Audio

Computer: Musik: Vinyl LPs digitized and uploaded to iTunes Match

dkracht

Gehört zu: Audio
Siehe auch: MP3, iTunes,  Digitize CDs

Musik: Vinyl LPs digitized and uploaded to iTunes Match

I already have converted all my od Vinyl LP records to MP3 – his has been done by a service from the German AWO.

Problems with these MP3 audio files:

  • They are properly named, but they do not have MP3 tags
  • The quality is sometimes not that good

The idea is to put them into my iTunes Library and go through the process of iTunes Match in order to replace most of them without costs by high quality AAC audio files from the iTunes Store.

In order to do this and gain all the advantages from iTunes Match two things are necessary:

  • Put these old MP3 files in exactly the folder structure that I use for my iTunes, as the eventually replaced and better AAC files will be downloaded from the cloud into that folder structure i.e. Folder “Artist” –> Folder “Album” –> Audio file (with filename = song title)
  • Create ID3 tags with “Artist”, “Album” and “Title”, as iTunes Match will use these when downloading from the cloud and iTunes Match will not use the tags contained in their AAC audio files (take special care if “Album Artist” ist used)

Creating ID3 Tags with MP3Tag

After I have put my MP3 audio files into folders by Arstist and sub-folders by Album, it’s easy to create the ID3 tags with the excellent software tool MP3Tag:

  • Navigate to a album folder
  • select all files in that folder
  • enter artist name and album name once for all the songs and save.
  • Click “Convert” in the menu bar and choose “Filename – Tag” with a “Format String” of “%skip% %title%”

Copy the MP3 files to my local iTunes Library

xxxx

iCloudStatus =

  • Waiting,
  • Uploaded
  • Matched
  • Duplicate

KInd = …..

  • Matched AAC Audio File
  • MPEG Audio File
  • …..

 

Computer: Independent Mangement of my Music and Playlists

dkracht

Gehört zu: Audio
Siehe auch: Airport Express , MusicBee

How I organize my songs and playlists

My Playlists (Audio) are in part very valuable for me and I want to keep them for long time periods (10 years and more).

Therefore I decided years ago to keep my playlists independently from any music player software (Winamp, iTunes, Songbird) in separate M3U files.

All my songs I keep in a single folder with sub-folders by artist – and sometimes by album as well. That “Song Folder” resides on a NAS storage (QNAP, Synology).

My M3U playlists are placed in the root of my “Song Folder”. In order to by able to easily move the “Song Folder” to some new place when the neccessity arises over time, I use relative paths within my M3U playlists.

Over time I did use different music playing software. At the moment I use iTunes. Consequently, player software must have the ability to import M3U playlists, as iTunes does (Menu: File – Library – Import Playlist…)

Checking and Fixing of my Playlists

Playlist Creator 3.6.2

When I for some reason started to rearrange the file structure of my songs (did that last time because of iTunes Match), some songs in my M3U playlists pointed to non existing files – aka “broken links”.

In the past I used “Playlist Creator 3.6.2” to fix this. With this wonderfull piece of software I can open such a M3U playlist and Playlist Creator immediately displays the playlist with the “broken” song entries marked in red. Great!

I then used to go into my file explorer and look there for the new place where that “lost sheep” may be (reasons could be I have moved the song into a sub-folder or I have changed the spelling of the song’s filename or….).. Once I have found the song file, I easily could move that from the file editor into the playlist by drag and drop.

So far so good.

Problem with Playlist Creator was: it does not support audio files in Apples m4a format – meaning I could not drag-and-drop such files into playlists. But I now have more and more such files from Apples wonderful iTunes Match service that I started to use in 2012.

listFix()

Searching the internet for a tool simmilar to Playlist Creator, but able to use m4a files within playlists, I found listFix()

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/listfix/index.php?title=Main_Page

listFix() solves my original problem (support of m4a files) and adds an additional benefit:: When I right click on a “broken link” song in a playlist, the menue offers a “Find Closest Matches”. ListFix() then searches the entire Musik Folder and offers a little list of songs with equal or simmilar file names / file paths. I can click on my choice and voila, my playlist is fixed.

Further Thoughts: Media Library

So I finally found a solution to fix the “dis-order” in my playlists. But wouldn’t it be much better just to avoid such a “dis-oder”?

The root cause of this kind of problem is my choice of M3U playlists for long-time storage. In M3U playlists the physical path and file name is stored. If that path/file name ever changes in the future, I have to repair it, very often in multiple places, since one song often appears in more than one playlist.

Idea: Use a database oriented software as a Media Library (song library) , were a can rename song files or move song files into other folders within that Software, in order to allow that software to keep track of my changes and to reflect them automatically in all impacted playlists. Leaving the ultimate possibility to export such “managed playlists” to static M3U playlists at whish – may be for long-time archiving.

When time permits, I will look at: (my short list) for such a database feature::

  • iTunes
  • CoolPlayer
  • Foobar2000
  • MusicBee        ——————  My third try    —– decided to use it
  • MediaMonkey —————— My second try — work in progress
  • Helium Music Manager: —– My fist try ——- looks quite good for my purpose
  • Musik Cube

Helium Music Manager

  • Backend is a database  <——-  SQL Express —– MySQL —- MS Access
  • Yes, m4a files can be dragged and dropped on playlists
  • Yes, I can import my existing M3U playlists
  • Yes, I can export my Helium playlists again to independent M3U playlists
  • Yes, I can rename music files within Helium and Helium updates all affected playlists accordingly

MediaMonkey

  • Backend is a SQLite database
  • …. tests next weekend….

MusicBee

Computer: Audio Streaming with iTunes and Apple Airport Express

dkracht

Gehört zu:  Computer Audio
Siehe auch:  Apple, iTunes, Google Fotos
Benutzt:  Fotos von Google Drive

Stand: 29.09.2021

Audio Streaming mit Apple Airport Express

A colleague of mine impressed me with claiming he can play all of his music in all the rooms of his home. The key ingredient of his solution being Apple Airport Expess devices:

Abbildung 1: Apple Airport Express (Google Drive: AppleAirportExpress.jpg)

Apple AirportExpress

He has one Airport Express device in each room and connects the audio jack of the airport express device with the existing stereo equipment in that room (I would use active speakers instead).

This solution requires in addition:

  • to connect each Airport Express device via cable (or Wi-Fi) to the Ethernet LAN at home
  • a Computer (Windows, Mac) in the LAN,  runnig iTunes as a streaming server
  • an Apple ID

My Usage Scenarios

My Scenario 1: Streaming Audio Client in Hardware only

The device is a very small streaming audio client in hardware, needing no additional computer/tablet with a software streaming client. It’s really a small hardware-only solution audio player, which can directly connected to (active) speakers. The streaming protocol is the Apple proprietory AirPlay.

In that it has some paralells with my old Roku Sound Bridge.

My Scenario 2: Mobile Wireless Access Point

If you need a wirless access point (say in a hotel room) and have an Ethernet cable connextion to the internet only, plug the Ethernet cable into the Airport Express and voilà, you have your WLAN.

Bottom Line

  • Scenario 1 (use as a smal hareware-only streaming client):  Works excellent
  • Scenario 2 (use as a mobile WLAN access point: not yet testet

Step 1: Configure iTunes for Streaming your Songs

iTunes can stream all the contets of the iTumes library to Apple devices in your LAN like:

  • Airport Express devices with “AirTunes” activated
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Non-Apple devices …???

You can easily test such a steaming iTunes server with your iPhone (assuming you do not have Airport Express in the beginning).

Configuration of iTunes: Home Sharing:

  • Use iTunes 10
  • Menu: Advanced –> Turn on Home Sharing
  • Enter your Apple ID  (consider to use that of your iPhone)
  • Click on “Create Home Share”
  • Remember/Revise the name of your iTunes library  (menu –> edit –> preferences –> general –> Library  Name)

Test iTunes streaming with your iPhone

I am using iMatch/ iCloud on my iPhone, but when staying at home “Home Sharing” (= Audio Steaming) gives be access to all my content in the iTunes library regardless of the storage capacity of my iPhone (since iMatch does not stream).

Setting up the iPhone as a streaming client for the iTUnes streming server:

  • Use the same Apple ID on the iPhone:
    • Tap on “Settings”
    • Scroll to “Music” an tap on it
    • Scroll down to “Home Sharing” and enter Apple ID an password (if not already there)
  • Coinfigure your “Music” App
    • Tap on the “Music” App
    • at the bottom right tap on “More” (the three dots)
    • Scroll down to “Shared” (with a little house symbol)
    • Select the iTunes libraby by its name, that you previously have prepared  for streaming (=”home share”)

Now that you have prooven that your iTunes really wors as a streaming adio server in your LAN, you are ready to try other steaming clients like Airport Express with AirTunes……

Step 2: Configure Airport Express as a Streaming Client

First you have to buy a Airport Express device. Browsing through the information presented on “Airport Express” is absolutely confusing, if you have no previous knowledge. Even a lot of different names are in use in order to describe (or confuse?) the reader.

What really is:

  • Apple Airport
  • Airport Express
  • Airport Espress Basis
  • Airport Express Base Station  (contains a streming client)
  • Airport Extreme Base Station
  • Time Machine
  • Time Capsule
  • Airport Express Base Station 802.11n
  • AirTunes
  • AirPlay (seems to be a propietory streming protocol)

…what is all this stuff for…?  If there is a “Base Station” are the “Non-Base Stations” also…?

May be this helps: http://www.apple.com/support/airport

I guess what I need to start with is a device called “Airport Express Base Station with 802.11n”.

This Airort Express device has to be connected to:

  • 220V power by pluging it into a normal power outlet (that should be close to an Ethernet and cluse to your stereo amplifier)
  • to your existing LAN
    •  via a Ethernet RJ14 cable to a switch, DSL-Modem or exisitent Ethernet plug in the room
    • or via WLAN  (Wi-Fi)

The Airport Express device now offers three services:

  • Wireless Access Point  (not used for my purpose of streaming)
  • USB  to connect a printer, an external disk etc. – USB-Speakers are not supporrted – (not used for my purose of streaming)
  • 3.5 mm audio jack (with optical-digital audio) – use this to connect the device with the stereo amplifyer or with active speakers.

Step 3: Remote Control for iTunes Streaming

In order to really enjoy such a technical solution, you need a Remote Control to select songs an playlist on your iTunes streaming server — like perhaps an iPhone App….

Non-Apple AirPlay Destinations

http://lifehacker.com/5802958/how-to-make-your-entire-home-airplay+compatible

Streaming to Android:

If you’d like to stream music to music on your Android phone, a simple app calledAirBubble will set it up as an AirPlay destination. Just install the app (you’ll need to make sure “Unknown Sources” is checked under Android’s Settings > Applications), start it up, and you’ll see “AirBubble” show up as an AirPlay destination in iTunes, iOS, and other streaming devices. You can then stream that music right to your phone as you would to anything else. Sadly, it does not stream video at this time.

Active Speakers

X-mini

From my last vacations I have “the smallest active speaker of the world”:X-mini™ v1.1 Capsule Speaker™. It gets its power from a built-in battery and/or via a USB cable which nicely can be plugged into the USB of the Airport Express.

Abbildung 2: X-mini Capsule Speaker (Google Drive: x-mini-322633.jpg)

x-mini Capsule Speaker

With this tiny active speaker I could well test my AirTunes Express device in different location in my flat – especially whether the cableless connection via Wi-Fi (WLAN) to my LAN is stable.

http://www.x-mini.com/products-detail.aspx?sid=4

Bose Speakers at my TV Set

xxx

 

 

Musik: Innovationspreis an Fraunhofer-Forscher für MP3-Technik

dkracht

Gehört zu: Audio
Siehe auch: AudioCodecs

Innovationspreis an Fraunhofer-Forscher für MP3-Technik

(Meldung vom 12.10.1999)

Martin Dietz und Otto Witte sind mit dem diesjährigen Georg-Waeber-Innovationspreis ausgezeichnet worden. Sie haben gemeinsam die technischen Voraussetzungen für Geräte entwickelt, die digital gespeicherte Musik wiedergeben können.

Martin Dietz, Leiter der Abteilung Audio am Erlanger Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS-A, entwickelte Software für den ersten »single chip« Decoder, ein Computerbaustein, der mit dem Codierverfahren ISO/MPEG Layer 3 – kurz »mp3« – komprimierte Audiodaten wieder hörbar macht.

Otto Witte, Concept-Ingenieur bei der Freiburger Firma Micronas/Intermetall, entwarf die passende Hardware, den ensprechen-den Chip. Beides steckt beispielsweise in den kleinen, handlichen Abspielgeräten für digitale Musik, die unter den Namen wie »Rio« oder »MPMan« seit dem letzten Jahr in Deutschland auf dem Markt sind, oder in Empfängern für digitalen Rundfunk.

Die Nachfrage nach den zigarettenschachtelgroßen Abspielgeräten wuchs, seit das am Fraunhofer-Institut entwickelte Audiocodierverfahren mp3 und die Verbreitung von Demo-Software die Übertragung von Musikstücken via Internet möglich macht. Die Verbreitung illegaler Raubkopien hat in den letzten Monaten zu heftigen Auseinandersetzungen in der Musikindustrie geführt. Das Verfahren ist aber auch die Grundlage für digitale Rundfunksysteme wie das »WorldSpace« Satellitenradio.

Der Georg-Waeber-Innovationspreis wurde 1995 vom Förderkreis für die Mikroelektronik gestiftet, einem Verbund aus Forschungseinrichtungen, Wirtschaftsunternehmen und der Industrie- und Handelskammer Nürnberg.

[Quelle: aw, Fraunhofer-Institut]

Computer: InternetRadio (aus Wiki)

dkracht

Gehört zu: Audio-Software
Siehe auch: Podcasting, MediaLibrary, COWON Q5W, iPod

Internet-Radio (aus Wiki)

Ist scheint doppelt zu sein???

Über das Internet Radiosender live zu hören, das ist heuzutage ganz einfach möglich. Die Technik heisst Streaming Audio oder um das Internet mit ins Spiel zu bringen: WebRadio bzw. InternetRadio.

Es gibt mehrere konkurriernde Systeme:

Dass überhaupt eine annehmbare Tonqualität zu Stande kommt, liegt an den Komprimierungtechniken. Komprimierung mit MP3 oder auch RealAudio ergibt bei Übertragungsraten von 44 Kbit/s schon einen ordendlichen Klang. Einfachere Sendungen werden mit 32 Kbit/s oder noch weniger übertragen, bei breitbandigem InternetZugang (z.B. DSL) kommt man gut auf 128 kBit/s, was entkomprimiert (1:11) an die CompactDisk-Qualität von 176,4 kByte/s herankommt.

Als Software zum hören von Streaming Audio (Internet Radio) gibt es sehr viel für die Windows-Platform und auch für Android- und iOS-Geräte (SmartPhones, Tablets). Sehr oft gelobt werden:

 Meine Anforderungen

  • Das Gerät soll schön klein sein, damit man es von Raum zu Raum tragen kann
  • Das Gerät soll einen eingebauten Laufsprecher haben, damit man auch mal ohne “große” HiFi-Speaker, schnell mal was hören kann
  • Es müssen unbedingt folgende Sender empfangbar sein:
    • NDR Info
    • Spreeradio
    • Mallorca Inselradio
    • ..

 Meine Favorites

 Meine Shortlist: Hardware

 Meine Bewertung der Software-Lösungen für Windows

Tabelle 1: Meine Bewertung

Eingenschaft iTunes MAGIX JetAudio
MP3 spielen Ja Ja Ja Ja
WMA spielen Nein Ja Ja Ja
Stationsliste importieren Ja Nein Ja XML-Datei
Stationsliste exportieren  ? Nein  ? XML-Datei
WebRadio Recording Nein Ja Nein Ja

Meine Bewertung der Software-Lösungen für Android

xyz

Meine Bewertung der Software-Lösungen für iOS

xyz

Sammelangebote von Sendern

Sender speichen als Playlist

 MP3 WinAmp 

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Rockantenne
http://mp3.webradio.rockantenne.de:80
#EXTINF:-1, Inselradio Mallorca - Das Inselradio 95,8 FM


#EXTINF:-1, Radiostream von Eins Live 


#EXTINF:-1, MDR Sputnik MP3
http://62.146.66.24/3087mdr_sputnik_live.mp3
#EXTINF:-1, Oldie Radio Berlin
http://www.oldiestar.de/oldie.asx
#EXTINF:-1,Radio VHR Europe
http://www.radio-vhr.de/europe.asx
EXTINF:-1,Klassik Radio

 MicrosoftMediaPlayer 

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
   <head>
      <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 9.0.0.3250"/>
      <author/>
      <title>Internet Radio SWR3</title>
   </head>
   <body>
      <seq>
         <media src="http://lsd.newmedia.tiscali-business.com/bb/redirect.lsc?stream=swr3$livestream.wma&content=live&media=ms"/>
      </seq>
   </body>
</smil>

 RealPlayer 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<smil>  
   <body> 
      <seq>	
         <audio src="rtsp://stream1.rbb-online.de/broadcast/antenne-live.ra"/>	
      </seq>
   </body>
</smil>

 Einige Sender

Die deutschen Rundfunkanstalten benutzen gerne das grundsolide (und etwas teurere RealAudio-Format), während viele kleine amerikanische Stationen MP3 streamen.

Siehe auch: http://mypage.bluewin.ch/a-z/cusipage/liveradio2.html

Tabelle 2: Einige Sender

Sender Format URL
104.6 RTL Live Real http://lsd.newmedia.tiscali-business.com/bb/redirect.lsc?adid=1001&content=live&media=rm&stream=rtl1046/rtllive.rm
Deutschlandfunk MP3 http://www.dradio.de/streaming/dlf.ram http://www.dradio.de/streaming/dlf.m3u
DeutschlandRadio Berlin Real http://www.dradio.de/streaming/dlr.ram
DRS1 Schweiz Real http://dms-cl-013.skypro-media.net:8080/ramgen/encoder/drs1.rm rtsp://206.165.150.203:554/encoder/drs1.rm?cloakport=8080,554,7070
EinsLive WDR … http://www.wdr.de/wdrlive/media/einslive.smil
NDR 1 Niedersachsen Real http://www.ndr.de/ramgen/live/rnds.rm
NDR 1 Radio MV Real http://www.ndr.de/ramgen/live/rmv.rm
NDR 1 Welle Nord Real http://www.ndr.de/ramgen/live/wn.rm
NDR2 Real http://www.ndr.de/ramgen/live/ndr2.rm
NDR Info Real http://www.ndr.de/ramgen/live/ndrinfo.rm
NDR Kultur Real http://stream.ndr.de/bb/redirect.lsc?stream=ndr/live/ndrkultur.rm&content=live&media=rm
Spreeradio MNS http://cms.streamfarm.net/cms/_vm100/radio/2925spreeradio_live.asx?referer=www.spreeradio.de
Inselradio Mallorca MP3 http://stream.live-inselradio.com:8080/inselradio http://live-inselradio.com:8000/listen.pls
CBC Saskatchewan CBC Radio One … http://sask.cbc.ca/radio/cbcsask.smi
88.5 KCSN Real http://www.kcsn.org/listen/kcsnlofidirect.ram
WNYC FM, New York Public Radio … http://64.202.98.18:80

 Programm-Informationen

— Main.DietrichKracht – 10 Jun 2004