Music Server

[Ray]

For several years now, I have entertained the idea of replacing our large-ish collection of Vinyl, tapes and CDs with a music server, which is a 'techo" name for a dedicated computer hooked up to the stereo containing all of our music on the hard drive. This has several advantages, not the least of which is the fact that you can leave your precious original records and CDs in their cases where they will not get damaged, but the thing that I like most is that  by using a program like Windows Media Player, you can set up your own Play lists  giving you an almost unending selection of music to suit your mood at the time.

My initial idea was to use a standard computer hidden in the cupboard below with only a small flat screen and mouse on top of the stereo to select playlists using Windows Media Player or a similar program. The bugbear has always been the great big sometimes noisy and unsightly box with all of the associated cables etc. So,...  as tempting as the idea was it has always remained on the back burner,....  until now.

Whilst in Adelaide picking up TLW from her recent trip away I was wandering around Hardly Normal's at Gepps Cross, looking at what is available in flat screen TVs (we presently have an old analog unit which is going to need replacing very shortly with the change over to Digital). I had finished my business, and met up with TLW near the front door where she had been printing copies of her photos taken in WA, as we were about to leave my eye was taken by a display of "Netbooks", on special for $299. These are no more than a mini laptop with a 160Gb hard drive, only lacking a CD drive, which to me was of no consequence as I could download all of my present MP3 collection via a memory stick.

So, I bought one.



Connection was simple with a cord using double ended 3mm stereo jacks plugged into the Headphone Out, and Music Port on the stereo.

In the photo the screen is washed out because of the flash, but you can get an idea of it's compact size and versatility using Media Player or whatever your choice of software. Similarly, using a program such as Audio Grabber, and plugging the same cord into the stereo headphone socket and the Auxiliary Input, I can load music from the stereo directly to the Hard drive.

The next thing is to rip all of our CD and vinyl collection.  So far we have just over 3000 tracks loaded and this takes about 6Gb of disk space, this gives me space for a further 70,000 tracks should I ever have the need.   I don't think so,....

[utegirl70]

Ooooh! Impressive!

My oldest brother has got his ipod linked up to his computer, in his office, and the speakers are situated all through the house. The whole house is stereo sonic!!

I so need to get some speakers for my computer. Blasting iTunes just 'aint the same as blasting the stereo when you've got no speakers.   

[Ray]

Well,... I guess that it is similar in concept to an iPod docking station except that it has almost limitless storage and the screen is big enough to make managing your playlists a lot easier.  Cheap too

[Ray]

I have just found a problem. With Windows media player, it appears that music that I have ripped off my own CDs becomes "protected Content" when I try to transfer it to another computer. What a bummer, Microsoft's answer is to re-rip the original CDs to the new folder which is impossible as these Netbooks have no CD player.

To me this meddling approaches Microsoft interfering in the legitimate use of my own music,...  never mind, there are a dozen programs that allow me to get around it, but it will involve quite a bit of time with each file conversion taking 20 - 30 seconds, about 25 hours worth of unnecessary grief by my working out.

Ahhh well,... I have set up the program to go through my Music folder and just churn away until it's all done.

[Ray]

Riiiiight!,...  with the problem of DRM protected content having been resolved, the next task is to rip all of our CD collection, a somewhat daunting task, as it will mean many hours of sitting here at the 'puta  going through each in turn. DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the protection that stops you from playing tracks that you do not have rights to, a rather stupid concept, as it is so easy to bypass, and so much quicker than having to go onto the Internet and authenticate your files.



Yep,  it's a messy business, not to mention the dust that shows up on my desk top,... I must get the maid in.  And Yes, I'm writing this drivel as I'm doing my recording,...  it's actually a good way to fill in time between disks. If you look carefully you can see Audio Grabber running in the top centre of the screen with JamestownEvents behind

Up until this time, I had only ever recorded those tracks that were of interest to me, but with the thought of nearly endless Hard drive space now available (I should have easily enough space to store 50,000 tracks) I thought that it might be a good idea to make a backup of all of our music.

The only problem is going to be having multiple copies of many songs.  As you are no doubt aware, many tracks are bought out by groups on several "Collections" not to mention cover versions by other groups, to go through and delete the unwanted copies would be a mammoth task, as each track would need to be looked t in detail to ascertain which was the copy that you actually wanted to keep. Soooo,... being inclined to laziness, with odd and occasional flashes of mind blowing logic, I have decided to keep them all, as we do in our record and CD collections. Maybe I will be forced to look at it again later should I ever look like running out of storage space, but with my laziness coming to the fore and the availability of cheap Hard drives, I feel that I will be more inclined to just buy another external hard drive....  Although at this stage I cant see it being necessary having only used about 20Gb of space to store 8,000 tracks,...  so far.

More to follow,...

[utegirl70]

OMG Ray, my OCD is just not letting me see past all that dust under your screen!!  *struggles the urge to grab duster and Mr Sheen*   

[Ray]

The truth is that TLW won't touch anything on my desk, and with all of my renovations going on the dust is everywhere.

Last week, I installed a small fireproof data safe in what used to be the old fireplace in my 'puta room. This meant I had to hop into the back of the fireplace with the air chisel to make a bit of extra depth. Of course  there was dust going in all directions, although I had the Air Conditioner fan going full blast to try and blow the dust up the old chimney, which now terminates in the roof space. It was only partly successful.

I'll describe it all in more detail in the thread on Backing up your data. http://forum.jamestownevents.com/index.php/topic,112.msg2525.html#new

[Ray]

Whilst sitting here, ripping all of our CDs I guess I may as well write a few lines about the process for anyone who may envision doing the same thing one day. I don't say that this is the only way to do it or necessarily the best way, but it has proven to be the method that I prefer for it's simplicity and accuracy.

To rip the tunes off the CDs I use Audio grabber,... a Freebie of course. It is without a doubt the best software for the purpose that i have been able to find.  This is combined with the very handy ability to interact with the online music database "FreeDB"  which will correctly identify your CDs and their contents in a few seconds, which frees you from having to laboriously enter in all of the details, Album Name, Artist,  and individual Track names. It also gives you the ability to specify the Folder where you would like your music saved. It takes an average of 4 minutes to obtain and enter all of the relevant details and rip a CD containing an hour of music to the folder of your choice.

Yeah, I can see the spelling mistake too, and I did correct it after taking the photo. 

And last but not least it saves your music in MP3 format which means that it is not affected by the DRM (Digital Rights Management) Software protection. Which can be a real pain in the "you know where", requiring you to go online and re authenticate your music every time something happens, whether it be a change of computers or as often happens it just makes up it's mind to have you re-authenticate your ownership.

[Ray]

Last might at about 6:30 I finished ripping the last of our CDs and now have 14Gb of files as MP3s (4,427 unique files). This is going to form the basis of my "new" collection, as my "old" collection contained a squillion files (8000+) from "other sources" and they were all over the place like a mad woman's footprints. They were recorded at all sorts of bit rates, and the filenames often left a lot to be desired, as I want to import them all into Media Monkey so that I can sort them out and get rid of dodgy files and duplicate copies.  This is going to be a long and frustrating job as there is a lot of "good stuff' in there so I can't get too heavy handed with the Delete function.

When I get frustrated with that, I have well over a hundred LPs to copy off. This process is much, much slower, as each record has to be played and all of the data, File names, Artists, Dates and Album Names etc., has to be entered by hand. I remind you that I am only a two finger, hunt and peck typist,......

Sooo,.... before I start, and after Utegirl's deeply cutting and hurtful comments about the state of my desktop, I have decided to have a clean up and make some room for the record player. This will take days, as no doubt as I mine down through the layers of  "stuff" on my desk I will find unfinished projects and odds and ends that just can't be thrown out. Being very aware of my own shortcomings, I know that this will divert my attention from the task at hand. I think I might start by bringing the Wheelie Bin straight into my computer room, as it will save a lot of walking.

It is only 7:15am here, and I have resolved to start right after Breaky, I could be gone for days, but will tell TLW what I am up to, in case she needs to mount a search party to find me.

[utegirl70]

Sooo,.... before I start, and after Utegirl's deeply cutting and hurtful comments about the state of my desktop, I have decided to have a clean up and make some room for the record player. This will take days, as no doubt as I mine down through the layers of  "stuff" on my desk I will find unfinished projects and odds and ends that just can't be thrown out. Being very aware of my own shortcomings, I know that this will divert my attention from the task at hand. I think I might start by bringing the Wheelie Bin straight into my computer room, as it will save a lot of walking.

It is only 7:15am here, and I have resolved to start right after Breaky, I could be gone for days, but will tell TLW what I am up to, in case she needs to mount a search party to find me.

My work here is done...

 

[Ray]

Mmmmm,... my desk smells all nice, like a freshly peeled orange now, the maid insisted on using her poofy furniture polish. The only problem now will be that it's now so slippery that my elbows will slide off and I'll prolly hit my chin on the edge knocking out a tooth or sumfin'.

[utegirl70]

Photo's pleeeeeeeeeeeeaze!

[Ray]

Damn!....

Well here is the maid checkin' behind the screen for dead animals, old car bodies 'n' stuff, just after I had just bulldozed all of the papers into the bin.

This was after I had finished,... she said I'd never done it properly and then she insisted on making me actually lift everything off my desk while she went dust hunting. It was a very successful hunt from what she told me, and told me, and told me. ........  I never knew that there was an echo in this room, it must be as a result of all the cleaning

Don't even ask about the wires, I have tried several methods of getting them out of the way, but in the end I find that it's easier just to leave them where they are.

[utegirl70]

HA,HA,HA,HA...good on her.   

Lookin' good now Ray.

[Ray]

HA,HA,HA,HA...good on her.  

Lookin' good now Ray.

Looks may be really nice, but it's not helping me much with my task. So far i have 6,784 tracks on my new server, the biggest problem being to get all of the file names and Track names into the same format.

I don't know if you have ever looked closely at the file names of your music, but depending on which software you use to rip it and/or play it, it can be displayed in at least three different  formats that I have come across.

(1) <Track Number><Artist>-<File Name>
(2) <Artist>-<File Name>
(3) <File Name>

This is even more confusing when you find out that the displayed Track Name is sometimes different to the File Name,.... Yep, it does happen, believe me, I have found several instances of it so far.

All of this can be very annoying when you are  searching for a particular track, as you have to search for all three possible formats wasting a lot of time. Fortunately, there is a particular piece of software, that is a lot easier than doing each file individually, unfortunately it is not Freeware. It is called Media Monkey and it does give you an extraordinary amount of methods of both sorting and altering the information associated with music files. It does require some degree of learning, but is well worth the time spent.

I am still looking for rogue files that do not conform to my system, but I feel that I am well on the way to success with just a few odd files that will have to be edited manually. Files with peculiar naming conventions, e.g. those starting with punctuation symbols like,  (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66, by Nat King Cole. There are others that have a space before them which messes up your sorting, all manner of weird and wonderful things.

Once I have all of my music sorted into a new Folder, I will be making a backup of it, and then deleting all of my other Folders and Music Files before reinstalling it into one folder, (My Music).

Hopefully I will never have to do this again it is an absolutely mind numbing task.