Hobbies

[mangocrazy]

@roadster & @mangocrazy how do you digitise the music? I have far too many CDs, especially for the size of the apartment!

I'd really like to find a way to digitise all of it (maybe taking out some duplications - I was given a LOT of rock n roll CDs, so can guarantee some duplications in there!!) but also to be able to link it to something to play it easily

If you've just got CDs, it's a lot easier as you're not digitising (CDs are by their very nature digital), you're just ripping the content to a different file format (generally speaking MP3 or WAV, although there are loads of others).

I have used Audigrabber for the last 15 or 20 years and it does all I want. It's free and available here: https://www.audiograbber.org/

Depending on how many CDs you have to rip and what level of quality you want, you'll need a hard disk on your PC/laptop that has enough spare capacity. WAV files are much better quality, but also many times larger than the same CD compressed to MP3. Once the files are on your PC/laptop, use something like VLC to play them. VLC is far superior to Microsoft's crappy offerings (Media Player etc.) and it's also free and support just about every audio and video format known to man or beast. Get it here: https://www.videolan.org/

Any questions (and I'm sure there will be), just ask...

[Greenman]

Used to be well into my cricket but haven't played for about 8 years now after i fucked my back up, funnily enough when playing cricket!

Music - Collecting Vinyl and CD's - think i have about 1700 records now!
Music Production
DJ'ing
Snooker/Pool - Might start playing in a league again soon
Darts - Just pissing around with mates playing Killer mainly
Drinking copious amounts of Cider and Craft Ale (Stouts mainly)
Cars
Wanking

The usual really...

[Greenman]

Now I've remembered - it's the album artwork for 'Unreasonable Behaviour', by Laurent Garnier:

That has always been one of my fav ever albums.

[Greenman]

No, I don't have any hobbies, unless loafing about whilst guzzling wine counts! To be fair ive been in varying stages of disability with my knees over the last 6 or 7 years , so only just getting back into things liek dog walking again. I hope to return to cycling too. But thats it.

Kinda strange really as my Dad and Grandad were good amateur artists, but I've struggled to follow that. I did try taking commissions for pet portraits but the business hasn't taken off, strangely. Here's a couple of efforts that I didn't get paid for!

Those (truly excellent) pet portraits reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite think what.

Now I've remembered - it's the album artwork for 'Unreasonable Behaviour', by Laurent Garnier:



LG_UB.jpg

Music is another hobby of mine. Listening, anyway. I once say Laurent Garnier play a 12 hour set.

I watched an interview with LG last week with him saying he prefers to play the longer 8-12 hour sets as he finds he can get across his own personal journey to the listener/crowd a lot better than just smashing out a 1 hour set of just 1 genre. He tends to bend into techno/breaks/jazz etc so i can see where he is coming from, not really any of his albums sound the same!

[Greenman]

I've just realised this is an old thread and i have said all of this before...doh!

Up's the post count i suppose!

[roadster]

At the risk of repeating what I might have already said this is how I transfer CD tracks into wav files by computer.

Foobar 2000 free software player has extensive conversion capabilities.

Firstly the tracks from the CD are opened in a new playlist.

Then the metadata fields are populated with track and album and artist details using the foobar tool which grabs the information from an on line database. In 99% of cases the information is found automatically or by searching on artist and album title and all tracks are simultaneously updated.

Then finally the foobar conversion tool is used to save the tracks in my preferred folder structure which is artist/album title/[track number]-[track title].wav. The conversion tool will save the metadata in wav files just by ticking the appropriate option. It is important that the track number uses a leading 0 to pad out the first two characters to exactly two digits so that sorting works on the computer.

This does require the computer to have a CD/DVD/Bluray disk player but it is possible to use one that plugs in to a USB socket.

[Greenman]

At the risk of repeating what I might have already said this is how I transfer CD tracks into wav files by computer.

Foobar 2000 free software player has extensive conversion capabilities.

Firstly the tracks from the CD are opened in a new playlist.

Then the metadata fields are populated with track and album and artist details using the foobar tool which grabs the information from an on line database. In 99% of cases the information is found automatically or by searching on artist and album title and all tracks are simultaneously updated.

Then finally the foobar conversion tool is used to save the tracks in my preferred folder structure which is artist/album title/[track number]-[track title].wav. The conversion tool will save the metadata in wav files just by ticking the appropriate option. It is important that the track number uses a leading 0 to pad out the first two characters to exactly two digits so that sorting works on the computer.

This does require the computer to have a CD/DVD/Bluray disk player but it is possible to use one that plugs in to a USB socket.

I just whack the CD into media player and rip it to a saved folder!

[Slenver]

At the risk of repeating what I might have already said this is how I transfer CD tracks into wav files by computer.

Foobar 2000 free software player has extensive conversion capabilities.

Firstly the tracks from the CD are opened in a new playlist.

Then the metadata fields are populated with track and album and artist details using the foobar tool which grabs the information from an on line database. In 99% of cases the information is found automatically or by searching on artist and album title and all tracks are simultaneously updated.

Then finally the foobar conversion tool is used to save the tracks in my preferred folder structure which is artist/album title/[track number]-[track title].wav. The conversion tool will save the metadata in wav files just by ticking the appropriate option. It is important that the track number uses a leading 0 to pad out the first two characters to exactly two digits so that sorting works on the computer.

This does require the computer to have a CD/DVD/Bluray disk player but it is possible to use one that plugs in to a USB socket.

Does sound a bit manual!

I ripped my 700 CDs back in the day (twice actually after I accidentally deleted them all once). Just used iTunes, stick in disc, all nicely foldered and ordered with all appropriate metadata. Think I manually added a fair few album covers, but this was probably 20 years ago and online libraries weren't so good then.

It's just reminded me actually to have a tidy up. I mainly just stream stuff now but I do like to keep all my original files losslessly, just in case! iTunes has morphed into 'Music' now and doesn't require a lot of auto-generated library files and stuff, so I've cleaned it all up. Just a folder of music and a single library file. I still use the files for Sonos.

[roadster]

Does sound a bit manual!

If that sounds manual I won't bore you with the care I take when digitising vinyl, that's a whole other level of fanaticism starting with a master recording at at a 384KHz sample rate!

[mangocrazy]

Does sound a bit manual!

If that sounds manual I won't bore you with the care I take when digitising vinyl, that's a whole other level of fanaticism starting with a master recording at at a 384KHz sample rate!

I did think of going for max possible sample rate when digitising vinyl, but then reflected on the fact that I've got advanced hearing loss (riding bikes between mid 60s and mid 80s without earplugs, rock gigs, working in noisy computer rooms/data halls for 20 years) and figured that it would be wasted, as when tested a few years ago I couldn't hear anything above 7kHz. Also, file sizes get positively humunguous...

[Count Steer]

An old acquaintance (serious hi-fi nut) reckoned he could rip CDs with zero compression (actually with expansion, the file sizes were huge!) using early models of PlayStation - you couldn't do it with later ones. He had amps purpose built and stuff like the biggest available plasma TV with surround sound - he ran the cables for the rear speakers round the outside of the house.

We watched bits of Avatar and it was quite impressive, particularly the flying off and down cliffs.

[Mr. Dazzle]

CDs were probably compressed and (obviously) digitised when they were made though? All feels a bit pointless.

And as mentioned on another thread, if your ears are anything less than perfect it's definitely a bit pointless.

Well, pointless from a sound quality POV anyway. Not pointless if your hobby is messing around with electronics or maintaining neat files

[Count Steer]

CDs were probably compressed and (obviously) digitised when they were made though? All feels a bit pointless.

Swot I thought but he went to some lengths to explain why it worked. The thing is there's probably more data on a CD than gets used because the player actually samples it - something to do with 16 bit/44.1k.

As I say, he was really into it all - used to own a hi-fi shop....went bust.

[Count Steer]

... - he ran the cables for the rear speakers round the outside of the house.

Wasn't there a bloke on VD who did this?

Dunno...but if there was, it definitely wasn't Bill.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I watched a video once of three blokes playing (on a guitar, not recording) the same bit of a Van Halen track while steadily turning the guitar amp voltage down.

They all sat around sagely nodding about how it sounded different/better. The player commented about how it was harder to keep the rhythm when the amp voltage was turned down, as if the amp voltage someone how effects the physics of strings vibrating

I dunno...I suspect you can convince yourself of a lot of bollox. Re: hilltop ECU tunes.

[mangocrazy]

he ran the cables for the rear speakers round the outside of the house.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I decided that connecting two rooms at opposite ends of the house (back living room to upstairs bedroom) using Cat 6 Ethernet would be far easier if I ran the cables outside the house rather than the tiresome alternative of ripping up floorboards and channeling into plaster.

It worked, I'm glad to say.

[Cousin Jack]

I watched a video once of three blokes playing (on a guitar, not recording) the same bit of a Van Halen track while steadily turning the guitar amp voltage down.

They all sat around sagely nodding about how it sounded different/better. The player commented about how it was harder to keep the rhythm when the amp voltage was turned down, as if the amp voltage someone how effects the physics of strings vibrating

I dunno...I suspect you can convince yourself of a lot of bollox. Re: hilltop ECU tunes.

Back in the day much bollox surround speaker cables. Braided cables of humongous cross section were required, made from oxygen free copper. When I learned stuff for telecoms braided cables were the solution to the skin effect which doesn't become significant until way above audio.

This was combined with an insistance that the 3db points for audio amps should be in the 200 kHz region. I have yet to meet anyone who can hear 200 kHz.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Beats staring at the wall though I guess, and this is the hobbies thread.

[Count Steer]

I watched a video once of three blokes playing (on a guitar, not recording) the same bit of a Van Halen track while steadily turning the guitar amp voltage down.

They all sat around sagely nodding about how it sounded different/better. The player commented about how it was harder to keep the rhythm when the amp voltage was turned down, as if the amp voltage someone how effects the physics of strings vibrating

I dunno...I suspect you can convince yourself of a lot of bollox. Re: hilltop ECU tunes.

Music's a funny old world. A couple of the most thrilling recordings I've heard were bootlegs of live performances. Probably done by a bloke with a (decent) portable tape deck under his jacket and a microphone lead down each sleeve. Although, rumour has it my favourite was 'bootlegged' with the cooperation of the band ('Electrif Lycanthrope' - Little Feat).

Some of the old classical recordings, technically not as 'well' recorded as the modern recordings, regularly come out as critics favourites. Back 'in the day' the recording engineer/tonmeister tried to recreate the sound of the concert hall as experienced by an attendee (without the coughs ), now they're music graduate technicians that try to create something that's not concert and not studio. Some of it's very good though.

Overall I guess some listen to the music, some listen to the equipment?

[Count Steer]

This was combined with an insistance that the 3db points for audio amps should be in the 200 kHz region. I have yet to meet anyone who can hear 200 kHz.

My physics is rusty but isn't there something about frequencies beyond our lugs are involved in harmonics/resonances or some such with the frequencies we can hear?

Dunno, I suspect an amp that clipped everything outside the typical hearing range might sound odd?