load portions of the collection onto a portable music player.
The solution is possible thanks to a merger of technologies. The three software elements described are Exact Audio Copy (EAC), LimeWire and MediaMonkey. Required hardware includes a computer with a CDROM reader, a large back-up memory and a portable player, like the Blackberry. The biggest decisions are storage format, how to name files as they are stored and where to put the (digital) collection.
There are a lot of music standards available, the most popular being mp3 and iTunes. Speaking with people who have been down this path, FLAC format was recommended. Free-lossless-Audio-Coding (FLAC) is a method for compressing music files. Compression is important because it reduces the total disk-space required to store a song. Lossless is also important because it maintains the audio spectrum required to maximize fidelity. By contrast, mp3 significantly reduces both file size and fidelity. It’s alright for low quality portable players but given the level of effort required to convert a music collection, it’s not a job that wants to be done twice. Do it right the first time and keep the highest quality.
Naming files is a personal decision. I first started downloading music after listening to KFOG’s top 500 songs from A to Z nearly a decade ago. I decided I wanted to be able listen to songs alphabetically. To do this, I start the filename with the song title, then the artist; for example Let it Be – The Beatles. This is a major departure from many people who start with artist, as in The Beatles – Let it Be. In this format, playing songs alphabetically gives all the songs by the same artist. Either format is fine.
Leaving Spaces in filenames isn’t recommended. Some computer operating systems won’t tolerate the space. To avoid this insert an underscore. This changes the filename to Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles. The final consideration involves naming songs on albums. Some albums, like Dark Side of the Moon are structured and flow better in order. How many times have you listened to a song fade and remember what the next song is on the album? To allow albums to be played in order add the track number at the start of the file. The final format I choose looks like this:
06-Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles.flac
Where Let it be is the sixth track on the CD
I organized my collection using file directories. At the top level are the artists: Animals, Barenaked_Ladies, Beach_Boys . . . Within each directory are the files for each album, for example:
o Pink Floyd ->
- Animals
- Dark_Side_of_the_moon
- Ummagumma
- Wish_you_were_here
Within each directory are the filenames for the music, which can be ordered by track number.
Finally a decision needs to be made about storing the music. My modest collection has over 3000 songs so far and occupies over 50GB. I have a Linux server with 300GB available. All files are first downloaded to a laptop and moved to their own segment on the server where it’s easy to perform backups. The other advantage of a server is that I can access the entire collection anywhere on the network.
Another option is an external hard-drive that connects to your computer through the USB port, they are relatively inexpensive and easy to configure.
Next step – Recording music
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