Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and mp3

Champion Sound

murtagh — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:57:21 -0800

Why does music on my MP3 player sound better with small earphones than with big headphones? I have a Samsung YP-U5 MP3 player. Music on it sounds great when I listen with the earphones that came with the player, but if I connect my large Philips (SHP2000, if it matters) headphones to the player, music sounds quite poor. Why is that?

(There's nothing wrong with the Philips headphones, just to be clear.)

Help me get my digital music from the bedroom to the living room.

iamisaid — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:55:35 -0800

Help me get my digital music collection into the living room, with semi-decent sound quality and without breaking the bank. Recently I decided that I'd really like to be able to listen to my MP3 collection in the living room. I've pretty well given up on CDs and realized that getting a basic stereo system with CD player is no longer practical for me.

Now, I can wirelessly stream my music from the Vista desktop computer in my bedroom over 802.11g using the existing equipment in my living room, which includes:

Olevia 227V LCD TV (linked for input/output info)
Xbox 360 with wireless G adapter
Original modded Xbox with XBMC and wireless B bridge

I have no audio receiver or external speakers in the living room, only the internal speakers of the TV. Therefore, the sound quality is not great. In addition, browsing my MP3 collection with either the 360 or the Xbox is a lot more trouble than it ought to be. I'd really like an interface like Winamp's media library or iTunes.

So, let's assume I want to spend no more than $250 or so on new equipment. What would be the best use of my money to get my collection into the living room with decent audio quality, recognizing that these are lossy MP3s and I'm not exactly an audiophile? Specific brand/model recommendations would be great.

On top of that, are there any music streaming devices (I know Western Digital and many other companies now make them) that would be better suited for streaming music than the Xbox? Or should I stick with using the Xbox (or 360) for the streaming part and just invest in some kind of receiver/speakers?

Help me help her

any portmanteau in a storm — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:29:08 -0800

What mp3 player should my wife get? My wife has wanted an ipod for a while and will probably be buying one in the next week or so. At the moment she's thinking of the 32GB ipod touch over the 16GB nano. The standout feature of the touch over the nano being the ability to surf the net.

The last time I knew anything about portable mp3 players was in 2003 when I bought my 3rd gen ipod (which I still use) so I have no idea if any of the "ipod killers" out there offer compelling alternatives. Archos, Zune, Zen?

Also, being able to use the device in linux would be nice. Not a deal breaker, but nice.

How to fix an mp3 file that doesn't burn to CD in its entirety?

darwesh — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:57:31 -0800

One of my mp3 files does not get burned to CD in its entirety (using Windows Media Player). The actual duration is roughly 53 minutes, and the mp3 plays flawlessly all the way through in WMP, but only around 48 minutes gets burned to the CD. I don't get any errors from WMP when it's burning, but when I play the track on the CD it stops after about 48 minutes and goes on to the next track. I have tried the CD burning three times, so it's unlikely to be a problem with the CDs I used.

Any ideas what could be wrong or how I might go about figuring it out or correcting it? Here's a link to the file. Thanks!

Converting vinyl records to digital files using an existing turntable...

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:14:35 -0800

I like my vinyl records. I want to make digital files out of them. What are my options ... which don't include a new turntable and, preferably but not absolutely, don't require my computer and stereo to be in the same room? I'm on a Mac.

How to physically speed up MP3s for CD burning?

querty — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:28:05 -0800

How can I speed up the tempo of some MP3 files and burn them onto a CD for faster playback? For audio books / podcasts, I play them in Winamp with the Pacemaker plugin setting the tempo 20% ~ 30% faster as I can comprehend much faster speaking.

How can I do this for off-computer use? Specifically, make an MP3 disc to play in my car. I'm sure the MP3 file would have to be physically altered before it is burned onto a CD, so what tools are out there that will do this?

Here is one answer I found on the Winamp forum but it is not a viable solution because some the audio books I have are over 12 hours long.

How do I convert flac to mp3 in Windows?

Pope Guilty — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:24:41 -0800

How can I convert flac files to mp3 in Windows? I'm open to going through some of the more arcane procedures that I've seen around the web that involve multiple programs, but is there a single-step solution for converting from flac to mp3 under Windows?

How do I get my files from Point A to Point B?

reenum — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:10:14 -0800

I need to move several gigs of music files from one external hard drive to another. But, there are a few problems... I have a 250GB WD HD in an enclosure and recently bought a WD Elements 640GB drive. I now want to back up all my music files from the 250GB to the 640GB drive. They total about 33GB.

Problem is, my computers do not have USB 2.0 drives. Every time I begin the backup process, it goes for a while, and then terminates due to an error in writing from the 250GB drive.

Is there an easy way to do this backup?

Make my Nokia sing like my Apple...

trinarian — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:31:08 -0800

Migrating from an iPod to a cellphone... was the awesome surgically removed though? I recently purchased a new Nokia 3600. There's nothing terribly different between it and other non-Symbian not-quite N-series Nokia phones. As my iPod died at the same time as me buying this phone, I've decided to buy a 16gb micro-SD card and use it as my new music player.

The only problem I've found is the headphone-jack sound quality is terrible with some music. It sounds like somebody has neutered all the bass. It sounds the opposite of what I understand the good effects of audio compression to sound like, with all the awesome and power removed. It's not just when I play it off it's tiny speakers, it's when I use the OEM headphones, or a 2.5-to-3.5mm adapter and run it to a pair of good speakers or headphones. If I play something like Neutral Milk Hotel, it sounds fine. If I play something like Tool, it sounds like a 32kbs RealAudio file played over an analog phone line. Changing the EQ doesn't help. The sound starts to bleed at the "high" volume range.

My speculation is that it's the Nokia media software being set to make things sound good on the built-in speakers, but then not adjusting for what they assume will be low-quality OEM earbuds. I haven't successfully been able to use non-OEM software and I'm very open to recommendations.

So, my question for the hive mind, is this a software problem that can be overcome or a hardware issue? Could it be related to fidelity issues of it being a 2.5mm jack instead of 3.5mm? How do I make it sing like my iPod?

"I you love the beat... 'Scream', the new album from Chris Cornell"

XiBe — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:48:45 -0800

Looking for a specific Spotify audio add (Chris Cornell's). Hey, good people.

For a blogpost I'm writing, I would like to be able to play the audio ad for Chris Cornell's "Scream" album (produced by Timbaland).

I'm trying to catch it using Wire Tap, but it seems they have ceased that campaign once I thought of it.

Does anyone have any idea where I could get the mp3 for the full ad?

Thanks a lot for any pointers.

Honey, I Shrunk The MP3s!

lowlife — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:28:10 -0800

Any good libraries for transcoding audio, preferably with a Ruby API? I'm thinking "like ImageMagick, but for audio files." I'm working on a project for the iPhone and iPod Touch (will announce on Projects when it gets approved) that involves the use of MP3 files. For my purposes, I don't need high-quality content - in fact, it'd be better if I could reduce the size of the files in question.

I've written a Ruby on Rails web application to support the iPhone app. Currently it stores MP3s as blobs in the database. I'd like to transcode the MP3s within the Rails app.

My preferred solution would be to have some Ruby code that looked kind of like the following:



def transcoded_audio # returns data for transcoded MP3

  original_audio = AudioFile.new(content_blob)

  original_audio.transcode(:format => 'mp3', :bitrate => 65536) unless original_audio.bitrate <= 65536

end

I've got a funny feeling that I'll have to screw around directly with LAME, but if there's something out there that wraps it nicely, I'd really like to know about it!

Granular volume data from MP3 files?

joe vrrr — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:13:54 -0800

I'm looking for a command-line tool that can return a volume value for specific points of time in an MP3 file. Basically, I need an array of volume values for an MP3 file. Preferably, one value for every 1/30th of a second of audio. The data will be used for visualization, so the values don't have to be extremely accurate or in any particular unit of measurement.

In a perfect world, this would be an open source python-based tool.

Any ideas?

electronica just doesn't do it for me

kidsleepy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:32:30 -0800

How can I create my own Couch to 5K running podcast? I'm starting the Couch to 5K program and I want to make my own podcast/music track to listen to. All I need is to combine some music tracks together into one long mp3 and record some vocal cues at the appropriate times (start running, start walking). What's a simple way to do this? (I'm on a Mac, with iTunes, if it matters)

Making an mp3 from a Youtube video

cashman — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:05:07 -0800

I'm trying to make a high quality mp3 of the first 3:41 of this yt video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWz-x7YMVCk I have bass-increasing headphones and in them the song sounds great. But the mp3 I made is missing all of that. I tried to use audacity and acid to make mp3s of this video that sound good - capture the bass and the song in general. I can't do it without it sounding 'quiet' or alternatively, clipping. Can someone get me a high quality mp3 of this video of Red doing his live beatboxing?

My email's in my profile.

Please help me identify these songs!

monkeyagent — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:02:45 -0800

So I recently came to the end of correcting all the ID3 tags on my massive music collection. The last 14 or so took me more time than I'm willing to admit to track down information on. But I knew at the end which two would remain. I've had these two songs in my collection for at least a decade now, and every time I've tried to find any information on the song titles, artist, or even lyrics, I've turned up nothing. I've tried all kinds of tricks I know for finding even the most obscure information on the internet, but still nothing. As a firm believer that anything which exists can be found on the internet, I find myself troubled that these songs, which clearly exist, apparently do not. Help me out, and try to cure my madness? What info I've gathered thus far:

2 songs, both by a band called "Zoediac" (intended misspelling?) with a sort of 90s pop sound (?). Female vocals:
"Birdie" 4:04
"Am I Getting There?" 3:31

The information I'd like:
Year recorded/published
confirmation/correction of the band/song names
albums?
any additional band history

No additional info in the ID3 tags, and MusicBrainz fingerprinting software just turned up false positives.

Download and listen to them here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A9RR7BSP

Audio files for non-audiophiles

fusinski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:27:21 -0800

What is the simplest way (free or otherwise) to convert M4P and M4A audio files to MP3 en masse?

Lucky there's a....

alice ayres — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:49:04 -0800

can i extract the audio from youtube videos to create an mp3? is there any way that i can extract the audio from the multitude of videos for the family guy musical pieces to create my own compilation (something similar to what the simpsons have already done)?

also, let's say i could find every single musical number on youtube (or other video sources), how can i make them into iPod friendly a) audio files and b) video files?

Best device for playing mp3s in my kitchen

therubettes — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:58:34 -0800

What device would allow best access to playlists of mp3 at home? Doesnt need to be portable, must not be laptop... Ì have about 25 gigs of music on my laptop in mp3 format and many more cds yet to rip. I would like a music playing solution which ticks all of the following boxes.

1 - All of my music resides on a single device (100gb should do it).
2 - I dont have to turn on my laptop (I am trying to wean myself off)
3 - I can have unlimted playlists which can be easily selected to suit the mood (Dont mind is these have to be assembeled on the laptop first)
4 - I would like a small remote control (not a deal breaker)
5 - I wont be listening on headhpones but sound quality is actually not that important.

I am happy to feel dumb if someone can tick all of the boxes above for under $150. I should add that I have a nice cd/tape/radio hi-fi which has a remote. I only listen to music in the evenings at home while cooking, hanging out. I don't need an iPod as such the device will never leave the house.

I have read 3 pages of streaming tagged questions to no avail. Thanks for helping out someone bamboozled by all the audio options.

The ultimate music archive cleaner -- looking for application to convert hudreds of GB of music to MP3

jkl345 — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:27:51 -0800

What's the best program to convert hundreds of gigabytes of music files in different formats all to MP3, while maintaining ID3 data and bitrates? I have about 130 GB of music files in about half a dozen different audio formats. It's always a huge pain in the butt to put my music on different mp3 players/computers because of the different formats and DRM junk so I’m looking for an application to clean my music archive.

Features I'm looking for:
+ PC based -- Sorry, no Mac available here.

+ As automated as possible -- The more hands-free/automated the better. Since there's so many files and so many directories, I'd just like to set it and forget it otherwise this could become a month-long process.

+ Maintaining ID3 info & converting to an equivalent/better audio bitrate is mandatory -- I’m not interested in losing all my data or audio quality.

+ The more formats it can convert the better -- I suspect there’s about half a dozen different formats in the archive – from Midi to M4A to Wav to MP3 -- but there could be more. So the more formats the software can convert, the better.

+ ID3 updating -- The ability to connect to the Net and update ID3 data that’s incomplete would be excellent (although the majority of these files are already filled out so it's not a deal breaker).

+ Cost – Free would be fantastic. But this is such a huge, time consuming job, I would be willing to pay a bit for the ultimate “set-it-and-forget-it” application that would go into the hundreds of different folders I have, convert the files and deletes the old format files.

+ DRM conversion, flagging or deletion -- I suspect there’s a handful of DRM-protected files in there. If this ultimate software could convert those to non-DRM MP3 that’d be even cooler. I’m at the point now where I just want to throw away any of that DRM b.s. though, so it’s not a deal breaker. If it could identify or flag DRM files that would be a excellent and I can take them out back and kill them off.

+ Cures cancer -- I know I'm asking for a lot here. :D Thanks for any help you can offer! I've been meaning to do this for so long.

Modest home Linux server hardware selection

scruss — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:01:53 -0800

Looking for hardware recommendations for a very modest home Linux server. I used to run a Via SP13000 Mini-ITX box as a home server, but the motherboard recently died. While I could replace the mobo with something compatible like the Intel D945GCLF, mini-ITX cases get pretty warm, which might have been a cause of the last board's demise.

My needs are simple:

run Firefly (or some other DAAP server) to feed the Soundbridges;
generate my daily podcast, which realistically means a linux box with Perl, sqlite and the like;
have something to ssh into when ~~boredom strikes~~ the need arises. Perhaps unwise having an open machine sitting directly on the internet, but only the ssh port will be open.

I might want to double this machine up as a NAS box, as my trusty NSLU2 is deathly slow - but it's not really too smart to have personal files unfirewalled, is it?

Know any good digital line-in recorders?

filthy light thief — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:59:11 -0800

I'm looking for a digital audio recorder with good line-in recording capabilities and easy file transfer options - do you know any? I'm a radio DJ, and I've been trying to record my shows to (eventually) host online. The station where I work has a computer which can record everything, but the computer has other uses, too, which means it's not always available.

I'm not looking for mic-recording capabilities, as we have a nice line-out for recording broadcasts. Ideally, this item should include:

* recording options (bitrate up to 192kbps, if not WAV)
* easy audio copying (USB would be ideal)
* capability for 3+ hours of recording

Bonuses
+ handy play-back (personal music player, with headphone line out)
+ record by mic (built in)
+ compact or small form
+ informative screen (I'm fine with a tiny LCD screen, but bigger could be nice)
+ FM Player
+ FM Recorder

I have an iPod Classic (80gb), so there might be some odd add-on I don't know about. Otherwise, I've seen some personal music players on NewEgg.com, but there are never details on recording options beyond "line-in," and I thought MeFites might have first-hand experience here. Thanks!

I like scrambled eggs, not scrambled files.

WidgetAlley — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:45:13 -0800

Through a long series of circumstances, I need to reencode my entire .mp3 music collection. I would like to reencode them at the same bitrate, but am getting very strange results when I do. Please help! I am using Easy CD-DA Extractor for this, and am confused on two points:

First and foremost, when I click to "Properties>Summary>Details" on Windows Explorer, a significant portion of my .mp3s are showing up as in bitrates not supported by Easy CD-DA Extractor, such as "194 kbits/s" rather than 192. Is this some weirdness on the part of my .mp3s, or do I simply need to get a better program than the free trial version of Easy CD-DA?

Secondly, when I reencode at these lower rates, the audio is completely scrambled, or sometimes sped up. I know that reencoding at a lower or higher rate affects quality, but I didn't think it had such drastic effects.

In other words, what am I doing wrong, how do I fix it, and is it even possible to reencode these files at the same bitrate?

Playing records and listening to my iMac through one system

Foam Pants — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 01:32:39 -0800

I would like to set up a system where my turntable and my iMac all flow out of a nice set of speakers. I have no idea where to start. This is the junk I have:
1. iMac
2. Pioneer belt-driven turntable with audio out hardwired and no amplifier
3. a super crappy stereo with half of the speakers missing. Funny story, I had to toss one because a mouse made a nest in it. I want to make this ugly, usable-space-sucker go away.
4. Basic Airport
5. Record collection that I like to play AS RECORDS
6. a sizable MP3 collection that I play through iTunes

Stuff I am willing to purchase
1. New turntable, even though my current one sports a kick-ass sticker collection
2. amplifier
3. Another Airport
4. Sweet speakers
5. Something else a dunder head like me doesn't realize she needs.
6. The services of a male escort.

While I love my music, I am an idiot who doesn't know jack about setting up an audio system. Please advise me, you can be condescending if it helps it come out.

Give me knowledge with a side of head nodding

reenum — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:48:06 -0800

I need intelligent hiphop/rap with good beats. Any recommendations? I was a huge hip hop head back in the day. I love a lot of '90s west coast rap with phat beats. The misogyny and gunplay is a bit much for someone my age though. Some of my favorites in terms of good beat/bad content artists are Snoop, Dre, Nelly, DJ Quik, E-40, Ice Cube, Mack 10, WC.

The problem I have with a lot of underground or intelligent hiphop is the lack of good beats. Some lyricists I love who often have horrible beats are Ras Kass, Saafir, and Aceyalone.

Yesterday, I picked up Talib Kweli's "Eardrum" and it was exactly the sort of thing I love. Intelligent lyrics with slammin' beats. I also liked Hieroglyphics back in the day. Blackalicious and the rest of Quannum are awesome too. I'm not a big Jurassic 5 fan, and I've seen them mentioned a lot in previous threads.

I've checked the other hip hop related threads and none of them seemed to directly ask this question. I'm open to all styles of hip hop as long as it meets the preceding criteria.

Thanks!

I didn't think I had that many John Cage covers ...

scruss — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 07:48:36 -0800

Several mp3s in my large collection are silent, or almost entirely so. Please help me find ways of detecting them automatically. I ripped all of my 1200+ CD collection using cdparanoia, and put them in storage. The files are now being served by a linux box running Firefly Media Server. For unknown reasons, some of the tracks have ended up being silent, or containing very short bursts of noise separated by silence. I've uploaded a typical example; it's supposed to be Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians – Oceanside.

What I'd really like is a script or command-line program that will scan an mp3 and indicate if it's mostly or entirely silent. It would be preferable if the process were fairly quick, as there are about 20000 files to scan.