[slinkelist] Automated ripping and MP3 encoding of entire jukebox

[Thomas W. Humphrey]

Colby:

I love the "background MP3" idea.  I didn't really want to sell off my
changers, I just didn't see a use for them once the MP3's were created.  Now
you have supplied me with a reason to keep them.

The ripping could be done with separate code that our 'coalition' could
write or use.  All you would need to do in the short term is set up CDJ with
a "background MP3" field.  It would also be nice to have a CDJ device
command to insert a MP3 file name into this field through SlinkX, so we
could insert MP3 names without having to access the library database
directly.

I/we could write code to automatically generate MP3's based on sound card
input and SlinkX events, and then add entries to the library; or, use ID3
tag of the MP3's already on disk, to generate searches of the CDJ library to
find the corresponding CDJ ID, and then insert the MP3 file name to the
appropriate CDJ library entry.

Over the fullness of time, you would have to rewrite your playback function
to play the MP3 if the CD is missing; however, you wouldn't have to do the
rest of the stuff.

What do you say?

Tom.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Colby Boles" <cboles@nirvis.com>
To: "Thomas W. Humphrey" <TWHumphrey@alum.mit.edu>; "Dylan Ginsburg"
<Dylan.Ginsburg@OneSoft.com>; <slinkelist@nirvis.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 2:26 PM
Subject: RE: [slinkelist] Automated ripping and MP3 encoding of entire
jukebox


> With the right soundcard (e.g. the RME Digi96) it is possible to get the
> timcode information from the digital stream and be able to make a precise
> extraction of the track.
>
> The cool thing to do (i don't have time to do it - sorry) would be to rip
> mp3's in the background for everything that is played in CDJ and have a
> hidden field for every CD track which can point to a mirrored mp3 file.
This
> way you make mp3s of all the songs you actually listen to without any
effort
> or any extra time spent. Then CDJ could play either the real CD or the mp3
> depending on the queuing scenario, preferring the CD if it is available
for
> better sound quality.
>
> Colby
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com [mailto:slinkelist-admin@nirvis.com]On
> > Behalf Of Thomas W. Humphrey
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 11:10 AM
> > To: Dylan Ginsburg; slinkelist@nirvis.com
> > Subject: Re: [slinkelist] Automated ripping and MP3 encoding of entire
> > jukebox
> >
> >
> > I have done some experimentation and concluded it is difficult to
> > automatically get the best possible MP3's from even a digital input
sound
> > card receiving digital from a CD player.  There are several
> > reasons for this
> > (1) the sound quality is not perfect since there are imperfections in
the
> > digital stream, which will be recorded forever; (2) it is very
> > difficult to
> > identify the exact start and end of tracks so as to make an MP3
> > with no dead
> > space at the beginning and end.  On the other hand, there are several
> > commercial programs that process the CD through a CD-ROM drive and don't
> > suffer these drawbacks.  For example, Exact Audio Copy is a program that
> > will ensure a perfect copy of a CD by reading every track at
> > least twice to
> > make sure the samples have been read correct, and it will detect when
the
> > time counter reaches zero so you can start the MP3 at the exact
> > beginning of
> > the track.
> >
> > I see nothing lost in having to pass the CD's one by one through
> > the CD-ROM
> > drive since, after you have MP3's for every song and have the MP3's
logged
> > into the CDJ library, there is really no point in having the changer any
> > more.  As I see it, after all of the CD's are in MP3 format, I
> > would remove
> > all of the CD's from the changer and put them back in their
> > boxes, and sell
> > off the changer.  If you buy into this theory, then you will be removing
> > every one of the CD's from the changer anyway, so you might as well pass
> > them through the CD-ROM player as part of this process.
> >
> > What I think is needed, therefore, is a program to scan a
> > directory full of
> > MP3's, and put those not already in the CDJ library into the
> > library, via an
> > automated process.  Presumably, every CD is already in the CDJ library,
in
> > many cases with ratings, notes, lyrics, images, etc.  So all that would
be
> > needed to change over the MP3's would be a C++ program that would
> > match ID3
> > information from the MP3 to the entries in the library and then change
the
> > CD library entry into an entry for the MP3 with all of the information
> > previously collected for the CD.  After moving, say, 10 discs out of the
> > changer, through the CD-ROM drive, and then into its box, you
> > would then run
> > the C++ program to add the created MP3's to the library.
> >
> > I have a list of contacts that I have assembled of people
> > interested in this
> > sort of thing.  I will try to assemble it and post it to the
> > slinkelist and
> > to each member.
> >
> > Tom Humphrey
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>